Amen!

You can bless somebody without it having a religious connotation. You can be thankful without it being religious too. I agree with you some people misinterpret words.

Thank god someone else agrees on this.

I generally say thank you and be on my way.

What a puerile thing to be triggered by! It sounds as if your friend is very insecure in his atheism.

Crusade? You used the word 'crusade'. What the hell is wrong with you, man? You sound like some kind of believer twit or something. This here is an agnostic/atheist site by god. We don't use language like that around here. We is ... sophisticamated. By god, if I hear language like that around here again coming from you, you'll be wishing to Jeeezusss you hadn't. You could go to atheist hell for that.

Bless their pea-pickin' hearts. I've had discussions along those lines before as well. There are a lot of words that some seem to run away with. I mark them down as baby atheist. They enjoy talking about churches and religions because they are still very close, in that they haven't gotten it all sorted out in their heads.

Unless someone starts thumping a bible in my face or if their faith is causing harm to others I'm ok with them and their delusions.

I use the word "luck" as a simple one-word figure of speech describing an advantageous coincidence.

Half of those words, except for bless you and amen, are words that have meaning outside of religion. Luck is not mystical, in fact most religious people don't like the word since it implies that God was not involved. As for thankful, you can be thankful without a deity. I am thankful for the life I have had, for my family being healthy and happy, for the love I have shared, even the though they didn't work out long term. I am thankful for the experience.

Next time tell him to go to a casino and study the odds regarding serendipity. There is a whole non religious industry based on that word.

I do enjoy a good blaspheme.

My child's mother/kind of girlfriend gives me shit all the time for using the phrase "that's karma" cause she knows I don't believe in literal karma. She does.

Aside from that, I haven't really had anyone give me much grief over using phrases typically tied to believers when they know I am a non-believer. The only one I can think of that I don't ever use is 'amen'.

Religion ruined enough in the world, I'm not going to let it ruin words that aren't exclusive to it. Same with free will. I believe humans and animals have free will, from a biological stand point. I see a lot of atheists who are so against free will that they won't even entertain the idea of it from a biological, evolutionary aspect. It's because the Abrahamic religions absorbed the concept of free will and tried to make it their own. I still participate in holidays because once again, most that are deemed religious weren't created by religion but absorbed by religion.

You handled that very well...good for you!

I will admit to getting a little skitchy over the word "blessed" depending on the context, but it's certainly not worth pouting over. "Luck" has nothing to do with religion. Most religions are anti-luck. Everything happens for a reason and all that jazz.

In my opinion, luck plays a major roll in everyone's life. Luck is just a word to describe some phenomenon. It is just a random event the happens to be in your favor at any given time and bad luck not in your favor.
I never get my self in a stupor over what words someone chooses to use.

Blah, blah, blah is about right.

I agree.

I'm very particular about the words I use as words have meaning. I don't use words like miracle or say bless you when someone sneezes. Luck, however is separate from the theological words. As being fortunate because of circumstances can be logically understood. I replace the word god with deities when discussing the topic with my patients. I use the plural rather than the singular to make a distinct point.

We acquire certain phrases and sayings through what's best described as mimicry. They take on a mutually understood meaning regardless of the original context they come from. So 'thank god' is an inherited gesture meaning roughly 'I'm glad that' etc. There's no implied religious overtones in any such commonly used phrase. It's pointless trying to fight such usage, we'll all slip up eventually if the phrases are in our lingual repertoire. The only time when I'd think it was worth considering your choice of words is when speaking to someone with a very poor grasp of your language, or even using any method of translation. In this case the intended usage of the words is easily lost. This can also sometimes apply to different regional dialects of the same language. Sorry to go on about it, I love shit about language ?

I agree with you 100% - too many fragile egos.

Some of that ‘getting our back up,’ stems from our past religious life or could even be from hearing others make those pronouncements, (that they were sick of hearing). From my past, the religious people were always thanking their god, for answering their prayers, or instant favors! Or, even saying things like...’it is up to the good lord (god),’ to meet a need!

I agree with you and experienced that in the past. Not now.

But I also wanted to say that you are lucky to have non believer friends who live close enough to hangout with. I live in Texas and all my friends and family in the area are believers to one degree or another. They know I am "not religious" but that's as far as it goes. I have several like minded friends, and my sister is athiest. But no one close enough to visit regularly.

Consider me triggered! BTW the supreme court ruled that the word god is used so much in so many ways that it has lost its meaning, therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to print the word god on our money. Although, they said at the same time that it did mean something, Quote: Yet Congress has directed such uses. While 'ceremonial' and 'patriotic' may not be particularly apt words to describe the category of the national motto, it is excluded from First Amendment significance because the motto has no theological or ritualistic impact. As stated by the Congressional report, it has 'spiritual and psychological value' and 'inspirational quality. / Now that may be a bit confusing because the word "spiritual' and god are used together. Of course, none of this makes any sense to the FFRF, other than that it is hypocritical. Of course there's more to all this. Bottom line: It's the intent that matters. "God bless" meaning: I wish you well. Just a constant reminder that we live in a predominately religious society that does not want to dominate us? Mike Pence is a Dominionist. It is trivial at this point, battle lost. I'm cool...can't trigger my ass, I'm a fuckin atheist! Kids? What about the kids? Kinda extreme, he made an issue out of "Luck".
God Bless.

and b;ess their little pointed heads

The idioms that I use in my adult life are merely thoughtless parts of my vocabulary. I use them to express emotion in a context most people can relate to, but are not meant to be literal.
For instance, Things like “Good God...”, and “I hope and pray that...” sound religious. However I never consider them to be. In my head it’s just more polite than saying Fuck all the time. LOL