This morning at 8:37am, my daughter came back from Camp Quest. It is now 6pm and she has yet to stop smiling. She had a wonderful time, including a zero-gravity plane trip! I’d like to take a moment to give a shout out to August, Amanda, and the entire staff of Camp Quest for giving my Atheist child a great place to have fun with other Atheists. http://www.camp-quest.org If you have a child, I fully recommend you give CG some serious consideration! Lifelong friends and memories!
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Why do you capitalize the “a” on atheist, when you say “Atheist child”?
Correction, why do you ever capitalize the “a” on atheist, when it’s not the first word of a sentence?
i don’t know your daughter’s age, but r.dawkins’ consciousness-raising has caused me to cringe at your use of the phrase atheist child.
A ZERO GRAVITY PLANE TRIP!? Frickin’ sweet!
Mush, several years ago Ellen decreed that Atheist would be capitalized. I disagreed, bit I did it anyway as the communications director and it’s habit now.
Too — Dawkins is talking about 4 and 6 year olds. Rayanne is 11 and firmly an atheist. But I see your point.
Adviser, that’s what I said!
A zero gravity plane trip!!!! OOOOhhhhh! Sign me up! Puh-leeeze!!!!!
Rayanne, I am so jealous! No wonder you’re still smiling!
I?m glad Rayanne had a great time!
I always capitalize Atheist.
At what age is the child of any philosophy, Atheist, Xian, Jewish, Muslim, etc considered old enough to form their own opinion? I would think it would be dependent on the child, the family and the society. Rayanne was brought up in a joint Jewish and Atheist household, so she has seen and heard different viewpoints. My son is now an adult, but when he was in preschool we watched a PBS special on creation vs. evolution. My son went to his Grandfather and asked ?I know Grandma believes in creation and Mommy believes in evolution, what do you believe?? My Father answered ?Both ? he believed god created the big bang and evolution took over.? I never hid religion from my son. I encouraged him to learn about all of them. In fact, at 24, he?s probably more knowledgeable about the different philosophies in the world than I am. But some parents try to shield their children from any other philosophy in life besides their own. Some might even punish their children for questioning their beliefs. Those children would be children of X rather than just X.
RedLilac
I would not call Atheism a philosophy.
Atheist or atheism should not, in any case, be capitalized, as it is not a proper name or title. Just like we wouldn’t capitalize theist.
I think we should use correct spelling and grammar if we are to be taken seriously. Habit or not, we should break it and realize that atheism is not some special name. When we give it a capital, we are attempting to give it some sort of meaning aside or in addition to what it is in its literal sense. This is a problem.
Please stop capitalizing the word, and whatever Ellen said on this is gone with the wind at this point.
Atheism shouldn’t be capitalized for the same reason that ‘antibiotic’ and ‘irreligious’ shouldn’t be capitalized.
Compare this article on religious summer camps:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080701/FEAT05/807010310/1023
“‘It’s an outreach tool for evangelism,’ Sansing said. ‘It’s our opportunity to teach boys and girls about Jesus and hopefully to get into their homes.’” (There’s a feedback link after that article, incidentally.)
The words “atheism” and “atheist” are indeed normally lowercased, as are other philosophical and religiously general terms like “humanist,” “spiritualism,” and “the church” (when the last refers to Christianity as an institution). But there’s some disagreement even within publishing. In the editorial world, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and the Chicago Manual of Style are followed more closely than the most fundamentalist evangelical follows the Bible (that’s capped, though “biblical” is not). But Chicago caps “Gnostic” while MW favors lowercasing it.
Many writers overcapitalize religious and philosophical terms out of respect or from fear of giving offense. But we’ve seen less of that in the popular and academic press for many years.
Activist writing often capitalizes favored terms. I’ve seen “atheist,” “black” and “white” for race, “vegan,” and “patriot” capped, though never in general writing. Ayn Rand fans cap “objectivism,” though no one else does.
josh,
In response to the last 3 paragraphs: So What!
The amount of idiotically poor grammar and vocabulary displayed here (by theists and atheists alike) is simply amazing. BTW, English is not my “first” language, and even I understand basics such as the difference between loose and lose – their, there, and they’re – its and it’s – here, here and hear, hear……… The list goes on and on.
One might even get the impression that many of the posters haven’t graduated high school.