Stole this from some guy named Lance Berg over on quora not sure where to put it but it is a pet peeve of mine The two words, God and god, are different words with different meanings. The word god is a regular noun, like deity, entity, being, and lemon. It refers to a member of a class of supernatural beings which are pervasive forces in the universe, and for the most part, includes beings the person using the word does not believe exists The word God is a name, like naming your dog Dog. It refers to a specific god, namely the one from the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormon, and a handful of obscure others. If you’re talking about Thor, then you use god. If you’re talking about Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus, Allah etc, you use God. So, that’s a start on what’s wrong with it. It’s very likely ungrammatical, the cases where you would build your sentence the same using a specific name and a general noun aren’t all that common. But there’s a bigger point here. The problem is that using the two terms interchangeably leads to logical errors, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally, but at any rate, you end up saying things that look logical, that sound correct when you say them out loud, but which don’t actually follow, visibly so if you use the right capitalization, not so if you use the terms willy-nilly.
I would argue that unless you have both a overall God and gods or deities in your story, nobody is going to get confused. From context it will be quite clear that they are referring to the same type of entity as the rest of the story. Although I suppose it is annoying if you care about it, kind of how I can read their, they’re, and there incorrectly but still interpret the context while being annoyed
I don't see any godly problems with it. It not like our grammar is always godlike. Though I do agree there's a god darn problem with the word "god" being capitalized to mean God when it is just referring to a specific god. It does gets godawful difficult when people use proper nouns as common nouns like "the new God" but that's just the ungodly way in how our language has some ambiguity. Clearly, it would be a godsend if English has less confusion between proper and common nouns.
While i was vaguely aware of something lile that, pointing the distinction out so vividly is actually quite useful, thank you. Although, now I'm prolly gonna habe to deal with the same thing...
I mostly agree, but feel I should point out that God doesn't need to be the Abrahamic one, simply one where speaker and listener agree unambiguously on the identity of this god titled God. Members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster can call it God, since there are none other to confuse it with. If they need to talk about gods of other religions, they can say "the Christian God" etc. So go ahead, call that eternally youthful busty lady that falls for a 14 year old God. Then call the cops because that is too much of an age gap.
I would use them interchangeably, even in written word. To use God with a capital G only when referring to religions that have one main God is weird. If your referring to Thor you would use God. You capitalize the G because you are specifically pointing out Thor, God would take the place of his name. If you were being general and not referring to one specific God then it would be lower case g. In religions that are monotheistic the G is capitalized because they are using the word god in place of their name. So yes God is a title/replace holder for a name, while god is the general term when referring to no one in particular. The Lady requests your precedence. Lady Macbeth is dead. (God) A lady is a female. Mary is a lady. (God) A lot of words are like that. By capitalizing the word you are trying to get to the subject of the sentence. You are changing its importance.
My issue here is, using your example, I can name my dog Dog, but my neighbor can also call his dog Dog as well. So, I can call some other god God and not be referring to the Hebrew God. IceLight303's post above me probably explains it better. But, in the case of fantasy religions, any god can be referred to as God. As long as you're not mentioning multiple gods (example: Oh gods above!).
basically grammatical stuff about use capital letter on same word but different use? meh go ahead bickering on it~ grammar is like that, oh rules~
Nah, God is used among plenty of polytheist religions. Some people use the capitalization to imply that they are Gods rather than gods; objects of worship to them personally, rather than, say, a comic book character or someone they read about in a history book that OTHER people believe in. 'God' then becomes an honorary title while 'god' is a word. On the other hand, most polytheistic religions do have a concept of an overarching 'over-god'. For example, a God may be part of existence (Thor could be seen as thunder personified, or affective anger or whatever), while 'the God' is existence (so Thor and all the other Norse gods are God, aka human consciousness/existence itself, undivided into smaller the smaller aspects that are the many individual deities of the pantheon). You'll hear Hindu speak of God quite a lot, for example, without referring to the Abrahamic god. They're not talking about Yahwe, they're referring to existence itself, higher consciousness, whatever's the right term in English.
Idk, but when I'm writing my novel, I'm really careful.about this word. It's like wording the name of your city and the word "City" as well that should be worded as capital C. Maybe because religion is deeply rooted in our country. In school, it is taught that "God" is use to word "God" and if your not specifically stating "God" then it should be "god/s". Maybe it's my bias towards Bible, but I read a lot of mythologies as well. If it was professionally written, author's wouldn't wrongly written "God" within those "god/s". I read many books before like that, that's why I'm really sensitive with that word, esp with my phone's auto correct.
People can be really stupid about names though. Naming a mountain 'Mountain', a village 'The Village', or the big ball of earth we live on as 'Earth'. I do agree that you need to be very careful about using the word God while writing a novel. It could lead to annoying comments from readers (if you post it online) or maybe even confusion. If there are multiple gods I prefer to use 'God of XXX' or their name/title instead (like Richard or the Grand Pure One).
Ai-chan would argue that even if it's not in writing, most people would not mistake God for god or vice versa in speech. The tone matters. For example, with capitalization removed. 1) "god, how could you have done this to me?" 2) "my god does not condone this." 3) "i curse you, god." 4) "when I go up there, i'm gonna kick your godly ass and make you a laughing stock among the other gods." 5) "god does not play dice." Can you guys guess which of these refer to God and which of them refer to god?
I'd like to clarify 3 things 1 I didn't come up with the example as previously stated I stole it 2 it's not about my Faith or God I can separate my beliefs from the fiction and enjoy stories based around real historical references to mythologies and pantheons and those with their own original mythologies and pantheons of gods and enjoy a great number of said stories 3 as previously stated it is just a pet peeve of mine and I simply finally decided to say something about it you can have all the gods you want in your stories I'll probably be reading them and enjoying them just the same
Except you wouldn't capitalise the G if you were referring to just Thor. Just as you wouldn't capitalise the h when you are referring to a singular human. "That god over there can you see him?" "That human over there can you see her?" or in the Macbeth case, "Can you see that lady over there? That's Lady Macbeth." Note that Lady Macbeth is her name and Lady is also her title. Her name is Lady Macbeth to differentiate her from her husband. This is versus these. "There goes the God of Thunder." "That is the Human Supreme." "There goes the Lady." "That is Lady Macbeth." "There goes the Queen. The Queen of England." These are the same since you are referring to their title/name rather than the fact that he is some god or she is just some woman. Which is two entirely different scenarios.
Now I'm right. If you worshipped Thor in this case, you would use a capital G to refer to him. In the case where you put "That god over there can you see him?" The god used is a classifier/generalized term not as a title or a place holder for a name. Which is what I said. Would the Ladies be joining us tonight. Is an example. Where the word ladies would be capitalized because it takes the place of the ladies names. I don't really get your point do you not like it when people have classifiers and then use those classifiers as titles? Or do you dislike when people capitalize a word that's not supposed to be capitalized? Or when people are not consistent with their capitalization? Or is this like the comma argument.
Except you wouldn't capitalise the ladies in that scenario... It would just be "Would the ladies be joining us for dinner tonight?" This just isn't done in the English language. If you wouldn't capitalise this, "Would your dog be joining us for dinner tonight?" Then you would not capitalise the other one either. They both fill the same role, I have replaced the name of the dog with the word dog in this scenario. It's the same as replacing the names of the ladies with ladies in the above one. In a more complex way, "Will the President be joining us for dinner tonight?" Is correct. However "Would the presidents be joining us for dinner tonight?" Is also correct, the only reason the P is capitalised is because it is referring to the person who has a specific job title. Even though you are replacing both their names and their job titles you do not capitalise the word presidents in this scenario. "Would the Dame, be joining us tonight?" IS wrong. You do not capitalise the dame in this situation. "Would Dame Janeway, be joining us tonight?" Is right on the other hand since you do capitalise the word dame here. In a more specific sense, there is one exception to this rule which we can pull with the word god. "Oh my, God!" Can be both correct and incorrect. It completely depends on who/what/how it is being used. Are they referring specifically to a monotheistic deity than it is correct. Are they talking about the specific god which they are a follower of if the god is in a multiple pantheon system? Then it is correct. Are they referring to a random god who is doing something? Incorrect. If it is someone who doesn't have/follow a specific god in a pantheon? Then it is incorrect. Is it supposed to be alluding to someone saying "Oh my, God." then it is correct.
I was just prepping my fingers to type something similar thinking you were gonna ask for the difference lol. Anyway, I do always use god because it makes no difference to me and I bait the zealots that way.
Why not? I argue that I believe Thor is the God I worship and the abhramic god is just another random god that is nothing special, important or respect worthy to deserve the capitalization.
My example with the ladies being capitalized is correct. Mainly because the ladies is being used specifically to represent a group of women who everyone in the conversation know about. By adding 'your' you change it so dog would not be capitalized. Wait until Mom gets home vs wait until my mom gets home. Capitalization has some rules but depends a lot on the context. If someone who is atheist is writhing god would only ever be capitalized when tied to a name, as they would put not importance into a religious figure. It really depends on who is talking and on the context.
You capitalise the Abhramic god since it is his name... Like you might not worship Zeus but if the damn name came up you would still capitalise his name if it correct? With Thor do you specifically worship only Thor if so add the capital G if you do not. Then you don't since he is part of a pantheon.