language slips
Hey everyone, I was laughing about this the other day and wanted to know if anyone else had the same problem. I've only been openly atheist for the past 3-4 months, and since then i've been having problems with slips of the tounge. I've been trying not to say things like "Thank god!" when something goes right, or "raise hell" or any other of the colo[u]rful theist phrases in the English lanuage. It's just so difficult. I've been saying them since I learned to talk and they come out naturally without thinking. Anyone else have this problem? I was watching a debate Dawkins was having and I even saw him almost slip. He paused for a split second when saying "Thank Go..odness......" I know it would be suicide to accidentally let one of these phrases slip while arguing with a theist.
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Yep! I do it all of the time. Like you, I am becoming more aware of it but to be honest, I don't worry about it too much. Like theists, we could always just make up our own interpretation of those phrases. If they give you trouble about "Thank god" just tell them you named your dog "god" and you really, really like him! LOL
I've been an atheist for 5+ years, and I've never even tried to change that. It just doesn't seem like a big deal to me. They're just part of the vernacular, and using them doesn't entail belief in anything. If some theist tries to make a big deal about it, just explain that to them.
It's only the fairy tales they believe.
I admit this isn't completely nice, but my solution has been pretty simple (Atheist over 10 years, btw). I encourage myself to blaspheme, i.e. god damn it, god fucking damn it, Jesus Christ fucking a pogo stick, fucking mother of god, etc... I'm not talking about all the time, but when I need a particularly good curse.
As for the good stuff, when someone sneezes, I say, "nice one." I say, thank goodness, good grief, etc...
The point is that I try to avoid any positive connotations of religion, and when I need particular emphasis, I use religious words as badly as I can. Like I said, it's been ten years of work, and I definitely don't avoid the "thank god"s completely, but they hardly ever come out any more.
I don't think it's a very big deal, either, but to me, it's almost like a fun game.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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There was a very similar thread to this just as I started being active at this site (roughly 2 weeks ago). As I said there, it doesn't really matter if you say those things, it's not as though you're being blasphemous. It's only the theists who need to worry about saying such things and stopping themselves, not you.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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