Comments on: Is It Normal for God to Pop Up in Atheists’ Thoughts?

By: Kristen Mary

Kristen Mary — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:31:58 +0000

LOL, I was just thinking about this topic this morning when I thought “Jesus Christ!” at a car in traffic. These terms are non-religious to me and just common expressions that I have kept filed away. Kind of like how I’m not urban or hip, and yet I say things like “word.” and “mos def.” (in my head!)

By: SpencerS

SpencerS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:22:10 +0000

I often catch myself saying things like that but it doesn’t really bother me. It is just a useful way to express myself, there are a lot of things that Christian’s do that are based off pagan ideas/beliefs but that they don’t realize or care about so why shouldn’t I use God in a set phrase.

By: MeagD

MeagD — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:51:39 +0000

Unfortunately, I also use religious diction on a regular basis – However, I recently met a man who uses “God Bless You” or “God Bless Them” in an endearing way (not after one sneezes) all the time, and after a while it became an issue. I actually found it very creepy (to be honest – we are no longer seeing each other).
I am not sure why this is, since I regularly say things like “oh god!”, “my god!”, and “god bless you” (after sneezing). Funny thing is – he wasn’t religious at all. But he ended up sounding like someone’s religious grandfather and it was unbearably creepy.

By: Slugsie

Slugsie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:32:58 +0000

I’ll quite often use the word God in many ways – e.g. ‘God knows’ ‘Thank God’, or Heaven – ‘Heaven help us’, or Jesus – ‘Jesus Christ!!!’. They’re just figures of speach to me, they aren’t appeals to higher powers, or some such incantation. They’re patterns of word usage that are prevalent in any society where Christianity is in the majority. It’s no different to the many idioms that I use as an Englishman that are purely because of where I’m from.

By: CatBallou

CatBallou — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:44:55 +0000

I hadn’t given this much thought before. I have no problem with all the expletives that involve God and Jesus—I’m certainly not going to give them up—but I do reflexively say “Thank God” when a crisis turns out OK, as in:
“Your brother was in a bad accident but he’s going to be fine.”
“Oh, thank God!”
I don’t actually mean that literally at all. I’ll have to think about a substitute. “Thank goodness” makes me feel 12 years old. One of the perks of adulthood is being able to use all the words!

By: Gustavo Keener

Gustavo Keener — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:39:06 +0000

I think the word “god” is just fine, in my conversations. I just make sure to use it as I believe in a god or gods, which is to say I believe in the null set of all gods, so “god” is just fine. It’s a pointer to the null set.

By: weofui

weofui — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:30:11 +0000

Having lived several years as a Fundamentalist Christian “god thoughts” do pop into my head from time to time, especially during times of stress in which I’m essentially helpless. I simply view those thoughts as leftovers from an abandoned coping mechanism – thoughts of “please protect them” from an ex-believer being no different than thoughts of “I need a drink” from an ex-alcoholic.

As for religious speech, I mostly see it as nothing more than part of my cultural vernacular. The only time it bothers me is when it pops out of my mouth during a conversation with a believer who knows I’m an Atheist – I know that religious phrases used by professed Atheists add fuel to the “deep down they believe, but they choose to reject god” fire.

As an aside – a few years back my Mother told me I “should just replace the word ‘god’ with ‘fuck’, I know you believe in that.” Clearly I didn’t get my faith from her. *grins*

By: jemand

jemand — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:27:31 +0000

as a Christian, I was taught most of those phrases were blasphemy, so I never got used to using them… I don’t “think” god based language, but I’ve started using expressions like “what the hell?” Something I never would have allowed myself to do as a fundamentalist.

By: Veritas

Veritas — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:22:13 +0000

I try to not do it, but it does come out. Especially when I am cursing, I seem to prefer religious curses. But I do say, “Oh, god” when something happens and I am exasperated, etc. I had wondered if I was doing something “wrong”, but you know, it is just nice to see people have similar experiences.

Thanks for another great posting, Hemant.

By: Codswallop

Codswallop — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:56:09 +0000

I have done a pretty good job eradicating god references from everyday speech (though, like others here, I enjoy a good “god damn it” from time to time).

One persistent habit was saying, “god bless you” after someone sneezed. It seems polite, but I hate the inconsistency of it. Even a simple “bless you” without reference to a deity was problematic, since the practice stems from the false idea that a sneeze is one’s soul trying to escape the body.

My solution is to say “gesundheit.” It just means “[may you be] healthy.” Since I am Jewish, I often give it a Yiddish spin and say, “gezint!” There’s a long atheistic tradition in Yiddish, and it sounds so ethnic.