14 DAY TRIAL // The subtitle actually underlines the difference between the generation that probably asked the question in the title and the generation that was raised using the Internet as a second language. Big difference, let me tell you that up front.
Come to think of it, the OMG! IM-speak acronym shows, like nothing else can, the level of thought that people put into religion these days. There are people who would still consider it as a blasphemy on account of one of the commandments, that of "Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain". And then, there's the second group of people, those who have no opinion on the matter and who are, in my view of the matter, easily mixable with those who use it on a daily basis, if not hourly. They are usually the ones that have a very active online social life.
A famous example of the acronym being used successfully is Yahoo!'s gossip site, dubbed? (surprise!) OMG! A spokeswoman commented on the matter saying that "The Web site ... doesn't specifically say 'Oh, my God', 'Oh, my goodness', 'Oh, my gossip!' It's intended to mean 'wow' when you read something about celebrities that's exciting or surprising. That's how we communicate."
Another professional opinion comes from the author of the books "Cursing in America" and "Why We Curse", Timothy Jay. He says that "Oh my God!" has joined the F-bomb in the list of 10 most commonly heard expletives, a more womanly substitute to something more obscene. At any rate, he doesn't view it as a profanity.
I think that, besides the religious barrier between those who use it and those who don't, there's another one, that of level of education. I'm dead certain that no university teacher would burst in the middle of a council meeting saying things like "OMG! I just don't believe it! They did? You don't say? Yes, we should not encourage smoking in the perimeter". Wouldn't you agree?