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Atheist "God Bless You" (The Guardian) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4622 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 1 of 33 28 September 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Guardian "Notes and Queries Column" is often a magnet for daft questions and even dafter answers, but I quite liked one answer to this question (it's actually the 2nd question down in this article)
Guardian Notes and Queries 26.09.12
(Is Hannah Bailey a HTLALite?) I must admit, I didn't know the connection between "gesund" and "sound", but it makes sense. I also didn't know about "wassail" except as a type of traditional Christmas song. Edited by montmorency on 28 September 2012 at 7:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6662 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 2 of 33 28 September 2012 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting.
Religious phrases tend to permeate into language to the point that people lose the connection to the religion completely. I guess if a group of people wanted a new word to replace a religion-related one, that just goes with the aliveness of the language. But separating religion completely out of language is extreme and impractical. Even outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins said that people should be familiar with the Bible (at least the King James version) due to the amount of idioms that the language has absorbed from it. Personally, I would welcome a "wassail" when someone sneezes, though! :-D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Peregrinus Senior Member United States Joined 4286 days ago 149 posts - 273 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 33 28 September 2012 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why would an atheist believe that a sneeze required any such response, explicitly religious or not? What would an atheist say in response to a fart?
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| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4924 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 4 of 33 28 September 2012 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | ||
Because societies all around the globe have a response for sneezing? Doesn't matter if it's religious or not. Culturally, a response is expected. For farts, not so much. R. == 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Peregrinus Senior Member United States Joined 4286 days ago 149 posts - 273 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 33 28 September 2012 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Looking at wikipedia's article on Sneeze, one sees that the reasons most often given for such a response have to do with religious or superstitious beliefs. So again, why would an atheist feel a need to perpetuate such beliefs in the form of a response? Might as well just say "God bless you" if a response is to be given to something believed might portend ill based on religious or superstitious beliefs.
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| Cortical Tetraglot Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4427 days ago 30 posts - 52 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, SpanishB1 Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 6 of 33 28 September 2012 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | ||
The reasons might have originated from a religious or superstitious belief, but nowadays it has become a social norm. Atheists question religious beliefs, not social norms, and unless a social norm is deeply tied with a religious belief, it is perfectly fine by an atheist. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4667 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 7 of 33 28 September 2012 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Norway, we say "prosit", which according to Wikipedia is from latin and has something
to do with religious superstition... the more you know, I guess.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Peregrinus Senior Member United States Joined 4286 days ago 149 posts - 273 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 33 28 September 2012 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
While that makes sense, and while noting that I am a religious believer and have a bias the same as an atheist would, my interest is in the degree to which people feel it necessary if at all, to engage in explicitly avoiding or countering certain language constructions, and how much awkward circumlocution they are willing to use to achieve same. This goes both ways as to religious belief, and I recall having lunch many years ago with a fellow religious believer who seemed just too "goody-goody". I asked her if she had any vices and she replied that she had "enjoyments". While the denotation of a vice may generally be a legitimate "enjoyment" taken to an extreme in proportion or as to its effects, she took pains to avoid using "vice" in the general connotation of a simple pleasure/"enjoyment". Edited by Peregrinus on 28 September 2012 at 11:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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