Talk:Philosophy of religion

"god"

A decent start--I think, however, that since most of philosophy of religion concerns the God of the monotheistic religions, it can't be the case that the default should be (lower case) "god" which means "God or gods."

Surely we aren't going to have to debate whether "God" should be capitalized? It's a proper name, like Apollo.

--Larry Sanger 12:02, 16 February 2007 (CST) (an agnostic and former teacher of phil. of religion)

I must admit that my own view (fairly common in philosophy, at least) is that "god" isn't a proper name, but (as it's sometimes put) a job description. "Allah", "Jahweh", "Brahman", "Quetzalcoatl" (and indeed, "Apollo"), etc., are proper names of gods, surely. I used lower-case "g" in my own book, and I've seen it in a number of decent books in the field.

Also, though, modern philosophy of religion is beginning to expand beyond the philosophy of the Abrahamic religions (not at Oxford for the most part, of course). I used the upper-case version at the articles on Augustine and his Confessions, however, as there it did seem to be used more like a proper name.

I don't feel strongly about it to put up a fight, though. --Peter J. King  Talk  12:45, 16 February 2007 (CST)

I don't wish to "fight" about it, of course.  :-) But if philosophical practice is as you say (I never did a whole lot of reading in philosophy of religion, I admit), I find it very puzzling. What other words are there like it? We are talking about the purported existence of a particular being, which goes by a proper name ("God") according to those who believe in it, despite the word's being obviously appropriated from the more general use. Can you think of a single example like it--where scholars, or anyone, make a general word lower-case that has been pressed into service as the name of an alleged, possibly fictional, particular?

As to the number usually attached to "G/god," in philosophy of religion, while no doubt the field is expanding beyond the Abrahamic religions, the by-far dominant use is of the singular, isn't it? --Larry Sanger 12:58, 16 February 2007 (CST)