In reading this thread, in which someone complains about some people’s use of Og to replace “God,” a thought occurred to me: I care far more about avoiding the “Lord’s name in vain” now that I consider myself thoroughly agnostic, than I ever did when I was ardently Christian. I try much harder now to find ways to avoid such phrases.
In reasoning out why this is, it turns that it’s kind of complicated: something to do with not wanting to show that those words have any power over me. Even when used as meaningless intensifiers, the words “Lord” “Jesus” and so on carry a rhetorical power that I want to deny. At least as far as my own usage is concerned, that is.
I’m fine with most other good, old Anglo-Saxon swear words though.
Anyone else feel this way? Am I a freak?
Anyway, I like using Og’s name. Sorry, Agent Foxtrot, but I’m not gonna stop using it around here, for Og’s sake.
I’m an atheist and I use phrases like ‘jchrist!’ or ‘. . .god’s green earth’ or ‘christ almighty’ or ‘. . .heaven’s name’ and their ilk all the time. Since I’m not a christian, those words mean absolutely nothing to me, so I’m free to have at them if I want. And I do.
Og’s just plain annoying and there’s no way on god’s green earth I’m going to start saying it.
I like “Og” as a replacement name. It was used in “Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, so I had actually used it before joining SDMB. Actually from various sources, I have used Zog, Bog and Og. So it was nice to see it in common usage here.
Og help me, I sometimes use a euphamism I picked up from an old Dennis the Menace comic-book:
When I stub my toe or screw up spectacularly, I holler “SAC-REE-MENTO, CALIFORNIA!”
As a Jew who grew up among a large number of Catholics, I acquired "Jesus’ or for more serious swearing “Jesus Christ” and for when I was really pissed off “Jesus H. Christ” as epithets. Not long ago. it came to me that didn’t make sense and it bothered me a little to use “Jesus” as a swear word. It seemed to give him validity which I didn’t want to give him. And I despise Jews For Jesus. I decided to purge him from my vocabulary. I haven’t been completely successful but I think making the attempt makes me feel a little better. Instead I’ve substituted the British “bloody hell”. Then I learned that “bloody” may have been derived from “God’s blood” which left back where I started.
At this point, rather than give up swearing, I just decided to not worry about it anymore. I still use “bloody hell”. I figure most Americans don’t know where it comes from anyhow. And I like the way it sounds.
