If you’re using a plural pronoun, and God is one of those referred to by it, is it still capitalized?
E.g., when speaking of God, “Yeah, we’re good.”
I’m torn on this one. I want to capitalize out of deference to God, but capitalizing a pronoun that includes me seem like I’m sponging off of God’s glory.
What do you think?
You know, I can’t say as I’ve ever really given it much thought.
I’d keep it lower case since you’re really speaking for God. If you were quoting scripture, that’d be different. You really should keep God lowercase as well (“god”) since you are borderline blaspheming by speaking for Him.
God should always be capitalized. It IS a proper noun, right? It’s just most people when they type on message boards, chat rooms, etc. are dumbasses that use “net language” like this: O My gawd!!11 i jst tawkd 2 jimmy an he aksed me out 2 da promm! i thnk im gunna git my pantsies wet!” See?
But God should always be capitalized, whether you’re religious or not. Kind of like when you write about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
I agree, capitalizing “We” when you are referring to God and yourself is sponging off God’s glory.
Generally, pronouns referring to God are not capitalized, only titles and such (e.g., “Lord,” “Lamb of God,” “Son of Man,” “Holy Spirit,” “Messiah,” “Father,” etc.).
But you only put “God” in lowercase if you’re an atheist (perhaps agnostics, too?) or talking about some pagan god or something.
Sponging.
Tell me, does this subject come up often?
For me, I’d leave the pronoun un-capitalized.
ThaSickness makes a good point. Deliberately putting “God” in lowercase is making a statement that God doesn’t exist, which is why atheists do it, of course.
Frank;
You know, you could take the approach is if you get it wrong, you could do a whole “Know Thine Enemy” thing about God.
Lots of good material in the Old Testament and Revelation, like waking up and your whole army is dead….
Oh, thank God for the New Testament.
Think of the sponging this way, it’s like when you went out to the garage with you Dad when you were little and he let you pound in a nail or two, but when you got back to the house, you told Mom what a good job you had done (you plural). At best we’re the kids with plastic hammers and saws in the bigger picture of doing anything. I am confident He doesn’t mind us taking mutual credit. Read about Moses to see what happens when you take the credit yourself…
So all you need to do is put god in lowercase is all you need to do to prove that god doesn’t exist? There goes a millenia of debate over the existence and nature of god.
I would have to say that you should segment it. As in;
Well the Lord Jesus Christ and I are both joooos…
Or if you must insist on pronouns;
I went to the temple with Him the other day and I watched him open up a can of Whoop Ass again….(you know that whole make a whip and start clearing out the temple of money changers single-handedly thing. It looks like He did it at least three times. Yeah riiight, I don’t think he’s that girly looking guy Da Vinci painted…)
Rather than saying; At the temple We kicked a bunch of ass…
It reads more concise if you break it out so number one we know it was only one of us kicking butt, and other other guy (me) was just standing around watching.
Why not change it to He and I instead of ‘we’
Theologically speaking, I can’t really see any time when it would be correct to refer to yourself and God in the same pronoun. That’s kind of like comparing yourself to God.
I know you’re a great guy and all, but there is no comparison.
I checked with my schizophrenic Aunt Clyde & she said caps, definitely
Frank,
Split the difference. When using “We” to mean God and I, God gets the “W” and you get the “e.” It’s the thought that counts, eh?
Howard
P.S. I’d get this one right or you may be hearing about Hurrican Zack.
I second Floberry’s motion:
“Why not change it to He and I instead of ‘we'”
You only capitolize God if you’re speaking of the true, Triune, Christian God. The posers only get lowercase.
Go ahead and capitalize, and if God questions you on it tell Him that the ‘W’ is His, and the ‘e’ represents you. You’re still being humble and He get His capitalization. Everyone’s happy.
I’d capitalize, good insurance.
I think it’s a win, win, kind of thing, covers all bets, and the Big Guy ( I even capitalized that) himself can’t fault you for it.
cthulu_mt, it sounds like you’re responding to me…
All I was saying is that atheists think God doesn’t exist, so they talk as if he doesn’t exist, which is why they use “god” instead of “God.”
Have you ever looked at a word so much that it entirely loses all meaning for you? I read God so much in these comments I’ve broken it down so far that it’s just three little letters. Plenty of respect for the Man Upstairs, but woo. It’s like typing “what” two hundred times.
Do I make sense or am I just rambling?
Any references to or including Me should be capitalized.
Singular, capitalized, Him, etc. Plural, only when speaking of the Holy Trinity would it deserve a plural capitalization. Otherwise, if it is a plural due to God and I, it is lower.
All you are not Holy. Only He.
God would smote you if you stole His glory, yet he would smote you if you don’t give Him any. So don’t use “we” when referring to God, to avoid being smoted
I’d try to recast the sentence myself, to avoid confusion. There was a reason God curtained Himself off in the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament. You really don’t want to be in the same room (or sentence) with Him, unless you’ve got a good, first-class Mediator in your corner.
Lots of people (and some Bible translations) nowadays don’t bother with capitalizing His pronouns. They say, “They weren’t capitalized in the original Greek or Hebrew, so what’s the point?” Buffoons! They forget that nothing got capitalized in the original Greek and Hebrew, and that God has had His capitalization project going in English now for several hundred years. Do you want to be the one to go into His office and say, “Hey, we decided those capital gains you’ve been getting don’t really serve any purpose, so we’ll be closing that operation down. We’re sure you won’t mind.”
I’ll bet the guy who did that lives in Florida…
If you’re using a contraction for “you are”, you’re not supposed you spell it “your” which is a possessive pronoun.
It looks especially silly when the sentence is ABOUT PRONOUNS!
BTW – if you are including yourself and Almighty God in the same pronoun, you are indeed arrogant but it should NOT be capitalized. If you infer that your inclusion degrades the necessity of the capital, you would be correct. Sorry.
I would be afraid to call God ‘it’ in the first place. But that’s just me.
I like skipping.
I think you oughtta wait till God’s blogging and incorporates You into his “We”-s. 🙂 Yea, total moochin otherwise…bummer.
I agree–Capitalize. Don’t cost nuttin’.
Is it just me, or did that not make any sense at all?
The Voice in my head tells me it’s not a good idea.
http://cowboyblob.blogspot.com/2004/10/beware-voices-frank-j.html
I believe the Vatican wants you to capitalize anything referring to God.
Well I second the move that proper names are capitlaized. For instance he “F”in Frank. As for pronouns I think “Frank” should always capitalize the “S” in She when he refers to SarahK using She. As a right wing Christian fanatic I see nothing wrong with capitalizing Buhda, Allah, Zeus, or JEFF COOPER even though the later is not a god but one of the discipiles of St. John Moses Browing. As for aethists using a small “g” I fell sure that SHE will have HER little joke on them. I use the all caps SHE to mark the difference between the God SHE and the goddess She. Who will probably be smitting Frank real soon if he doesn’t cough up the platinum.
Capitalize We to show deference, then make fun of yourself to show humility.
my opinion: you literally cannot put yourself on the same equivalence as God. It is consider disrespectful. By saying “we” (capitalize or not), you’re putting yourself in the same ballfield as God. Next time you create an entire universe, knock yourself out and use “We.” (Capitalized). Until then, if you want to be technical, it should always be “God and I”.
“Plenty of respect for the Man Upstairs”
Just calling Him the man upstairs is disrespectful.
He is the One Who nit you in your mother’s womb.
Praise be to the One true God!!
Jesus is Lord, the very One Who spoke and the universe lept into existence. (See, Genesis 1 and John Chapter 1)
Frank,
No matter what path you choose-upper case or lower case, you’re going to burn in hell. No if’s, and’s or but’s.
Sincerely, God
… with a capital G, goddamnit!!… was I supposed to capitalize “goddamnit”???
If you are referring to a number of gods, and not “the” God, then the word is not capitalized. You only capitalize it when you are talking about the Man Himself.
Frank, say whatever you want, then give glory to God by burning Kerry in effigy.
“Effigy, eh? Yeah, nothing burns like an effigy.” — Homer Simpson
I used to know this schitzo guy who thought HE was God…
He was cool, a benevolent God, I guess.
Anyway I wish I still knew him so I could ask him if he capitalizes the ‘m’ in “me” when ever he writes.
He probably didn’t.
It was fun to wander around with him because he thought everything in world the was meant just for him. For instance, if he saw any grafitti he might get angry that they’d leave such a message for him. Or if he walked by someone running a camcorder, he’d get angry – hadn’t people learned by now not to invade God’s privacy? It didn’t even occur to him that the tourist was filming someone else.
By the way other “Joshua” guy, when God “nit [Frank] in [his] mother’s womb” did He get His hands all gooey?
Good job with that piece, Spetiam. Even I could understand it!
Actually, Turkeyhead, Wiccans (as well as other Pagans) not only capitalize when referring to Gods and Goddesses, but all of them were named (back in the day), such as the Goddess Kali.
Did you start doing this before hurricane season?
Ok, there are some capitalization rules that the translators of the scriptures use when translating the different Hebrew words and names of God.
“Lord” is the Hebrew word Adonai, which can mean a “Lord” as a master but in the case of the scriptures refers specifically to God.
“LORD” is a translation of the name of God “YHWH”, the memorial name He tells Moses in Exodus 3:15.
God is the Hebrew word Elohim, the deity, or “The God”.
And finally, GOD is used when YHWH appears next to Adonai, i.e. the “God who is YHWH”.
As far as use of a combined pronoun, I’d use Jesus’ example in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one”. Since He didn’t capitalize “one”, I’m willing to go along with that direction.
holy Crap, that is quite a condumbdumb…
Actually, you can have it both ways. Normally, in literature, ‘God’, meaning the judeo-christian god, has been in caps. A pronoun is “One of a class of words that function as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and denote persons or things asked for, previously specified, or understood from the context.” and it does not need a capital. So, it’s really a matter of personal preference.
There is one thing we need to know, we are all gods, therefore we may decide on a personal basis if that warrants caps or not.
Problems with that? Don’t worry, you’ll get it eventually, if not in this life, then in one down the road.
Notice I said we are all gods, no caps, and none in my name either. Why not?
It’s such a silly thing.
Insisting on caps is tantamount to saying that those who came and went before the invention of writing with or without caps, and indeed, those who, like the Greeks, never used them at all, never truly believed in god. So silly!
those who, like the Greeks, never used [caps] at all
First off, the ancient Greeks had caps-lock on. Here’s a high resolution image (2.88 MB GIF image) of the Rosetta stone. The alphabet started out all caps, and very gradually the lowercase was developed. By the time A.D. ~100 and even later rolled around, Greek was still mostly written in caps, as you can see on this papyrus.
insisting on caps is tantamount to saying that those who came and went before the invention of writing with or without caps… never truly believed in god. So silly!
Uh, no, that’s not what was being said. It is, therefore, what you’re saying that’s silly. Using “god” instead of “God” has, generally speaking, become a convention whereby the person using it signifies their disbelief in the existence of God, their lack of respect for God or their ignorance of modern languages – English in particular.
Just out respect i have always used a capitol and it is because of my personal belief in God.