Welcome to Gaia! ::

My first slightly pithy answer is that in the case of sneezing, "bless you" is such a cultural fixture, religious meaning has vanished from it for most people. And as such a cultural fixture, even if you're aware of why you might not want to say it, it's really hard to untrain yourself to something else.

But that's the pithy part. Outside of that, I really see no reason to go around with a Father Knows Best attitude in their blessings. Part of the problem is that there are the casual and frequently empty words that are tossed out because they're considered in some way to be a politeness or a cute way to say things. Like "blessed be," and such. Sometimes, the intent is there, a lot of the time, it's tossed off without thinking. Whether the intent matters or not may be debatable, my personal stance is that if no actual thought is really given to what's being said, it kind of fizzles, since the input is so low.

Either way, it's problematic. You say they think you're being snarky, and to them, it may well seem that way. That you're just being irritable rather than having a valid concern. And I guess the only way to call attention to it is for more people to say "hold on" and explain those concerns.

And if pieces of this are stupid or make no sense, I'm sorry, I just now realized how tired I am.

This is why I say "Gesundheit." ninja

Erm. Morning after pill? confused

"Bless you" is my personal wish for someone's well-being. Some random person in the library probably feels just as miserable as I do while sickness is hanging around. So I can't -not- wish them well when they sneeze or cough. Because I'd hope for some fleeting compassion, too.

I've considered a generic well-wish for the better portion of my life. Sort of a truncated version of "I hope you don't have a horrific disease" or something similiar.

As for "Blessed be"....I have mixed feelings about that one. I tend to see a lot of fluffies use it as a means of saying "look how Christian we aren't!". Blah.

Then again, I tend to have a dim view on human beings in generel. sweatdrop

I often use Gesunheit...
Which, until I learned Deutsch, I was convinced was Gaysontight... which confused me greatly. xd

On the rare occassion where I will say Bless you, it is a shortened form of May the Blessings of Heaven be upon You.
Which is me petitioning Anhur or any of the Ameshaspand who may be watching at the moment to remove the taint of illness from the person, or prevent it from encroaching upon them. This is a rare occassion. I'm not quite on the terms where I have much right to expect my voice to carry far into the Bright Court.

As I no longer hold a Priesthood in an organization which uses directed Gnosis based healing, I will not attempt to intone a direct blessing myself.

I have always had issues with people saying "Bless you" after I sneeze, or after someone else sneezes. This is not because of any religious connotations it has (because I honestly did not think about that until a few years ago). I was raised by very non-religious parents (though they will claim that they are "Catholic"), and well, I guess I was raised in a bit of a bubble. Many english (not British) phrases, and colloquialisms, idoms and what not are totally lost on me. I didn't even hear the phrase "Bless you" until I was 15 years old (I think).
I guess I have just never understood why it is nessasary to say anything after someone sneezes.

As for "blessing" someone just off hand like that... That seems a little strange to me. Maybe if it was used in conjunction with a greeting or parting of a friend or loved one.. But to say something like "May [Some Diety] Bless you" for no reason (except that you sneezed) just seems kind of rude to me. Though I am not untirely sure why. *shrug*

Wouldn't that depend on the god?

I am not sure who I get to blame for my little slip up with my husband.

Maybe Frey... maybe Loki.