I live a very intentional life. Thinking, reading, writing, and philosophy are the hallmarks of my life. If I make a choice to not follow a certain societal custom you can bet your ass I have a good reason for it and have thought through this decision. My kid understands none of this as he has never analyzed anything in his entire life. Recently we have this conversation: Teen: Achoo! Me: Gesundheit. Teen: Why do you say that? Why don't you say bless you? Me: Do you know what gedundheit means? It means good health. It makes more sense to say that, then bless you because bless you or God bless you is a leftover superstition back when people believed you were sneezing our your soul. I see no point in saying bless you because 1) I am not the one who is blessing them and 2) I don't believe there is anyone out there who is blessing them. Teen: But everyone says it. It's just a saying. Me: So is gesundheit. Teen: That's stupid. You don't have to mean anything by it or believe in a god to say it. It's just polite. Me: So is gesundheit. And I am wishing them something that means immensely more to me. Good health. Why wouldn't you want to wish good health on them? Teen: Well, this is what I believe. Me: Is it? Is it part of your religion to believe in people sneezing their souls out? Teen: Well...noooo. But it is polite. Me: I am aware that you believe it is polite. I don't think it matters one iota. Absolutely nothing will happen if you don't say it. And frankly my dear, it's kind of weird that you do it to every stranger we walk by, even if they are far away or you can't see them. It's almost OCD. Teen: ::grumpily:: well, it IS polite. I get that he has been taught it is polite. Perhaps you were taught that too. In my mind, this is a leftover superstition from medieval times when people believed in changelings and people used to pass their children through cheese rinds. When I realized this was purely based off of superstition, I quit using it. I was still a Christian then and I felt the Bible was fairly clear in concerns to Christians falling prey to superstitions. I see the irony in this now, but at the time it made sense that as someone who obeys God, one cannot hold on to ridiculous superstitions no matter how "polite" it is perceived in society. Nevermind, that the Bible is also clear as to who is blessed and why. Nowhere does it say, blessed are those who sneeze. Now, as an atheist, I see it not just as an archaic throwback, but a religious statement. Who I am asking them to be blessed by? Me? Of course not. The implication is still, God bless you. Even if you leave the word out, everyone knows what you mean. But I don't mean it. I don't see any evidence for a god, let alone one who spends his day blessing everyone who sneezes, which would be billions of people all day every day. In my mind, it would be disingenuous to use this phrase. I know it is a small thing, but like I said, I live a very intentional life. I don't just do things because everyone does them. I want to think about and analyze those things in my life to be sure that if I am doing something, it is for the right reasons and morally upright. My kid does things because someone taught him to do it and he can't be bothered to learn about it or think about it beyond this-is-what-people-do. He does this for everything by the way and a common phrase I hear in my house is, "Have you ever considered....?" followed by that ghosts are real, that god exists, that heaven is real, that angels are real, etc. etc. etc. Yes, kid. I've thought a LOT about it. I've read books, watched movies & videos, gotten in debates, attended church for years, learned apologetics, took ethics and philosophy classes. Yes, I've considered all of that. The real question is, have you?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThis is a personal, but secret, blog archiving my deconversion from a Christian to a non-believer. Archives
December 2020
Categories |