I saw the phrase “…many people who believe in God…†in an article somewhere and it just stuck in my craw! This is not to disparage the writer of that particular article, because I’ve seen similar faulty thinking in many an atheist-penned article. If we are truly atheists, we should reject the convention of capitalizing the word “god†when it is used to refer to the Judeo-Christian god. On the face of it, I realize this just sounds harsh and spiteful, but there is an entirely virtuous rationale for “de-capitalizing†god when it doesn’t occur at the beginning of a sentence, or for some equally syntactically appropriate reason.
The word “god†comprises the entire gamut of supernatural beings, both popular and passé and from every age and every culture. It’s only truly rational use is as a generic term that can refer to all present incarnations of a super-being, whether it be Allah or Vishnu or the one that the Jews and Christians sometimes refer to as Yahweh. To capitalize the word “god†when referring specifically to Yahweh is to bestow an inordinate and undeserved honorific on Judeo-Christian mythology; one that marginalizes all other contemporary, god-based mythologies. Not very fair to the other religions, is it?
In recognition of this, I am adopting a personal editorial position. Hereafter, I will no longer capitalize the word “god†in my writings (excepting those situations noted above). I will refer to the “concept of a god†and, where it is necessary, I will refer to specific sectarian gods by their mythological name. In the case of the Judeo-Christian god – Yahweh. And by this posting, I’m encouraging other atheists to promote the same syntactical philosophy. If it becomes accepted convention, we will have been successful in at least putting the word in its proper perspective, if not the concept.
