idioms - Is "Thank god", as opposed to "Thank God", acceptable?


People are quite stingy lately about anything with religious connotations, so I'm worried that the phrase "thank God" might tick some people off.


Is "thank god" acceptable? Would that offend people of monotheistic faiths? Or would "thank God" be acceptable to atheists/polytheists too?



Answer



Are you worried about offending atheists/polytheists by being too monotheistic, or about offending monotheists by being blasphemous?


In any case, I think that in most contexts, anyone offended by “thank God” would still be offended by “thank god”, and vice versa. In informal contexts, I’d be surprised if either offended anyone; extremely devout monotheists might perhaps consider them blasphemous. In some official contexts (if you were acting as spokesperson for a school, say), both forms could upset people who have strong feelings about separation of church and state.


“Thank goodness!” is probably an unobjectionable alternative. In case you’re not familiar with this expression, it isn’t a neologistic PC euphemism for “thank God”, it’s a common equivalent phrase which I think most native speakers would be familiar with.


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