A significant chunk of the population thinks they'll get tortured for eternity if they do it too much, and finds it distressing to be exposed to it as a result.

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john_strinlai 19 hours ago | parent [-]

perhaps obviously, i am not and never have been religious. your comment brings up a point that i have never really thought about: why is it mostly religious people that are against swearing?

does the bible or any religious text specifically call out swearing (beyond taking their gods name in vain, which i can understand avoiding if you are religious)?

	▲	HWR_14 19 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Many religious texts have broader restrictions on word usage than just their deity's name in vain. Usually those are adjacent to other aspects of the religion. I am not aware of any that would forbid what we would commonly call swear words.
	▲	SpicyLemonZest 19 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		There's a number of verses in the New Testament which arguably instruct people not to swear. Colossians 3:8 is probably most on point, although as with all cross-cultural comparisons of foul language, it's hard to know exactly what a Greek speaker 2000 years ago would have understood αἰσχρολογία to mean in the context of modern English.
	▲	darksaints 19 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It's the same motivation as racists: they need some way to feel superior to the people that they despise. If the entire world stopped swearing today, these people would just find something else to use in their supremacist proxy wars.