" I think dreamer is honestly perplexed by the point of view that there’s no great power in charge of everything, and is doing what she can to wrap her mind around it. If she wanted to be an obnoxious witnesser, telling us all we’re fools and we’re going to Hell, that would be something else entirely. I think her questions, as meaningless as they might be to a non-theist, represent an honest and respectful attempt to learn something about an alternative viewpoint. "
To learn about your viewpoint, not convince myself of mine. I’m quite convinced already :).
Let me ask you this, though it may seem a totally stupid and meaninless question, I’m really curious to know.
Do you ever say OMG or swear with God’s name in it? G-dammit or whatever? What about when your driving along all nice and happy and some jerk cuts you off and you are 2 seconds away from a horrible, possibly deadly accident. Do you ever say “Thank God” or rather - “Jesus F----Christ”? Or anything like that? I’m pretty sure you don’t say “God Bless You” when someone sneezes, but I’m really curious if you’ve ever caught yourself saying any of the other sayings.
I know these sayings are pretty regular in our society, but if your a strong atheist then saying any of these things wouldn’t make any sense. Or would it?
I’m jumping into this discussion late, but I’ve just been thinking about something along these lines, so I might as well share.
As a reflexive curse, the “God” part just seems ingrained to me. My parents used it, my friends use it, I use it. No, it doesn’t make sense for an athiest to call upon a higher power. If I spill salsa on my carpet and mutter “F—” does it imply that somebody’s having sex? No. Given a bit of preparation, I’ll spout something a bit wittier, but in my mental toolbox the word “God” is one of the easier pieces to reach for when building a Snap-Tite[sup]TM[/sup] curseword.
“Damn it” is a pretty neat curse anyway. It implies that somebody or thing should be condemned to an eternity of torture for troubling me. Since theoretically only a deity is capable of that kind of decision, “damn it” is already an implied “Goddammit.”
(sorta) Interesting note: A Hindu friend of mine always says “God damn it” when he was miffed. Once we asked him which particular god he was asking. He looked puzzled at the question, grinned and said “All of 'em that are listening.”
I’ve actually thought of this before, how as an athiest, it doesn’t really make any sense for me to use blasphemy as an expletive. I’ve actually tried to limit my use of “Jesus” and/or “Christ” in that manner but more as an attempt to use all expletives less and not singling out the “religious ones”. I think it’s possible to read too much into it though, as language is by and large a shared trait and most of those words are said without thinking anyway. It’s far too engrained now (even if it does lessen the meaning of it for me) and yelling out “Darwin!” or “Einstein!” just doesn’t have the same kick to it.
I actually use “Kumbaya” as a mild oath. No metaphysical significance; I picked it up from Eek! that Cat.
I agree with BraheSilver (and not just 'cause I love his olfactory user name). We swear because we’re drawing on a “toolkit” provided by our society. I’ve heard my gramma pour just as much feeling into “For pity’s sake!” as I typically put into “G-dd-m J—s f–king son of a mother-f–king mother-f–ker!” She’s not really talking about “pity’s sake,” whatever that is, and I’m not talking about God or Jesus or incest, we’re just putting some spit and vinegar behind the words that come most readily to the tongue in that situation. Whether there are some deep subconscious reasons for our word choices, I can’t say.
I do steer away from using J-C based curses or expletives. I say, “Omigods” rather than “Oh, my God”, and I tend to say things like “crimeny,” (which was originally “Christ have mercy”, I know, but it’s long lost that meaning) and “fer crying’ out loud!” Also, it’s much more fun to come up with inventive ways of wishing ill on someone than the mundane “Damn you!”
Of course, the many uses of “fuck” come in mighty handy.
I say Goddammit and Jesus Effing Christ and Oh My God but not so anyone (except my husband) can hear it so I don’t offend anyone. I sing “God Bless America.” I say Hell. Hell, (there, I said it), I sang in the folk group at a Catholic church. I don’t see any problem with it. I sing “Sweet Child of Mine” with great feeling and don’t know anyone whose smile reminds me of childhood memories.
Shoot, the first thing I did after I realized I was an atheist was start using Jesus Effing Christ, OMG, etc. Why? Because all my life I was given dirty looks, yelled at, punished, ect any time I did it without thinking. It was a way to rebel really, and it felt really good to be able to do it without fear. (It was the principle of the tihng.)
I still say those things as often as I use any other “bad” word. Which is often because (as my husband so kindly pointed out) I’m worse than a sailor.
