Capitalisation of God

[pjkeeley]

I'm a tad pedantic about correctness when it comes to grammar. One thing I'd like to point out is that despite the fact that we atheists don't believe in God, it is still correct to capitalise his name. It might be the name of a fictional character, but it is a name nonetheless. We don't, for example, write 'james bond' simply because James Bond is a fictional character.

Capitalising pronouns related to God however is, I think,  ridiculous. 'He', 'His', and 'Him' are examples of poor grammar just for the sake of thinking that God might somehow be more pleased by us the more we seek to show how important he is. Also, note that it is correct to write 'god' in lowercase when referring to a god or gods as concepts, but a specific god such as 'Yahweh' or 'Allah', just like Christianity's God, should be capitalised. Remember, it's not about showing respect to any imaginary beings, it's about proper English.

Thank you for your time.

 :pirate:

[shoruke]

Hey cool, someone else who gets bugged by little facts. I do appreciate critical thinkers. Thanks for the lesson!

[McQ]

Hey, we're all entitled to our opinions. Thanks for sharing. I make it a point to give all gods the lower case treatment. I'm sure there are lots of grammatical errors that bother people. I have plenty as well. Maybe we can start a thread on what bugs us about language.

[Will]

I'm a tad pedantic about correctness when it comes to grammar. One thing I'd like to point out is that despite the fact that we atheists don't believe in God, it is still correct to capitalise his name. It might be the name of a fictional character, but it is a name nonetheless. We don't, for example, write 'james bond' simply because James Bond is a fictional character.

Capitalising pronouns related to God however is, I think,  ridiculous. 'He', 'His', and 'Him' are examples of poor grammar just for the sake of thinking that God might somehow be more pleased by us the more we seek to show how important he is. Also, note that it is correct to write 'god' in lowercase when referring to a god or gods as concepts, but a specific god such as 'Yahweh' or 'Allah', just like Christianity's God, should be capitalised. Remember, it's not about showing respect to any imaginary beings, it's about proper English.

Thank you for your time.

 :pirate:

Not only do I ignore capitalization of the "Him" "He" You" Thou" type garbage, but I don't capitalize "god" anymore either as a way to compensate for everyone else capitalizing words that are not proper nouns because they think that god is somehow above grammar. I am a grammatical protester.

[rlrose328]

I'm with McQ and Willravel... I don't capitalize it as a way of protesting the religious persecution I'm a victim of.  

No, really... I did for a long time... but I don't feel the reverence toward that figure, I don't believe there's such thing as a god, and I deliberately lower-case it to piss off the religious people.

I don't compare god to real people or other characters in fiction that have a proper name that requires capitalization.  The Christian god, to me, is less than that, so it doesn't require capitalization... similar to ghost or zombie or monster... it's a descriptive noun to me, not a proper noun.

[bitter_sweet_symphony]

I am not really good at English grammar, but I think "god" is a generic term and does not refer to any specific entity. For example, Egyptian gods, Greek gods, Hindu gods, etc. It's just that Christians (and ex-Christians) refer to the Christian god - Jesus Christ, when they say "god", just like a Hindu would refer to Krishna ( a Hindu deity) when they say "god". Since "god" is a generic term, I don't think it is grammatically necessary to capitalize it, is it? Names of deities, even if fictional, needs to be capitalized - just like one would capitalize "Batman", etc

[SteveS]

I do agree with PJ about the proper grammatical form.  In general, I try to stick with this, and mostly use the word 'god' in the generic context.  Otherwise, I will qualify as "the god of the Bible", or some such, to let someone know I'm talking about a specific god.  I hate going with 'God'; I view it as obnoxious that the religious use this word.   It seems to me that they're trying to take ownership of a generic word.  They just capitalize the word, and this seems to me like a simple game to try to take ownership of the entire concept.

I do acknowledge that I am not always grammatically correct.  But I try not to be hypocritical about it.  For example, I try to ignore grammar and/or spelling errors made by others, even in the heat of arguing with them.  As long as I can pull the intended meaning out of their words - what difference does it really make?  Plus, two things:

1) Pointing out grammar or spelling errors made by others, in a debate/argument, seems (to me) like a cheap shot most of the time.

2) If I invoke this method, I become far too paranoid about committing like errors myself and then having to swallow my own medicine.  Better to just leave it go.

If somebody writes something completely incomprehensible (as happens from time to time), I will point out that I did not understand what the statement means and ask for clarification.

Having said all that, I won't try to pretend that I've never deliberately typed the word 'god' in lower case even when referring to the Abrahamic god (how many ways can I avoid using the word 'God'?).  I have.  For the same reasons as those above me cite.  No sanctimony here - I freely confess it!

 :pirate:

[Mister Joy]

Well, language is made up & constantly evolving anyway, so bad grammar doesn't bother me at all so long as I can actually interpret the message. I try to use good grammar out of habit and I'm trying to get published, so a bit of presentation is handy. I check through my posts to make sure everything actually makes sense but I don't bother to double-check for commas all being in the right place or anything. Have some bad grammatical habits though, like I use ';' far too often and because I'm a tad ADD - more bad grammar there! - I tend to write stupidly long sentences with lots of various bracketed segments and side notes distributed throughout (anyone noticed that?) :roll: Oh and I never know when to actually end a post, which annoys the crap out of me because I can end up sitting there for a good ten minutes thinking "oh I could add more *tap tap tap*... no now I'm rambling *backspace*... no I'll add more and express it differently because it's CLEARLY VITAL INFORMATION *tap tap tap*... actually no I wont *backspace*" and so on. Just did it then, actually, so I'm going to stop here.

[donkeyhoty]

Here's another one to think about:  writing "grammatically correct" is redundant, and "grammatically incorrect" and "grammatical errors" are oxymorons.


I tend to capitalize God when referring to the Abrahamic one, such as capitalizing Thor when referring to Thor.  I tend to see it - God - as a name separate from god the noun.  Also, I never use Yahweh or Jehovah, but if I did, I'd capitalize them.

[McQ]

Here's another one to think about:  writing "grammatically correct" is redundant, and "grammatically incorrect" and "grammatical errors" are oxymorons.


I tend to capitalize God when referring to the Abrahamic one, such as capitalizing Thor when referring to Thor.  I tend to see it - God - as a name separate from god the noun.  Also, I never use Yahweh or Jehovah, but if I did, I'd capitalize them.

Yeah, but you have to remember that his name wasn't "God". He wouldn't give moses his name, just that "I Am" was how Moses was to refer to him. Capitalizing "God" is tradition among the Judeo-Christian churches.

[pjkeeley]

True, the tradition of capitalising the word 'God' began as a way of distinguishing it from Pagan gods. However, these days 'God' is used as the name of a deity, the Christian god. It is not technically his true Biblical name, but it is an alias -- still a name. So I believe capitalisation is appropriate.

I don't mind people typing it in lowercase as a protest, but I personally can't bring myself to break the rules knowingly.

1) Pointing out grammar or spelling errors made by others, in a debate/argument, seems (to me) like a cheap shot most of the time.

2) If I invoke this method, I become far too paranoid about committing like errors myself and then having to swallow my own medicine. Better to just leave it go.

This is true. But I make a distinction between careless errors and ignorance of grammar. If it seems like a consistent mistake rather than a simple typo I feel obliged to correct people. And I am grateful when people correct me by pointing out my own ignorance, for example:

Here's another one to think about: writing "grammatically correct" is redundant, and "grammatically incorrect" and "grammatical errors" are oxymorons.

Thanks donkeyhoty!  :wink:

[Whitney]

I capitalize the word god if I'm talking about the god of Abraham whom most refer to as God, some say Allah.  For all others I use little g god.

[Ezequiel Medvietzky]

God is doG backwards

[moosegoose]

God is doG backwards

dog lived

[kimmance]

I was at the passport office several years ago when a young woman came in and started harassing the agent because she'd just received her passport in the mail. Apparently what upset her was that her name appeared in ALL CAPS.

Evidently, according to her, this is entirely offensive because only GOD can have HIS name in ALL CAPS. So, she wanted one reissued and grew even more angry as the woman told her they only make passports one way...

The worst part was the passport staffer said, "ma'am, I get this complaint a lot, but there's nothing we can do."

I don't know WTF is wrong with these people, but in addition to not capitalizing 'god', you can apparently also piss them off by fully capitalizing THEIR NAME.  He he...