Do you feel weird for non-christian guy to say 'Oh My God'?

[Shun Endo]

I'm Japanese myself and when I'm really really surprised, I can't find anything to say but 'Oh My God!' or 'Jesus!' in English.

 

But I feel a little bit odd to say that, cause I'm not Christian, and apparently the words like 'Jesus' has much more meaning to it than just a interjection.

 

So do you feel weird for non-chirstian people to say 'Oh My God' or 'Holy Mother Of Lord' (I've never used this one though lol)?

 

And if you live in America or England, and you are non-christian, how do you deal with this? Or you don't find it odd?

 

Please let me know what you think.

 

(I'm not native speaker of English, so please forgive me for my bad English.)

[Fake Crowley]

For one thing, Christians aren't the only ones who believe in a single deity.

 

For another...I honestly don't care. They're vulgarities, albeit milder ones than what I'm used to hearing, and vulgarities aren't religion specific. You don't have to be a homosexual to call something you really dislike gay (Not that I approve of Gay as a derogatory curse...), so why should you be religious to swear by his name?

[Eystein,]

You can say "Holy Crap" I think =P

But I slip that G-word too though, both on english and norwegian out of old habits. In norway, some christians frawn upon it, because they are not supposed to use It's name in vain, so they won't say OMG themselves. But most don't care, and the words are so incorporated into our languages that it's barely noticable that you use the words, unless you say it like a fourteen year old girl... Then it's just annoying..

[Jasveen]

I'm not christian but i'm religious (sikh american) and i use the phrase 'oh my god' all the time. I don't necessissarily think of it as a negative connotation. The phrase 'jesus' on the other hand i avoid because it sort of pin-points a certain group of people's beliefs.

[Huey P. Long III]

I hate to answer your question with a question, but I feel it to be appropriate.

Question; considering that the phrase itself is possessive by nature, which in turn, would free it of all religious speculation (since you are not a religion, but a human-being) until you personally chose to associate the term with a religious sect, would you feel weird if you proclaimed "Oh my God", referencing your own particular God?

[Jasveen]

Answering your question (which is put out very well-- kudos to you) when i use the phrase oh my god i don't refer to any god,not my own or anyone else's; so even when thinking of my god and saying it doesn't seem like something negative anyway.. As a matter of fact, I don't think that when most people do use that phrase they think of god in particular they just want to express how shocked/ surprised they are.

[Jessica]

My friend is Jewish and says "Jesus!" all the time. Did I think it was a bit funny at first? Maybe a little. But it surely wasn't offensive. Say whatever you want to say.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

While I think its kind of stupid for people to say "Oh my God" if you arn't religious etc, I do get rather angry at the way in which blasphemy is treated differently in the Christian sense, than it is the Muslim or any other. It is fine on television to say "oh my God" etc and swear in Christian name, but not to offend any other religion in any other fashion.

[Kenny]

I think it says a lot about Christian center-of-the-universe-ism that you feel saying "Oh my god" is referring to the Deity formerly known as Yahweh when you know nothing about the theological or spiritual leanings of the individual using the exclamation.  Usually when I say it I'm referring to Thor.  "Oh my god" just rolls off the tongue easier than "By the auburn beard of Asator!".

 

But you do have a point.  From now on when I intend to exclaim "Sweet titty-fucking Christ!" I'll flip a mental coin and if it comes up tails I'll go with "Sweet kiddie-fucking Prophet!", or something along those lines.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

I think it says a lot about Christian center-of-the-universe-ism that you feel saying "Oh my god" is referring to the Deity formerly known as Yahweh when you know nothing about the theological or spiritual leanings of the individual using the exclamation.

 

Given that Christians use "God" as a name for God a great deal, its not an unreasonable understanding.

[Fake Crowley]

Technically, the word, "God," is just a title, typically translated to English as, "The Invoked One," from ancient German (Literally, "Called".) Not a name. Semantics aside, it really is just a title--not an actual name. It's like Jews referring to God as Adonai or Eloheinu--both meaning, roughly, "Our Lord," which would be a pretty silly name to have, I think you'll agree.

[Kenny]

I can list literally four thousand gods.  The fact that your god was too much of a hipster to actually pick a name doesn't mean that the word "god" now exclusively applies to him.  When someone says "god" and you can't know which god they're referring to through the context then yes, it is unreasonable to assumed that they're talking about your god.

[boko]

Sorry, this is just too good to pass up: