Religion and language

[Faith No More]

An old acquaintance of mine was curious about me being an atheist and asked me the same question. I told him I use those expressions all the time, and when he asked why, I said that saying "non-existent goddamit" all of the time is just too much work.

I've never heard a good explanation as to why I would want to stop using those words, as if religion and the non-existence of god have any relevance to the meaning of those phrases.

[Tonus]

Atheists: Do you work around those phrases or do you say them anyway?

I say them anyway. It's not like I'm worried that someone will try to deconstruct the phrase "good heavens" any more than they'd try to deconstruct "for fuck's sake" when I say that instead.

[Nope]

A Christian co-worker of mine mocked me for saying "Oh my god!" He said this was proof that I believed even though I claim not to. I told him that I also frequently say "Holy shit!" but that doesn't mean I actually believe in halo-wearing turds.

I have heard something similar so now, I try avoiding the word, god in my speech. Because I am in the southeastern USA, there are a lot of right wingers who seem to just wait for the gotcha moment so that they can pounce with an air of superiority. You can't have a discussion with them because they run away with their fingers in their ears refusing to hear anything else. Until killing them becomes legal, I would rather not give them any fodder to use to annoy me.

[Jenny A]

Apologies if this has already been done.

Religion has in many ways influenced the language, with phrases like "God forbid", "Thank God", "Good Lord" or a personal ironic favorite of mine, "Holy shit".

Atheists: Do you work around those phrases or do you say them anyway?
Theists: Do you think that falls under taking your lord's name in vain?
Non-native English speakers: Is your language similarly influenced by religion?

Personally I find saying these things awkward, so I try to work around them. There are multiple similar phrases like that in Polish, which I also avoid.

I don't worry much about these words. But theists, particularly fundamentalists often do. You see, they believe in magic words. It comes of believing in magic. After all, if you believe a god spoke the world into existence, believing in magic words is pretty natural.

I use some of these words and phrases and not others. But it has to do with culture and habit, not thinking. Goodbye, really means go with god, but that's not what I mean when I say it. In extremity I may say "Christ" instead of "fuck" though not always. So far it hasn't magically made me believe Jesus was christ. When I say damn it, I don't mean I believe in eternal hell fire and saying it won't make there be an eternal hellfire.

Maybe I could get the fundies to swear "Holy Evolution." Then they wouldn't have to worry about blasphemy, and they might begin to understand that words aren't magic.

[Alex K]

@Jenny A

That was one of the most striking things when I came to the babble belt the first time. They really believe that certain words of the English language are magical. They will make Jesus cry. They will anger God. It doesn't matter in which context they are understood by the speaker or the audience. It doesn't matter that someone might use "fucking" simply as a means of emphasis without even promoting indecent relations with the inanimate objects in question - in the puritan mind, the word itself offends God. Never mind that the English language is a recent concoction even on mere bibliccal time scales, a weird product of a shitload of historical coincidences - no - the words themselves as they are now are magical. I have never before seen such an infantile lack of awareness of history and perspective from otherwise intelligent people.

[robvalue]

Hmm, angry and sad seem very human like emotions for a God to have.

[Alex K]

We are made in His image. Duh. But He's perfect. But still offended at petty things.

[abaris]

I'm not the type of guy, who watches every word he says. Of course I say thank god or god forbid, but without thinking about the meaning.

By the way, think of the week days. What about thursday and friday? Days of Thor and Frya. Actually the same in german. "Donnerstag" because Thor is called Donar in German and "Freitag", which again refers to Freya as she's called in German. What about Saturday and Sunday? One the day of Saturn, the other sacred to the sun or probably Sol Invictus.

There are countless religious referrences in our languages, the most of them certainly not christian.

[robvalue]

I wouldn't inject myself with Yahweh though. I couldn't possibly take the lord's name in vein.

[Alex K]

I wouldn't inject myself with Yahweh though. I couldn't possibly take the lord's name in vein.

My answer would be in a similar vein.