sighhswolf

When I sneeze my wife Sandy just says, " F--k you".
Thats her atheistic response to my sneeze.
I kinda like it.....as it raises my hopes...heh.
Wolf

WWSD

I say nothing. I can't figure out why I should.
Usually if I sneeze, and when I do it's loud, I say excuse me.

For a while now one of my coworkers has been saying "burn in hell" whenever I sneeze.

Godless Sodomite

I don't say anything. "Blessing" an annoying cultural habit that I have no need encouraging. You sneezed, why should I acknowledge it? We all sneeze. Is there a reason to call attention to it?

-Jerry

joedad

Let's see:

"AaaaaaaaaaaaaCHOOOOOOOOO!"......"God Bless You"....."Thank-you"...."You're Welcome."

Seems way too long. How about:

"AaaaaaaaaaaaaCHOOOOOOOOO!"......"You're Welcome."

But I still say "bless you."

Ab_Normal

Are they joking when they say it?

galiel

ROFLOL. I love it.

Reminds me of the time a theist argued to me that because people say "oh, god! GODD!" at the climactic moment of sex, it proves that people are inherently theist. I responded, "so, if people say "Shit! SHITTTT!" at that moment, does that mean that they worship excrement? Perhaps that is why the dung-beetle has sacred significance in the ancient middle east?" Left him speechless.

Used the same tactic with regard to "Jesus Christ" as an exclamation, at times of great emotion, to whit: "so, the many people who say "Jiminy Cricket" worship a cartoon bug?". In that case, unfortunately, the arguer was too dim to grasp the point.

This was back when I actually bothered to argue with theists ;-)

(Yes, for nitpickers, I know crickets aren't tehnically bugs, but it sounds better than most alternatives)

Personally, I go with gesundheit as well. I have been known to ask people who "God bless" me why God would care if I sneeze...

Rosiel

Me too...and I'm never really sure how to respond when someone says "God bless you" after I sneeze. Uh...thanks for keeping demons from crawling up my nose?

Infinity Lover

Actually the German "gesundheid", or the closely similar Dutch "gezondheid" (I feel like that Clif guy from Cheers now), have an equally supersticious background, as (God) bless you.

I guess the devil-entering-you is another version; maybe there are several variations.

The one I'm familliar with, it that when you sneeze your soul could leave your body.

In Holland we also use the alternative proost (prosit), which is what we also say when toasting, which brings me back to

Cheers.


(...sometimes you wanna go, where everybody knows you're na-ha-hame. And they're always glad you ca-ha-hame. You wanna go where..*
dies horrible death, to reincarnate for his next post.) SHUT THE F*CK UP!!!!

Marcel

[ September 10, 2002: Message edited by: Infinity Lover ]

[ September 10, 2002: Message edited by: Infinity Lover ]</p>

WWSD

No, she's just being silly.

Copernic

Occasionally, I'll respond w/ "May evil spirits not fly up your nose"

This from the superstition, as I understand it, that back in the day...when one sneezed, folks thought that your soul left the body, apparently at 180 mph and in little droplets of phlem. In order to prevent evil spirits from taking over whilst the soul is recovering from its extraction, one needed to be blessed.
My next thought is that if we don't bless people after coughs, then the soul must reside in the upper sinuses.
J