Does sneezing expels one's spirit? That's why a protective " God bless you!"?

Question

is attached to this interesting adventure of men? Thank you so much to all your answers. Have a great day!

Answer 1

Okay, the obvious answer to this question is "no." In order for one's spirit to be expelled during a sneeze, one would need a spirit to begin with. However, there are many irreconcilable philosophical problems with Cartesian Dualism (the notion that a spirit controls the mind.) Occam's Razor also compels us to believe that there are no spirits, as spirits needlessly complicate our ontology (our understanding of what there is.) The rational explanation for spirits follows, roughly: Early humans saw people they loved die. They understood that they could not interact with the dead. However, some had grief induced hallucinations of the dead, and many more had dreams of the dead. This provoked cognitive dissonance, (an intensely uncomfortable feeling arising from simultaneously holding two violently conflicting beliefs.) In this case, they seemed to have interactions with entities they understood could not interact with other than the earth. From this, they concluded that some part of them lived on after death. Thus the spirit and the afterlife were born. Religion quickly followed, chiefly as the result of a logical fallacy called "post hoc ergo propter hoc." (This has happened before, thus it follows that it will happen again.) As a matter of fact, all superstition, including the superstitious origins of the phrase "bless you" arise from this fallacy. The superstition that I have most commonly heard is that the part of the spirit can leave the body during a sneeze and evil spirits can rush in. Remember, that in the 18th and prior centuries, people believed that demons, not viruses, were responsible for sickness. Thus, people would say "bless you" to ward off sickness or demonic possession.

Answer 2

It's actually an old custom that dates back to the middle ages.

During the middle ages, the black death ravaged Europe, wiping out almost a third of the entire population. One of the first symptoms of the black death was a cough, and the medieval peasants, not having any way of telling your every day sneeze apart from the initial stages of black death, would utter the phrase "God bless you" to anyone that sneezed or coughed as a prayer that they had not contracted the disease.

Even after the Black death waned, that custom stuck around as a prayer against all diseases that start with a cough, such as whooping cough.

Answer 3

If ones spirit is a snot blob, then yes, sneezing can expel ones spirit. Or if one has just taken a large swig of moonshine and then sneezes, these spirits too can be expelled but the sinuses will wish it hadn't.

I say "God bless you" when the expelled material, be it moonshine, phlegm or the spirit of a man, fail to anoint my visage.

Answer 4

The Judgment is negative: No. The Will is positive: sneezing is in bodily connection with the same mechanism for laughing and crying and therefor has no certain positivity nor negativity with exception of infection symptoms. On the other hand, getting boogers out of your nose is a good thing.

Answer 5

Actually I think it is because it is said that when you sneeze evil spirits can enter you....that is why you say God Bless You so as to protect you from those evil little thingies.

And of course we; those within the sneeze grid, don't want your evil spirits in our zone!!!

Answer 6

When you sneeze your nose is irritated by air, smoke, etc.
people starting saying "God Bless You" because they thought you were getting and cold and they wished God would bless you not to get sick -- just a catchy phrase
just like when the entire world answers the phone -

"HELLO" why would everyone answer the same way???

Answer 7

No if it did then one would either have an outer body experience or die if that where the case. I was told because the heart stops for a fraction of a second,so one says God bless you, to give protection.

Answer 8

There are several little sayings and myths behind it. Another is that when you're sneezing, the devil can enter your body (so yes, you'd want to be blessed!). Also, in India they say that when you sneeze it's because someone's thinking of you.

Answer 9

A sneeze is the mechanism that expels irritants from the filtering hairs in your nose.

Answer 10

I do not know medicines. But if what I am informed is correct, when you sneeze, your heart stops for a split second. In other words, you encounter death and that is when people say, 'blesss you" to make you alive again!