Why do some people refuse to even say or spell out the word "God"?

I think it’s a sign of deference and respect in some faiths.

Jews use G-d, maybe other religions do also?

In Judaism it is one way to prevent others from destroying His name as the old gods were destroyed. It is done out of respect for the Lord. There is actually a commandment about never writing His name in Hebrew that many Jews have transferred over to English.

One Rabbi’s explanation

‘cept that strictly speaking, God means a title, not a name. title: God, Goddess name: Jehovah, Allah and so forth. I do mean, i understand that “God” has turned into “Jehovah”‘s de facto name.

In English the word God is God’s name. YHWH is His name in Hebrew. Most folks use Adonai instead of His name, while some use Ha-shem (“the name”).

Oh, and you are not supposed to say God’s name in vain, which I think is explained different ways. One is to interpret “vain” as an untruth. To use His name in something that does not really refer or involve Him. Another explanation is you are not supposed to use God’s name along with profanity.

And there’s also, I think, the agnostics who are attempting to acknowledge they don’t know God or any of his/her/its properties… like his name, gender, etc.

@Darwin I think some are not supposed to be spoken aloud or something? Judaism has a bunch of rules.

@Darwin: what did they call “gods” in the Bible, then? as in false gods? or “having no god before me?” “no [other] Jehovah before me”, wouldn’t make sense.

I maintain that thinking of “God” as a name causes semantic confusion arises when one person identifies Krishna as Allah as Jehovah when they mean different gods. (I just used a real life example.) though actually I think that this had to do with making them all smoothed over and Universalist Unitarian about it.

@Ria777, Allah and Jehovah refer to the same God of Abraham.

@Ria777 – Personally, I think they are all the same guy, but many Jews prefer to follow the commandments of Moses and not say or write His name.

My mother is a Unitarian and she says or writes out the word God when ever she is referring to a single primary deity. My cousins, who as Jewish, write G-d and say Adonai.

@Ria777 What different Gods? Allah is the same God as the Jewish God and the Christian God, and I think Jahovah also? I don’t know about the Kishna’s.

@Judi, @JLeslie: you will find that some people Christians and Jews disagree that Allah and Jehovah means the same thing.

I don’t know any Jews that think that, but I believe you. I kind of think it would be out of ignorance that they think that. I would also guess Christians are mor likely to say something like that than Jews. Why do you think they are different Gods?

I guess what I was trying to get at was why some atheists write it, like even just spelling the word out disgusts them.

@J0E I think those atheists might be Jews?

@Darwin: I mean, that, you can say God all you want a not say his name. because, as I said before, he has a different name.

to clarify, I will say that I think of these deities as mythological characters. so the ecumenical view has as much validity as any other, only less historical authenticity.

@J0E: I have never seen that before. I just say “Satan”, as in “Satan knows”, etc. (I call myself an agnostic, not an atheist, though.)

A rose by any other name.

I’ve never come across an atheist here or anywhere else that felt compelled to do so. It honestly does seem more like a religious prohibition than anything to do with being an atheist?!

@Ria777 – The word is capitalized because it is the English version of His name. The word “god” with a small g refers to anything or anyone else that has been considered a deity.

As to agnostics who write G_d I would suspect they were raised as Jews or are hedging their bets.

In any case, it’s an individual choice and shouldn’t bother anyone else, unless you happen to be one of those ”my religion practiced my way is the only correct way for everybody to live.”

@JLeslie: you can think of the major Abrahamic religions as a Russian doll with Judaism at the center and Christianity in the middle. (and Bahá’í, I guess enclosing Islam, though that doesn’t count as a major Abrahamic religion, in terms of numbers.)

Muslims accept Christianity and Judaism as “real” (despite their prophet badmouthing Jews and Christians, among other things) but think Islam trumps the other religions. the Christians think of Judaism as “real” (despite some Christians thinking that the Jesus dissolved certain binding agreements that the Father put on humans, among other things) but that Christianity trumps the other religions and the Jews don’t have to accept any of the other two.

Like my sister doesn’t bother to capitalize God/god, because she thinks that is a rule by theists, and she is an atheist. But, I am an atheist, but typically I use the capital G, mostly out of respect for people who do believe in God, and since that is what is comonly expected. Although, I don’t bother with the dash, even though I was raised Jewish. No logic there I know.

@Darwin: yes, I know why they capitalize it. same as you capitalize empress under some circumstances and not other. when talking about your empress or writing her, you capitalize the word.

To express their distaste for religion and theism.

@Ria777 I like the Russian doll analogy, I might use that for something one day. I don’t think of the religions that way. There is one God, the Jews seemed to know him first (remember I am an atheist). The Moslems, I am less clear about how that religion developed, just my own lack of knowledge on the subject, but it seems that they have added onto Judaism like the Christians. Seems Ismael never got over being cast out by Sarah or something. Anyway, seriously, I will talk about Christianity since I understand it better. The Christians were Jews and then they accepted Jesus as the Messiah and his word as the word of God. The God did not change, he is not a different God.

@Ria777 – You seem to be practicing a gentile’s form of pilpul, but with no end success.

@JLeslie – God did not change for the Muslims either. Jesus became a prophet and is not seen as the messiah and Muhammad is God’s final and most important messenger and prophet.

@mattbrowne – And then there are the Mormons, with Joseph Smith and the angel Moroni.

@mattbrowne But God is still God. I think you are saying that too.

@ria777 I really think Christian’s who want to think it is a different God just simply don’t like the IDEA that it is the same God.

@JLeslie: why just pick on the Christians, though? many Jews collectively decided they wanted not to follow this Jesus guy. and still do so today.

@Darwin: as far as common usage, yes, “God” means the name of “God”. (what does “tautology” mean?) in terms of strict usage… I won’t repeat myself.

I don’t get what you are saying? Do you know any Jews who think God is not the same God in Judaism, Christianity, and the Moslem faith? I am kind of picking on the Christian’s, cause I think they arethe ones who say things like that, but I could be wrong. I kind of thought it very odd that a Jew might say that.

@Ria777 – So what do you think His name is in English if it isn’t God? Fred? Jerry? Anita?

And Jews who chose and choose not to consider Jesus the Messiah are the ones who felt he didn’t meet the requirements to be the Messiah. They are still waiting for the Messiah to come.

They do all agree, however, that Jesus was a wise man and a prophet. Even the Buddhists and the Moslems agree on that.

@JLeslie – The God depicted by the Old Testament is a personal God for the people of Israel. Religions evolve. Modern enlightened forms of religions gave up the concept of “your” God, “his” God and “my” God. Instead: one God, the very same for everyone maybe referred to by different names. There are different views about the prophets and messiahs and the meaning of “son” of God.

@mattbrowne so are you agreeing with @Ria777 ? That they are different Gods?

@Darwin: they use his name as a title. I already ‘splained. you know when I go to different countries, my name doesn’t change, just my title. same with Jehovah. the Islamic version has a different name, because different religious tradition. but they still use the same title.

@JLeslie: answering your second post first, I meant that the Islamic God had a different name than the Jewish one. answering your first (the one addressed directly to me): I don’t know how Jews reconcile the contradiction. (or how liberal Christians reconcile it.)

This is ridiculous. I’ve never seen an atheist do this. You are misinterpreting a Jewish tradition.

@Ria777 What contradiction? I don’t see one. God is God. In Arabic it is Allah, in Hebrew we have several names, in English we use Lord sometimes instead of God. It is all the same God.

@Ivan: do you mean me? would you like to explain?

I was answering the question.

@JLeslie: I mean the contradiction of the Christians believing in a false messiah (from the Jewish POV) and the Muslims believing in the first false messiah (again from the Jewish POV), plus a prophet, too demanding requirements not asked of Jews.

remember, also, that I don’t ascribe truth to any of these belief systems.

I’ve seen some atheists do that…there’s this site I sometimes look at called fstdt.net (Fundies Say the Darndest Things) where people post goofy stuff that fundamentalists on message boards or in the news or something say. If there’s a quote that is particularly funny, I look at the comments that members of that site (pretty much all of them are atheist) leave, and a good amount of them spell God g-d or g*d. I don’t know why they do it, but I’ve seen it done.

@Ivan I obviously have seen people do this, why would I make it up?

You’ve seen Jews do this. If atheists do it, they’re probably trying to be funny or ironic. It’s the same reason why they spell it “gawd”.

What I’m getting at with this question is that whether you are a jew, muslim, atheist, or albino it is still just a word.

@Ria777 Now you are losing me, what does that have to do with God? Are you saying that the Jews refusal to accept Jesus as the messiah mean they are now not accepting the same God. Jews believe that they have their own relationship with God, and that Christian’s have theirs, and both are meaningful, that all good people can rise to heaven, If we die and go to heaven and find that the Christian’s were mistaken, Jesus was not the son of God, not one Jew would say that should keep a Christian out of heaven, wish it was the other way also. That Christians would let Jews and Moslems in if they had lived a good life in a manner Jesus would be proud of. What you are suggesting furthers the separation between the religions it bother me. It seems counterproductive.

@Ivan I disagree. I think atheist Jews might do it to repsect religious Jews or out of old habit. Many theists use Gawd because it is taking his name in vain.

@JLeslie: Now you are losing me, what does that have to do with God?

as I keep saying, I don’t believe in their god.

Are you saying that the Jews refusal to accept Jesus as the messiah mean they are now not accepting the same God.

not directly. the Gnostic Christians believed that the Jews worshipped a false god who had taken over from the real one. (I don’t know if the Gnostic “Christians” didn’t predate Christianity, though.) the false god had also created the physical universe.

@J0E

Well I agree, but there are plenty of religious traditions which don’t make any sense.

@JLeslie

I was including atheist Jews when I spoke of “Jews”.

@Ria777 I don’t know these Gnostic Christian’s, but again you are using Christians, after accusing me of holding up the Christian’s as maybe the ones who see God as a different one in each of the religions who had named above. Did you answer my question about whether you know any Jews who see it that way? This is crazy we are going round and round and we are both flippin’ atheists for Christ’s sake!

@Ivan I am an atheist Jew, and I am telling you what I think.

@JLeslie: I don’t know about any Jews literally saying that the Christians worship a false god.

@Ria777 To me it is a simple question, let’s ask it again. Do you think the Christian’s, Moslem’s and Jews all worship the same God?

I have heard of the Sacred Name movement. It is from similar thought as the Jewish line of thinking, where any piece of paper that bears the name must be preserved.

I don’t believe in God, god or gods so I don’t want to use those words out of respect for the people who do believe. I’ll write gawd/gawds instead.

@hhh If you really want to respect them don’t say ‘gawd’.

@Ria777 – His title includes such things as the Lord on High or Our Lord Who Art in Heaven. His name in English is God. That’s why little kids are taught to pray “Dear God…”

What @Darwin said. That is what I was trying to say.

Jewish kids are praying, “Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha‑olam…” The English translation is “Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe…” It’s just whatever language you are in, not a different God.

@JLeslie Isn’t the answer entirely subjective?

The Jewish God didn’t send a prophet/son named Christ. The Christian God did. The Muslim God is one who contacted the final prophet Muhammed, whereas the Christian and Jewish God did not. etc.. etc.. etc..

The God of these three Abrahamic religions teaches some things that are the same and many things that are not.

So I think it’s debatable. They all believe that they worship the one true God, but that doesn’t necessarily translate that the God they worship is the same. He has distinctly different properties, and if he didn’t one would assume that there wouldn’t be such divisions between these religions and their followers.

So just to make it clear, it’s not that I feel strongly one way or the other (Frankly I think they’re all just praying to their own conscience, which would mean that there are probably over 6 billion gods).

It’s just that it seems to be an entirely subjective issue as to whether we call it one way or the other.

@Critter38 Your argument definetly has some logic behind. But, since they are all, as you said, of the Abrahamic religions, it is the same God to me. It is the division you speak of that troubles me so. There can be three chidlren in a family, and each child remembers lesson taught by his parents differently, even perceive their father differently, one might say he was strict, when another might say he wasn’t. And, each child is different, but they all have the same father. That is kind of how I think about it.

I don’t have to be right or convince anyone, I was trying to communicate how I see it. :).

Agreed. I was merely wondering if you did feel strongly, why that was so. :)

@JLeslie: whether or not I would say that the three main Abrahamic religions believe in a different god from the others depending on how strictly or loosely you define “the same”. if you want to define it broadly they believe in the same god. if you want to define it narrowly then not even all christians believe in the same god. (it could break down into Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic, etc.)

@Darwin: I think of “God” as the equivalent of “the Lord” in Hebrew. a descriptor, which doubles as a name. as per the subject of this thread, Judaism has a taboo about saying God’s name. (Islam has no problem with it.)

@Ria777 I guess I choose the broad definition then. The narrow definition you speak of, especially within Christianity is even more confusing to me. I mean a Catholic accepts Jesus as their saviour, but even they are not good enough for the Baptists. I like a more inclusive view, the less separate we are the better.

@Ria777 – Well, that is your opinion. In English His name is God.

@Critter38 – It is all the same God. He just packages the message different ways for different cultures.

That is, if there is a sentient, all powerful, all knowing deity.

@Darwin: we both of us said the same thing, with variations, a couple of times. would you like to call it quits?

@Ria777 – Since you aren’t offering up any facts, sure.

@Darwin: facts?! God discussed this with me personally!

Did you use the 800 number in Oklahoma?

@Darwin: come on now! why would I need a phone to talk to God?!

JC. This conversation veered off track. Lol.

You mean this isn’t real?

Never heard of this..Quite immature.

@JLeslie – No, I don’t agree with @Ria777. As you said, God is God. Different names can refer to the same entity. Allah, God, Lord etc. But this is my belief. Scientifically speaking we don’t know whether this single deity exists. There are other beliefs. Some of those other beliefs use personalized Gods, like Moses as depicted in the Old Testament. Still other beliefs use several Gods. Before Abraham, some Hebrews already had additional Gods like Baal. Even during the time of Mose or David some people seemed to have worshiped “false” Gods allegedly leading to defeats or disasters (concept of the intervening God using rewards and punishments).

Yes, I totally agree the less separate we are the better, in particular when it comes to finally burying exclusive rights. Interfaith dialog is important finding common values. Equally important a world philosophy dialog finding common values.

Personally I share more common values with most atheists compared to say, the Christian religious right and people who believe in the vengeful God of the Old Testament. I believe in enlightenment, rationalism, humanism, liberalism, and critical thinking. I know many Christians, Muslims, Jews, Bahai, Hindus and so forth who feel the same.

One key issue for the 21st century is whether forward-thinking people should all become agnostics or atheists or whether they remain religious and support the effort to change religions from within.

@mattbrowne Your last sentence is something I have never considered. It would seem to me that you can’t be an atheist if you believe in God, so maybe these newer age religions are better fits? More like a hybrid than changing a religion from within. I guess the Protestan’s to develop new ideas and new interpretations over time, that is why you have Methodist, and Baptist, and Church of God, etc. And the Jews do it by being Reforemed, Conservative, Orthodox, etc. I don’t know if you can be atheist and Christian? Can you? Is there a community of people who would identify with that?

@JLeslie – An atheists would not be a Christian, but he or she can still share some values which are also part of the Christian value system. Likewise can modern Christians share the values of critical thinking, rationality, humanism, liberalism and so forth. I think there are plenty of communities of forward-thinking people.

@mattbrowne I think most of us, no matter what religion, o rnot religion share values. I agree. There are lessons in all religions that we can learn from as society. I think most relgions are more alike than different.

from certain points of view I agree that the Abrahamic religions worship the same god. a liberal Muslim and a liberal Christian or Jew would agree that they do. other members of Abrahamic religions would argue otherwise. as I have argued before in this thread, using “God” rather than Allah or Jehovah (which devout Jews would never do anyway) smoothes over the differences.

@ria777 I have no idea if Jews in Lebonan use the word Allah when they are communicating in Arabic. Jews definetly are willing to pray in English and use the English word God, although most, even in America, commonly recited prayers are said in Hebrew. If I were in Mexico, speaking in Spanish, I would use Dios whether I was talking about Muslims, Jews, or Christian’s. I actually did a question a while ago asking if people thought the American media was doing a diservice to Muslims, by always using Allah instead of God, continuing the perception that their religion worships a different God.

I do see your point. It would be odd to use Jehovah, but Jehovah is not a acommonly accepted English word for God, is it? It is the Jehovah Witnesses word for God (well taken from the Hebrew I realize, not sure if I am hurting my line of logic here) my point it is in America our language most utilized is English, so we call God God, Spanish speaking countries Dios. I wonder in Israel during a Hebrew conversation if when talking to a Christian about God if they switch that one word to the English term?

@JLeslie: I thought that the american media generally did say “God” versus “Allah” because it sounds like exotic. (for that matter, in more recent translations of ancient greek tragedies you have people talking about “God” which strikes me as just plain wrong. (again, in an effort to make them seem less exotic, I assume.)

@Ria777 I disagree. When the media or whoever it is translates Arabic messages or conversations into English, they leave Allah as Allah. Greek tragedies? You mean the Gods like Zeus and Poseidon? They are Greek Gods. Well, seen as mythological Gods. What do you want to call them?

@JLeslie: we may listen to different radio stations. (I don’t have television.)

as far as the Greek tragedies, I meant God not gods. if you look at a lot of the more recent translations, they have statements like, “God has decreed.”

Because it’s promoting religion. (At least writing ‘God’. ‘god’ shouldn’t be as bad.)

@JLeslie – Absolutely !

How is god a name? It’s a title. Otherwise, every Greek god, Roman god, Babylonian god and every other religion would serve the same god. Satan is referred to at one point in the BIble as a “god”. It makes no sense. Why would the “Our Father” prayer say “hallowed be thy name” if it was a name everyone else had?

The Law forbade the blasphemous use of God’s name (Jehovah), and it was taken a step further as a tradition to not use the name at all – blasphemous or not. Adonai is equivalent to Lord. It’s a place holder.

@JLeslie Jehovah is not a made up name for God, used by just one religion. Baptists also use it, and it can be found on religious architecture in Europe from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I hate to simply point to a Wikipedia article, but it nicely summarizes all the points.

Interestingly, people claim that it’s a mistaken translation of the name, given written hebrew’s lack of vowels, but the same rules apply to Jesus’ name, and others, and no one seems to contend them.

@eponymoushipster Oh, I know it is not made up, the name Jehovah, did I write that somewhere? I must have chosen my words poorly. I think one reason Jews use the dash G-d because you cannot discard papers, or even I would guess internet pages with God written on them, so you would have to keep everything if you wrote it out.

I just found what I wrote above “I do see your point. It would be odd to use Jehovah, but Jehovah is not a acommonly accepted English word for God, is it? It is the Jehovah Witnesses word for God (well taken from the Hebrew I realize, not sure if I am hurting my line of logic here) my point it is in America our language most utilized is English, so we call God God, Spanish speaking countries Dios. I wonder in Israel during a Hebrew conversation if when talking to a Christian about God if they switch that one word to the English term?”

I should have written not commonly used, instead of accepted, in English except by the Jehovah’s from what I knew.

@JLeslie yeah, i’ve driven past the “Jehovah Baptist Church” before, somewhere (Detroit, maybe?). And Rastafarians use it as well.

@eponymoushipster Oh, I had never realized that the Baptists use it as well. I learned something. The thing is I am so non-religious that all of these little churches that pop up kind of blend together. I don’t mean to be dismissive. I guess they have their reasons why they prefer to use Jehovah instead of God.