Even in writing this question, I have been deeply embarrassed : should I capitalize some words ?
Although not a believer myself, I wish to perturb nobody, whatever his / her faith could be : my position is "as long as they are happy with their creed, and don't try to convert anyone by force, should they have gained enough power for it, it's all the best for everyone, why should I bother ?".
The problem arises when I have to address several persons of different or unknown creeds : some have specific names, some others resent as a blasphemy to even mention a name. And I heard that there are 700 different Christian denominations in the USA alone, and how many rules apply, with all the non-Christian others ? And lately, that the word used by Muslims should not be used by any non-Muslim ...
In the USA, "in God we trust" is written even on more or less dirty banknotes ; in the UK, you utter the word only in church or for taking an oath. In French "Dieu sait où il est !" means "Nobody knows where he is is", it's absolutely innocent, an atheist could say that, just a way of speaking. Try to translate this word by word ! Some eyebrows would raise.
Have you a global, general solution ? Thank you.
