Bow Your Head? Close Your Eyes? How to act when saying grace 101.

My guess is that this has been covered in another forum but I wanted to throw it out there;

So who among us has been the following situation: You are sitting at a friends or even a family's dinner table and everyone gets ready to say grace. Everyone bows their heads and or closes their eyes. What do you do? Do you close your eyes and or bow your head out of respect and think to yourself "omg this is such bs", or do you hold your atheist head up high with a kind of "suck-it" mentality I am not going to coddle you just because you expect me to, I'm an atheist dammit and proud of it!!!

Would love to hear your thoughts and stories!!

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Permalink Reply by Greg on May 23, 2011 at 11:39am

Great topic. I am absolutely adamant about furthering science and reason, but in situations like this I'm more than willing to hold hands and indulge in the ritual. I generally don't close my eyes, or bow my head, but I do look around and appreciate the love and unabashed feelings that a family can have for one another. I suppose I view the moment like I view Christmas, a simple time to appreciate your friends and loved ones.

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Permalink Reply by Seth Jon Nonnemaker on August 8, 2011 at 12:58am

When people say "Okay everybody, lets say grace." All I say is "grace" then I start eating. I do that sometimes when I'm with people I'm comfortable with, but other times I just sit normally and wait for everyone else to get done.

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Permalink Reply by Helena on August 8, 2011 at 1:02am

Depends on the situation. At best I will be quiet, if its a family who's table I am sitting at. If its my table, I will say "oh I don't mind if you talk to yourself" and keep eating, talking etc.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Lester on August 8, 2011 at 3:31am

"Why are you bitches thanking god? I bought this food!"

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Permalink Reply by noisician on August 9, 2011 at 6:02pm

"Hey, don't get your magic spells on my food!"

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Permalink Reply by Dave Porter on August 13, 2011 at 3:16pm

I sit politely. I don't take the piss. I am respectful, because I would consider it bad manners to make an issue. Don't make no difference to me. I have been asked if I wanted to lead in grace before. I just said 'no thanks, and smiled' & that was enough!