Examples of a society saturated with relgion?

[StickyBlueStuff]

Hiya ALl,

First visit here and wanted to ask for some thoughts on a list I was putting together last week.

The thought I had was that our society is saturated with relgion and superstition, and how we almost instinctively make reference to religion and superstition in conversation.

Perhaps to move beyond how ingrained they are, so we might create an environment that is based on some alternative such as a scientific perspective, one approach would be to avoid using words and phrases that refer to and therefore reinforce religious or superstitious thinking.

That could inlclude no use of phrases such as:

* Speak of the devil
* To Hell with it
* To the Devil with it
* Go to hell
* God damn it
* For God's sake
* God help us
* God bless
* Heavens above
* Heaven sent
* Keep the faith
* Ah, God
* Ah, Jesus
* Ah, Jesus Christ
* You're an angel
* You little devil
* Say your prayers!
* ... better start praying
* ... thank God
* Saints preserve us

Completely avoid the use of these words in conversation/sentences:

* Hell
* Sin
* Angel

Avoid refering to or celebrating the following, with reference to the religious or superstitious meaning of them:
* Friday 13th
* Halloween
* Easter
* Christmas
* Good Friday

What others would you suggest? Also, what other examples of how saturated in religion everthing is can you share?

Regards,

SBS

[Phil]

[Voltair]

So if we keep religion I get to keep medieval/gothic themes, which I love, but if we get rid of it I have to live in a star wars universe?..... ah fuck it all I will keep theism around T_T.

[Phil]

So if we keep religion I get to keep medieval/gothic themes, which I love, but if we get rid of it I have to live in a star wars universe?..... ah fuck it all I will keep theism around T_T.

As usual the point goes well over your head.

[Rhizomorph13]

I think for me, I would rather do positive things with my brain than try to negate my conditioning. I've noticed that my speech has changed over time to naturally stop refering to those things. I do still celebrate the holidays though, but mostly because I love my family time and all of those holidays have roots in folk life. Like Christmas is a celebration of making it most of the way through the cold time. If you were still alive at Christmas, YAY you're probably going to make it to spring. Halloween? a harvest festival; Friday the 13th? a celebration of my favorite number and triskadecaphobia! I say just be whatever makes you the happiest and don't worry about what you celebrate or don't. Leave that to the Jehovah's Witness.

[Cyberman]

All these words and phrases have acquired new meanings far removed from the superstition that spawned them. We'd have to find new names for the days of the week. Then there's all those words with hidden religious meanings: "goodbye", for instance, means (I believe) "God be with you". "Bloody" and "Strewth", so beloved of the Aussie persuasion, stem from "By our Lady" and "God's truth" respectively. Even I'm not nearly as pedantic as that. If it could be possible to rearrange the language in this way I think it'd be more trouble than it's worth to be honest. Not to mention pretty damn pointless. (See, I said "damn".)

[KichigaiNeko]

Have to agree with Rhizo here. I have a hard enough time with bloody Political-Correctness let alone trying to avoid religio-speak.

Like Rhizo, I have found that my speech/ vocabulary has naturally edited out those references and I look forward to the holidays as family time with the number 13 just being another number...a bit like 666.

[Rhizomorph13]

Sunday - Sun's day Apollo would be pleased!
Monday - moon's day for the moon goddess
Tuesday - Tyr's day a roman god
Wednesday - Odin's day
Thursday - Thor's day or take your hammer to work day (Not reccomended if you are a teacher)
Friday - Frigg's day although I don't don't know who the frig is Frigg
Saturday - Saturn's day all the Saturnalians rejoice!

Source: http://www.pantheon.org/miscellaneous/origin_days.html

It's almost like we would have to invent a whole new language to evict any mention of dieties or superstitions. I say, why throw the baby out with the bath water. Bin God, god, and gods and keep the traditions that kick ass, like giving gifts and overeating at the end of December. Wearing spooky masks and dressing up like whores to scare away the dead and get laid during national dress like a whore day/halloween.

[KichigaiNeko]

Nice lady

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigg

[Rhizomorph13]

I suppose I would let her touch my pp.