A few weeks ago I did a post about how to respond to various Christan questions and “God bless you.” Well, a couple days ago I was working on something with a QA and when we got done, she said, “Thanks and God bless you.” I hadn’t sneezed, so it wasn’t part of some standard social construct, and since she knows I’m an atheist and she’s a pretty devout Christian, I’m sure she said that intentionally just to give me a hard time. My response was, “No thank you.”

This much of the exchange was while it was just the two of us leaving the biohazzardous waste room (I work in a biologics facility), unfortunately it wasn’t until we came out in the hallway that she said, “That was rude.” By this time there were two or there other people around. So she followed up with, “Then the devil bless you.” I again said, “No thank you.”

There was some back and forth with another person jumping in. Various things were said along the lines of me worshiping either the devil or myself and that I don’t like anybody. My final statement was, “I like everybody, at least everybody that’s real.”

That was it. Everybody dropped it when I said that.

I will continue to say, “No thank you,” in response to, “God bless you.” I won’t do it every time, that could be dangerous. But when the time is right, there is no reason that I should be subjected to religious convention just to be polite. Sure it may be “rude” to decline someones well wishes, but how is that any less rude than imposing your religion on someone you know is an atheist.