Swearing and Cursing need not take the Lord's name in Vain.

All the best and most accomplished men I have ever known in my life curse and swear on occasion. Doing so is only an exclamation mark on life's difficulties, accidents and occasional misfortune. As I have observed the world's culture, Swearing, Cursing and Uttering Oaths are an established part of human behavior, especially down on the waterfront where I spent over half of my life.

The restriction on swearing in the Bible is on using the Lord's name in the curse or oath.. There is no prohibition against venting anger and frustration at extremely difficult circumstance. You could tear your clothes and cry out, "Woe is me!" but cursing seems to work better.

Releasing anger is extremely important for preserving one's sanity. I do stupid things on occasion. I can't help it as it is just my nature. If I am doing something stupid with a screwdriver and while using great force, the device slips and impales me in the palm of my free hand (I've actually done this.) I am going to damn that screwdriver and then say damn a second time for my stupidity. And then I will say something about how #&%@%#&! painful it is, and I will do all that without once taking the Lord's name in vain.

My father's favorite curse was, "Damn it all to High Holy Hell!" (Note that God is absent in the oath.) That was a very good and proper curse and did not mention the name of God or any of his best friends. It just simply expressed a desire that whatever had gone wrong needed to be banished to hell, or some place other than where Dad was at that particular moment. Saying, "Damn it to Upper Michigan!" would not have the same significance and would not provide an outlet for the anger.

Though I had already knew how to curse, since my father taught me, I was surprized to discovered that Senior Naval Petty Officers were masters of swearing and cursing when I went through Navy Boot Camp in 1967. Those old Navy Chiefs, most of whom had been in World War Two and could tell you stories of Japanese Kamikaze attacks on their ships were the sailing world's best at swearing. They had fantastic artistic talent that can only come with thirty or more years at sea where oaths were part of an ancient sea faring tradition.

Most of those men have passed on now, but What Fantastic Men they were!. We need to erect a monument to their Art form somewhere that ships can be seen entering and leaving port by the hundreds every day.

Giving vent to oaths is, in my opinion, a fine art form. I expect that there are college courses in method and practice. You probably could even get a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in it..... Probably no Doctorates, unless they have one in a French University. Now, there is a culture that knows how to issue oaths that have significance.