Capitalize atheist?

Question

I want to know if you should capitalize the word atheist. I know that if you say, "I am a Christian." then you capitalize Christian. What about atheist? Is it "I am Atheist" or "I am atheist".

This is a serious question, so please, only serious answers.

Answer 1

It's "I am an atheist." It's not a proper noun, therefore no capitalization required.

Answer 2

The words christian and atheist are both adjectives, that is thay descrine a person's beliefs, therefore neither should be capitalised.

The words are both commonly misused as a noun. For example 'I am an atheist'. Correctly it would be ' I am an atheist person'. The adjective descrobes the noun and does not require a capital letter

Answer 3

I don't think atheist is supposed to be capitalized. It describes the disbelief in a God by the prefix "a-", like "agnostic" or "asexual", and religions that are capitalized like Christianity are so because they are named after a person or thing that should be capitalized. For example, Buddhism is named after Buddha.

Answer 4

Personally, those are petty rules of English grammar. Not all languages use capital letters, let alone use them the same way.

For me, it's the meaning you're trying to convey, not so much the technical stuff.

I'm pretty much atheistics - use an upper or lower case "A" - I don't matter, so long as you take into value the person's perspective and comments, as worthwhile, whether or not you agree.

Answer 5

Christian is a specific designation, whereas a-theism is simply a lack of designation. In my opinion, I think "I am an atheist" is an improper sentence, and should be replaced with "I am atheistic." The former denotes a designation, and the latter denotes a preference. If the former were correct, then yes, I suppose you could write it as "Atheist."

Answer 6

Atheism isn't a religion or based on any special doctrine. Therefore, it does not need to be capitalized. Atheist is a noun, so you should say "I am an atheist," instead of saying "I am atheist."

Answer 7

Yep. Atheist can be capitalized.

Answer 8

I dunno. I write it both ways. I've never had an atheist say they were offended either way... I don't think they care.

But I do continue to capitalize "God," and words like "He" and "His" and all that, just out of respect. It's a small gesture that doesn't hurt me or offend me, so why not?

Answer 9

Just atheist. No word issues.

Answer 10

As far as I know, it should not be capitalized. I know that I never do.