"Thank god"?

Why?

I've been relatively quiet lately. Combination of work, play, Christmas shopping, and my dog's fleas.

My dog got some fleas, and brought them into our house, and they manifested into a full-fledged invasion force. My basement, which is where our comfy couch and TV and computer are generally located, has been a ghost town of late.

But, I digress. Suffice it to say, I've thought of lots of stuff to write about, and just not gotten to it for lack of time or for lack of a desire to get bit to death.

General snippets of thought: happy the American-born child of the American lady and the Mexican national jailbird, who's in foster care somewhere in Oregon, gets to stay (who's bright idea was it to deport an American, anyway?); anti-Arizona's plan to try to thwart the rights of American-born children of illegal aliens to their right of citizenship by denying them birth certificates (when did we get in the business of deciding which Constitutionally-approved Americans are good enough to be Americans?); tired of all the press Britney Spears is getting (she's a train wreck, I get it); wondering at the idea that the Blazers always seem to do better when their starting power forward is out, regardless of who the starting power forward is (and pondering that it probably indicates that our former point guard coach has trouble devising a system that effectively uses the PF while keeping everyone eles productive); and noticing that I'm getting fat as the holidays approach, and starting to plan a weight-loss system, but I'm still dutifully eating my way to New Year's.

Now that those broad ideas, which have been bouncing around my head of late, are exorcised, I can get to today's topic: God with a little "g."

I was sparked in my reading, today, of the letters to the editor in Willamette Week. Namely, one by an individual named Chris Iverson, in Ashland, Oregon, who said (in part) the following: "Thank god that sometimes even bad publicity is good publicity."

Mister Iverson was responding to an article from last week that I haven't read (meant to, just never got to it), and so I have no idea whether his comments in his letter are educated, asinine, or even germane to the subject matter of the article. So I've got nothing to say as to the merits of his letter as a piece of editorial literature.

But I wonder at the people who invoke the name of God with a little "g."

The way I see it, there are three kinds of people. There are those that recognize and subscribe to a monotheistic, nameless God, who is the supreme power in the universe and who, by virtue of that, gets capitalized.

There are those that subscribe to a different idea of deity or deities, like Allah (who, some would say, is God, but I'll leave that for another discusser in another discussion), Vishnu, Jah, or whatever. They capitalize their deity, which is appropriate in the context of that person's usage of the name, given their feelings towards their deity.

Then there are the atheists, non-theists, secular humanists, and agnostic sorts who don't recognize or acknowledge the truth of a God-type deity. These are the ones that say God with a little "g," because they speak with no particularity and with no respect.

I'll digress quickly just to say that these people would never dream of not capitalizing Allah or Vishnu, but will with the more-generic (but generally Judeo-Christian proprietary) "God." For whatever reason. I'll leave it at that, and continue with my main point.

I wonder why someone who doesn't believe in, or appreciate, or adhere to any god would bother thanking one. And, if you're going to thank just one, isn't that One important enough to capitalize?

Sure, "thank God" has been watered down into just-another-figure-of-speech. But a thoughtful person like Chris Iverson certainly has the vocabulary to say "thankfully" instead, which would make his point just as effectively without being confusing (or revealing) as to his system of beliefs. In fact, by making the effort to make sure to fail to capitalize God in his submission, Mr. Iverson was saying exactly what he meant to say. Which is that he's a slave to the English language and is therefore bound to thank a God in Whom he doesn't believe.

Clearly I'm one who takes some sort of umbrage at these minor affronts. Is it just a lack of understanding on my part? Or is it a semi-righteous indignation at a person's demonstration of their lack of respect? Or is it understandable confusion at the thanking of one in whom a person sees no reason for actual thanks? Probably a combination of all of them.

Ultimately, I thank God I'm in a place where I'm able to do so, and even where Chris Iverson's able to not. But, really, if you don't believe in God, don't thank god. Because it clearly doesn't mean anything to you.