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Do you tend to use "God" or "god" online?

If I debate with theists, I tend to use "your god" or "the god of christianity". This way, I can avoid making them think that I acknowledge that their god "is THE God", but that I am just denying it. I de-throne their god and toss it into a clusterf*ck of other mythological beings.

I notice sometimes that other atheist debaters capitalize the word god, and I feel that the theists believe that this only confirms their gods' status. If we confirm their gods' status, then we are just rebels. How do you use the word "god"?

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Permalink Reply by D R Hosie on July 1, 2010 at 9:10pm

Only slightly off-topic, but as Orange indicated earlier, "human flesh taste's like Pork . . . as a catholic what problem would they have . . ?"

Maybe we could use a new bus campaign, showing a parishiner taking the wafer on their tongue - while wearing a broad smile, and declairing "It really does taste like chicken!!"

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Permalink Reply by Carrot Hare on July 1, 2010 at 9:19pm

I just say Gawd.
I have no idea why I decided to rebel against the proper spelling but I've been spelling it gawd for forever...:\

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Permalink Reply by Adia Lynette on July 1, 2010 at 10:09pm

If we are talking about Christianity, then I type "God" because that's its name. I wouldn't type "allah" or "buddha". I'm not a fan using of poor grammar to prove a point.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle on July 3, 2010 at 2:08am

Technically, it really isn't a name, it is laziness (not on your part, on the part of religion) and the spoiled idea that there is one and it is the one they like best. It is not really a name any more than She or He or It are names (one hopes). The texts of the religions themselves give proper names, not only to the deity to which these people think their pronoun has earned the exclusive right of being the one, but also to other deities (Baal is a good example).
Because I love language (not spelling though) my son will often say "which one do you mean?" when some one says "Oh My God".
Personally OMT is better for us because Thor is a proper noun and a deity. (Not to mention super cool).

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Permalink Reply by Adia Lynette on July 22, 2010 at 6:11pm

Michelle, I was just talking about this today and thought about this thread. Calling your god, "God", is like calling your cat, "Cat". It's stupid!! At least Jews and Muslims have actual names for the Abrahamic god.

Thor rocks!

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Permalink Reply by John Loq on July 1, 2010 at 11:35pm

I tried using the word god and christain but the spell checkers nags me to correct it

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Permalink Reply by Sonny Mobley on July 2, 2010 at 10:01pm

Unless it is the first word of a sentence, it is the lowercase version.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on July 3, 2010 at 12:53am

The only reason the word "god" should ever be capitalized is when it is in the beginning of a sentence.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa on July 3, 2010 at 1:50am

I say "your god" or "a god" and never he or she. but "it", just to be obnoxious.

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Permalink Reply by Alex Catgirl on July 3, 2010 at 2:02am

Gawd, Gaud, other people's imaginary friend, the imaginary gaud of the losers, divine c*cksucker, and a quite a few others I can't remember at the moment. Where you attempt to dethrone the object of their reverence, I mock and ridicule him...and usually his followers, whom I accuse of having sexual relationships with barnyard animals.

Arguing region with the faithful is like trying to convince an twilight obsessed fangirl that her dream guy is in fact a sketchy controlling paedophile...who fails epically at being a vampire. You know it's pointless and is not going to end well but it's still entertaining.

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on July 3, 2010 at 9:39am

I have no problem mocking vampires as depicted in the Twilight series...but how about the HBO series, True Blood?

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on July 3, 2010 at 9:32am

I have decided that I will take information I have received here as advice and try to use the term "god of Abraham" because I'm almost always referring to the monotheistic "Yayweh" rather than any other supernatural being/s.

I thought God was a proper noun like 'Sally' or 'Doctor Who' but I will put more effort into giving less authority to the word now that I've thought about it more! I have been sloppy in the past, I admit it. And the whole gender thing...I usually refer to the god of Abraham in the masculine sense: HE, HIS, HIM. I will continue to do so only because that's how it's written by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. I don't personally believe, of course, that there IS a god of Abraham nor that there is a gender appropriate way to approach this!!! It just makes written discussion easier and using the term 'it' seems somehow improper grammatically speaking.