why do people spell God, G-D. . ?

Question

I have read countless books that have the name of God written like this, and also His other names. Why do they do that?

I have heard a few different answers but am still not sure.

Answer 1

You've gotten some reasonable answers thus far, but I'll tie it all together.
From the Religious Jewish standpoint:
The commandment says not to take god's name in vain. This is applied in 2 different ways --
in speech -- if we are not praying or in a holy context of study, we do not say god's actual name -- we have other ways of mentioning god.
in writing -- in a context which is not holy, or in a medium which might be erased or thrown out, we try not to write god's name down so it won't be profaned or thrown out. Electronic screens are erased when you reload the page so we avoid writing the name fully. if we don't write the name, then the name is never erased. So we replace the vowel. (l-rd or g-d)

Answer 2

They feel that spelling His name out in full is too holy to do so they omit the vowels like the Jewish Hebrew word for God... YWH which stands for Yawheh. Hebrew scribes used to change their clothes and bathe every time they wrote His name. It is a high form of respect for God.

Answer 3

pointing out the real call of God supplies one super skill, and the pronunciation is stored secret. historic Hebrew does not have vowels, and so the real pronunciation replaced into handed on by the severe Priest to his successor, and then in basic terms uttered as quickly as a 365 days. The Jews in rituals could say "Adonai" while they encountered the know-how ???? Adonai later morphed into Jehovah. the present use of "G-d" is a ritual and sign of appreciate, an acknowledgment that The call is Holy. The call is to no longer be written casually, and so as that they use a hyphen to illustrate mindfulness of this.

Answer 4

No, it is not catholic. It is orthodox Judaism.

Writing out the name of God is equivalent to taking God's name in vain. Also, they do not want to destroy any paper that might have God's name on it, because that would be disrespectful.

Answer 5

It's a sign of respect and fear for God. It's mostly used by Jews, they won't even speak his name in praying. So when they type or write they spell G-D.

Answer 6

>>>"They should refer to Him as Yahweh anyhow. God is kind of generic. "<<

actually thats about a bazillion times worse than saying "God" because its a horrible "mispronunciation"
see, the Tetragrammaton is indeed god's real name, but we don't have the vowels for it, so we don't know how to pronounce it. thus trying is doing it wrong.

Answer 7

because jews thing that writing saying God is using gods name in vain anywhere else from prayer...just like they believe having an image inscribed on anything even currency is a sin..

Answer 8

that makes no sense at all, everyone knows better to shorten names, or have in lower case involving God, Jesus, Messiah, Lord and so on. Don't read those books, they have no respect.

Answer 9

For religious reasons, God hates religion.

Answer 10

i asked the same question not to long ago,

it is the jewish belief that if God is written then it is a holy text and should be preserved in the jewish traditional way,

so as i had to learn to, no it is your turn,

the only advice i can give you is to not pay atention to it and respect their beliefs,

you dont want to anger them, they can say some harsh things.