Atheists and Sneezing

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Oddly enough this recently came up at work. None of the young people at work are religious. One gal hates everything religious so she gets mad when someone says "God Bless You" even if its meant for someone else not her.

So next time she sneezes I plan on saying -

Shut up

Quit sneezing

Stop it!

If that's all people have to complain about in the world then they should count themselves lucky and get on with their lives.

Atheism is non-belief, you're thinking of satanism. o_O

This custom bothers me (but I don't make it known). I often try to repress my sneezes at work so I don't have to listen to someone say "Bless you." I never say it in my own misguided quest to stamp out this tradition.

If I say anything, I say 'salúd.' Spanish for 'health.'

Usually, I don't say anything, though - it's a stupid habbit, stupid to expect that anything anyone else says is going to have an effect on one's own health, and stupid to demand attention from a roomful of strangers every time one sneezes. I was amazed to find out that some people think that it is 'impolite' not to say something.

In my country we say "na zdrowie" - "for health" or sometimes we wish 100 years of life to this sneezing person. Sometimes someone who likes jokes wishes 100 years of work in querry instead

“I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”

It just means "health" in German.

I can't believe that after two pages, no-one has posted "excuse me".

Damn.

That's because the question posted was what do you say when someone ELSE sneezes, not when YOU sneeze.

Personally, I just say "Bless You". It's just being polite. As is saying "Goodbye" when you leave, though that comes from "God be with ye" http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/goodbye I find no reason to be militant about the fact that I do not believe in any particular deity.

As an Atheist, this is the correct answer! Anything else is likely to be offensive.

Dawkins bless you?

We don't have this problem in Denmark, we use to say "prosit" - that's Latin and means "may it be of benefit" or something like that.
Funny thing, anyway, why you always say something special to sneezing people. Why don't you say anything to people who burp or hiccup or fart or vomit etc.? A special phrase, I mean.

Say "EEEeeuuuueewwwww".
Or "Grrrrroosssss".

Or "eeueeeww, you got some on me, euueeww, euueeeww ! !!"

Or, "chaos bless you."

It is German, Gesundheit means (good) health. It's another way of saying "I hope you get better".

Yeah but we're not in Germany. Most people don't even know what Gezundheit means. We shouldn't have to feel obligated, nor should we feel bad for saying nothing (though somehow I suppose we feel like we're ignoring a "social norm"). No one says anything when someone coughs.

Ohhh.... Fair enough. Well then, what about excuse you or I beg your pardon?

LOL!