Gr8Kat, the word is not supposed to be pronounced, not “unpronouncible.” Translations from Hebrew have many variations considering that the written language is devoid of vowels. I recently attended a Jewish wedding. A portion of the festivities took place at a synogogue in a rite known as an ufruf, oofroof or aufruf in English (I would assume FRF or Fe Resh Fe in Hebrew – lilah, can you verify?). The term Yahweh is a spelling.
That’s the name He gave us, far as I can recall. Greek and Roman mythology consists of a pretty high number of gods and goddesses. To refer to them by “god” or “goddess” would get entirely too confusing for 99 percent of us.
As for why God wants us to call Him that, ask Him 
In some cases, “God” is a proper noun. In the case where it is the name of a god, for example.
You capitalize proper names, no? “God” is the name of the Christian god.
I don’t address the Christian god. I usually don’t find it necessary to speak of the Christian god either. If I speak of Thor or Shiva, I adhere to standard English grammar rules. If someone tries to prove the existence of God, I state that the existence of a god cannot be proven.
Why on earth would anyone care how others spell the name of their deity? C’mon, who gives a rat’s ass, really?
-andros-
(proper name, not capitalized)
Well said, Andros. 
The word that you refer to is actually not Hebrew but Yiddish. Yiddish uses vowels.
IzzyR, YHVH is Hebrew. When one pronounces the term, it roughly corresponds to the sound yahweh. Would you please cite a source for this Yiddish etymology?
Nen,
I meant that your example, aufruf, is Yiddish. Sorry for the confusion.
What’s the difference between capitalizing Thor, Shiva, or God?
Izzy, thanks for the clarification, but I’d still like a link.
iampunha, if I specifically refer to the Christian god, I will write it thusly: God.
Link schmink! I am familiar with Hebrew and Yiddish, and I know which is which.
The word auf (or uyf, or oof, depending on what country you’re from) means on, or up. The word ruf means to call. The word aufruf means calling up. (It’s probably the same in German as well, though I can’t vouch for this). The affair that takes place on Saturday prior to the wedding is called an aufruf because the groom is called up to the Torah reading.
You can believe or disbelieve - that’s all you’ll get out of me.
I believe you, IzzyR, I just wanted to impress the wife with my fountain of knowledge. So, a bit of a hijack, but were ufrufs not commonplace prior to judaic-yiddish intermingling?
That, I can’t say. The whole thing is only a custom. It could be that it used to have another name; it could be that it started relatively recently. In fact, I have no idea if Sefardic Jews (those who come from the Arab countries) have this custom even today.
What’s with all the arguing about G-D, GOD, God, or god?
Why doesn’t someone ask him how he wants it spelled? Get back to us when you have the answer, or he can get ahold of me directly if he wants. 
I did. He said it’s spelled “H-a-r-o-l-d.”
I usually use -od or Go- myself.
This is kind of MPSIMSy, so apologies beforehand. Sorry.
My Intro to Islam professor in J’salem was a kipa-wearing Modern Orthodox (American) Jew. After he gave us back our first paper, he went on a rant about the numerous people who spelled god with a hyphen, but didn’t feel a similar compunction about putting a hyphen in allah. I don’t see it, but his reasoning was that allah has the same root as god’s name, and therefore we should be MORE careful about using it than “god”, which is just an English translation and has nothing to do with the Hebrew word of HaShem.
My friend got married last Sunday, and she and her husband (that sounds SO WEIRD!) had an ufruf on the previous Friday. I had never been to one before, and I guess the rabbi hadn’t either, because he had no idea how to perform one, and had to do some research to do it. So I guess the custom is dying out. (Or maybe just isn’t common in Reform shuls.)
The AP Stylebook says it’s “God”, but that you shouldn’t capitalize pronouns referring to him.
mind if i call you darryl to avoid confusion?
bj0rn - bark…
Wanna talk about “less than original”? Ever notice how Earth’s moon is the only moon to be named Moon? And nobody ever seems to confuse moon with Moon?
Strange how nobody seems to confuse god and God, either…