I'm in class and a girl in front of me sneezes.
I hear 17 simultaneous "Bless you"('s) and "God bless you"('s)...

It's ridiculous.

Worse than that is when I'm standing in line at Wal-Mart with only one other person. They sneeze - I say nothing. Then they look at me as if I am rude for not fulfilling my obligation of "Blessing them".

I don't know them and I refuse to say it.

What am I blessing them for?
-A demon or evil spirit is trying to posses them?
-Their soul is trying to leave their body?
-Their heart stopped, and needs to be restarted?
-They are showing the first signs of the bubonic plague?

As if my "Bless you" will somehow help prevent any of these things from happening. Ridiculous.

One should not be deemed rude, impolite, or godless for not recognizing a sneeze.

This is 2008! I for one, do not believe in witchcraft, or god for that matter. I should not feel uncomfortable for someone else’s uncontrolled convulsions.

In fact, if anything, they should be apologizing to me.

They just polluted my air and everything their sneeze lands on with air-born diseases. Now I have to close my eyes, hold my breath, and hurry up and walk past them. (ok, that might be borderline hypochondriasis, but you get my point)

What is a sneeze?  Sneezing occurs when a foreign particle passes through the nasal hairs and reaches the nasal mucosa. From here a nerve sends a signal to your brain to initiate a convulsion or spasm to get rid of the particle.

More or less it is nothing but a tickle or an itch.

If I itched my arm in class and got 17 "Bless you's" or even "are you ok's", I would be pretty darn annoyed. Instead, someone itches, they scratch it, and everything continues as normal.

I'm not saying that if you sneeze you should be punched in the arm (although it's not a bad idea), but maybe it should just go unnoticed - like an itch.

I understand the tradition. I get the formality...but that is all it is. All traditions and customs are due to change and this one is past due.