Shit! Fuck! Damn you!

Why are they called curse, or "cuss" words?

Once upon a time, they were considered to be actual curses. If you uttered a word forcefully, and you had the power, then you might actually succeed in laying that curse. During the seventeenth-century, it was words and phrases like these that caused women to be burned at the stake for witchcraft.

Today they are merely considered profain. To speak them in front of women and children is still considered to be harmful, somehow, in some significant way, in some circles. Yet for the most part, they are terms of profanity.

The effect that a word has, as with any symbol, is highly dependent upon the audience around it. Effectively, the way that a word is used may also have impact. But the words themselves hold no mystical power. Without definition or purpose, they are meaningless.

There is absolutely no reason to condemn or persecute someone for using "obscene language". It has simply become another means of communication in our society. Deal with it.