Not Cassandra, but an in-law

Not Cassandra, but an in-law

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Designating God

It is become a habit among atheists - a group in which Cassandra claims full membership - to write the name of the purported supreme being without a capital letter G.

Cassandra understands this impulse perfectly, and the logic appears to be sound:  if there is no such person or living entity, it can't have a name, only an appellation, designation... Right?  That is, the entity indicated doesn't actually exist, so doesn't have to be addressed or written about with wary respect.  A simple - rather than a proper - noun should do it.

(Sometimes a sunset is only a sunset)

 But wait.

In English, many things that are not real enjoy the honor of capitalized appellations.  We don't use capitalization as profligately as the Germans, who capitalize all nouns, proper or not, but we do capitalize identifiable characters whom we know for certain do not exist in the real world:  Charlie Brown, Victor Samsa, Flicka, Poseidon and Krishna, among billions of others.

Cassandra can't help but conclude that, even for those trying hard to make a valid point, proper English usage trumps political points.  The nonexistent non-being is God, not god.

Sorry.  But don't worry.  We know what you mean.

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