What xian/religious sayings get on your nerves?
We've had countless discussions on here about the religious colloquialisms and sayings that others say that we tolerate (e.g. many don't mind something like, ("I hope you get better soon - I'll pray for you", or something as simple as "bless you" after a sneeze). But what about the other end of the spectrum?
What are the xian, or religious for that matter, sayings that drive you crazy or get under your skin? For instance, here are a couple of mine...
- When a religious person sees another who is down on his luck, or has had some tragedy, or is simply "not as good as" the religious person and they say, "There but for the grace of god go I". How pompous and sanctimonious, not to mention cruel and selfiish
- Sports figures, actors, etc. who go through the histrionics of thanking god when something great happens to them. What, did god hate the other players/competitors?
You get the idea.
Can't wait to read your thoughts on this!
Tags: Sayings
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michelle Phelps on -
I really hate "what would jesus do"
my grandma is a very big christian, she is so christian her licence plate says:
4 GGGG US. I could be driving in my hometown, and see the licence plate, and know its her.
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Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on -
It's a stammer. Four (four Gs) Us. You end up saying "for" twice. She would've been better off leaving off the 4 or doing 4GZUS
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Permalink Reply by Michelle Phelps on
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"your going to HELL!"
my husband's step-dad always says to his daughter "i don't want you hanging around them, you stay away from your brother because he's atheist and a bad influence and they're going to hell"
but of course he forgets about it and little sister is back talking and laughing with us, until he sees something that pisses him off, and then he says "i thought i told you to stay away from them"
and when people are praying at the dinner table and say we pray for those who don't understand you, for you to reach out to them. i know they are specifically talking about me and my husband. they can keep pray for that all they want, its not going to happen.
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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on -
I think you should start a new atheist tradition of ritualized passive agressive "hoping" and "remembering" before each meal. It could be thirty seconds of what you wish they would understand about faith/science/reason/etc.
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Permalink Reply by Carol Foley on -
"Your son is a blessing from God!"
Ummmm.
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Permalink Reply by Trish E. Harmon on -
God never gives you more than you can handle...to which I say to say that to all the families who have lost loved ones to suicide each day. Then they proceed to criticize the person who committed suicide. That really pisses me off.
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Permalink Reply by Stutz on -
How about the reply you inevitably get whenever you reveal your non-belief: "Then, what DO you believe in?"
It just perfectly encapsulates the gulf separating the rational and the religious worldviews. There are so many built-in assumptions: that you must believe in something in order to "get out of bed in the morning" or to be moral or to be happy (Daniel Dennett's "believing in belief"); that nobody is really an atheist (that they all believe in some kind of higher power, but just say they're an atheist to sound edgy or cool); that if you claim you don't believe in God then you most likely fall under some other category like "Buddhist" or "Wiccan"; that it's irrational to be a materialist because obviously immaterial things exist.
Of course, people generally don't consider the following: I can believe solely in what it's rational to believe in and still live my everyday life as normal (strangely, unless your whole life is wrapped up in your church, surprising little changes when you lose your religion); plenty of people are honestly, truly atheists, including very many exceptionally brilliant people, and most are so because they've rigorously thought it out; that atheists also reject and have little regard for other supernatural belief systems like Buddhism and Wicca; that most things you think of as "immaterial" are simply metaphors for certain kinds of higher-order mental concepts, existing in the human brain, and which are therefore fundamentally material just like everything else. All of this is the kind of stuff most religious people never think about, having been raised a certain way and mailing it in after that.
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Permalink Reply by scLovely on -
O yes. I've heard "You've got to believe in something" several times.
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Permalink Reply by Morgan Matthew on -
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Permalink Reply by Rocky Oliver (LotusGeek) on -
Thanks Morgan. It's been awhile since I had a post featured ;)
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Permalink Reply by basement kitteh on -
Michelle, I don't get the ggggus part of the plate.
Other annoyances (than already listed, and especially the "bless you" for sneezing, and unwanted prayers):
- People who get the best treatment money can buy in a hospital, and then were cured "by god". Well, the next time you want to get healed by your god, why don't you let the hospitals and doctors for the people who want to be cured by medicine. If a brain surgeon fixed your body, a brain surgeon fixed your body, and no imaginary friend.
- "Oh my god..." in random talk it annoys a bit, but when it's in bed it's even more annoying. Especially if one's having sex with a non-believer. Invent something else... 'fsck yea', or 'oh my science' - I don't need anyone to talk to or about an imaginary sex while I have sex with them.
- "god's will" - your will, and not that of an imaginary angry old middle-eastern dude
- "shalam" type things each Friday and/or Saturday (even when every weekend on some people's walls). My natural instincts want to scream "salaam" as a response.
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