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steven8166
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G is capital when referring to a proper name, g is small when referring to a general class of alleged entities rather than by their proper names. Ex: God is a god, or My god is God. It would be incorrect to say: thor is a God. This has nothing to do with respect, just grammar.

Edited by Rev'd Rattlesnake
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I use those letters when I'm writing, too. Big "G" for my Diety, little "g's" for the others. Why should making that distinction in my posts be interpreted as any more disrespectful than another's insistence that my God is imaginary and that belief in any diety is based on ignorance and/or fantasy?

Edited by Songster
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This strikes me as "highly disrespectful" of "all the other Gods". :jest:

If your "One True God" is entitled to a "Capital G" as a sign of respect,

I don't see why the God (or Gods) that other people worship or acknowledge,

should not be deserving of the same deferential treatment.

Otherwise, what you really seem to be saying is "MY God is 'real' and your 'god' is not".

That certainly doesn't sound like you are respecting the faith of others.

(Admittedly, this poses a conundrum for any and all who wish to be

respectful of everyone's beliefs.... but it is "Food For Thought")

I am not saying that other people's god is not real.

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G is capital when referring to a proper name, g is small when referring to a general class of alleged entities rather than by their proper names. Ex: God is a god, or My god is God. It would be incorrect to say: thor is a God. This has nothing to do with respect, just grammar.

"God" however, is not the proper name of the deity of Jewish scripture or the Christian Bible. "God" is a descriptive title.

I refer to the deities I worship as the Theoi, or "the Gods", out of respect for them.

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It is a proper name used in the liturgy of the church for 2000 years

Certainly I am not going to argue if a particular religion determines for itself that G-d is a proper name. It is true, however, that within Judaism, G-d is not a proper name. I like to refer to it as a job title. In Hebrew, of course, one doesn't have the option to capitalize "G-d" and not capitalize "gods" because Hebrew has no capital letters.

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Certainly I am not going to argue if a particular religion determines for itself that G-d is a proper name. It is true, however, that within Judaism, G-d is not a proper name. I like to refer to it as a job title. In Hebrew, of course, one doesn't have the option to capitalize "G-d" and not capitalize "gods" because Hebrew has no capital letters.

:thumbu:

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It is a proper name used in the liturgy of the church for 2000 years

The word God comes from germanic Godan (or proto germanic gudan which wasn't entirely gender specific) a name of the God Odin and specifically used by I believe the Lombards. Technically when you refer to God you are naming another diety of pagan origin and not your own. Your god has a name and it's not God. :)

When ulifas(sp?) translated the bible into Gothic (an alphabet he made and then taught to the Goth's for this purpose, to avoid using the Runic alphabet of the heathens) he used the term God to denote the christian god for the first time. Probably made it easier to convert when the god in this new book bears a version of their chief/creator god's name anyway.

Edited by Vegtam
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The word God comes from germanic Godan (or proto germanic gudan which wasn't entirely gender specific) a name of the God Odin and specifically used by I believe the Lombards. Technically when you refer to God you are naming another diety of pagan origin and not your own. Your god has a name and it's not God. :)

When ulifas(sp?) translated the bible into Gothic (an alphabet he made and then taught to the Goth's for this purpose, to avoid using the Runic alphabet of the heathens) he used the term God to denote the christian god for the first time. Probably made it easier to convert when the god in this new book bears a version of their chief/creator god's name anyway.

when I use the name God I refer to the god that is invoked every eucharist: "in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" I am speaking of the triune god. Christianity has long adopted existing names and ideas that are not offensive to the faith in its missionary work. God in English, Jehovah's, Allah in Arabic...its all the Trinity to me.
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