Why capitalize the common noun "atheist"?

@fmf said
In the context of this community, a kind of paranoia indicator, then, if used all the time, as is the case with sonship.

A few weeks back he seemed to be insisting that any idea or opinion was a "dogma" and that sharing a perspective or participating in a discussion was "propagandizing". This is how words get rinsed of their meaning.

@deepthought said
Judging by your post it looks as if they've already done away with conjunctives.

I also know a high school English teacher who gets things back on essays with for example the word you is with u and the would with is w/ So they return it for the studentS to correct it.

@fmf said
A few weeks back he seemed to be insisting that any idea or opinion was a "dogma" and that sharing a perspective or participating in a discussion was "propagandizing". This is how words get rinsed of their meaning.

Sonship complaining about dogma? We'll have the Donaldo complaining about male chauvinism next.

@fmf said
In the context of this community, a kind of paranoia indicator, then, if used all the time, as is the case with sonship.

Ah, so now we finally get to the root of your intended message.

Took long enough to pry it out of you.

@suzianne said
Ah, so now we finally get to the root of your intended message.

"Finally"? Huh? I have asked sonship head-on about his capitalization of the common noun atheist almost every time I have encountered it. The 'intention' of the OP could hardly be clearer. My opinion about sonship's capitalization of atheist has never been a secret. You "finally" get it?

To your way of thinking, when the style of spelling the word "atheist" with a capital A is used, what do you think is the intended meaning?

@fmf said
"Finally"? Huh? I have asked sonship head-on about his capitalization of the common noun atheist almost every time I have encountered it. The 'intention' of the OP could hardly be clearer. My opinion about sonship's capitalization of atheist has never been a secret. You "finally" get it?

To your way of thinking, when the style of spelling the word "atheist" with a capital A is used, what do you think is the intended meaning?

I was talking about your motivation of creating this supposedly "innocent" thread whose only reason for existing was to go after sonship. Again.

You should have come clean in your OP, then I would have ignored the thread for the drivel it became.

Is this thread an example of your "recreational outrage"?

@suzianne said
I was talking about your motivation of creating this supposedly "innocent" thread whose only reason for existing was to go after sonship. Again.

You should have come clean in your OP, then I would have ignored the thread for the drivel it became.

Is this thread an example of your "recreational outrage"?

This thread is not about you, Suzianne, or whether or not you believe this OP was "innocent" or "guilty" of something. Do you have any response to the OP question which is about the meaning intended by capitalizing the word "atheist"?

@suzianne said
Is this thread an example of your "recreational outrage"?

It is you who seems outraged. Yet again. Go read your own posts.

No. I am not outraged by anyone's capitalization of the common noun "atheist", but I am curious about what the people who do it think they achieve.

DeepThought, on page 1, may have got it right.

However, I wonder whether the intention is to bundle people who lack belief in God [to varying degrees and for various reasons] so as to sidestep the implications of that diversity.

@fmf said
What effect is the word "Atheist", spelt with a capital A, intended to have on the meaning of the sentence in which it appears?

There are at least two senses of “atheism”. One is lack of belief in God, with no implication of any sort of theory or argument to back it up; all newborns are atheists in this sense.

Another is belief in lack of God, possibly backed up by some sort of theory or argument. This might be distinguished from the first sort by capitalization, on paar with other philosophical positions which are also capitalized (Empiricism, Rationalism, Platonism, etc). So, an exponent of this position would be an Atheist (like an Empiricist, Rationalist, Platonist, etc.), whereas a newborn would be an atheist (lc).

@suzianne said
I was talking about your motivation of creating this supposedly "innocent" thread whose only reason for existing was to go after sonship. Again.

You should have come clean in your OP, then I would have ignored the thread for the drivel it became.

Is this thread an example of your "recreational outrage"?

You need to stop treating sonship as though he’s your disabled little brother who is being picked on in the playground because he can’t run fast enough.

Instead you could consider how sonship is actually one of the most spiteful religionists in this forum who has said some of the most horrible things to people, usually when in an intellectual pinch.

@divegeester said
You need to stop treating sonship as though he’s your disabled little brother who is being picked on in the playground because he can’t run fast enough.

Instead you could consider how sonship is actually one of the most spiteful religionists in this forum who has said some of the most horrible things to people, usually when in an intellectual pinch.

It's a bit simular to how FMF treats you.