This pendantic hypocrite is correct about grammar rules, but totally wrong about capitalizing the word god when we are talking about his god in particular, and about how we should all just acknowledge that Christians are always right. And completely wrong about why I write “god” in lower case. I will tell you why:
His god already has a name. It’s YHWH, or Yahweh or Jehovah. That is a proper name, and I generally capitalize proper names. I don’t usually capitalize my own name, but that is a page out of e.e. cummings, and another story. So, if smartass wants his deity capitalized, I have no objection if he uses that particular god’s proper name.
However, I do object that one particular religion gets to claim the generic term “god” as the actual name of their particular god. It’s like my proclaiming that, from now on, everybody is to refer to the tree in my front yard as “Tree” with a capital T. No, not the Alder (that phony!), the Pear. And nobody ever anywhere is allowed to talk about Tree unless they capitalize it all proper-like. Disrespectful, don’t ya know? And Alpha Centauri? From now on, that one is known as “Star”, so kiss my ass.*
The other reason I don’t capitalize the word god, unless it is at the beginning of a sentence, is because, to quote a certain pendantic hypocrite, it “shows dumb disrespect” to every other religion. There are currently some 4000+ active gods, and countless dormant ones from throughout human history, and they are all diminished by only the Christian god owning that capital letter. Nope. Nobody but Christians can refer to their god as “God”. Sorry about that. Sure, I respect your religion, but screw your puny god, because mine is the true god.
So, my point isn’t that I don’t understand grammar, or that I use “god” to take the piss out of Christians, I do it because I am inclusive, and respect all religions equally. With all the respect they deserve.
Thus endeth the lesson.
*I realize that the Tree and Star analogies fail at a certain point, because trees and stars are real.
David Richards
tomhuld says
The first thing we do, let’s hang all the pendants!
Randomfactor says
“God” is a job title, not a name.
Randomfactor says
By the neck, tomhuld…
DonDueed says
From now on, everyone must refer to Harry Potter as “Wizard”.
Holms says
Alternatively, if a religions had been founded and worshipped a being whose name was Deity. Very similarly, it is a way of claiming ownership of not only the cheif deity, but perhaps even the concept of ‘supernatural creator being’ in general. Fuck that.
Marcus Ranum says
I don’t capitalize “god” because it’s a gesture of contempt for a bunch of lies and the followers of the lies.
Pierce R. Butler says
… YHWH, or Yahweh or Jehovah.
Pay no attention to that Elohim behind the curtain!
demonhellfish says
My own approach to this is, as well as not capitalizing “god”, usually saying “gods” or “the gods”, to make it hopefully a bit more clear to christians that their god is just as much bunk as the pagan gods that they reject.