If anyone's interested in what I say....

[Txgangsta]

But the God of Abraham does call for an uppercase "g" because to many it is his name. That's why I said that it'll usually be about the God of Abraham.

 

Its not for disrespect to other religions, it is respect to those who revere this specific supernatural deity. Reverence for most others does not require the capital letter.

[Slawbug]

I wasn't questioning that, I was questioning this statement, which has nothing to do with how you address the Abrahamic deity:

Originally Posted By: Txgangsta

I used a lowercase "g" to designate something other than a supernatural deity

Last time I checked, deities are by definition supernatural...

[Txgangsta]

Ok, that was a bit redundant of me.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally Posted By: Txgangsta

Philosophically, morals are controlled by whatever the individual deems to be god. To a loyalist, god is the shaper council. Their morals are to be submissive to anyone above you in this hierarchy and wisdom and temperament are highly valued. Those like Barzahl/Ghaldring set themselves as their god, and they value power and authority. Geneforge does fine with the morals built in the game.

This would make much more sense if you replaced "god" with "authority." In effect, you're arguing that morals are shaped by the moral authority, in fact; that's obviously tautological. And I'd argue that it's wrong.

The loyalists aren't loyalists because they believe that the council is the arbiter of morality, they're loyalists because they believe the Shapers best embody their morals. Ghaldring may or may not particularly care about morals, but to the extent that he doesn't just believes that he is right because he is in charge, he believes he's right because he's doing the right thing.

Religions hand down moral rulings because they are based on the wills of superior beings who have the knowledge to determine the best ethical path. Ghaldring might be superior, but he's not superior enough.

—Alorael, who really just doesn't see the need to bring deities into temporal and military authority.

[Txgangsta]

I change my mind. My argument was quite flawed.

 

The morals then must come from the individual's own mind. During upbringing, some ideas are nurtured, and others are discouraged. Then, if they find a worthy superior, they solidify gray areas in their own thoughts with their thoughts.

 

Better? Yes? No? I like discussing abstract things like this. =)

 

And for clarification, the superior can be anything from a parent to the government to a deity.

[Ceiling Durkheim]

The "God" vs. "god" distinction is commonly used to distinguish between monotheistic and polytheistic deities. This can get a bit fuzzy, since some polytheistic deities are about as omnipotent and omnipresent as a monotheistic God (e.g. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in many Vedic religions), but in principle it seems reasonable to have a linguistic marker that distinguishes between, say, Allah and Artemis.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: FnordCola

The "God" vs. "god" distinction is commonly used to distinguish between monotheistic and polytheistic deities. This can get a bit fuzzy, since some polytheistic deities are about as omnipotent and omnipresent as a monotheistic God (e.g. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in many Vedic religions), but in principle it seems reasonable to have a linguistic marker that distinguishes between, say, Allah and Artemis.

Well, it's fairly standard practice to presume that "God" refers to the Abrahamic god of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, not just any old monotheistic god, seeing as well over three billion people combined worship Him (capitalized pronouns like that are also a tip )