# Capitalizing God **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534 "2010-04-27T16:24:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/21 "2010-04-27T19:23:34Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Um, no. Yes, that’s why observant Jews often write “G-d” – but the reason for YHWH is that Hebrew is written solely with consonants; vowels, if shown, are the equivalent of diacritical marks. Much like é and è represent different sounds in French, a Hebrew consonant (say, “nun”) with different vowel pointings will signify the sounds “nah” or “no” or “neh”. Yodh-he-waw-he was virtually never spoken (the High Priest said one prayer in the Holy of Holies in the Temple on Yom Kippur where it was uttered, but at no other time), and the idea that it stands for “Yahweh” is a reconstruction based on words incorporating those syllables with the meanings they have in the Unutterable Name. So what we know is that the Jews called their God YHWH in writing – but not what they said when they called Him that in speech (though as noted we can make a reasonable guess). Exactly. One may think of YHVH as a symbol - a sigil, a glyph - consisting of four Hebrew letters, representing the concept of “God”. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/22 "2010-04-27T19:33:01Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Exactly. One may think of YHVH as a symbol - a sigil, a glyph - consisting of four Hebrew letters, representing the concept of “God”. So God is like Prince, using an unpronounceable symbol for his name? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/23 "2010-04-27T23:37:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > So God is like Prince, using an unpronounceable symbol for his name? “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) 😛 ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/24 "2010-04-27T23:40:43Z")
If you believe the stories about the wealth of the Vatican, I guess God is very well capitalized … ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/25 "2010-04-27T23:50:29Z")
Grammatically speaking, your friend is right. Sometimes atheists purposely refuse to capitalize God as a proper noun when writing as if it were a matter of principle. I understand the sentiment, but I still think good grammar trumps ideology. One thing you _won’t_ see me doing though is capitalizing pronouns referring to said God. That’s just blatantly theistic and not proper grammar at all. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/26 "2010-04-28T00:04:17Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Grammatically speaking, your friend is right. Sometimes atheists purposely refuse to capitalize God as a proper noun when writing as if it were a matter of principle. I understand the sentiment, but I still think good grammar trumps ideology. One thing you _won’t_ see me doing though is capitalizing pronouns referring to said God. That’s just blatantly theistic and not proper grammar at all. Your privilege. I capitalize pronouns referring to Him, as a Christian; in addition to the showing of respect for my God, it’s also useful in distinguishing who’s being talked about: “King David prayed to Him in his remorse. And God was merciful; He heard his prayers and He answered him.” The variance between the divine He/Him and the human he/him efficiently sorts out what could be confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/27 "2010-04-28T00:09:49Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Well, an omniscient, omnipotent God could change my lower case “g” to uppercase him/herself. > ETA: very funny. Please, Mods, leave my post be! Thou shalt not tempt the lord thy Mod. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/28 "2010-04-28T00:15:58Z")
Previous thread about capitalizing the pronouns for God: [is it insulting to christians to not capitalize pronouns referring to deity?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=365578) ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/29 "2010-04-28T01:14:00Z")
It is not necessary to capitalize biblegod. Here’s what I’ve noticed around the web: Why Won’t God Heal [Amputees.com](http://Amputees.com), FFRF, and other sites do not cite “god” as a misspell. Neither is christ or christians, muslims or islam. Same goes for “bible”. [answeringenesis.com](http://answeringenesis.com) and sites of the like will capitalize their entire posts half of the time. I asked one user why they did that and they replied, “SO GOD CAN HEAR ME PRAISE HIM!” Sheesh. Most users-- atheist or believers-- WILL capitalize Yahweh, Jesus, Thor, Apollo, etc, as they are first names. It appears to come down to one thing. If you’re a believer, you fear your god (as you should in most related literature), so you capitalize out of fear of insulting the sky daddy in question. If you do that, fear will tell you to capitalize words like Him, Holy, and Trinity, most likely out of the same fear of disrespect. As far as the hebrews go with their spelling of G-d, I’ve been told on Facebook by the submissive that if an error is made and the need to erase the sentence containing the word “God” is disrespectful. Don’t know if that’s the real reason, but since it’s a religion, there’s always more than one, indirect answer to find. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/30 "2010-04-28T01:44:54Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > If Jews really think that, then why don’t you see more of them writing the word “God” all over their bodies to become invincible? 😃 “Cannot be destroyed” should probably be “may not be destroyed.” There’s a commandment saying that the Name should not be desecrated, or bad things will happen to you. They interpret this as applying to everyone. They do this to make sure you don’t unknowingly break that commandment when you throw away a piece of paper that has the word God on it. Also note that it does not apply to electronic media. Use of appellations like “G-d” is only just in case you print it out. Backspacing over “God” is perfectly fine. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/31 "2010-04-28T04:34:39Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > … And by the way, it’s “deity,” not “diety.” Easy way to remember; Jesus is a deity, Buddha needs a diety. 😃 CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534/32 "2010-04-28T04:56:46Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Easy way to remember; Jesus is a deity, Buddha needs a diety. > > 😃 > CMC fnord! I feel stupid that it took me a few minutes to understand that joke. I use the Latin pronunciation (you know, from like Agnus Dei) to remember the spelling of deity, so it took me a bit to recognize the English word [diet]. My compliments on knowing that the background is not pure white. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitalizing-god/537534.md?page=1)