Why "O.M.G."?
 

Not talking about God's existence, nonexistence, or other religions such as Atheism and Buddhism's credibility, but a simple topic. I'm here to ask your opinions about something I was thinking about as I watched Episode 59 of YGOTAS.

Why do people say the phrase, "Oh my God!" and what does it mean when they say it?

You see, Christians refrain from saying it because of the 4th commandment in the Bible in Exodus in the Ten Commandments, saying that we should not use God's name in vain.

Yet Atheists really don't make any sense in saying it either because they don't believe in God. xD

Aaand yet Atheists say it all the time. What are your thoughts on this? ;D

To me it's just an expression. I'm a Christian and I say it sometimes and don't think much of it. I mean you could probably substitute the word "God" with the deity of any religion and it would still mean the same thing. It's probably meant to be with a lowercase 'g' though.

I'm spiritual, and I say Oh My God... I seriously have no Idea. I've thought about it before and It still doesn't make sense XD But saying "Oh my Spirits" Would sound kinda weird wouldn't it... maybe cause it's just you're way of reacting to something surprising..

Speaking for the general population, this is a simple cultural phenomenon. Just as 'dude' and 'gay' and other such words come to be used in different ways than originally intended, so too do phrases such as 'Oh my God'. I feel it's safe to say that the phrase as it is used on the internet is generally one of surprise, whether sarcastic or as an honest expression.

On a heavily related note, it is important that 'Oh my God' is so easily shortened to text speak. This has facilitated its spread through various chat clients until the present day, when it is now a stock phrase for, again, surprise, whether sarcastic or literal. It may be that it lacks religious significance to most people for this very reason. It's very simple for acronyms themselves to be disassociated from their original meanings, and when phrases are used several times a day, as happens now with 'omg', the word or phrase becomes much more casual. It simply can't help but do so by its repetition. It loses power and its original relevance.

That being said, it likely has a fairly wide range of variance in definition for individual people, and outside the general meaning I mentioned earlier, 'surprise', it's pointless to try to categorize a certain group of people's use of the word. It's become far too casual of a phrase to be anything but highly individualized and, therefore, not specifically definable.

I might add that this is similar to some people's treatment of the word 'religion', but I don't care to delve into that specific topic outside this snippet.

Here are my opinions: The phrase is said when something weird or amazing happens, so the person speaking is say "Oh my god" as a way saying " God, you've done something strange or amazing etc....". Of course it is used by each person differently but all in all I see it that way. Also, I honestly don't think it is using god's name in vain. And since you're saying "oh my god" it isn't very religion specific either.

I agree. :) And even though I prefer not to say it because most other Christians frown on it, I actually disagree also that it is really using God's name in vain. On the contrary, I think it actually praises God. Like when you turn a corner and see a great big rainbow, you say, "Oh my God! You never fail to amaze me!" It turns your awe into praise for God ;D

And I understand what everyone else is saying about how words and phrases lose their original meaning. xD That sure does tend to happen a lot. I usually just say "O.M.G", and when saying it aloud, I actually say the letters, O, M, and G. When I say it like that, it doesn't really have any specific meaning other than Wow! or Woah!

Remember when in the video about Seto Kaiba's real father, the conclusion, he says "My God..." and then the delusional robot tells him "There is no God!"
Maybe that was when Seto Kaiba decided to start saying "Oh my money!" instead xD

^ Yeah I agree, you make good points. I also think that may be when Seto starts saying "oh my money". :P

I actually thought that Kaiba's statement that he worships money was very revealing and honest. There are a lot of people who don't claim to have a religion but worship different things (like winning, or money, or respect or all kinds of other things).

When I say god I usually mean Cat. But mostly I just say OMC instead.

Very very true! :3 In my Christian schools, they're always warning us about not just sinning by worshipping statues like in the Old Testament, but about worshipping material things like money, popularity, ourselves, ect.

How can you worship material things? The word worship implies a religious connotation. Unless someone thinks money has divine powers, no one is worshiping it.

I guess it's just a figure of speech. Like, Kaiba is obsessed with money so much that he worships it as, among Blue Eyes, one of the few things he actually cares about in life.

Like < Love < Adore < Obsess < Worship

And some people might even say that some "otaku"'s/"weeaboo"'s obsess over anime/manga so much that they worship it.

You do realise that is not what the 4th commandment actually means, do you not? The 4th commandment refers solely to using God's name for your own (generally negative) purposes, such as swearing an Oath in the name of God to make it sound sincere, when you in actual truth have no intention of upholding the Oath.

Using God's name as a profanity, no more breaks the 4th commandment than using your dog's name as a profanity.

As for its meaning, it means exactly the same thing as when the Chinese say tian-na (directly translated: oh my heavens), you are using a word which was traditionally emotionally charged to show the shock, surprise or extremeness of a situation. Originally, you probably did this in situations such as soldiers screaming to god before they got their heads blown off by mortar fire, but as time went by - as with all phrases - the meaning got diluted and became usable in less and less extreme situations as the word God became less important and peoples' lives/perspectives changed.

Yes. That's why I don't think the phrase, "Oh my __d," is actually taking God's name in vain :3

I agree with Shizuka and Fared. [ However, to be a tad off-topic, I do believe that using any form of "negative" language is not something that a follower of Christ should do, because we are to be in the world but not of the world: meaning that we should try to emulate Christ as much as we can rather than adopting the traditions (especially negative ones) of the world around us. ]

I definitely agree very much with your spoiler-tagged comment! :D

It's just a phrase. No deep meaning no matter how hard you want to put one inside...

That's what she said.

Dagoth Ur be praised.