Comment by ugh
14 years ago
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.
Did you just say what I was implying and use it to defend the opposite point?
My/his point was that writing "oh my god" as "ohmigod" made the alien sound like a teenage girl, not that the possible appeal to a deity had any relevance to the story.