god with a Capital?

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Permalink Reply by Terry on December 3, 2008 at 6:41am

I used to be a catholic when i was a kid up until 8-9 ish and even then I knew bible study was worthless but from what I can remember is, god as the creator and all powerful being must always have his name capitalized even when it refers to god as "Him" or "He" or "His" to exemplify his magnificence. Of course NONE of this was even in the bible it was just some grammatical rule they came up with. :/

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on December 3, 2008 at 7:24am

Capitals are for real names. Lower case is for ordinary words. Some people use "G" just from habit I guess.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on December 3, 2008 at 8:06am

I tend to capitalize the word god when I am referring to a particular one. Like if I was talking about about Christianity, I would say "God says to do this or that." But if I am talking about gods in general terms I don't capitalize it. Just the same as I might say "I love my Gramma." (specific person) or "Maybe it was a gramma who baked that pie." (general term) I never capitalize the pronouns though.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua on December 3, 2008 at 9:58am

I basically use caps in the same manner. But admittedly, there is no reason to do so. Its really just about aesthetic preference -- how you like seeing it written on paper.

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on December 3, 2008 at 7:22pm

I guess I need to clarify after all - I use lower case because "god" is no different to "fairy" to me.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on December 3, 2008 at 10:03pm

This is the same for me. If you read it, the god of the bible doesn't deserve the respect of a captital letter. Other dead gods don't deserve a capital as they have been proven as myth such as a fairy.

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Permalink Reply by Goz on January 22, 2009 at 8:06pm

That is also my reason. Names such as catholics,muslims,etc. are also spelled with a lower case,as they are just words to me as well.
Intersting,Fire Fox says catholics with a small "c" is ok,but muslem's with a small 'm" is misspelled.
Hummmmm.

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Permalink Reply by SNM on January 23, 2009 at 6:05am

That's because there are different usages for the word "catholic." Capitalized, it refers to a denomination or branch of christianity, e.g., the Roman Catholic church. Lower case, it refers to the "universal" church, as in the Nicene Creed: "we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church."

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Permalink Reply by chironex on January 23, 2009 at 8:57am

Same here. For me, capitalizing the word "god" seems like an approval or an endorsement.

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Permalink Reply by FreeThinker on June 19, 2009 at 4:49pm

I consider "God" (with a capital 'G') to be the proper name specific to the Christian deity (in the same vain as Yahweh, Jesus, Elohim, etc.). On the other hand, "god" (lowercase) is used when referring to deities in general. If you are referring to a specific character, regardless of whether the character is fictional, a capital letter should be used for the name. If you were writing a review of "Lord of the Rings", you would capitalize the name "Frodo", but the term "hobbits" would not be capitalized.

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Permalink Reply by JessEpiphany on December 4, 2008 at 9:02am

Useless info I learned in my years with the Jehovah's Witnesses:
"LORD" = YHWH; "Lord" = "Adonai"
When the 2 are used together (YHWH + Adonai) then it's translated as "Sovereign Lord"
I can't tell you WHY they do it that way, just that they do. *shrugs*

I agree about being specific and generalizing. I always generalize when speaking about god, unless I use a specific name.

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Permalink Reply by Tedster on December 3, 2008 at 11:21pm

I capitalize God in the abrahamic religion because God in this case is a proper noun. I don't give special capitalization of the words him or he which is the normal practice among christians. Note that I didn't capitalize christian. Lord I would probalby use lower case as well.

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