Should atheists stop capitalizing the 'G' in god?

Question

I'm stopping from now on.

Answer 1

It is proper to show respect to your creator.

Answer 2

It depends on your audience. I speak quite a bit about the generic platonic form of god. I also refer to specific god incarnations; including God (yeah the Christian one), Yahweh (the Jewish one), and Allah. These I capitalize...

Yes, yes, I know that the last three mentioned are all 'the god of abraham', but it is important to distinguish sometimes, for example to acknowledge the belief in the trinity concept of the Christian god.

When I write, I am writing for everyone, agnostics, atheists like myself, and for believers. Not capitalizing will turn the believers off from reading my context, it is counterproductive.

but from now on I am stopping the capitalization of bush (not the burning one, but the george one).

Answer 3

Its quite easy. Are you using it as a name or a title or as a species?
"A god" is not capatilized. "God" is.
"God did this" needs a capital. it is a name. Regaurdless if he exists or not, it is a name. Even fictional names are capitalized.
"He was a god" is not capatalized.

Of course, that is only english. If you want to do something else, you can, but you can bet you'll be marked off on your essays ;)

Answer 4

If you are talking about a god in general, then it shouldn't be capitalized anyways. If you are talking about a specific god by name, then it is a proper noun and should be capitalized.
It doesn't matter if you believe in God or not. Think about it. Properly, you still capitalize Santa Claus, Luke Skywalker, Hercules, and Jack Frost. They are all fictional characters that grown people should know better than to believe in, but still, their names are proper nouns.

Answer 5

The problem is, in common usage it is a specific name for a specific being -- God is Yahweh. However, then you get the problem of Zeus being a god and Odhinn and blahblahblah.

So when speaking about the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic guy, sure, call it God, and just use 'deity' for everything else, OR, call the Jewish/Christian/Islam guy by his actual name, YHVH, and then use god for all deities.

How you resolve the semantics is really up to you, but it is solvable.

Answer 6

I already have. Capitalizing a being named 'god' is the same as acknowledging a being named 'god' exists. At least Santa Claus aka St Nicholas did exist. Maybe not in the exact way he did in the christmas fairytales that are told but he was a man who would give toys to the poor children.

Answer 7

It's a name. Have you stopped capitalizing Santa Claus?
If I'm referring to a god, or more than one god, I use the lowercase. When I'm referring to a being named God, I capitalize. It doesn't really get tricky until you get into the pronouns.

Answer 8

What difference would it make? A capital letter doesn't make him exist. Gandalf doesn't exist and I wouldn't stop using a capital G for him either. The capital helps you to distinguish between the one theists are always going on about and any other kind of god. Same as capitalizing Allah.

Worrying about this kind of thing makes theists say "Ah! So you acknowledge that to capitalize God is to agree that such a concept has power?", like when they way the "ist" on evolutionist makes it sound like a religion (which is BS - is rationalism a religion?). I don't give ground to my opponents as easily as that. Let them change to MY way of thinking.

Answer 9

specific, that's ideal grammar, as long as that's used as a ideal call. the undeniable fact that folk refuse to capitalize the be conscious "God" does not worry me almost as lots as a results of fact the folk who unquestionably do not understand why that's capitalized. The king, of direction, grew to become into Antony Flew, who titled his e book "god: A severe Inquiry." i presumed that grew to become into surprisingly obvious. An occasion could be attainable: "Do you suspect in God?" - to that end, the two the right noun "God" could desire to be capitalized, in any different case you would be able to desire to grant a piece of writing to point that it is not a ideal noun. as a consequence: "Do you suspect in a god?" or "Do you suspect interior the god?" some human beings mistakenly have self belief that the be conscious "god" isn't capitalized in connection with (say) the Greek pantheon, seeing which you're speaking concerning the Christian God. in actual fact that the Greek gods had their own names, and so "god" isn't many times used as a ideal noun. yet even whilst the Greeks used "God" as a ideal noun, that's capitalized. you will discover this in Homer, to illustrate: "Dios d' eteleieto boule" - "the choose of God grew to become into fulfilled." the comparable convention is observed in each translation of Plato, the place Socrates makes point out of "God" as hostile to "a god," "the god," or "gods."

Answer 10

Well, grammatically speaking no, its a noun (fictional or not) and it should be capitalized. Not capitalizing it is just a whiny attempt to control the word, because it is just that; a word. Treat it as a word, no more no less.

Answer 11

as a matter of respect, when i know the person i am writting to is a god believer, then i will make sure that the first letter of the said word is a uppercase. Cheers!