Could this statement be rewritten as “I’m so angry at my car keys that I wish the Lord would consign them to Hell for eternity”?
Isn’t this a public affirmation of my faith in God and His powers?
Perhaps I’m breaking the “Name in Vain” commandment by calling on the Most High to perform such a trivial task.
However, in the court of humankind, for instance, I won’t go to jail for incitement to murder by saying “I want the Bengals to kill the Lions tomorrow”. Everyone knows that the exaggeration merely expresses the depth of my emotions on the matter. It also (obviously) shows my belief in the Cincinnati Bengals and their powers.
What does Dopesville think?
(No Bengals jokes please, they’re funny enough on their own.)
Maybe this belongs in IMHO, I’m not sure. Since it’s about God I posted it here.
“I was always told that’s what the “name in vain” thing meant. What else might it mean? Is there another way to break that commandment?” -Revtim
That’s a good point.
Where I get stuck is the triviality of the comment. Reread the “Bengals killing the Lions” paragraph. In other words: can’t God take a joke?
Perhaps a truly sinful example of breaking the “Name in Vain” commandment* would be a priest threatening to excommunicate someone to satisfy his own personal needs and not the Lord’s. Remember the hole ‘Indulgences for Sale’ fiasco a few years back? That may be another example.
Which commandment is this anyway? I can’t find my bible and I’m tired of typing “Name in Vain”.
Swearing on/by/in front of God (don’t know how to write that in english) when you’re actually lying. It’s no coincidence if “to swear” has two meanings.
[hijack]As a atheist, it’s pretty annoying if I say goddamn and somebody says something along the lines of how I belive in god. Goddamn is a word we are taught as a exclamation(or so I belive).[/hijack]
I’d have to say that you arn’t neccasarrily taking his name in vain. If he really was as vengeful as the bible says it alot of people would be burning in hell because they said goddamn once too often. I’m sure that god is mature enough to realize that you don’t really actually mean it.
First of all, using the Lord’s name in vain isn’t swearing. When you use the Lord’s name in vain, you are basically lying on God. For instance… “God gave me a new car” when in reality you worked for it and bought it yourself. Or “God got rid of all these roaches out of my house” when actually it was all the cleaning you might have done to get rid of them.
I know I’m gonna get all sorts of critizism for this and how the dictionary says different, but I believe the Bible came out way before the dictionary and I don’t believe swear words were around in Moses’ time.
It seems to me if you are theistic at all, tossing the name of your particular deity around like it was nothing important is highly disrespectful, even if it isn’t exactly using his (or His, if you prefer) name in vain. How would you feel if you had a kid who would always refer to you as “my f***ing dad” – or mom, as the case may be. Is this a child you are going to feel good about? That you are going to want to take care of? Send to college? Pay for the wedding? Watch the grandkids? Remember in your will? If you don’t do this for your kid, that child will suffer some, but will be able to go on with life. If you piss God off enough – well, remember, he only has one punishment.
But then again, I’m an agnostic, so what the hell do I know.
Smiley, watch out. You’re talking yourself into a trap. You just said that you are an athiest, yet you also admitted that you use the word ‘goddamn’ as an exclamation. Why?
Bullwinkle, I think that using “goddamn” as an exclamation is something that occurs independent of religious persuasion, at least in this particular neck of the woods. I mean, when I say any other exclamation, such as “shit,” I’m not really thinking about the literal meaning of the word. It’s just something satisfying to shout.
I also believe that swearing in and of itself isn’t necessarily an immoral act. However, swearing profusely in certain places, or in a conversation with a complete stranger, could be construed as intentionally disrespecting those around you, or the person you’re addressing. In that manner, it’s more a question of “love your neighbor as yourself,” or, as I like to more succinctly put it, “don’t be a friggin’ jerk, mkay?”
Since that is the way I view things, I don’t feel that any diety really cares what we say. Besides, he/she/it’s got more important things to worry about, such as punishing murderers, running the universe, etc.