Let's consider it a somewhat free transcription and translation. Aliens who are astounded at the notion of thinking meat aren't going to be communicating in English.
Yeah, it completely broke the suspension of disbelief for me. Here are beings that consider meat so far beneath themselves that they would rather forget the thinking meat ever existed than establish contact, but at the same time they use the interjections of a teen girl.
I partly agree, but presumably we don't expect them to actually be speaking English either. I would have thought it implied some kind of similar expression of general surprise, although honestly it didn't bother me all that much when I read it.
Why? Are you so sure of your intellectual position (a position which, I disclaim, I happen to think is considerably more likely than the alternative) that you experience dissonance at the idea of space-going intelligences believing in God?
Religion is not going to disappear because humans go to the stars, either.
Ohmigod makes pretty clear that it’s about expressing surprise and astonishment, not any actual call to a deity. Even Oh my god is usually not understood as an actual call to a god. There are certainly people who do not believe in god but nevertheless use Oh my god from time to time – like myself.
Writing it differently severs any connection to god. Maybe that’s the purpose of writing it like that. It’s an exclamation that’s supposed to show surprise and astonishment, the content doesn’t matter.
It's creative commons. Fork it ;)
Let's consider it a somewhat free transcription and translation. Aliens who are astounded at the notion of thinking meat aren't going to be communicating in English.
Yeah, it completely broke the suspension of disbelief for me. Here are beings that consider meat so far beneath themselves that they would rather forget the thinking meat ever existed than establish contact, but at the same time they use the interjections of a teen girl.
I partly agree, but presumably we don't expect them to actually be speaking English either. I would have thought it implied some kind of similar expression of general surprise, although honestly it didn't bother me all that much when I read it.
They're also speaking English. Does that not throw you off?
Accept it as an adaptation, a translation. Would a боже мой! be better?
Why? Are you so sure of your intellectual position (a position which, I disclaim, I happen to think is considerably more likely than the alternative) that you experience dissonance at the idea of space-going intelligences believing in God?
Religion is not going to disappear because humans go to the stars, either.
I think it's not so much religion as the usual connotations of the phrase, particularly as seen online (OMG).
'Ohmigod' != 'Oh my god'. The meaning of the phrase is beside the point.
Ohmigod makes pretty clear that it’s about expressing surprise and astonishment, not any actual call to a deity. Even Oh my god is usually not understood as an actual call to a god. There are certainly people who do not believe in god but nevertheless use Oh my god from time to time – like myself.
Writing it differently severs any connection to god. Maybe that’s the purpose of writing it like that. It’s an exclamation that’s supposed to show surprise and astonishment, the content doesn’t matter.
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