Background: I was having a chat with one of my Christian friends last night when she sneezed several times in a row. My response was "ah, that's a sneeze" each time. I'm not prone to saying "God bless you" or "bless you". That lead to a curious conversation about "bible sayings" and Christian phrasing that are still in use today.
Etymology of a Sort: "Bless you" may have been based on one of a few old beliefs: during times of plague, "bless you" was meant as a warding phrase; people believed that the soul momentarily left the body, or a demon was expelled, or that the heart momentarily stopped; a person was going to fall into luck, and so it was a generic response wishing the "sneezer" good fortune. I stopped using it when a friend asked me "just who exactly are you asking to bless me?" Good point.
Other expressions are a direct pull from some English translations of the bible: "A drop in the bucket" stems from Isaiah 40:15; "A man after my own heart" is taken from Samuel 13:14; "At his wits' end" is Psalm 107:2; "Bite the dust" is Psalm 72:9; "Fight the good fight" is 1 Titus 6:12; "Going the extra mile" from Matthew 5:41; "[killed] like lambs at the slaughter" occurs in several passages throughout the OT and NT; "Like mother, like daughter" Ezekial 16:44; "[he's] nothing but skin and bones" Job 19:19-20; "The apple of his eye" Deuteronomy 32:10; "Twinkling of an eye" 1 Corinthians 15:52; "Woe is me" Psalms 120:5. Again, these vary by translation (KJV vs NIV vs Oxford etc). Some of them have fallen out of use and others still find footing in conversation. It can also be argued that some of these phrases occur in other cultures too thereby making them something more secular than Christian-based. Some countries have the "[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law]Good Samaritan Law[\url]" which releases a citizen from any malpractice claims if he responds to a disaster or accident and further complicates the victim's injuries.
Some of us really don't care where phrasing comes from. Others are anal-retentive and refuse to use anything associated with Christians. I'm an etymology buff and I tend to saver even the most archaic phrases as something delightful.
This brings me back to the conversation with my friend. She's been on the receiving end of some harsh commentary on several occasions for using more common phrases such as "The wages of sin is death" and "forbidden fruit".
My question (to my fellow atheists) is: as someone who does not embrace Christianity or believe in the Abrahamic God... how do you navigate around phrases associated with biblical passages or Christian beliefs? Do "Christian-oriented idioms" offend you? Do you feel that biblical-based expressions should not be used in secular context (non-Christian literature, displays, as advertisement, etc)?
For the record, I'm not offended and couldn't care less about how someone expresses themselves so long as they are civil, but I am curious as to how others feel about it. I see it as possibly a quandary for some more-militant people who wish to avoid anything and everything associated with a belief system.
