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 T A A on -
Yep, like in France, people swear with sex words instead of religious words. Which is very blasphemous to me who respects sex. But that is the point of blasphemy, to piss people off and denigrate, so it works.
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Permalink Reply by Lucas Diaz on -
Yeah, I hate this idea of yours. I don't believe in pushing atheism onto people, let people be. We're not like little toy soldiers that must control the world man.
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Permalink Reply by David Ross Mann on -
So you reject my assertion that language is a battlefield. Control the language and you control people's minds. If you don't push you will be pushed. Or maybe you are content to be a pawn to the public relations industry and everyone else who spends billions of dollars telling people what to think. Atheism will win the war of ideas despite your lackadaisical attitude. Cheers Comrade.
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Permalink Reply by Cameron Tungate on -
My parents notice when I say oh god or something like that, they say "if you’re an atheist, why do u say god all the time", I don't know what to say that isn't too nasty, or something the complete opposite
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Permalink Reply by Ryan E. Hoffman on -
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?
I just grunt and give a bear growl as loud as I possibly can. Then afterwards I howl at the moon.
As to your changing language idea... that's a tactic for totalitarians and hucksters, and a basic part of conditioning people to the Party in 1984. You WANT to have something in common with the Party? War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Not an association in references (mild, or otherwise) that I would like to have. Words mean what they mean. It's a fight for secularists to stop the religious and totalitarians in this country to stop changing meanings, not do the same thing with a different spin. That's a dangerous road to go down. I'd seriously re-think where you want to align yourself on that front, and just leave antediluvian words such as religious exclamations and swears in the dust if you don't want to use them.
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Permalink Reply by Sassan K. on -
me too I use the word "god" in phrases commonly. Whether it is "god damnit", or "god" in general as in "uh"; it is just a phrase of speech....or "I swear to god"
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Permalink Reply by Reg The Fronkey Farmer on -
Something like this ?? http://www.thinkatheist.com/video/atheists-dont-say-god-in-bed
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Permalink Reply by Dominic Pritzl on
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I like to put azkaban (harry potter) in place of hell. "go to azkaban" its nice cause people do a double take.
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Permalink Reply by H3xx on -
Congratulations, this four year old post made me sign up. :D
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?
Personally, if my partner started shouting anything but "god" or "fuck", it would likely kill the mood during sex. It would be very disconcerting if he started calling out Sagan or Darwin.
I think it would be prudent to categorize expletives, such as by level of excitement.
Cuss words, or words used in anger or as insults should be left alone, due to the blaspheme factor that many have already explained. Personally, I use Joss Whedon's Firefly swear words Gorram for Goddamn, and rutt for fuck. On occasion, I substitute Douglass Adams' "Belgium" for fuck when not using it as a verb/adverb, or BSG's "Frack" at other times.
Exclamations, or words used in surprise or fear, I would say are open to personal choice. I do use religious words here, but only out of habit. I like the idea of replacing Jesus with Darwin in this context. Darwin's Beard tickles me a bit.
Personal Courtesy words and phrases should definitely be changed.
I live in the SSA (Southern States of America) and on a daily basis people tell me to "Have a Blessed Day." This infuriates me on a personal level, but because I work in a grocery store, I can't approach the topic for fear of offending a customer and being fired. I instead tell them to "Have a Wonderful Day" My context being to have a day filled with wonder and interesting events.
I personally use the word "Gesundheit" for sneezing, because a sneeze is, at it's best a biological cleansing of the nasal passage, and at it's worse a symptom of disease. I think it proper to wish them health. I stay quiet after my own sneeze, again for fear of being fired.
Often times I'm required to stay silent because religious people tend to be so easily offended by atheists expressing themselves in a secular way, and Nature forbid I ask them to be more secular towards me.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on -
You're overthinking this. References to God, Jesus Christ, and Holy Mother of God (among other similar ones) when taken "in vain," are appropriately disrespectful used by a disbeliever, so I use them.
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Permalink Reply by Matthew on -
This is the problem i have with identifying with groups. People can use whatever naughty words they want and just because they identify with a certain group, that shouldn't limit what they can and cannot say. It's like saying "Hopping easter bunny shit nuggets!" just because i don't believe in the easter bunny doesn't mean i can't grasp the concept of it and therefore use it in any way i wish. If I want to say "Jesus tittyfucking christ" then being an atheist shouldn't make that contradictive to my understanding.
Also, the blaspheming makes a statement that we aren't afraid of the invisible skywizard.
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