On capitalizing "Atheist" every time - with Joe Zamecki

[Vindaven]

I don't capitalize "atheist"... but I also don't capitalize "christianity" or "muslim". I don't think it's a big deal... I'm glad you have an opinion on this subject... keep on thinking critically. Some people call it over analyzing... but I think the more intelligent you are the more people tend to think you "over" analyze.... it's just too much for their simple way of thinking.

[aajoeyjo]

@Vindaven - Thank you, that's nice of you. Yep I have no problem with anyone not capitalizing Atheist or Christian or whatever. I'm glad we see eye to eye on this - even if from opposite sides! Sometimes these things work out like that. :o)

[Freya5000]

agreed 'frightening superstitions'..ok, with respect to mutualism, A is for Atheist.

Interesting.

[VonSchnee]

Do you continue to show up on the Atheist Experience?

[aajoeyjo]

@VonSchnee - No I haven't gone down there in quite some time now. Perhaps in the future I'll bug them again. :o)

[blobvision]

I love your videos Joe Zamecki. Keep it up. Atheism needs to be talked about a lot more than it is now, especially since we lost a great, powerful voice (Hitchens). We need more Atheists like you to come out and tell it like it is. We live in a world of frightening superstitions and certainties; but most of all, toxic faith. We need to expose religion for what it is. It's gotten away with murder for far too long. Good work my friend.

[aajoeyjo]

@blobvision - Thank you! I'm flattered. That's some nice capitalizing there! :o) Teamwork!~

[blobvision]

@aajoeyjo High five!

[aajoeyjo]

Hey before you say "It shouldn't be capitalized because that's the rules...." ask yourself who wrote those rules and why do we have to obey them? I'd love to hear answers to those two questions, but folks who are against capitalizing can't seem to come up with answers to those two questions.

[CRUClEFICTION]

I'm sure you know that it was Madalyn Murray-O'Hair who first started capitalizing 'Atheist' some decades ago. I have most of her books/writings and transcripts of her Austin radio show which I had read some 10+ years ago. I recall reading her explanation for this, and now I wish I had noted where I read it so I could go back to the source. Anyway, she began capitalizing the 'A' within her American Atheists organization, and is why they're generally the only ones who stick to the tradition.

[aajoeyjo]

@CRUClEFICTION - Yes, and I love those facts. Sadly, American Atheists has stopped capitalizing, and has started de-capitalizing the words "american atheists." How's that for strong Atheism? lol

[CRUClEFICTION]

@aajoeyjo Really!? Wow! I was not aware they made a decision to stop capitalizing in press releases and such. I suppose it's part of their new makeover we've seen since Silverman took the helm. It seems to me they either had to create a whole new image or die as an organization. For the 2 years I was a member (some 10 years ago) I used to also capitalize, but for me it was more of a personal tribute to Madalyn. After leaving them I became a lifetime member of FFRF, and am proud of it.

[Ameer18]

Its funny how Muslims Christians and others r all classified as one in the same to u atheists yet when the shoe is on the other foot u make the same excuse.

[aajoeyjo]

@Ameer18 - Who says that Muslims, Christians and others are all classified as on in the same? I haven't seen that.

[blobvision]

@Ameer18 That's news to me. Atheists talk about the religions of Abraham as being derived from each other, because they are. Christianity came from Judaism and Islam came from the two. But that's it. We don't classify Christians as the same as Muslims or Jews. We do know that their beliefs are equally wrong and equally absurd.

[sugarlanskee8]

Madalyn was becoming an animal rights person and there is zero doubt that the only atheism that counts is Animal Rights Atheism; otherwise all we have is glorified Humanism.

[emilyhasbooks]

Religious terms should not have the grammatical upper-hand with capitalization, and we should make *them* lowercase, not capitalize atheist/atheism. Btw, JoeZ, you're still The Super Austinite Atheist in my book! <<See, that title can be capitalized & that's always acceptable.

[MightyMikeT]

I always do :)

[TheUnmaskedMagician]

Atheists should not fight over this. The Christian Right that wants to make this a "Christian Nation" is more of a threat then if the word Atheist is capitalized or not

[jesusliedforyou]

JesusLiedForYou is willpoire, by the way. My smart phone has me logged into two different accounts and depending on whether I use the mobile or desktop version of Youtube, my screen name changes.

[jesusliedforyou]

Quote away. I am not one to capitalize it. I've expressed my views privately before, but maybe I will make a response video.

[willpoire]

Oh, and I guess "Theists" are so proud that they type in all caps. :)

[smegmasaurus]

@willpoire ROTFLMFAO

[mattincinci]

i dont mind others capitalizing the word , but if i dont it doesnt mean I'm not proud to be an atheist

[aajoeyjo]

@mattincinci - Of course not. I hope I didn't accidentally imply that.

[mattincinci]

@aajoeyjo naaa just thought i'ld mention that

[willpoire]

I know we capitalize Christian, Muslims, Buddhists, etc., but we don't capitalize theists now. Do we? Should we? If a Christian is proud to be a theist, should they capitalize it?

[smegmasaurus]

@willpoire - Good point. Are you on his Facebook list? If not, may I quote this?

[aajoeyjo]

@willpoire - Since it's easy to be a theist in today's world, I bet not many theists care about the word "theism." But they might! I don't know about should or should not.

[USAtheist88]

@WinniesGottaGoPooh Because you can totally generalize several million people based off of a few dozen, right?

[UncleMatt69]

To me, Atheism is a noun, a proper noun, and thus I capitalize Atheism.

[voyzovrezon]

You're right. Since christians (with a capital c), and other identified religious groups and people use a capital letter, why not Atheists? Next time I'm on an online forum, I'm using the capital A.

[emilyhasbooks]

Whereas I understand your sentiment, there are rules & I prefer to follow them. When words are changed, based on our own emotions, there can be unforeseen consequences. Example: theists using "Atheist" as proof that atheism is (as they wrongly assess) a religion. To capitalize it properly, it would need to be considered a proper noun, or we could remove religions & religious terms as proper nouns & leave atheist/atheism lowercase. Also, the capitalized A in logos is merely a design element.

[smegmasaurus]

@emilyhasbooks a.k.a EmilyHasTheRightIdea - You are absolutely right. That is exactly what I was trying to say, but you said it better. For some reason there is no up vote feature available here and so I can't bump your comment. I am a militant atheist (not a Militant Ātheist - notice my clever Unicode.) As such, I rarely find fault with any action taken on behalf of non-believers, but this seems counterproductive and I hope it doesn't catch on.

[aajoeyjo]

@smegmasaurus - What exactly is the harm? You're a militant atheist? What does that mean, if you're afraid of something small like this becoming counterproductive? How can it do that? What are you afraid of?

[aajoeyjo]

@emilyhasbooks - Yes there are rules, lots of them. Do you know who made up this particular rule? Or where we can consult with them? I bet not. How are they still in authority over us? Finally, do you think they disliked Atheists, just like most folks in the USA today? I bet they did.

[emilyhasbooks]

@aajoeyjo To capitalize it properly and always, it would need to be considered a proper noun, or we could remove religions & religious terms as proper nouns and leave atheist/atheism lowercase- which is what I'd prefer.

Religious people added the rule that religious affiliated words are proper nouns arbitrarily and I would prefer to keep atheist/atheism AND religious affiliated words as non-proper nouns.

[smegmasaurus]

@aajoeyjo - It is a source of pride and a badge of honor for me as well and I understand your reasoning, but it seems unnecessary and will only add more fuel to the "atheism is a religion" argument that some theists like to play with and the idea that we are somehow an organization.

Besides, you wouldn't say that you are a 'M'an, a 'C'itizen, or a 'S'cientist would you? I can't fault you on the grammar though. I only capitalize god when writing something that I want to be published. hehehe

[aajoeyjo]

@smegmasaurus - Yes, some say that capitalizing the first letter of a label makes it look like a religious term. Like the Houston Texans, or Coca-Cola, or the US Army. I think most capitalized words are secular terms, so this argument didn't seem worth addressing in this video.

[aajoeyjo]

@smegmasaurus - When a man, a citizen, or a scientist have to struggle to achieve those labels, they certainly have a good reason to capitalize. Yes, sometimes people try to stop folks from becoming men, citizens and scientists, so maybe someday one of them will start doing that. For themselves. I won't balk.

[Katalyzt]

Wow. I did not know that there was a fight among us Atheists over the case of a single letter. :O/ Interesting...

Katalyzt

[smegmasaurus]

@Katalyzt - Watch the vid and read the replies. Hardly a fight, but truth be known, the only thing we all agree on is that there in no god. If the rest of the world knew that simple truth, then the vast majority of past and present fights would not exist.

[USAtheist88]

As something of a grammar nazi, I oppose the practice. I understand it, but I oppose it. Atheism isn't a proper noun. Theism isn't, and shouldn't be, capitalized. Atheism, being its opposite, should follow the same rules. Also, capitalization has nothing to do with importance. Hinduism, etc, are capitalized because they're proper nouns.

I do think that people getting vulgar and rude over it is ludicrous and I support your point insomuch as I'm almost universally opposed to people being wankers.

[aajoeyjo]

@USAtheist88 - Well thank you for at least that much. I'm glad we agree on something! :o)

[Markart50]

Good Man A for Atheist is the only way.

[CraniumOnEmpty]

I'll capitalize it if it starts a sentence. Don't mind if people capitalize it. There might be a number of ideas why people would be against caps, but I think it might be because to some it becomes a different word or it makes it seem like an organization or something. Another might be that it almost seems like people capitalizing the word god when you are talking about gods in general and not a proper name. I say cap it if you want, but like you said, don't expect others to.

[aajoeyjo]

@CraniumOnEmpty - Yes, some say that capitalizing the first letter of a label makes it look like a religious term. Like the Houston Texans, or Coca-Cola, or the US Army. I think most capitalized words are secular terms, so this argument didn't seem worth addressing in this video.

I certainly don't expect anyone to capitalize it. That's actually one reason I made this video - to say it's casual. To each their own. :o)

[CraniumOnEmpty]

@aajoeyjo I didn't say religious though. I said organizations much like Houston Texans and Coca-Cola and the US Army. Granted, I'm not saying you said I said that (did I say that right?). I do agree that saying it looks religious though is kind of silly. To me saying atheist is kind of like saying you're more rational in a world where ration is rejected.

[CraniumOnEmpty]

@CraniumOnEmpty lol, ration...

[aajoeyjo]

@CraniumOnEmpty - I know, these are just standard arguments I hear. Good point.