Whenever anyone hits me with religion, I bring up paganism. It’s the only religion I’ve found that makes any sense. No “Magical Sky Pixie” in it.
I’m more conventionally religious than 90% of Dopers, but I don’t hear nearly as much God/Jesus talk as the OP.
Indeed, in my experience, the majority of people who make frequent religious allusions are African-American women. They’re the ones most likely to mention God or Jesus in an otherwise non-religious conversation, or to end a conversation with a religious farewell (“Have a blessed day,” or something along those lines).
Yep, “Have a blessed day!” alla time. It’s not unusual to have God or Jesus name-dropping, either, like they’re sneaking in a little Witnessing wherever they can, no matter how incongruous. (We’re in the buckle of the Bible Belt.) Sometimes I imagine it replaced with “genitals.” (Today I was lifted by the Spirit of my _____.) 
I have short hair, so whenever I walk past a recently opened barber shop, the proprieter often chases after me to give me a sales pitch. This happened the other day. The guy laid it on real thick, telling me how much he’d love to work on my hair and sculpt my eyebrows. I took his card and wished him good luck with his new business.
“I don’t need luck, baby! I got JEEEESUS!” he said, flashing a mouth full of gold teeth.
That one comment told me all I need to know about how much fun my hair appointments would be with him. I’m sure he will do well, though. Lots of black people are into that kind of stuff.
I spend a lot of time on buses here in the Montreal area, but don’t think I’ve ever heard people talk about God/Jesus/religion. Except people who are trying to convert others, but that rarely happens.
Maybe it’s a regional thing?
I’m sure it’s okay. After all, if God really minded people throwing his name around casually, he would have made a commandment against taking his name in vain or something.
He’s not much for conversation, but a helluva listener.
I got scolded by a five-year-old once for remarking that he was lucky when he was telling me about a new toy he got or something. He said Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t say lucky, they say blessed.
It could be your area? The mass transit here (in Atlanta) don’t necessarily have all that much chatting about Jesus. I tend to find that for a lot of homeless folk, churches (some, not all) may be the only places that treat them like actual people - going out in the street, giving them food, chatting with them, etc. I know my church interacts quite a bit with the local homeless ministry - we have join Bible Studies, Freeze Shelters, we may sandwiches for them - things like that may make them more willing to talk about as it may be one of the few good things they have going for them.
I live there, so yeah, it’s just Bus people. Never hear this at the mall or on the train or at (most) parks.
I mean, there’s a 24 hour bus here that is more or less a rolling home for the homeless.
Lots’ o homeless in the Bay area.
Why do people talk about Jesus? Cause he ain’t here to defend himself.
Just “Magical Earth Pixies”.
I live in the south…if something good happens, it’s because you’re “blessed”, or it was “God’s plan”. If something bad happens, that’s “God’s plan” too.
And speaking of children…I have a slightly younger cousin who bragged on Facebook last year about how her five-year-old had lectured an elderly woman at Target about the “reason for the season” after she asked him if he was looking forward to Santa.
As to why they do it…in the case of the people I’m familiar with, I think it’s all they know. While these folks are not economically uncomfortable – I would place most of them at lower- to mid- middle class – they aren’t very highly educated. In the case of my cousin, she was home-schooled to a high school level; she’s home-schooling her own children too, and has declared that she doesn’t care about how much education they get because the most important thing is preparing them for “spiritual warfare”. Yeah.
Two answers:
*Religious explanation: * They are so happy about finding Jesus that they want to spread the word so others can join in.
*Cynical explanation: * Deep down, they’re afraid that they may have made a big mistake and want others to agree with them to confirm they were right.
Amen. I hate it when I hear “I’m Blessed”, “you’re Blessed” (presume much?), the whole god damned fucked up world is Blessed.
Praise the Lord and pass the cyanide.
I live in the Bible Belt, and I don’t encounter this as much in the Waking as you might think, but it is all over Facebook. Some of my FB friends mention Jesus in their statuses more than they do their kids. Most of my friends who do this are women; most of my biggest heathen friends are also women.
Huh. I can go for months at a time without hearing about God, Jesus and Gospels (“etc.” comes up once in a blue moon).
I vote for selection bias (of course, I live in the Godless Midwest).
And let’s not forget the people who feel obligated to post religious glurge all over Facebook. I use Social Fixer, so I can edit the posts out if they in text, but the ones who just post religious jpegs…aaarrgghh. :mad:
I agree with Sampiro, Jesus is all over the place on Facebook.
Everything my friends have, are experiencing, hope to do, the very fact they woke up that day and were able to post on Facebook was by the grace of having Jesus in their life. They want you to “Like” posts or pictures to prove you believe in him, accepted him in your life and that you are not ashamed.
I’m just ashamed I spend that much time on Facebook to have witnessed all this!
I just want to add that if someone’s saying “Jesus, you’re a dumbass.” around you, they’re not actually talking about Jesus.