Is one "atheistic" or "an Athiest"? And should you capitalize one of these?

No to the capital letters. And one is an atheist. Atheistic is an adjective.

Some people call themselves by the noun atheist. (Please spell the word correctly. You should see the “the” element in there. That’s the part that means “god.”) Others style themselves as you do, using an adjective rather than a noun. Both atheist and atheistic are adjectives. An adjective sounds a little more noncommittal, doesn’t it? Still others find different ways of saying the same thing.

One of the nice things about atheism is that you don’t have to conform to a set of rules in order to use the designation.

It isn’t a proper noun, so no caps.

I’d say… Capitalize it.

Capitalize neither.

As much of a grammar nerd as I am, I do so love Random Caps. Sometimes I capitalise “Atheist”, sometimes I’m simply a “little a” atheist.

Depends on how much emphasis I feel like placing on the word. Sometimes a chocolate cake isn’t nearly as awesome as Chocolate Cake. Know what I mean?

@Seek_Kolinahr I do, but capitalizing doesn’t add any emphasize unless the normal state is lowercase.

I like that atheism/atheist isn’t capitalized. It’s just one more way it’s different from religions. Plus it makes sense. Religions define themselves with also sorts of assertions about the way the world works. Atheism has no positive assertions, just non acceptance of one very specific claim. It really doesn’t have any philosophy or tenants on which to hang a capital letter.

@fundevogel You’re absolutely right. It’s no different than any other word. Again, just a Big Fan of Random Caps. ^_^

oH rEalLy?

Say, do you intentionally switch the i and e just to annoy me?

@fundevogel Not that random.

I always thought you capitalized it, like a respect thing.

@KNOWITALL I know what you mean, though that’s another poetic reason not to capitalize it since, unlike named religions, there’s nothing sacred about it.

The reason I don’t capitalize it is because it then seems like the name of a particular standardized belief system, which it is not. Neither is “theism”. Thus, belief systems can be atheistic or theistic, but theism and atheism on their own are not belief systems, and thus, don’t get any capitalization from me.

I would describe myself as “an atheist” (more specifically “agnostic atheist”, but that’s another story) and I would say I have “atheistic beliefs”.

I used to call myself an agnostic with atheistic leanings. These days, I’m just a plain old atheist. NO CAPS.

@KNOWITALL Respect is not a reason for capitalization.

@ragingloli
There may be some virtue in annoying you, but no, I am a careless user of the keyboard.
My bad.
Call the mods.

Psst, @ragingloli didn’t they used to capitalize all the nouns in German? Is that still a thing?

@ragingloli I tend to think of the misspelling “athiest” as a superlative, as in “You’re the athiest!” You know, meaning the most athy possible.

And I don’t capitalize it.

@fundevogel
Yes, it is one of the fundamental Laws of the German Language.

Speaking as a person who is fond of beginning sentences with unconventional words, and as a person who prefers to capitalize in unconventional scenerios I’ll say do what you want with the term Atheist. I don’t treat the term atheist any differently than the word theist.

If you capitalize it I’m assuming you’re referring to this guy.