Posted: October 16th 2010
Mike the Infidel www
Because it’s a proper noun.
Posted: October 18th 2010
SmartLX www
The name God is obvious enough because it’s a name, but the capitalisation often extends to pronouns and other words as in, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son...” (John 3:16, New American Standard Bible)
It’s an almost exclusively English-language phenomenon; some other languages capitalise pronouns, but not only in special cases. It came about because several English translations of the Bible use this convention. Since the Bible is the ultimate reference point for many Christians (and ex-Christians, to some extent), the capitalisation of deities has passed into general usage.
Beyond general usage, however, some apologists capitalise “God” wherever they use it, as in, “ I felt that there must be a God who had been guiding me…” This is a subtle way to reinforce the idea that if there’s any god at all, it’s the Christian captial-G God. It saves arguments with their converts later in the process if they take this as read.
Posted: October 17th 2010
bitbutter www
God is the name of one of the leading characters in Christian mythology. The G is capitalised because it’s a persons’ name.
God is also a god; that is to say, he’s a member of the class, gods (Christians believe God is the only god). It’s as if you were to name your cat, Cat—perhaps because you thought it was a very important cat.
Posted: October 16th 2010