"God Bless You"
Maybe this is a silly topic for discussion, but does anyone else find this awkward?
It is the closing of a conversation (phone or live) and right before the other person hangs up or walks away they say, "god* bless you."
I usually say, "Thank you," or "You take care"; but it almost always catches me off guard.
Since it is at the closing of a discussion, it seems odd to reopen the conversation to tell (or remind them) that I am an atheist and do not believe in god. When a stranger says, "god bless you", it hardly seems worth it to even have that discussion at all. If it is not a stranger, of course I never remember to bring it up to that person until the next conversation tag, "god bless you", pops up again.
The assumption of other people think that I am christian* does irk me,
* In writing this post I have decided god and christan do not deserve capitalization. Spell check! I defy you!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kolten on -
I feel the same exact way sometimes. It doesn't bother me much because I'm used to it.
But sometimes I'm tempted to bring up that I am an atheist and I don't really approve of being blessed by an unreal figure.
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Permalink Reply by Loop Johnny on -
I just say "Same!". In my home language it doesn't sound so awkward.
"God bless you!"
"Same!"
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on -
I don't often hear that used in that manner. But, the few times I have been told that, I typically respond with a quizzical expression and ask them "who?".
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Permalink Reply by Radu Andreiu on -
Nice! I'll definitely borrow that. :)
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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Works well for those who have momentarily forgotten that you are an atheist. After a confused moment they say "oh, oh yeah".
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Permalink Reply by Lord Mark Lunn on -
Ach for gods sake guys lol (whatever that means to) :)
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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on -
"The assumption of other people think that I am christian* does irk me, "
I agree with that, but I usually just ignore it. It doesn't happen often to me, but if it did, I'd just figure it was just a habit.
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Hevenstone on -
My Dad says this to me all the time. When I first told him I was an atheist, it was after nearly every convo. Then I just responded with "you, too".
The amount he says it has dropped a lot, but now I pretty much just ignore it, anyways. I usually just reply with "love you, Dad" and leave it at that.
In general I really do just ignore it. I actually got it from an atheist once who said it to me and then looked so embarrassed. I just started laughing. I think it's become so ingrained into our culture that it's entirely lost it's meaning. I doubt they're assuming that you're a Christian (for starters, Jews also say "God bless")... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't even assuming you were a believer. "God bless" has all but replaced "good bye" and "see ya' later" as the end-of-conversation salutation.
I believe Billy Joel wishes people "God bless", and, unless I'm much mistaken, he's an atheist...
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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on
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everyone seems to hear this a lot...I don't think I ever heard it in this context.
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Bailey on -
Yes...I never know what to say....people around here often say that when another person sneezes...occasionally I can't stop the sneeze in the company of those types so I must admit I say, "thank you" which is the customary response....
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Bailey on
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lol...you're right..it does make me feel like a hypocrite...where it usually takes place is at my business by customers...so what can I do?
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