Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) Newsgroups: net.religion,net.women Subject: Re: Deific gender question Message-ID: <4059@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Fri, 17-Aug-84 17:51:22 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.4059 Posted: Fri Aug 17 17:51:22 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 19-Aug-84 13:19:50 EDT References: <254@siemens.UUCP> <957@pyuxn.UUCP> <921@pucc-h> <166@cornell.UUCP>, <1250@sdcrdcf.UUCP>, <2704@allRe: Deific gender question Organization: Ballistics Research Lab Lines: 22 After just plowing through 20-30 postings about the gender of God, I think it might be worthwhile to bring up a point I haven't seen mentioned: "He", a capitalized pronoun referring to God, is NOT the same word as "he", an uncapitalized pronoun (which may be capitalized at the start of a sentence, but that is a different thing entirely, being position-dependent) referring to a male person or animal. Same with "His" vs. "his", etc. Just because the words are spelled in a similar manner does not mean that they are the same word. That is why one is capitalized -- to distinguish it. Just as the "royal 'we'" does not mean that you have some sort of symbiotic colony for a monarch -- it is a special and distinctive word, used in certain circumstances for special purposes. So the pronouns "He" and "His", when referring to God, have no true gender. Of course, being the creatures we are, we naturally hang the gender connotations of "he" and "his" on "He" and "His". This is a mistake. (To err is human.) Will