Capitalizing religious words, like god. Why should I?

Question

Some people have a big problem with the fact that I don't capitalize the word god. It offends their religions and their sense of proper punctuation. I say, since I am not a member of your religions, I shouldn't be held to that standard. If you're a Christian or whatever, by all means, capitalize god if you please, why should anyone else

I understand the capitalizing names thing, but when I refer to god I certainly am not refering to any specific Christian god.

Answer 1

Since it appears that you are not a monotheist, you may have the belief there is more than one God. If that is so, then you would be confused over which "god" you were talking about. Me, I'll keep capitalizing, thank you. Not only God, but Jesus, Lord and the pronouns which apply to Them. :) No. 6:24

Answer 2

I not only Capitalize God, but I use upper case for all the letters in GOD, my LORD, JESUS and the other names GOD has used to identify HIMSELF with although you may find times I have not done so.

Since capitalizing proper names is a sign of respect, I will not capitalize satan.

Answer 3

Why should we capitalize your name? Or the name of a country?

It's just good manners.

I try to be consistant with showing proper respect to others. Pagans, Wiccans, Atheists. But I can't even be consistant with capitalizing Christian.

These days though, no one cares about good manners. It's all about "Me Me Me" I'm the only one that matters. I have to cut you off on the highway because *I* should be first. I should be rude to you in my job because even though I'm getting paid to help you, you're annoying me...

Rude. As a nation we need to straighten up and fly right.

Answer 4

I capitalize it when I am referring to a specific god and for some reason can't use that god's name. Other than that, there's no reason to capitalize it.

It is like when a person writes the word "mom." It can be capitalized when it is being used as a name, and shouldn't be if it is describing a person ("My mom's name is Angie" as opposed to "Hey Mom, get over here!")

As for it bothering people...explain to them the grammatical reasoning for it and they usually shut up.

Answer 5

The word "god" should not be capitalized, unless you are talking about the Christian god named "God", which is a proper noun. "God" is not an imaginative name for a god, but it is a name and should be capitalized.

It is similar to if I had a dog that I named Dog.

However, I do think that capitalizing "he" when talking about God is nonsensical. "He" is not the god's name. It is just another pronoun.

Answer 6

Capitalizing proper names is correct usage of the English language.

Answer 7

Capitalizing God because it's a name, There all names, Lord, Jehovah, Jesus. It's not a word.

Answer 8

Thank you for capitalizing the word "Christian". You know, you can cap or non-cap; it's your decision. I am a Christian and capitalize Buddha, Mohammed, etc. It's just out of respect for those who follow other religions. I don't do it out of respect for Buddha or Mohammed because frankly, I don't believe Buddha exists, and I don't follow the teachings of Mohammed. But I don't want to offend others, so I capitalize.

Answer 9

well yeh i mean why wont u capitalize it? To piss off Christians? writing God with a capital "g" does not mean that you believe in God. its just more specific what god you mean and stuff like that...

Answer 10

I capitalize 'God' and 'Him' [referring to God or Jesus], as a matter of respect. It is mostly syntax though, it's not a commandment or anything like that. If you don't want to capitalize, so be it.