For my atheist friends, a (silly) question of etiquette?

Question

This is going to sound a little silly, but I want to be correct. When I am writing about atheists, do I capitalize the word as you do with Christian, Muslim, Wiccan, or Buddhist? Or do I leave it lower case (I guess the matter is, do you consider atheism to be a religion or an absence of religion)

Thanks guys

Answer 1

It's grammatically correct to spell "atheist" and "agnostic" lower case, while names of religions and deities are capitalized. It's not an issue of etiquette, but of grammar.

Answer 2

LOL you are joking about the tendency of Fellow Pious Christians to Capitalise Nearly Everything, right?

Answer 3

I think you should look for advice in a style guide (eg Chicago Manual of Style). Actually, take a look at a few.

If you find contradictory information, make a decision and be consistent.

Answer 4

I capitalize names, not groups. To me, an individual is more important then the group that they belong to.

For example .... "Its a commonly accepted fact that *christians* believe in the divinity of *Jesus*."

Of course, even if you don't capitalize my name, I won't care. :)

Answer 5

In general, we capitalize organized groups but not generalizaions. We would capitalize the Freemaons because they are organized but not car-drivers because they aren't. Atheists are not organized and so grammarically we would not capitalize it. I tend to choose capitalization by context, if I am referring to it as an ism, I do but as and ist, I tend not to.

Answer 6

i never capitalize anything... too many buttons
i dont think any of us atheists will mind, sweet to ask though

but its uppercase technically as an organization just not in general.

Answer 7

Atheism is a religion, with a set beleif of having no beleifs. that means it gets the same treatment as all the others, which for me is lowercase, but for others is usually with a capital letter.

Agnostic, on the other hand, is not a true religion, therefore gets no cap. I am agnostic because I have no set beleifs, therefore do not follow a religion.

Answer 8

atheism is far from religion.but should be in capitals after all a very important word when we speak about religion

Answer 9

lowercase... unless it's at the beginning of a sentence.

lowercase is grammatically correct, it has nothing to do with etiquette

Answer 10

I don't capitalize it, as it's not a religion. I don't get offended either way, though. :-P