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Light-hearted trivia but do you relate? Sneezing.....

I'm done with Christmas Cards
over 5 years ago

Anyone else get mildly irritated when people say "Bless you!" after you sneeze?

For me, it's "Great! Not only was I interrupted by having to sneeze, now you've added the obligation to say 'Thank you' to my troubles!". Also, can we drop the ritualised superstition given that the year starts with a 20?

Parents
  • over 5 years ago

    Yes. It makes so many weird assumptions.

    1. Sneezes are caused by the devil, or evil spirits, or maybe witches
    2. ...who haven't bothered to curse you with anything major, like donkey ears, lycanthropy or spontaneous combustion, just a bit of a sniffle.
    3. Therefore, the cure for sneezing is a blessing from God
    4. ...who exists
    5. ...and is listening to your every word
    6. ...and will be swayed by your request to bless somebody's accursed nose, despite being omniscient and omnipotent and presumably having more important things to do.
    7. Even though you've never known anyone be cured by a blessing. Unless you go to that kind of church.
    8. This only applies to sneezing. No citizens' blessings are available for those who cough, or get a rash, or stub their toe.

    This is why people take the German approach and say 'Gesundheit'. It just means 'health', so although it's equally ineffectual, it makes some kind of sense.

  • over 5 years ago in reply to Hugh

    Religion is the biggest con in the world it was invented to control the masses.... you must pay homage to god and give weekly donations to the church you must follow our rules otherwise you will go to hell and be dammed for all eternity etc etc complete and utter tosh though its nice to see that grip is failing less and less people believe and in my opinion about time as its all about greed i mean look at the catholic church ie the vatican preech about gods love etc and how jesus cast out the money lenders etc so how come the vatican is so rich ? it's literally worth billions if they were so committed to the principles they preach why not use that money to help the poor ????

  • over 5 years ago in reply to Giddy

    Religion isn't necessarily bad.  In fact religion can often be very good.  I have a deep distrust of the majority of *organised* religion however, because it mostly seems to end up being used as a tool to wield power over people.

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  • over 5 years ago in reply to Giddy

    Religion isn't necessarily bad.  In fact religion can often be very good.  I have a deep distrust of the majority of *organised* religion however, because it mostly seems to end up being used as a tool to wield power over people.

Children