Topic: Should it be ""God" or "god"?

[JoelWhy]

I've got to say that I think this whole discussion is a bit silly.  When you're taught to capitalize "God" it's because it's a proper noun, not some conspiracy by religious nuts who took control of your 3rd grade reading class. 

This applies whether you're referring to "God" in the sense of the Christian God, or "God" in the sense of 'the same deity that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship".  That is because you're referring to a specific deity.

Putting "god" in lower case in such a context would be akin to arguing against the capitalization of "Zeus."

[DeepGlue]

Yeah, that all makes sense. I wasn't putting forth some conspiracy theory; I was just wondering whether nonbelievers should capitalize God, which comes down to the question of whether God is the Christian god's actual name or whether it's just a reverent thing that they do. It seems that God is actually the name for the Christian god.

Which brings me to another question: What about pronouns referring to God? As in Him, His, etc. I'd say that they are capitalized just as a form of reverence, no? Do people use "Him" to refer to Allah? Etc...

[stickman]

"The Christian god is God while the Muslim god is Allah."

Just want to point out that "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for "God".  Muslims do NOT worship a god named Allah any more than french Christians worship a god named "Dieu".  And yes, the god they worship is the same god the Jews and Christians believe in.

[JoelWhy]

Which brings me to another question: What about pronouns referring to God? As in Him, His, etc. I'd say that they are capitalized just as a form of reverence, no? Do people use "Him" to refer to Allah? Etc...

This is a much better point.  I don't think there's any question that the capitalization of pronouns such as Him or He is because of reverence. 

[MikeHz]

In ancient Judaism, uttering the name of Yahweh was thought to bring him into your presence. If you did call him forth, you'd better have a damned good reason! After all, he's a busy deity, what with all the smiting and all. Therefore, they introduced the restriction on "using the name of God in vain."

There were plenty of other gods, of course. The ancients recognized this, but considered Yahweh their own tribal deity. They found him on a mountain top and cut a deal with him. "You get me off this freakin' mountain, and I'll protect you from your enemies." The word "God" was capitalized to distinguish theirs from others.

[wannabeplato]

In ancient Judaism, uttering the name of Yahweh was thought to bring him into your presence. If you did call him forth, you'd better have a damned good reason! After all, he's a busy deity, what with all the smiting and all. Therefore, they introduced the restriction on "using the name of God in vain."

There were plenty of other gods, of course. The ancients recognized this, but considered Yahweh their own tribal deity. They found him on a mountain top and cut a deal with him. "You get me off this freakin' mountain, and I'll protect you from your enemies." The word "God" was capitalized to distinguish theirs from others.

While the ancient jews did believe in other gods but were forbidden to worship them, later jews came to believe in only 1 god.

But this really doesn't matter to the question at hand.  The word 'god' is not a Hebrew word, it actually has German origins.. More over, if your talking about the non-existent entity  that most of the world seem to believe in than God is a socially acceptable proper noun. 


The jewish/christian/islamic god doesn't seem to have a really good name.. Yahweh  translates to 'I am' (not very descriptive) and Allah actually means 'the sole god' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allah#Etymology)

I wonder if the monotheistic religions got it wrong when they decided to use the same terms to describe their own deities as others do..   They could have made up a new mantle and said that 'gods' were like titans or devils.. 

[KarenX]

I know I already used this example but I am using it again. Why do we call our planet Earth when we also call dirt earth? All the other planets get unique names. We capitalize Earth when we mean the planet and keep it lowercase when we mean soil beds. No one gets confused, even when we're talking about it with no chance to distinguish with spelling.

I don't believe that anyone really can't tell the difference between a conversation about a particular monotheistic god and a generic one.

[spiney]

I've got to say that I think this whole discussion is a bit silly.  When you're taught to capitalize "God" it's because it's a proper noun, not some conspiracy by religious nuts who took control of your 3rd grade reading class. 

This applies whether you're referring to "God" in the sense of the Christian God, or "God" in the sense of 'the same deity that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship".  That is because you're referring to a specific deity.

Putting "god" in lower case in such a context would be akin to arguing against the capitalization of "Zeus."

Oh yes, and Who invented proper nouns? God! (He invented everything!).

[wannabeplato]

Oh yes, and Who invented proper nouns? God! (He invented everything!).

So, did you capitalize God because its a proper name or because it was the first (and only in this case) word in a sentence?

[Bill K]

You're supposed to capitalize Dad and Mom, and that's like God. Right?

[JoelWhy]

Now that I think about it, we capitalize the letter (and word) "I" in sentences.  Is that our narcissistic way of indicating that we think of ourselves as God?  (Note that we do not capitalize you, he, she, etc, because I'm God, not you!)

[wastrel]

Now that I think about it, we capitalize the letter (and word) "I" in sentences.  Is that our narcissistic way of indicating that we think of ourselves as God?  (Note that we do not capitalize you, he, she, etc, because I'm God, not you!)

Found this

The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology (Wilson, 1988, ISBN
0-8242-0745-9) says: "~I~ pron. 1137 i; later I (about 1250,
in The Story of Genesis and Exodus); developed from the unstressed
form of Old English (about 725) ic singular pronoun of the first
person (nominative case).  Modern and Middle English I developed
from earlier i in the stressed position.  I came to be written
with a capital letter thereby making it a distinct word and avoiding
misreading handwritten manuscripts.  In the northern and midland
dialects of England the capitalized form I appeared about 1250.
In the south of England, where Old English ic  early shifted in
pronunciation to ich (by palatalization), the form I did not
become established until the 1700's (although it appears
sporadically before that time)."

[Grimner]

Interesting debate.
Used to write 'god' just to annoy people (works), but am now shifting to 'gods' combined with insisting on proper names: Jahweh, Allah, Odin, Ra, etc. I expect less annoyance, but more bewilderment
Also, it works in oral arguments.

Writing 'God' is correct when you believe, but why use that mark of respect when you don't?

How to make your life sound more sci-fi:

Earth = Terra
Sun = Sol

[wannabeplato]

Grimner,
I like that approach alot..  It forces the recognition that there is more than 1 'god' out there, even ignoring gods like Zeus or Odin..

Plus it makes the point without annoying which could help people think differently over the long term..  Nice

[JoelWhy]

Writing 'God' is correct when you believe, but why use that mark of respect when you don't?

Again, it has nothing to do with belief.  It's used as a proper name.  I don't believe in Pinocchio, but I still capitalize his (extremely hard to spell) name.