What are the origins of "bless you" after someone sneezes?

I put that as my status update one day
and surprisingly had a true response to the question
technically two.
Then I googled the origins of "God bless you" in response to a sneeze.
The same two responses I got
were basically the same two "possible" origins listed on wiki-pedia.

Basically
one is
that your heart stops and God bless you is a prayer of sorts
that you recover and your heart continues to beat as normal.

The second is
basically a belief that you sneezing
is a sign that your fighting off an evil spirit
and God bless you is still a prayer of sorts
that you succeed in warding off the evil spirit.

Both completely dumb and idiotic
in my opinion
but that's what it is.
Another good friend of mine put forth the stance I expected...
He said
"what about the fact that its just common courtesy, its just a nice thing to do?"
Well....
I'm sure he knew my answer before it came out my mouth,
I don't like to do anything "just because".

To me there has to be a valid relevant reason.
Being nice in my point of view
is doing something for someone
that they could've done for themselves
but you unexpectedly helped get that out of the way for them.
So that 3rd reason to me doesn't jive either.
I think God bless you is simply a void filler,
for those people that always have to say something.



In touch w/BLACKberry!
Matthew 22:39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'