# What's with G-D **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 7, 2004, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969 "2004-03-07T12:47:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/1 "2004-03-07T12:47:11Z")
I’m just recently starting to see “G-D” in print in contexts in which it obviously is meant to stand in for “God”. Before seeing ads/ posters for the movie [Trembling Before G-d](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278102/), I had never see “God” written this way (“G-d”) before. Since first seeing it in connection with this film, however, I have seen it in other contexts that are not connected to the film, always used in such a way as to lead me to believe that there may be some long history/tradition behind it. So, who can tell me about “G-d”? ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/2 "2004-03-07T12:59:28Z")
It’s a jewish thing. One shouldn’t write gods name on something which could be destroyed (as paper by fire) and has also crossed over to electronic media etc. Somone will be in to answer properly, but that is the gist of it. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/3 "2004-03-07T13:05:08Z")
I’m not religious in any way but I read an explanation for this somewhere or another. I think the reason the name God is not written out completely is so the sacred name cannot be defaced by a heathen or inadvertently. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/4 "2004-03-07T13:09:41Z")
Does anyone else think that non-Jews are encountering “G-d” in the media more often than used to be the case? I mean, really, I went from having _never_ seen it to seeing it pretty frequently anymore. Have I only recently started paying attention? ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/5 "2004-03-07T17:02:08Z")
> [@Iteki](#): > > It’s a jewish thing. One shouldn’t write gods name on something which could be destroyed (as paper by fire) and has also crossed over to electronic media etc. In Judaism, God’s name is not “God”, so your statment falls flat. “YHVH” is a fairly close transliteration to how the Name is written in Hebrew, however, the actual pronunciation of that name is now unknown. Things like “Yahweh” are mere guesses. The whole “G-d” thing has come about because it was the practice to say “god” instead of the Name when reading Torah, since the Name is not to be spoken by us impure mortals. However, in the modern day, there are both poor ignorant sots who think that “God” is His Name and other people who have decided that “God” has been used as a substitute for the name for so long that it must now be treated as if it were the Name. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/6 "2004-03-07T17:06:44Z")
bienville I think the reason non-Jews are seeing it more often is because the practice is catching on with Christians. I’ve seen it written that way on more than one Christian message board. ---
**Author:** ![legion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@legion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legion)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/7 "2004-03-07T22:07:54Z")
A guy I know spells it that way all the time. His reason is that he doesn’t want to risk God’s wrath by misspelling it. 😕 I dunno. Seems to me he misspells it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/8 "2004-03-07T22:49:45Z")
I thought it was spelled og. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/9 "2004-03-08T01:13:20Z")
There have been several threads on this topic. While “God” is not the _name_ of the Almighty, it is the word in English that most frequently identifies the Almighty and it is, therefore, shown the same respect. (It is hard to research because vB will not search on three-character strings, but a search for _Adonai_ will turn up most of them.) [Quick “God” question (I hope)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14707) [G-d](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32414) [Why is it G-d but not L-rd?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38689) [Who named God?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91080) And amidst a number of smart-alec remarks, [What is God’s Name?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=98379) also provided some good information. [G-d?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=139333) [The Word of “G-d”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=154772) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/10 "2004-03-08T01:21:48Z")
I had never seen the ‘G-d’ usage before joining these boards. I am neither Christian nor Jewish and don’t tend to travel in religious circles, so it’s quite possible that ‘G-d’ is in common usage in some communities in Canada and I’d never seen it. It’s definitely not mainstram in Southern Ontario though. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/11 "2004-03-08T02:34:31Z")
I first started noticing the “G-d” spelling a few years ago, when some of my students would spell it that way in their papers. At first I thought it was odd, and then I learned it was a Jewish convention. How old that convention is, I’m not sure–I’ve only been teaching and grading papers for a little more than 10 years now, and most of that time has been in the Deep South, where the Jewish population is fairly small. I suppose if I were teaching in an area with a larger Jewish community, I would have noticed it earlier. Similarly, I only recently learned that “B.C.E.” and “C.E.” (“Before Common Era” and “Common Era” respectively) were the accepted Jewish terms for the Christian “B.C.” and “A.D.” I’ve noticed now, however, that “B.C.E.” and “C.E.” are becoming the preferred dating terms among most historical scholars, Jewish or otherwise. The “G-d” spelling still strikes me as a bit odd, as I understand it isn’t the word “God” that is verboten–it’s the unpronounceable YHWH (or YHVH) as Dogface points out. But if it’s considered a standard convention, then I don’t see any problem with it. Though I still chuckle when I see students spell it that way when they’re referring to pagan gods (for example, Ares as the Greek “g-d of war”). ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/12 "2004-03-08T05:19:57Z")
Ahh, but surely the omniscient being _knows_ that when you read “G-d” you’re thinking “God” in your mind, so it’s just as bad. And I don’t see how deliberately misspelling “God” as a way of avoiding accidentally misspelling “God” helps at all. ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/13 "2004-03-09T09:20:08Z")
> [@Dogface](#): > > In Judaism, God’s name is not “God”, so your statment falls flat. “YHVH” is a fairly close transliteration to how the Name is written in Hebrew, however, the actual pronunciation of that name is now unknown. Things like “Yahweh” are mere guesses. I prefer cartoonist Larry Gonick’s guess: YaHooWaHoo 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Achilles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dc4da7/32.png) [@Achilles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achilles)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/14 "2004-03-09T09:24:42Z")
On the same note - why do these idiots capitalise the first letter of “his” & “he”. It’s just about the language people ! You only capitalise **PROPER NOUNS**! AAAAARgh. Makes me want to puke with anger… [::grunts and walks off::] ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/15 "2004-03-09T14:43:00Z")
“These idiots” (read: Christians like me) do it out of respect, pure and simple. He, Thee, Thou, You, etc. all capitalized in reverence to God. But no, we’re not afraid of getting struck down if we forget to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/16 "2004-03-09T15:04:07Z")
> [@](#): > > What’s with G-d? Nothin’ much. What’s with you? ---
**Author:** ![Achilles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dc4da7/32.png) [@Achilles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achilles)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/17 "2004-03-09T15:11:06Z")
> [@Max Carnage](#): > > “These idiots” (read: Christians like me) do it out of respect, pure and simple. He, Thee, Thou, You, etc. all capitalized in reverence to God. But no, we’re not afraid of getting struck down if we forget to do it. Yeah, but they’re not proper nouns. Anyway, I shouldn’t get too het-up about it. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/18 "2004-03-09T15:19:42Z")
> [@Achilles](#): > > On the same note - why do these idiots capitalise the first letter of “his” & “he”. It’s just about the language people ! You only capitalise **PROPER NOUNS**! > > AAAAARgh. Makes me want to puke with anger… > > [::grunts and walks off::] Must be nice to have such a cushy and fluffy little life to be so upset over that. Capitalization of pronouns when referring to the Divine has very long credence and IS correct English. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/19 "2004-03-09T15:29:57Z")
> [@](#): > > There have been several threads on this topic. While “God” is not the name of the Almighty, it is the word in English that most frequently identifies the Almighty and it is, therefore, shown the same respect. The logical problem is, of course, that if you use “G-d” as a replacement for “God” and everyone knows what it means, then, really, “G-d” becomes “the word in English that most frequently identifies the Almighty” – so how do you show “G-d” the same respect? Words, after all, are arbitrary symbols for concepts. Writing adds a further level of arbitrariness. So long as a “marking” and a concept are connected in the writer’s and the reader’s mind, that’s all the connection that language requires. Thus “G-d” is no less the true name of god than “God” or “Adonai” or “YHWH” or “Yahweh” or “Yahoowahoo” etc. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969/20 "2004-03-09T16:04:30Z")
AndrewT: > [@](#): > > And I don’t see how deliberately misspelling “God” as a way of avoiding accidentally misspelling “God” helps at all. It’s not done to avoid accidentally _misspelling_ the name, it’s done to avoid accidentally _mistreating_ the name…translation though it may be. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-g-d/232969.md?page=2)