Atheist dilemma

[JPajamas]

An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[Subfallen]

Ummm...welcome to the forums?

As to your question, Western society is pretty theocentric, and makes many implicit assumptions of God more obtrusive than "bless you." So I would hardly consider "bless you" the best example to make your point.

But I'm not offended by belief in God, so I would just say thank you.

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
Ummm...welcome to the forums?

As to your question, Western society is pretty theocentric, and makes many implicit assumptions of God more obtrusive than "bless you." So I would hardly consider "bless you" the best example to make your point.

But I'm not offended by belief in God, so I would just say thank you.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't believe in god but have been known to say bless you when people sneeze. I also shake people hands from time to time.

Its amazing what some people find time to worry about?

chez

[Ben K]

I would say thank-you and move along. Not because I'm god-fearing but because someone has offered me a kindness by wishing me well for my health and I'm grateful for it.

Plus it would ruin any good feeling they have towards me by ignoring them or reacting against expectations and why lower the level of happiness around me?

[txag007]

[ QUOTE ]
Its amazing what some people find time to worry about?

[/ QUOTE ]
He's new, bless his heart. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[PairTheBoard]

[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always thought that was backwards. It seems to me the guy doing the sneezing should say, "Bless you and I hope you don't catch what I just sneezed at you".

PairTheBoard

[Hopey]

[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

I say "thank-you", because I usually try to not act like a douchebag.

[samsonite2100]

I stop and lengthily explain that I don't believe in God and that he needs to shed his medieval prejudices. However long it takes--usually 2 or 3 hours. Then I head home and take a long hot shower to get the blessiness off me.

[AWoodside]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always thought that was backwards. It seems to me the guy doing the sneezing should say, "Bless you and I hope you don't catch what I just sneezed at you".

PairTheBoard

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure the phrase originally developed because at some point people thought sneezing was a way in which you expelled evil spirits from your body, in which case it makes sense. Religious people are pretty silly huh?

[PairTheBoard]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always thought that was backwards. It seems to me the guy doing the sneezing should say, "Bless you and I hope you don't catch what I just sneezed at you".

PairTheBoard

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure the phrase originally developed because at some point people thought sneezing was a way in which you expelled evil spirits from your body, in which case it makes sense. Religious people are pretty silly huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's probably how Linda Blair got possessed in the Exorcist. She got too close to someone sneezing a really bad demon sneeze.

PairTheBoard

[Prodigy54321]

thank you sir/gent/miss/ma'am

[Speedlimits]

[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

say thank you.

[JaredL]

If possible I ignore it. Short of that I go to a nod. Finally thank you. Depends on the situation, often it's just thank you.

[SNOWBALL]

[ QUOTE ]
I stop and lengthily explain that I don't believe in God and that he needs to shed his medieval prejudices. However long it takes--usually 2 or 3 hours. Then I head home and take a long hot shower to get the blessiness off me.


[/ QUOTE ]

vn, but what's your line for women that are orgasming? I usually arrest performance until they come to their senses, but sometimes I'll turbo-climax, roll off, then stare into her wide, electric eyes and pointedly ask "where's your god now, huh?"

[Siegmund]

My preferred reply to "bless you" is something like "thanks, I need all the help I can get!," a sentiment most of them would agree with if they knew just what my religious views were... but they assume it's just a joke.

[JPajamas]

Thank-you for all of your responses, especially the light-hearted replies! This was a question I posed at work on day(it was slow, what can I say?), and I figured why not use the collective braintrust of the 2+2 to come up with an answer. Well done!

[CaseS87]

I just go ahead and tell them "Hey [censored] off you God-believing scum." That usually takes care of it.

[thylacine]

[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

I blow my nose.

[bocablkr]

Admittedly, it does bother me but I usually won't say anything. However, if someone sneezes I always say "Gesundheit!"

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always thought that was backwards. It seems to me the guy doing the sneezing should say, "Bless you and I hope you don't catch what I just sneezed at you".

PairTheBoard

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure the phrase originally developed because at some point people thought sneezing was a way in which you expelled evil spirits from your body, in which case it makes sense. Religious people are pretty silly huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats pretty close, I think its actually that your soul is particularly vulnerable to Satan or evil spirits while you are sneezing, so they say bless you to ward him off at your time of weakness. Not sure if its specifically Satan (I think so) or evil spirits in general.

As to the OP, I usually scream "BAD TOUCH" and either mace them or run the other way screaming. How is this not incredibly standard?

[Lestat]

I say "thank you". And I say, "bless you" when someone else sneezes.

Then again, I also say, "Fine, thanks!" when someone asks, "How's it going?", even when I'm having a really sucky day. And I'll sometimes return the question even with someone I couldn't care less about.

The things we'll say to keep amiable business and social interactions going, huh?

[Lestat]

"bless you" is fine because they might be referring to FSM's blessing. Even "God bless you", is ok because they could be referring to Thor, who I think was a pretty cool character. But when someone says, "May the specific God of Abraham bless you".... I go off on them!

[samsonite2100]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I stop and lengthily explain that I don't believe in God and that he needs to shed his medieval prejudices. However long it takes--usually 2 or 3 hours. Then I head home and take a long hot shower to get the blessiness off me.


[/ QUOTE ]

vn, but what's your line for women that are orgasming? I usually arrest performance until they come to their senses, but sometimes I'll turbo-climax, roll off, then stare into her wide, electric eyes and pointedly ask "where's your god now, huh?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh yeah--good question. Typically, my line is to just stop mid-thrust, and proceed to lengthily harangue them. Not too different from my "bless you" response, except naked and sweaty.

[Enrique]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always thought that was backwards. It seems to me the guy doing the sneezing should say, "Bless you and I hope you don't catch what I just sneezed at you".

PairTheBoard

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure the phrase originally developed because at some point people thought sneezing was a way in which you expelled evil spirits from your body, in which case it makes sense. Religious people are pretty silly huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats pretty close, I think its actually that your soul is particularly vulnerable to Satan or evil spirits while you are sneezing, so they say bless you to ward him off at your time of weakness. Not sure if its specifically Satan (I think so) or evil spirits in general

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think bless you comes from warding evil spirits. Other languages instead of saying "bless you" they something close to "health": Spanish "salud" (health), hungarian "egeszegedre" (health), French "salut" (health), German "Gesundheit" (health). It's interesting that in spanish and hungarian they also use the same expression for "cheers" when about to drink.
Conclusion: Sneezing makes one think the person is sick so you wich him health. At some point in america they decided that blessing someone was equivalent to wiching health and they started using that phrase instead.

[Neuge]

[ QUOTE ]
"bless you" is fine because they might be referring to FSM's blessing. Even "God bless you", is ok because they could be referring to Thor, who I think was a pretty cool character. But when someone says, "May the specific God of Abraham bless you".... I go off on them!

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, this whole question can be turned around to "What dilemma does a Christian face when someone says 'bless you'?". Of course they would assume it was meant as their God, and would say "thank you" like a good God-fearing Christian. Now what if that person meant the FSM, their psychic, a snake handler, etc... What are the consequences of receiving and accepting prayer to a false god on your behalf?

[Prodigy54321]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I stop and lengthily explain that I don't believe in God and that he needs to shed his medieval prejudices. However long it takes--usually 2 or 3 hours. Then I head home and take a long hot shower to get the blessiness off me.


[/ QUOTE ]

vn, but what's your line for women that are orgasming? I usually arrest performance until they come to their senses, but sometimes I'll turbo-climax, roll off, then stare into her wide, electric eyes and pointedly ask "where's your god now, huh?"

[/ QUOTE ]

gold

[ChrisV]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty sure the phrase originally developed because at some point people thought sneezing was a way in which you expelled evil spirits from your body, in which case it makes sense. Religious people are pretty silly huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats pretty close, I think its actually that your soul is particularly vulnerable to Satan or evil spirits while you are sneezing, so they say bless you to ward him off at your time of weakness. Not sure if its specifically Satan (I think so) or evil spirits in general

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think bless you comes from warding evil spirits. Other languages instead of saying "bless you" they something close to "health": Spanish "salud" (health), hungarian "egeszegedre" (health), French "salut" (health), German "Gesundheit" (health). It's interesting that in spanish and hungarian they also use the same expression for "cheers" when about to drink.
Conclusion: Sneezing makes one think the person is sick so you wich him health. At some point in america they decided that blessing someone was equivalent to wiching health and they started using that phrase instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are a number of popularly believed explanations for the custom, but the etymology is actually not known. Snopes has an article on it (http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/blessyou.asp). So does Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_you).

[alphatmw]

this is as much a dilemma as a lamppost is a fruit.

[ChrisV]

You've obviously never had good homemade stewed lamppost.

[AlexM]

You seem to have atheism confused with Christophobia.

[agent_fish]

/images/graemlins/heart.gif theists.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
You seem to have atheism confused with Christophobia.

[/ QUOTE ]

Beats Christophagy.

[Our House]

I suppose you use these too:

http://www.layoutjungle.com/Images/Funny_Pics/images/dollar.jpg

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
I suppose you use these too:

http://www.layoutjungle.com/Images/Funny_Pics/images/dollar.jpg

[/ QUOTE ]

Lord no, I haven't seen a hundo since freshman year.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I'm an atheist. When I sneeze and someone says "God bless you" I understand that they're just being polite and say "Thank you."

Why would I say anything else?

[Enrique]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty sure the phrase originally developed because at some point people thought sneezing was a way in which you expelled evil spirits from your body, in which case it makes sense. Religious people are pretty silly huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats pretty close, I think its actually that your soul is particularly vulnerable to Satan or evil spirits while you are sneezing, so they say bless you to ward him off at your time of weakness. Not sure if its specifically Satan (I think so) or evil spirits in general

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think bless you comes from warding evil spirits. Other languages instead of saying "bless you" they something close to "health": Spanish "salud" (health), hungarian "egeszegedre" (health), French "salut" (health), German "Gesundheit" (health). It's interesting that in spanish and hungarian they also use the same expression for "cheers" when about to drink.
Conclusion: Sneezing makes one think the person is sick so you wich him health. At some point in america they decided that blessing someone was equivalent to wiching health and they started using that phrase instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are a number of popularly believed explanations for the custom, but the etymology is actually not known. Snopes has an article on it (http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/blessyou.asp). So does Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_you).

[/ QUOTE ]

Read the links. I thought they were lame.
First of all, the passages they put are translated into english, obviously whoever translated put in the word we would use now.

Trying to put in a myth of people blessing in the medieval times (like Gregorius) doesn't make much sense, because italians don't say bless you. None of the neighboring countries say "bless you", they say the equivalent of "good health".

[KreellKeiser]

[ QUOTE ]
An atheist sneezes, and someone says "bless you". A God-fearing individual would say thank-you, and move along. BUT, as an atheist, what do you say:
"no thanks, I'm good",
"thank-you" and don't bother to explain your lack of beliefs,
or something totally different?

[/ QUOTE ]

There's no dilemma... I am an atheist and I don't ever worry about people saying "god belss you" to me. They mean it as a courtesy. Why would I get all up in arms over it?

[godBoy]

I had understood that it's roots were the bubonic plague - I read it from a doctors biography - but I suppose there could be many ideas for it.

I still find it interesting that atheists really like to imagine the alternative origins being the true one.

Proud atheist people are pretty silly huh?

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
I had understood that it's roots were the bubonic plague - I read it from a doctors biography - but I suppose there could be many ideas for it.

I still find it interesting that atheists really like to imagine the alternative origins being the true one.

Proud atheist people are pretty silly huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/confused.gif What? Which of the explanations should I, a proud atheist, prefer? I don't see that any of them are particularly insulting or flattering, pretty neutral.

[godBoy]

An atheist would prefer the theory that supports his presupposition that 'Theists believe stupid/unreasonable things'.
As is clear from who I was parody-ing above.

When a 'proud atheist' hears - 'People used to believe that when they sneezed they were more susceptible to Satan's attack'... The atheist jeers 'Sounds like something a theist would believe.'

Please don't seek to defend this - The thing I hate about this forum is peoples unwillingness to lose any small debate - no matter how small it may be. The poster is always right, the opposer always wrong. My thoughts surely can't be wrong on every single topic I've ever discussed here...? perhaps.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
An atheist would prefer the theory that supports his presupposition that 'Theists believe stupid/unreasonable things'.
As is clear from who I was parody-ing above.

When a 'proud atheist' hears - 'People used to believe that when they sneezed they were more susceptible to Satan's attack'... The atheist jeers 'Sounds like something a theist would believe.'

Please don't seek to defend this - The thing I hate about this forum is peoples unwillingness to lose any small debate - no matter how small it may be. The poster is always right, the opposer always wrong. My thoughts surely can't be wrong on every single topic I've ever discussed here...? perhaps.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope you didn't just attempt to cut off anyone who could possibly disagree with you on this? Of course you are going to find people who disagree with just about everything...there are lots of people who post here. I guess you might have a point, except that the overwhelming majority of people who've told me about the 'Satan' theory were definitely theists. Atheists might like to say "That sounds like something those silly theists would say," but they don't like to do so any more than theists do. We all think Poseidon is silly, theists every bit as much as atheists.

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
The thing I hate about this forum is peoples unwillingness to lose any small debate - no matter how small it may be. The poster is always right, the opposer always wrong. My thoughts surely can't be wrong on every single topic I've ever discussed here...? perhaps.


[/ QUOTE ]
what rubbish

chez

[oe39]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
An atheist would prefer the theory that supports his presupposition that 'Theists believe stupid/unreasonable things'.
As is clear from who I was parody-ing above.

When a 'proud atheist' hears - 'People used to believe that when they sneezed they were more susceptible to Satan's attack'... The atheist jeers 'Sounds like something a theist would believe.'

Please don't seek to defend this - The thing I hate about this forum is peoples unwillingness to lose any small debate - no matter how small it may be. The poster is always right, the opposer always wrong. My thoughts surely can't be wrong on every single topic I've ever discussed here...? perhaps.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope you didn't just attempt to cut off anyone who could possibly disagree with you on this? Of course you are going to find people who disagree with just about everything...there are lots of people who post here. I guess you might have a point, except that the overwhelming majority of people who've told me about the 'Satan' theory were definitely theists. Atheists might like to say "That sounds like something those silly theists would say," but they don't like to do so any more than theists do. We all think Poseidon is silly, theists every bit as much as atheists.

[/ QUOTE ]

i actually think poseidon is awesome