How should Atheists swear?
One cannot understand English without having a basic knowledge of Christianity; so pervasive is that religion on our culture. Christianity's hold on European civilization has been totalitarian.
I am in favour of a secularization of North America that is so profound that when people swear they do not use religious references.
How many Atheists, when they have an orgasm exclaim "god!" What spoils the mood more: when you say it or when your partner says it?
And why do we use "fuck" as a swear-word. The Atheist comic George Carlin often wondered, why does a word describing the act of procreation merit being turned into a pejorative?
Towards an Atheist Newspeak.
A reason why Christianity dominates the English language and culture is because the theists imposed habits of thinking, altered the meanings of words to suit their world-view and made it as difficult as possible for anyone to think outside the box they built for us. The successful struggle against these efforts is called "The Enlightenment."
Secularists have ended the domination of Christianity - people now enjoy freedom of thought, at least in most countries. The time is overdue for us Atheists to take English over - to make it more likely that people will think secular thoughts and less likely to entertain obscurantist ideas.
Here are two ways we can do this :
1) stop using words that have religious or mystical meanings. The objective is that the words will die out from lack of use;
2) Co-opt the words. change their meaning permanently so that whenever someone uses a given word it can only have a secular interpretation.
In his novel 1984, George Orwell described how a totalitarian government used language to condition people's thinking.
That language can be shaped, controlled and purposively modified is not only an idea that totalitarians can implement- it is a fact that should be appreciated by anyone desiring liberty. We Atheists are partisans in a culture war and the English language is a battlefield we must control.
I therefore submit the following list as an example of words and expressions we should use in place of the current obscurantist terms:
This seems like such a good idea someone must have already proposed it. If you can find out who please let me know. As you can tell by these first four examples, I could use some assistance.
My god - my word
bless you - you are so good looking (Seinfeld)
Jesus! - Darwin!
holy shit - blue screen!
Dave Mann
Tags: 1984, Orwell, Swear, english, language, orgasm, swearing
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jake on -
Personally, I would have a hard time giving up "Jesus H Christ on a Popsicle stick" or "Christ on a cracker", but maybe that's just me.
As far as replacing "Jesus!" with "Darwin!" is concerned, I don't think it would be the best move to equate the two. After all, how many atheists do you know who venerate Darwin?
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Permalink Reply by Eoganacht on -
agreed. Darwin, although a big scientific heavy-weight, was just that. We dont use Einstin's name like that or Kepler etc, so why use Darwin's?
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Permalink Reply by basement kitteh on -
Because Einstein was a Jew, and/or not devoid of religious affiliations?
But I like Darwin, and I guess any big scientist would do.
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Permalink Reply by Arcus on -
I received your letter of June 10th. I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.
- Albert Einstein, letter to Guy H. Raner Jr, July 2, 1945, responding to a rumor that a Jesuit priest had caused Einstein to convert from atheism; quoted by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic, Vol. 5, No. 2
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Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on -
As far as replacing "Jesus!" with "Darwin!" is concerned, I don't think it would be the best move to equate the two.
We get enough accusations of worshiping something (satan, whatever) without maybe making them think we worship Darwin by doing this. I might say "thank [some scientist]" when I am talking about something he or she actually accomplished.
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Permalink Reply by Laura on -
I dunno, to exclaim things like "God" and "Jesus Christ" are so ingrained into how I speak, that I don't know if I could actually stop saying them. It's not that I haven't thought about the connotations before of me being a non-believer who screams out the lord's name on a daily basis, but it's not exactly a fad kind of word. I could easily get out of my recent habit or abbreviating everything I possibly can, but that's because it's something I only recently started. I say these things because I've always said them, and that's a hard habit to break.
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Permalink Reply by Dave G on -
it would also be hard to break the habit of saying 'dammit', which while not invoking a deity directly, certainly is religious in origin.
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Permalink Reply by Matthew on -
excatly. It is soo very hard and only started recently myself trying to cuss without using a religious connotation in them. My favorite cuss when i am really pissed off is "Jesus H. Fucking Christ" and now I find it kind of funny as it really pisses off the fundies at work when I do say and it only makes me more pissed off when I get talked to about cussing by the fundie assholes at work.
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Permalink Reply by kelltrill on -
Seconded. I'm English and Afrikaans and both languages have an equal amount of religious swear words.
Jissus! Jislaaikit! Jissus! and liewe Jesus! are just as common as "Christ!" and "fucking hell" for me :/
I say "excuse me" when I sneeze, and I'm training myself just to be quiet when someone else sneezes, although "bless you" is the unthinking norm here as well.
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Permalink Reply by Moria Jackson on -
I say "excuse you" when someone sneezes, and recently noticed I apologize if I am the one doing the sneezing lol.
I would have a hard time getting rid of ALL the words I use. Jeezus fucking christ and goddamnit are my 2 big ones.
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