Why do people think using the word "God" in something is religious?

CMSgt Mark Schubert God tends to be used in texts and speech when the faith is associated with one God such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Lower case god is used in the Bible to refer to man-made gods of wood and stone and to people who looked at themselves as a god - long before Shirley Maclaine stood on a beach and said "I am God" in 2003 :-)
When asked what the greatest command was The Lord replied in Mathew chapter 22: 37 - 40 "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The way believers in Christ show our love to God is by loving people and as Christ taught this includes enemies - those who despitefully use us and persecute us.
The Declaration of Independence as the nation's primary founding document went further than the previous monarchies of Europe which all claimed their Kings were chosen by God. This nation broke from that tradition and sought to establish a non-monarchy system of government built on God-given inalienable rights versus rights bequeathed by a monarch and feudal society with lords and serfs.
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-..."
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
COL Mikel J. Burroughs, LTC Stephen C., MAJ (Join to see), CH (MAJ) William Beaver, CPT L S, CW5 Charlie Poulton, SGM Steve Wettstein, SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4", SSG (Join to see), PO1 (Join to see), SGT (Join to see), SGT Forrest Stewart, SGT Robert Hawks, SPC (Join to see), PO3 Steven Sherrill, SPC Elijah J. Henry, MBA. PFC Michael Miller,

CMSgt Mark Schubert On my personal spiritual journey, I have a problem in the United States with any public entity using God versus using god. When it is capitalized, God is a name, a person, a singular entity as mentioned by SPC Joshua Heath. When god is not capitalized, then it is referring to the divine in general. If we want to use the general divine then no problem, the argument about religion, faith, spirituality, and all the Constitutional arguing that goes with it is rendered irrelevant.

Thing is, you will hear people who are atheists say "God Damn It!" That is less a reference to the god of the Abrahamic faiths, and more an expletive that could be replaced with any other expletive. By the same token, "Divine Damn It!" just wouldn't express the surprise, shock, anger, pain, etc... that caused the initial expletive to begin with.

I personally do not believe in the god of the bible. I think he is a great character in a work of fiction that was written as a moral guide, and book of laws for the Jewish People. I also think that a lot of what was written in there (as with all the mythos from ancient cultures) was written do to a lack of understanding of the world around them. Why is it bad to eat pork? Because they didn't know about food borne pathogens. They didn't understand that you can't undercook pork, and eat it without getting sick from it. What they did know is that people got very ill from it. They equated that with "God does not want us to eat this" so it was written in. Alcohol in Islam. Alcohol alters the state of the mind and body, therefore it must be god poisoning the body, therefore banned. A large portion of religious tenets are about control.

Now when it comes to God, god, gods, or goddesses compared to organized religion, the two do not mix well. Mainstream organized religion is about money and power. Those at the top live in opulent palaces, telling the masses that they need to keep sending their tithes to gain the favor of God. It has been the case for hundreds of years. Mainstream religion has caused more pain and suffering to mankind than anything else. From the time of the Romans, through the Spanish Inquisition, through modern times with the radicalized Islam, killing in the name of God has been a human endeavor for much of recorded history.

When I first started on my spiritual path, I used to say very mean spirited things about other paths. It wasn't until I came to two realizations that I stopped. The first was that if I wish to have my beliefs accepted and respected, then I need to show that same respect and acceptance of other's beliefs. Each person regardless of faith, spirituality, or even the absence of both is entitled to their beliefs, and should not be ridiculed for it. The second is that another person's beliefs have no bearing on my life. Why do I care if another person is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist, Pagan, or even Atheist? As long as they are not pushing it on me, and they are not a complete and total waste of human flesh let each be to their own beliefs.

On a personal note, I think "E Pluribus Unum" "We the People" or even "Semper Fidelis" (yes I am stealing from the Marine Corps) would be far better choices for our national motto as any of those indicates the true values that this nation was founded on.

LTC Stephen F.

You, and others, seem assume that there is a god, or that there is only one god and that is the acceptable default expression of faith. The use of the term God to refer to a singular divinity is directly related to the Judeo-Christian/Abrahamic traditions, which have multiple religious expressions, but are still part of the same assumptive monotheistic worldview.