I have read this whole thread and as an atheist I’m all “Meh” about the whole "bless you’ thing. I say it because it is a social niciety, thats the only reason.
But sneezing is social faux-pas? Minor or otherwise? A sneeze is a sneeze. It’s hardly something that is preventable. I’m a sneezy kind of person. For some reason Autumn brings out my sneezy best, so I am currently FULL of sneezes, how is that a social faux-pas? I once read that if you try and hold in a sneeze…well there can be dire consequences (eyeballs flinging themselves across the room! etc).
As to a ‘bless you’, my parents (atheists) told me that it was good manners to ALWAYS do the “bless you” and a burp should always be followed with a “pardon me”. I decided a fart should always be announced and given a “pardon me” too.
It’s all about manners and the fact that I can’t hold a fart in!
Remind me never to carpool with you.
"Whoops, that was my fault, pardon me folks, I just can’t seem to hold–WHOOPS, sorry, pardon me again, it’s just that last night we stopped off at Taco Bell, and I had extra onions on my–WHOOPS, pardon me, heh, the hits just keep on coming . . . Man, they could have made these old-style Volkswagon Beetles bigger, couldn’t they folks–WHOOPS . . . "
Anyway, not to beat a dead horse, but doesn’t someone owe me an address?
Why, are you homeless?
No, I just act like I am.
I was not aware that it was part of the definition of a “faux pas” that it be something under voluntary control. I have now looked at a few online definitions, and I am still not convinced, but have it your way if you like.
The intended point was that sneezing in public, especially if it is loud or if there is visible snot, is (at least mildly, and perhaps not for everyone, but for many of us) embarrassing. A loud sneeze (my own allergy sneezes tend to be loud but snot free) is likely to startle the bystanders, and if the sneezer gets visible snot on him/herself it may also somewhat disgust them (I will set aside the case where the snot gets on other people or things, which clearly raises more complex and serious issues of etiquette). In either case the bystanders are likely to be (mildly and momentarily, no doubt) annoyed or discomforted by the event, and the sneezer, knowing that sneezes tend to have these effects, is likely to be somewhat embarrassed (even if he or she believes that the bystanders are all keenly aware sneezes are involuntary). If the sneezer is also the sort of person who does like to call too much attention to themselves, as many people are, that is a further reason for embarrassment. I now repeat the central point of my original post: to call attention to the fact that someone has done something to embarrass themselves is paradigmatically rude. If there is any principle behind good manners beyond the mere following of arbitrary custom, it that you should always strive to avoid causing other people unnecessary embarrassment, or exacerbating any embarrassment they may already feel. Saying “bless you” (or any other similar stock phrase) clearly violates this principle, and is therefore rude. If it were not for the fact that the sneezers level of embarrassment is usually likely to be fairly low, it would be very rude indeed. This unmannerly custom, which seems to be nothing but a lingering remnant of some long dead superstition, deserves to be stamped out. (But, no, it is not very high on my list of priorities for improving the world.)
Violating arbitrary customs can, in some circumstances be rude. (When? It is rude when it causes unnecessary embarassment or other discomfiture to someone who was reasonably expecting the custom to be followed.) It does not follow, as some people in this thread seem to think, that it is automatically polite to do something (or impolite not to do do it) just because it is customary. If any grown-up person gets upset just because someone does not say “bless you” to them after they sneeze, they are simply a jerk.
Incidentally, it is just not true that sneezes can never be successfully suppressed or held back, nor, in my experience, that belches (or, for that matter, farts) always can. They are all things that can cause embarrassment, and over which we have a limited (though not non-existent) degree of voluntary control. It is also pretty rude to draw the attention of all and sundry to fact that someone else has just belched or farted. Luckily, there is no silly custom of doing so. Otherwise, the cases are very similar.
There! I have now said at tedious and pedantic length what I thought I had said pithily, and probably more clearly, by using the expression “faux pas.” Happy now?
I have to say bless you. What if I don’t, and the demon finally gets you? It’s hardly in my best interest to say nothing, let you become possessed, and still be there; bystanders are the first ones the demonically possessed attack. I have enough going on in my own life to idly stand by and become embroiled in your demonic possession shit.
What is the definition of a faux-pas then? I’m not challenging you, I’m just asking.
I’m a loud, yet unsnotty sneezer so on that point we seem similar. The rest of your post seemed to say something about how doing something that has always been considered good manners should now be considered bad manners because you are embarrassed when you sneeze. Is that it?
[/QUOTE]
It is rude to say “bless you” but also rude to not say it? It may just be late at night for me but my reading comprehension was unable to make sense of that paragraph.
I have never ever been able to hold a sneeze in.
But I can sincerely tell you I have never felt embarassed by a sneeze, nor have I ever heard a sneeze and thought “HOW RUDE, they should have suppressed that sneeze!”. Burps, to me, can be held in though and if let out SHOULD be “pardoned”.
I can’t hold in a fart and am slightly jealous of those who claim they can. Because I’m so uncouth and let them out I always say “pardon me”, but they don’t embarass me. 
Not so much tedious and pedantic as unclear, but that’s ok…apparently I’m too gaseous.
Looks like, sadly, it wasn’t whoosh.
Yes. Yes, I am. Before I merely thought you were an idiot. Now I know for sure. Thank you, kind sir, for removing all doubt.
I believe the approved response to a sneeze is to say, “You’re soooo good looking”.
-Joe
See, this is why I like hanging out in the Pit. It gives me a chance to run into people who are even weirder and more maladjusted than I am. On one hand it’s uplifting. On the other hand, it’s depressing, because Jesus fucking Christ, there are people out there who are weirder and more maladjusted that I am!"
“God bless you” is entirely appropriate when addressed to people having a bout of projectile vomiting, or if noted to be exuding teleplasm from their eyes and fingertips.
There was a woman in one of my classes who would winny like a horse after every sneeze. No, really. I believe a “God bless you” would be appropriate here also, as the beginning of an exorcism.
Well done. Social interactions can not always be examined from a purely logical perspective. There are a lot of people who can’t seem to grasp this, then they wonder why they have problems making friends, finding dates, ect.
If I hear but don’t see someone sneeze, I say, “I hope you blew your snot fog in some other direction.”
Occasionally, if I sneeze and someone else blesses me, I say, “Don’t bother.”
I get a bit wound up about this - I’m all for social niceties, but I’m not religious and I don’t want to be blessed by your deity (in whom, incidentally, my Significant Blesser doesn’t even believe either). Someone saying to me “I pray to Jesus for your speedy recovery” would make me feel awkward for the same reason.
I had a running joke with a compulsive blesser in the desk next to mine that I would reply with “Vishnu be praised”, “May Zeus smile beneficently upon you”, “His Noodly Appendage touch thy nostrils” and so forth. He ran out of blessings before I ran out of deities