It's a Proper Noun

Here on this blog we are wide open to all kinds of discussion and disagreement, but I'm now declaring something out of bounds. Feel free to consider this a rant on my part. The word "God," when used as a proper noun, is to be capitalized.

I'm not sure why this would have to be pointed out. Proper nouns in English are capitalized. "God," when used to refer to a specific entity, is a proper noun. It is capitalized.

Someone recently said that using "god" instead makes it seem God is closer. Do we treat our spouses that way? The better we know them, the closer they are, the less we care about speaking of them with common respect? No, that's not it.

And it was said that it makes God seem more immanent. I have the same objection there. What it's really doing is making God seem smaller, more human-sized.

"God" is not necessarily a proper noun in all usages: "the gods of the Incas," "the god I believe in," are fine usages, if not referring to the biblical God, for whom the term is also a name. If you don't want to capitalize the word, you can construct your sentences something like that if you wish. But on this blog, as a matter of respect to a Person I worship and consider to be the most important in all of reality, I'm asking you not to belittle him by violating English grammar on him.

Comments that violate this will be corrected or deleted at my discretion.

Posted: Mon - May 29, 2006 at 04:23 PM |

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson getCategoryName("<$CategoryUUID$>");

It's a Proper Noun

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson