"Thank God" after the fact.

[arewethereyet]

Thank god isn't a phrase that I even notice.

The "praise Jesus" and "God is so good" types are the ones that I know live on the Kool-Aid.

Oh. Are we simply talking about the phrase? Or are we talking about the belief, like "I am blessed for being obedient" and "I am suffering because I need to learn a lesson"?

As far as phrasing, I notice I have the tendency to say "Thank God" as a turn of phrase. God doesn't exist so can't be thanked for anything and I don't like the feeling that I am auto organized into a faith group, especially the strong associations with Christianity (really, who else other than Christians says "Thank God." I have taken to consciously replacing it with "Thank Hastur" based on the fictional Old One The King in Yellow. They're playing pretend and I'm playing pretend.

Eventually, I'm hoping to find something to replace it with that isn't thanking any fictional deities. The "Thank ___" phrasing fulfills some function for me in communication and once I can figure it out, I can stop using "Thank ___" even as an offhand insert.

All I'm saying is that I don't think people put that much thought into saying "Thank God".  No more than they think about saying "OMG".  It's one of those automatic and familiar phrases.  There was a time when I thought about saying something more along the lines of "Thank dog" but that just seems extreme to me.  Many responses that are simple phrases are just what people are used to hearing and saying and there's no depth of conviction behind it.

I guess I shed the militant atheist mindset a long time ago.  You are newer at this and will find your comfort level.  I do an internal eyeroll with "Have a blessed day." but even that doesn't really bother me much any more, I just still notice it.

I think it's important on many fronts to pick your battles.  As a mom, I know I had to learn that lesson.  Some things just aren't worth the stress.