God and god

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Abfaniki
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God and god

Post by Abfaniki »

I am reading this book. The author use the word Gods. I won't say I was taught but I recall someone once told me that the word God should be capitalized when refering to Christian God only and that other deities or gods should be written with small g.

Is that right?
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Post by Mallory Whitaker »

I've never heard of capitalizing the g in gods. God is capitalized because it's a proper noun in monotheistic religions, whereas gods is just a noun. I think. I can't recall ever seeing gods capitalized before.
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Post by Angela Stripes »

I think at one time there might have been grammatical rules like what has already been mentioned, but in more modern times capitalization is used more to reflect respect, intention, personal belief of either the author, characters, or both.

I'd suggest taking an overall-look at the cultures in the book and maybe look through it with their lens?

It's going to vary across authors, but when I write "God" I do intend the one true God, Jesus. If "god" or "gods" I'm referring to idols of other beliefs, lets say Greek mythology.

Hope that gives you a spectrum to work off of?
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Post by Abfaniki »

I always thought what @Angela stripes wrote was the reason for the capitalization. I think it will make more sense to stick with what @mallory Whitaker said.

Thank you both for the comment it definaly clear an issue for me.
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Post by juliusotinyo »

Hi,
I agree with Mallory in this. God is used to preferably in monotheistic religions and gods in polytheistic religions.
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Post by Abfaniki »

Angela Stripes wrote:I think at one time there might have been grammatical rules like what has already been mentioned, but in more modern times capitalization is used more to reflect respect, intention, personal belief of either the author, characters, or both.

I'd suggest taking an overall-look at the cultures in the book and maybe look through it with their lens?

It's going to vary across authors, but when I write "God" I do intend the one true God, Jesus. If "god" or "gods" I'm referring to idols of other beliefs, lets say Greek mythology.

Hope that gives you a spectrum to work off of?

I think the authur made a mistake in the use of the word Gods. This is a dialogue I took out of the book . note errors in qoute
“No, they weren’t as… big as all that,” Inez said looking out at the gods.they “They just had a bit of an ego. Wanted people to be in awe and all that nonsense. Course, that didn’t stop them from letting people believe they were actually hundreds of feet tall. Gods are very good at talking themselves up. And people believed the stories they were told. You’d think by now people would know better than to trust gods. Gods lie about everything.”
My take
The gods is the word to use in the above qoute.
@juliusotinyo, @mallory Whitaker was your take on the authors dialogue that I qoute above.
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Post by Kevin_Makeez »

Abfaniki wrote:I am reading this book. The author use the word Gods. I won't say I was taught but I recall someone once told me that the word God should be capitalized when refering to Christian God only and that other deities or gods should be written with small g.

Is that right?
I was taught that way too. That a Christian God should have a capitalized G and other gods small g.
But I believe different religion entities have different way of writing the word god depending on what they believe in.
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Post by MsTri »

I know I'm several weeks late in commenting, but I just wanted to point out that in the example given, the only place "gods" is capitalized is at the start of a sentence, where every word should be capitalized vs. the word being lower-cased when used in other places, as it is in the exampe.

Or am I wrong? Should gods still be lower-case when starting a sentence to show the difference between God and god(s)?
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Post by Vivian Paschal »

“No, they weren’t as… big as all that,” Inez said looking out at the gods.they “They just had a bit of an ego. Wanted people to be in awe and all that nonsense. Course, that didn’t stop them from letting people believe they were actually hundreds of feet tall. Gods are very good at talking themselves up. And people believed the stories they were told. You’d think by now people would know better than to trust gods. Gods lie about everything.”
I think this author did it right. Generally, gods is the right one to use here. Except, the author used Gods to start a new sentence. Despite the fact that gods is what he's referring to, the rule of starting a sentence with a capital letter still stands.


MsTri wrote:I know I'm several weeks late in commenting, but I just wanted to point out that in the example given, the only place "gods" is capitalized is at the start of a sentence, where every word should be capitalized vs. the word being lower-cased when used in other places, as it is in the exampe.

Or am I wrong? Should gods still be lower-case when starting a sentence to show the difference between God and god(s)?
So I think you're right.
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Post by Emmyblue »

Be it anywhere the capitalisation of the G is always applied in reference to the God of Muslims and Christians
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Post by BoyLazy »

Capital G as far as I know is used for every type of God
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Post by imyhearu »

Its always been Capital G for God pertaining to any monotheistic religion.
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Post by Ubheeram Nina »

So far i know there is only one God and that we should capitalize 'G' when referring to God. No matter what religion you follows.
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Post by ReyvrexQuestor Reyes »

To use God as a proper noun, it is capitalized. "the god of fire" "god of the sea" "gods" etc are not.
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Post by Lincolnshirelass »

I wonder, though, if polytheistic religions may (if they had/have an alphabet) used a capital - for instance, would the Greeks have called Apollo and Zeus Gods, or the ancient Norse done likewise for Thor and Odin.
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