All topics related to atheism, agnosticism and secularism welcome.
Do you think God should be spelt in lowercase as "god" when thinking about the Christian god.
I used to be a member r/atheism on Reddit from the early times, but atheists there started becoming so hateful and petty that they would spell God as "god". Many things were much worse, but I remember this being the reason I finally decided to leave r/atheism.
I came to Imzy from the Bloomberg article because I heard this is a nicer version of Reddit, so my question to you is how would you spell it?




I was reading up on this the other day because I was writing a story that featured a god (of a pantheon) and wanted to know which was gramatically correct, the big-G or the little-G. Interestingly enough, God doesn't get a capital letter out of respect or anything, but because it's a proper name. Same way you'd capitalize Jesus even if you didn't believe.
You capitalize the word if it is being used as the name of the "person" . I am speaking to God, vs I am speaking to my god. Not sure if it applies to non-persons, like I am speaking to Cow, or John, depending what you called your cow.
But you do get a little bit of fuck the system feels when you spell it lowercase no matter what, it is a very human irritation requiring things such as capital G as respect , like you must call me him since that is what I identify as , and not she, people get a bit pissy when I just call everyone it (especially moms over their kids).
sorry wen't bit off topic near the end.
Though, it's more complicated than that. Because Christians only think his name is God. As you know, God is a god. But God's real name is Yahweh. However, most Christians will always capitalize the word god because they confuse the name God with the category god.
This is because most don't have in depth conversations on it and never considered the alternative.
Thanks God Germans did not have this Problem. :D
Speaking as someone who finally liberated herself from religion in general, and Christianity in particular, I refer to the Christian deity, my ex-abuser (an unreal abuser, but bear with me) as "god". The idea is that the Christian deity is the "one true God" (hence the capitalized name), and false deities are "gods".
I don't care at all if the way I write it isn't grammatically correct. If some people want to use a "G" instead of a "g", they're quite free to do so. Just as I'm free to use the small "g" or better yet, "fictional cosmic tyrant."
I'm in the exact same boat. I used to be Mormon, and since I'm also a poet, I found myself writing the word 'God' very often. Now, I get this silly little thrill every time I write about 'god'. Like, take that, you concept based in unreality that terrified me for years, you.
Exactly! [high five]
I believe that the Christian god is spelled with a capital G, as in God, because the refer to God as a proper name rather than a title of some sort. It's just proper grammar.
I agree whit you
The Christian god's name is God.
If you talk about a god, it's lowercase.
If you specifically talk about the one of Christianity, it's uppercase.
Why would you use a capital letter?
My thoughts exactly.
Because Xenu and Frodo are also spelt with a capital letter. Fictional characters also use uppercase letters. Using lowercase letters for God, but not luke skywalker, harry potter etc means you are overly angry at the Christian god.
If Chrysler was to call their new model "Car" what would you think of them?
That is beside the point. I would talk about the their car grammatically accurately. Like this: Chrysler came out the Car which is a car they gave an absurd name to. I'm just glad the Car is not actually a minivan, because that would be more confusing. The new Chrysler's new car, the Car, is also poorly designed.
The Christians are so unaware they think their god's name is God. But actually, the name of their god is Yahweh. There were many bibles over a hundred years ago that used a proper name for their god, but this fell out of style. Currently, I only know of the NJB that uses the proper name for their god. All others call their god God.
I think we agree since both Chrysler's new Car and Christian's old God are poorly designed
I feel if a Christian is the one saying it, having it capitalized makes sense, as they consider it to be the actual name of their deity. If an atheist is saying it, I don't think there is any need. Since you are referring, like you did in the question, to 'the Christian god'. Although if you phrased it as though it were being used as a proper name, such as "I talked to god" then it would need to be capitalized in order to really make sense. Whereas "I talked to a god" makes grammatical sense being uncapitalized.
I very much agree it depends on what youa are saying. I could say, 'In Genesis God said' or 'The Christian god says in Genesis...'
If you ask a Christian why they capitalize god, they won't talk about grammar. They'll say its out of respect. That's what I was always taught. So, it really depends on if you feel respect towards the concept, or if you think it's silly.
I disagree. A lot of people write God simply because that's the English name of the Christian god just like the name of the Christian god or the Muslim god in Arabic is Allah. It's a proper name just like Xenu, Shiva or Harry Potter.
I guess I was too general. In my Mormon lesson plans (which are standardized across the world) that's the reason they give. Although, of course, that wouldn't be the first time Mormonism differed from the rest of Christanity.