God /vs./ god

[jutfrank]

Those pagans who consider paganism a religion may prefer an initial capital. This is individual choice rather than standard usage.

I'm not sure what you mean. How is that individual? In the same way that a follower of Christ may use a capital in He? There are many, and large groups of these people. Does it not show that these groups (and many others) are using the word Paganism as a proper noun? My point about Neopaganism was in response to post #9. Perhaps it was unnecessary and irrelevant to the OP but I think it's an interesting example of the reverential (or irreverential as the case may be) use of capitals for religious terms.

Much of this thread has been in some ways a response to post #6, in which you, an English teacher, said that you don't think most people use an initial capital for 'Christian';

No, I didn't. I said:

Many people capitalise Christian, yes. Most people? I don't think you can say that.

in response to your saying:

For most people, he is the Christian god; for some, especially Christians, He is the Christian God.

the latter part of which, where you give an example of non-standard capitalisation, was an unhelpful, potentially confusing remark, and one in which I felt that you were not qualified to say "most people", although, let me be clear, I do agree this is probably true, and supported by the ngram data. I regret that you may have misunderstood this. I did not express myself as I intended.

In post #16, however, you said of the lower-case initial c, I know it's not the norm and I'm really not trying to prescribe to you how to capitalise.

I was addressing SoothingDave, who seemed to me to be offended. There's a difference between prescribing and advising, especially when it comes to this issue of capitalisation, which is largely a question of style. I feel that the conventions are currently trending towards less capitalisation on adjectives such as we have been discussing. There's also a difference between advising on language use to learners and comparing and discussing language use with peers.

[I objected to] your questioning that the standard usage was that of most people don't use an initial capital, and to your advising people against standard usage.I think both points were misleading to learners, and, given what you said in post #16, unnecessary.

I provided a rationale for what I advise so as not to be misleading. Plus, other expert advisers here have offered contrary advice. I don't think that learners are being misled by this thread.

What we do with paganism and neopaganism is a separate issue.

Agreed. I suggest we delete post #5, which I think is unnecessary, and all subsequent posts for the sake of clarity and pertinence to the original question. Note that I have amended my post #4 so as not to mislead the learners here.

 

[Tdol]

Pagan is a noun. It isn't a proper noun, so we don't capitalize it unless its place in a sentence or title requires it.

But I don't see how Paganism/paganism qualifies as an adjective.

 

[SoothingDave]

There's a difference between prescribing and advising, especially when it comes to this issue of capitalisation, which is largely a question of style. I feel that the conventions are currently trending towards less capitalisation on adjectives such as we have been discussing.

I don't think there is any trend towards de-capitalizing proper names when used as adjectives.

I think it is confusing to learners of the language to suggest non-standard forms. And doubly so when the de-capitalization you suggest can be perceived as a deliberate slight against a religion.

 

[emsr2d2]

Not only do I think there's no trend towards it, this is the first time I've heard anyone suggest that it's happening at all. There are obvious instances of it happening but only with brand names (for example sellotape, biro), rather than with the names of people or religions/gods. I still find it odd when I see "googling" as an uncapitalised verb.