On the usage of "Oh my gods"
Stop it.
Seriously, I HATE when people use this phrase. It's retarded and useless and I don't want to fucking hear it anymore.
Let me show you what I'm thinking of. There's quite a few problems with the usage. The very first item of note is this: Using "Oh my gods" is extremely pretentious. Why? Well, no one naturally uses it. There's already an instinctual phrase, "Oh my God/god," that's already perfectly fine and widely used. Why use "Oh my gods?" The answer is that anyone using this phrase is trying to prove something. It's always attached to an agenda. And there's quite a different few choices as to what that agenda is. Note, I'm not using "agenda" in the sense that "Oh this is some crazy conspiracy! whargarble," I am merely saying it is used for connotative reasons aside from the original phrase's meaning.
What are some of these extra connotations? I really hope I don't have to explain all the nuances of the original phrasing, "Oh my God." It can be used as a simple interjection or even be considered an expletive. Its literal meaning has long since passed out of usage. At one point I'm sure it was considered a purely religious saying, and that might just be the reason for the thinking of those who use the derivative.
What's being said by using "Oh my gods" is either 1) "I am a polytheist and the best way for you to know what I believe is by making up some bullshit phrase and shove it down everyone's throats," or 2) "I hate Christianity and I'm sticking it to the WASPs by skewing their silly lingo." I want to ask, why does it have to be so damn religious? It's just a set of words and it doesn't even have anything to do with an actual god anymore. Everyone says it; Atheists, Monotheists (Christian or otherwise) or Polytheists alike. All the same. The only thing determining how acceptable it is for such a phrase to be used is the steadfastness of an individual practicing their faith, and the particular guidelines of the religion in general.
First I'll go over reason 1. I really don't think actual polytheists would use a phrase like "Oh my gods" in the first place. It's actually a horrible and blasphemous thing to say for someone in their faith. You will never see any follower of Hindu, Shinto, Pagan or Aboriginie spiritualities, etc. use such a phrase. It's degrading to the gods that may be just as much as it is disrespectful to a person's audience and contemporaries. Anything even related to "Oh my god" would not be so much as uttered. There's no need to say that. In such a mindset to carry on a faithful relationship with their spirituality, such a thing is simply not necessary to say. In fact, in some philosophies, that would qualify as saying much more than is needed to be said, and is a waste. REAL polytheists don't use such grubble turns of phrase to prove to everyone they really truly believe in multiple gods. There's no need to. And where will you see a polytheist use "gods," pluralized, in regular speech? Maybe when they're trying to be polite. "May the gods show you their favor." Perhaps they'll use it in a much more respectable way when something goes wrong. "The gods have not smiled upon me today." They'll even more likely just use the name of the god most relevant to their predicament. "Om namaha Shiva."
And for reason 2? Of course, it's a lot less honest than the first even. If not the first, a person using "oh my gods" will automatically be defaulted to using it because of the second reason. I'm positive that there are so many special little self-diagnosed Ass pies who just hate Christians because they have no concept of how to properly deal with their frustrations with religion. Maybe they hate organized religion in general, maybe they feel oppressed by the WASP overlords, maybe they even hate religion in general and want to go make love with Karl Marx's dead, rotting corpse with that of Nietzsche's atop them thenso. They don't have any religion of their own that they're pushing along. They simply want to turn heads and be childish. "Yeah, well FUCK you, Christians! And fuck you, Christian god! There's more gods than you! You don't really exist!" And then they go on to worship Marilyn Manson and do whatever else it is people with the mental capacity of a five year old and the emotional capacity of a longhorn fucking beetle go and do.
In fact, I'm sure 75% of everyone who uses the phrase "oh my god" falls under the second reason. Some of these people just want to feel special and that's the only way their insignificant thought processes can generate, by changing one word to the plural and using it constantly, ad nauseum, so everyone knows they're special, interesting polytheists going against the norm, hoping that one single change of speech will accomplish all that.
(Here's a little disclaimer: I am not arguing for or against atheism, monotheism, polytheism, or even omnitheism, and I am not petitioning for or against any particular religion at all. Though religion does have a large part to do with it, I am being objective as it comes to that, and am discussing the subjectivity of language use.)
"Oh my God" is good enough. It's a finely established little tag-on sentence and everyone knows what it means. It's even cross-cultural, in Spanish being "Ay Dios mio" and in German, "Mein Gott." There's no need to change it. It's a fine interjection, just fucking use it like everyone else does and save us all from your bullshit.
Addendum for furries: Fuck you furries who adopt a polytheistic ideology because you want to be interesting or unique or want to be the specialist little furry, just like in the days of ancient Egypt! Or, because they obviously have a totem and were born in the wrong body so I'm going adopt what I think is a true Native American theology but I actually invented this bullshit I sincerely believe because what's research? Fuck you. Seriously. Stop inventing bullshit religions so you can feel special. You have not gone through the same spiritual hardship as others have in discovering what is true.
Seriously, I HATE when people use this phrase. It's retarded and useless and I don't want to fucking hear it anymore.
Let me show you what I'm thinking of. There's quite a few problems with the usage. The very first item of note is this: Using "Oh my gods" is extremely pretentious. Why? Well, no one naturally uses it. There's already an instinctual phrase, "Oh my God/god," that's already perfectly fine and widely used. Why use "Oh my gods?" The answer is that anyone using this phrase is trying to prove something. It's always attached to an agenda. And there's quite a different few choices as to what that agenda is. Note, I'm not using "agenda" in the sense that "Oh this is some crazy conspiracy! whargarble," I am merely saying it is used for connotative reasons aside from the original phrase's meaning.
What are some of these extra connotations? I really hope I don't have to explain all the nuances of the original phrasing, "Oh my God." It can be used as a simple interjection or even be considered an expletive. Its literal meaning has long since passed out of usage. At one point I'm sure it was considered a purely religious saying, and that might just be the reason for the thinking of those who use the derivative.
What's being said by using "Oh my gods" is either 1) "I am a polytheist and the best way for you to know what I believe is by making up some bullshit phrase and shove it down everyone's throats," or 2) "I hate Christianity and I'm sticking it to the WASPs by skewing their silly lingo." I want to ask, why does it have to be so damn religious? It's just a set of words and it doesn't even have anything to do with an actual god anymore. Everyone says it; Atheists, Monotheists (Christian or otherwise) or Polytheists alike. All the same. The only thing determining how acceptable it is for such a phrase to be used is the steadfastness of an individual practicing their faith, and the particular guidelines of the religion in general.
First I'll go over reason 1. I really don't think actual polytheists would use a phrase like "Oh my gods" in the first place. It's actually a horrible and blasphemous thing to say for someone in their faith. You will never see any follower of Hindu, Shinto, Pagan or Aboriginie spiritualities, etc. use such a phrase. It's degrading to the gods that may be just as much as it is disrespectful to a person's audience and contemporaries. Anything even related to "Oh my god" would not be so much as uttered. There's no need to say that. In such a mindset to carry on a faithful relationship with their spirituality, such a thing is simply not necessary to say. In fact, in some philosophies, that would qualify as saying much more than is needed to be said, and is a waste. REAL polytheists don't use such grubble turns of phrase to prove to everyone they really truly believe in multiple gods. There's no need to. And where will you see a polytheist use "gods," pluralized, in regular speech? Maybe when they're trying to be polite. "May the gods show you their favor." Perhaps they'll use it in a much more respectable way when something goes wrong. "The gods have not smiled upon me today." They'll even more likely just use the name of the god most relevant to their predicament. "Om namaha Shiva."
And for reason 2? Of course, it's a lot less honest than the first even. If not the first, a person using "oh my gods" will automatically be defaulted to using it because of the second reason. I'm positive that there are so many special little self-diagnosed Ass pies who just hate Christians because they have no concept of how to properly deal with their frustrations with religion. Maybe they hate organized religion in general, maybe they feel oppressed by the WASP overlords, maybe they even hate religion in general and want to go make love with Karl Marx's dead, rotting corpse with that of Nietzsche's atop them thenso. They don't have any religion of their own that they're pushing along. They simply want to turn heads and be childish. "Yeah, well FUCK you, Christians! And fuck you, Christian god! There's more gods than you! You don't really exist!" And then they go on to worship Marilyn Manson and do whatever else it is people with the mental capacity of a five year old and the emotional capacity of a longhorn fucking beetle go and do.
In fact, I'm sure 75% of everyone who uses the phrase "oh my god" falls under the second reason. Some of these people just want to feel special and that's the only way their insignificant thought processes can generate, by changing one word to the plural and using it constantly, ad nauseum, so everyone knows they're special, interesting polytheists going against the norm, hoping that one single change of speech will accomplish all that.
(Here's a little disclaimer: I am not arguing for or against atheism, monotheism, polytheism, or even omnitheism, and I am not petitioning for or against any particular religion at all. Though religion does have a large part to do with it, I am being objective as it comes to that, and am discussing the subjectivity of language use.)
"Oh my God" is good enough. It's a finely established little tag-on sentence and everyone knows what it means. It's even cross-cultural, in Spanish being "Ay Dios mio" and in German, "Mein Gott." There's no need to change it. It's a fine interjection, just fucking use it like everyone else does and save us all from your bullshit.
Addendum for furries: Fuck you furries who adopt a polytheistic ideology because you want to be interesting or unique or want to be the specialist little furry, just like in the days of ancient Egypt! Or, because they obviously have a totem and were born in the wrong body so I'm going adopt what I think is a true Native American theology but I actually invented this bullshit I sincerely believe because what's research? Fuck you. Seriously. Stop inventing bullshit religions so you can feel special. You have not gone through the same spiritual hardship as others have in discovering what is true.