"God" in slang?

[Gently Gazing Eyes]

Is it just me or is it a bit difficult to avoid using the word "God" in your speech? I was never so aware how much "God" is embedded into the English language until I caught myself a couple of times and put serious thought into it. Think about it; "Good God," in response to a feeling of awe or bewilderment, "Oh my god!" as typical net-speak, "Godspeed," and many others. I then kept on reasoning that well of course it would work to say Goddess in replace of God, but that would just sound a bit odd in most cases. "Good Goddess," sounds alright, but then you get to "Oh my Goddess!" which to me just invites laughter (due to the manga by that name), and Goddessspeed.. well, I'll not even attempt to explain how akward those three s's look. :p

I'm done ranting now.. rack up another point on the stupidometer. :D

[Ahautenites]

I've never had much of a problem with it.

Then again. I usually say "Goodness!" "Good heavens!" "Bright Havens!" or "Good GRIEF!"

And I say "Gods!" instead of "God!"

I've never said godspeed, because it always looks like such a silly word to me.

I haven't ever had a problem with "Oh, my God!" because I was never allowed to say it. (My mother said, "You're not supposed to take the name of the Lord in vain.")

:)

[Erincelt]

I don't have any trouble with it personally.. as I see it, its still God even if I have a different understanding of what God is... plus, its just slang.. not to be taken seriously, neh? :) Also, as she said, I sometimes use Gods<- instead.

As far as "taking the Lord's (Adonai) name in 'vain'" goes...


3rd Commandment; Verse 7: "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

This is another commandment where religious liberals believe that only the first 13 word phrase was in the original text.

This verse originally meant that one is not to use the name of God for "any frivolous or malicious purpose or in magic."

Until recently, the phrase "taking God's name in vain" related to contracts. They were sworn "in the name of the Lord". If the terms of a contract were broken, the offending party was said to have taken "the Lord's name in vain." 3

Again, the Westminster Larger Catechism interprets this Commandment broadly to include believing in false doctrines or opposing God's truth.

Today, it is often mistakenly interpreted as prohibiting swearing. This has nothing to do with its original meaning.


See OCRT: Commandments (http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_10c7.htm) for this and others. I love that site.

[emraldshadowcat]

when I get frustrated, I say "by the Gods!" and i do say " oh my Goddess" but I laugh at myself because I love that manga.

[Gently Gazing Eyes]

This thread came to be because I was talking to Astra about MW being down.. and I said something like. "I hope it comes back soon.. godspeed to the server.. and perhaps goddessspeed too."

[Flar's Freyja]

I was very conscious of it when I moved to the Bible Belt and had never been aware of it before. When I turned to Paganism, I became even more aware of it.

Whether pagan or Christian, I do have an issue with using any term for deity in vain and make a conscious effort not to do that.

This really isn't a very silly topic and is quite interesting. I'm going to check with the mods in Just Talk and see if it might be better moved over there.

[Chibi-Fallon]

I’d say “Gods” but then I’d just feel like I was being anal about it. I know a Jewish kid who goes “Jesus Christ!” all the time. It’s just a saying. It’s not like you’re actually thinking about anything in a religious sense when you say it (at least not most of the time). It doesn't mean anything about Gods or anything, just like if you say Holy S***. What does *that* mean if you take it literally? :D
It’s just slang.

[Flar's Freyja]

8. Posts should be posted in the appropriate forums. If a post’s subject is better suited to a specific forum then a forum moderator or an admin will move the post to the correct forum leaving a link in the previous forum.

[jelly.belly]

I completly understand what you mean, I always use O my God and Good God, tho when i realized it I changed it to O my Goddess and Good Goddess, but I never used Godspeed, so I didnt really think about that one! :D Anyway, I know what you mean! And my friends looked at me kinda weird at first, when i started using them actually... :/ :D

[Gently Gazing Eyes]

Since I begat this thread, I have been much more careful to avoid random usage of references to God in my speech. I don't always succeed.. but I am trying. :)

[Azure]

Well, it's not exactly a new issue in the English language - or any other for that matter. If you read medieval literature at all, you'll find some really funny oaths involving both the Divine and his various earthly avatars - "By the beard of St. Peter!" for example, and numerous references to body parts real and imagined - "God's eyes!" etc. and some of them even scatalogical - references to holy bits of anatomy that modern folks would never make.

Frankly, to me the idea of taking any name of the Divine in "vain" implies calling on the Divine when failure is presumed - in other words, doubting in the Divine itself. It is despair and hopelessness implicit in the usage, not the usage itself.

[Phoenix Blue]

Besides. . . God's name is YHWH. And it's not like people go around saying, "Good YHWH!" or, "YHWH dammit!"

[Lyric]

My mate uses "Sweet Goddess in the Morning!!!" as his deity-based epithet of choice.

Lyric

[Gently Gazing Eyes]

Originally posted by Phoenix_Blue

Besides. . . God's name is YHWH. And it's not like people go around saying, "Good YHWH!" or, "YHWH dammit!"

YHWH damn you to YHWH damn hell. O.o
:nonono::nonono::nonono:

[jelly.belly]

:rotfl: I can just see people using YHWH ... :rotfl:

[Gently Gazing Eyes]

I like to think I can be comical when I try to be. :)

[Xentor]

I too think that the words used don't necessarily point at the deity itself.

I don't know about English, but in the Dutch language there's a difference between cursing / swearing (using the name of God literally to curse: "G*ddamn!") and using terms of force (same intent, but less religious, like "Sh*t!"). And then there are times when we do use the word "God" but not cursing / swearing at all, like in "God Allmighty!"

We even have a Union Against Cursing, that almost states, it's okay to use a term of force but do not curse nor swear.

To my knowledge, in Dutch there's no equivalent for quite English curses like "Bloody H*ll" nor American curses like "Holy Sh*t". We do use various variations on the name of Jesus Christ.

I really doubt any average Dutch person to use such terms really thinks God's gonna do something about it. I certainly don't but I neither count as an average Dutch person.