I’ve noticed a trend of substituting the letters “Og” for the word “God” when posters want to use that word.
Now on the surface, I would think perhaps it was a sign of religious respect. However, I have seen numerous posts in which the poster used the “Og” phrase at one point, only to say “God” at a later point.
What’s the deal with this?
Og only knows
Og Smash!
IIRC…
‘Of’ is often mistyped ‘og’. Either a certain poster misspelled it frequently, or else there was a rash of misspellings, and people picked up on it as a name for a god. ‘Og smash!’
‘Manny’ was popular for a while, for ‘many’.
God is the Original Gangsta.
My take on it: “Og” is used by Atheists who don’t want to say “god”. “Thank God I paused before crossing the street or I would have been run down by that runaway rhino…” is inconsistent to a thinking Atheist, because he doesn’t believe in God. Saying “Thank Og…” substitutes an obviously mythical entity, and adds some slightly self-conscious irony to the statement.
J.
I think I may have found the original thread that started it all…
The original Og Smash thread.
shoot…ninja’d 'cause I took time to read the whole thing…
It’s become a board meme over time, because of the Og Smash thread, which is obviously a typo. Like cow-orker.
I think it’s evolved though, into a sort of generic reference to a vaguely defined diety. It’s a way to refer to a supernatural protector/overseer without invoking any of the defined religions or provoking a nitpick related to specific religious beliefs.
See also: this person’s very appropriate name.
This answer seems to make the most sense to me.
Atheists don’t typically have any problem with saying “God,” or using expressions containing that word. Atheism is not some kind of doctrine which prohibits any reference to the word. I say “God,” all the time, along with expressions like “thank God,” Sweet Jesus," "thank Christ, etc.
I don’t think I’ve ever met an atheist who made any attempt to avoid using the word figuratively or in epithets. It means nothing.
This thread just made me realize that zev_steinhardt is awesome. I only knew him as the guy whose kids make hamantaschen every year (which is also awesome, because hamantaschen are delicious) but I think his posts in this thread display the kind of calm, rational debate that everyone here should strive for.
Exactly. I just think it’s a funny, in joke. A bit of local silliness.
Og Smash is a joke that pre-dates the SDMB by a number of years. It was a joke on the Usenet for a while before this message board existed.
depending on who you’re around, sometimes you just want to invoke a generic god and not the Christian God with all its religious baggage.
I always say “doG”
Atheists don’t mind saying god, God, Zeus, Yahweh, Odin, Mithra, Superman, or the name of any other such fictional entity.