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

The one I commonly use is “oh god”, which I’m trying to train myself into replacing with “oh dog”, since I do in fact believe in dogs, and I even know they love me.

To a lesser extent I use “god damn it”, which I’m trying to replace with simply “damn it”, on the basis that I can damn things much better than god can, since I actually at least exist. However, this is going to be slow going, since when I say that I am generally not in any mood to be thinking about my word choices.

It’s not religious thoughts if you’re just thinking in your internal monologue the phrases “God bless him”, “Goddamnit”, “Oh my God” if they’re devoid of belief in a deity, just phrases that express certain emotions unconnected to gods. It’s inevitable that certain parts of English are related to the Christian’s God. Yet English also contains language and phrases from ancient languages, so you could be using language that refers to Greek gods, Roman gods, Norse gods, and Celtic gods.

If you’re thinking that God should bless someone. Then that would be strange for an atheist. Still possible, as it’s possible for you to think Gandalf should smite someone with his shining white rod of justice. We can, and often do, fantasize, our brains are pretty awesome at it. If you’re actually thinking “the real entity God should bless this person, and if he does then he will be blessed”, then arguably at best you’re conflicted, worst you’re not an atheist.

I use to use these phrases all the time. Dawkins gave a suggestion to help with this. He said to use the word gods or buddah. It helps and eventually I stopped using the phrase all together.

The hardest one for me was the god bless you. If you think for a moment where this came from, the idea that something was stealing your soul away, you realize how silly having a connotation to make that not happen is as equally inane.

I actually got into trouble for not saying it. I had to come out as an Atheist on that day because of a simple human reaction.

I agree – they are nothing more than figures of speech to me. “God bless you” when someone sneezes, “god damn it” when you drop yet another plate on the floor – these have become meaningless.

I don’t waste energy worrying about them. 🙂

I grew up in a religious home, so I still have some religious-centred thoughts from time to time. A few times I’ve caught myself about to say, “I’ll be praying for you.” It’s very frustrating.

I do love a good “goddammit” though. That word was strictly off-limits in my community and it still offends them today.

For me, it’s all just part of the language. If you look at the word “disaster”, it literally means “bad star”. I use the word quite frequently, but I don’t believe that the stars are affecting my life. I view using the word “god” in much the same way.

(On a side note, glad to know I’m not the only one who says frak from time to time.)

Good Heavens yes! Loads of blasphemous oaths. Hot favourites are Hell’s Bloody Bells and Damn, Blast and Buggeration.

On the other hand, I always say Bless You after sneezes…

Pretty much the same with me. I use god-filled phraseology, although mostly when I speak in Greek, and more often in situation I don’t encounter often, like speaking for the recently dead (“may god forgive him” is a very common phrase in Greek for this, although I never think of a god nor do I consider the person in need of forgiveness.) In English I often substitute swears and blasphemies from pop and cultural influences, like ‘smeghead’ or ‘frak’ or “a pox on both your houses”.

As I said recently to a Christian who brought it up to me “I am no more invoking God to damn you when I say ‘God damn it’ than you are worshipping the Sun god every Sunday morning when you go to church.

I still do have religious thoughts… sort of. I grew up in a religious environment, so I still have hope thoughts in my head, if things are going wrong. Hopeful thoughts, which is what i considered praying back in the day. These thoughts however, are never directed to a particular deity.. just wishing all will go well.

I find myself saying “god” and “jesus” all the time and I have no problem with it. Growing up you don’t learn the meanings behind phrases like “bless you.” Its just the polite thing to say when someone sneezes. You can try and train yourself to quit saying these phrases but I find it is pointless. If you are anxious to take the words out of your vocabulary you should go ahead and say “gosh” and “jeez,” but like I said, people don’t think of the meanings behind “oh my god” after it is said. They instantly jump to the idea that something shocked you, and for that I really have no need to train myself to quit.

Off-topic: why is it less offensive to tell someone to go to hell than to tell them to fuck off? For that matter, why is hell a lesser swearword than fuck?

I’ve found myself changing around what I say when I cuss (usually in my mind) instead of saying goddamnit or something. . I will say something like “gobdammit” or “hey-soos kreis” (kreis being the German word for circle).

Frell, Frack, Lords of Cobol, By Krom, Cuthulu knows, etc. Normal parts of speech for me. It sure starts a few interesting conversations with strangers.

I don’t watch Battlestar Galactica, but I once blurted out “Frak!” after losing a video game with friends, which got me a strange look or two.

I’m prone to “Goddammit” though I’ve really toned it down in recent years and say it rarely. I’m working on replacing it with “Hot Dammit”. I have successfully broken myself of saying “Oh my god” and replaced it with “Oh my gosh” (or online, OMGosh.) or “Oh my word”.

The one I am hung on and can not let go of, however, is “Bless your heart” or “Bless their little hearts”,etc. It’s my inner southerner taking over and I often say it before I’ve realized it.

I think that for atheists to come up with cutesy alternatives to swear words and meaningless filler phrases is actually counterproductive. It reinforces theists in their belief that these words have power, and it smacks of residual magical thinking.

Thinking (or saying) “Oh, Lord” or “God bless ’em” isn’t religious, but thinking that those words possess some kind of imprecatory power is.

Remember, every time you invoke the Abrahamic deity without really meaning, you’re violating the second commandment. Keep up the good work.

I try to be creative. When someone sneezes, I say, “Stop it” or “Good one.” Actually, it does seem interrupt sneezing spells (because of the unexpectedness, I think). I use the exasperated phrase “Jesus Christ” and riff on it like a jazz musician. For instance, my favorite invention was “Jesus Herbert Walker Christ,” but “Jesus Brand Buttered Biscuits” or “Christ on Crackers” would do just fine.

I was never religious, so the phrase “God bless x” never runs through my mind. Both terms- “God” and “bless” are completely meaningless to me, and there is no possible situation that would call for their use. (Except a meta-discussion like this one.)

I use “God” and “Jesus” sort of as interjections, usually at the front of sentences: “God… that sucks.” But it’s always an interjection or explicative; meaningless sounds to fill space.

I don’t know if there is any religious terminology I *ever* use in context. But a lot of religious words (“sin”, “sacred”, “zen”, “kosher”) have established secular meanings, and obviously I don’t avoid them.

I use a lot of these words Jesus Christ, Goddamit, Oh My God etc. And I really wanted to stop, but then (as someone else has mentioned) I realised that by wanting to stop I was giving the words power. So now I use them freely as interjections and expressions. I have a bit of a potty mouth, it’s just part of who I am, and these “swear words” fit right in.

However, I never say bless you when someone sneezes (it’s unnecessary, why do you have to say anything when someone sneezes?) and I never say that I’ll pray for someone, I say I’ll be thinking of them.

Religious speech, not so much, but religious music? Aargh! Sometimes old Baptist hymns pop up in my head and put themselves on repeat. It was especially bad this past week after my grandfather’s funeral.

I didn’t like the music too well when I was a Christian. I really hate it playing in my brain now that I’m an atheist.

I don’t dare mention it to anyone or they are sure to say that it is God trying to get my attention.

The only time god pops into my mind/mouth is generally cursing. I do sometimes have the reflex to say “bless you” when someone sneezes but that’s about it. It’s ingrained in our culture and it’s a bit irritating but I let it go.

I think purging the word “god” from one’s own language is more effort than it’s worth. There aren’t any real benefits to it, only benefits of the symbolic sort.

I found out yesterday that I will still use “under god” in the pledge, automatically. The rhythm of the pledge gets all messed up if you don’t say it when everyone else does!

When people point out to me that I’ve said something like “Lord knows” or “Goddamnit” [usually as an attempt to prove I’m not truly an atheist] …

… point out to them they worship pagan gods and so can not be truly Christians – every time they mention a day of the week.

Religious phrases are part of our cultural history, like Shakespeare phrases, lines of Milton poetry, Ben Johnson quotes and a whole host (there’s one) of other things. The bible is a rich source of shared understanding and it would be wrong to abandon the phrases simply because we’ve abandoned the belief behind them.

That said “Bless you” is a product of superstition rather than literature and enriching culture. Personally I don’t use g0d, Jesus, or Lord in every day speech but I have been known to utter the phrase “bless your cotton socks” from time to time and I replace a typical “God!” with “good grief”. Apparently I’m the only one on the planet to do so which I can’t believe.

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.

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*

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!

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.

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!)