From: MenTaLguY <mental@...>
Date: 2007-07-12T07:59:13+09:00
Subject: Re: God versus god (Was: Re: Religion (was: god 0.1.0 released))

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:26:14 +0900, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 03:41:39AM +0900, MenTaLguY wrote:
>> On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:11:27 +0900, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com>
> wrote:
>> > On the other hand, "god" is a generic term for a deity.  Some
>> > religions have many gods.  I think the perspective of most monotheists is
>> > unnecessarily limited to the point that they often do not think of the
>> > fact that there are other, entirely valid, meanings to some of the
>> > words their religions have appropriated.
>>
>> "God" (a proper name) and "god" (an ordinary noun) are distinct terms in
>> English: the former refers to the Ultimate Being; only the latter is the
>> generic term for deity.
> 
> Take note of the fact that the particular piece of software we're
> discussing was announced as "god", not "God".

To be honest, I was more concerned with addressing the notion that the
idea of God was some sinister monotheist invention, which stems from
popular (but jaundiced) modern ideas about both Christianity and pagan
religions.

If we can either end this thread, take it offlist somewhere, or convert
it back into a thread about the need to consider cultural factors when
selecting package names, that'd be great though.

-mental