Internet atheism and the coronavirus pandemic

Electron microscope scan of a coronavirus, so-called due to the crown-like filaments on the surface.

See: Atheism and the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic started in atheist-controlled, communist China that allowed thousands of COVID-19 infected people to leave China during the early stage of the pandemic when the world was not aware of it. China has state atheism. In terms of world's countries, China has the largest atheist population in the world (see: Atheism and China). Most of the world's atheists are East Asians (see: Asian atheism and Global atheism).

As can be seen below, several atheist websites did very poorly during the coronavirus pandemic and lost a large amount of their traffic since the early part of 2020.

On the other hand, there were major Christian websites that saw their web traffic substantially grow during the coronavirus pandemic (See: Christian websites and the coronavirus pandemic).

Historically, religiosity increases during pandemics. Pew Research found people's religious faith grew during the pandemic - especially in the United States. Nearly three-in-ten U.S. adults say the outbreak has boosted their faith; about four-in-ten say it has tightened family bonds.

In addition, many atheist organizations have significant difficulty in getting their fellow atheist to financially support them (see: Atheist organizations and fundraising), so their web marketing budgets could have been low during the pandemic. In addition, many atheist organizations have poor fiscal management so they may not have had reserves built up before the pandemic (see: Atheist organizations and financial mismanagement). For example, the website RationalWiki lost an enormous amount of web traffic during the coronavirus pandemic. On May 29, 2022, one of the founders of the RationalWiki website indicated "Currently the donations we get are sparse... We have not done a donation drive in a long time and have not been self-supporting for over a year....". Rationalwiki has not complied with non-profit reporting requirements for 7 consecutive years.

The atheist websites that lost web traffic during the coronavirus pandemic might never gain that traffic back again as the number of atheists in the world is expected to drop before mid-2022 according to the scholars at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Currently, the global atheist population is losing market share in terms of the world's population (see: Global atheism statistics). In addition, various atheists have indicated that the atheist movement died or is dying (see: Decline of the atheist movement).

Atheist Sam Harris' website

The new atheist Sam Harris said concerning the label of atheist, "It's right next to child molester as a designation."(see also: Distrust of atheists)

See also: Sam Harris

Sam Harris' websites loss of Google referral web traffic

Sam Harris' website lost a significant amount of its referral traffic from Google since January 2020.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

RationalWiki and its large drop in Google referral traffic since October 2019 and during/after 2020

See also: RationalWiki and the coronavirus pandemic and RationalWiki and web traffic and RationalWiki

Since October 2019, the RationalWiki website lost a huge amount of its Google referral traffic according to the leading web marketing company SEMRush. The website also lost a tremendous amount of traffic during 2020 when the pandemic was at its peak.

As you can see in the above graph, Google has downgraded its estimation of RationalWiki in terms of the quality of its website and RationalWiki is getting less Google traffic.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Indications that RationalWiki lacked funds during the pandemic

See also: RationalWiki and the coronavirus pandemic

On May 29, 2022, one of the founders of the RationalWiki website indicated "Currently the donations we get are sparse... We have not done a donation drive in a long time and have not been self-supporting for over a year....". Rationalwiki has not complied with non-profit reporting requirements for 7 consecutive years. See also: Atheist organizations and fundraising and Atheist fundraising vs. religious fundraising

Indications that RationalWiki had poor leadership during the pandemic

See also: RationalWiki and its poor leadership during the pandemic and Atheism and leadership

There are indications that RationalWiki had poor leadership during the coronavirus pandemic (see: RationalWiki and its poor leadership during the pandemic).

KarmaPolice on the future of RationalWiki

KarmaPolice is RationalWiki (RW) editor who is a British socialist.

On August 15, 2022, KarmaPolice wrote concerning RationalWiki: "...it's quite possible that by say, 2030 the RW 'TimeCube' page may be *only* surviving record of it's existence."

American Atheists website and its loss of Google referral traffic

See also: American Atheists

According to the leading web marketing website, the American Atheists's peak Google traffic was in March 2019.

As of July 28, 2022, the Google referral traffic going to the American Atheists website is significantly lower than it was at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic according to SEMRush's data.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Richard Dawkins' website and loss of Google referral traffic

Richard Dawkins declared "Christianity may actually be our best defence against aberrant forms of religion that threaten the world". See also: Richard Dawkins and Islam

See also: Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website

Richard Dawkins' website lost a very large proportion of its Google referral traffic since November 2017 according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Center for Inquiry website's loss of Google referral web traffic

Paul Kurtz was the founder of the Center for Inquiry.

See also: Center for Inquiry

The Center for Inquiry website lost a large majority of its Google referral web traffic from its peak Google referral traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

During the coronavirus pandemic Freethought Blogs lost monthly Google referral traffic visits

The atheist PZ Myers declared, "...I don’t object to bestiality in a very limited set of specific conditions...". See also: PZ Myers on bestiality and Atheism and bestiality

See also: Freethought Blogs and PZ Myers

On August 3, 2022, the leading web marketing website SEMRush reported that in March 2020 Freethought Blogs it was getting 17,428 monthly Google referral traffic visits, but by August 3, 2022 it was getting 12,499 monthly Google referral visits.

Freethought Blogs is an atheist/agnostic blogging community. It was founded by atheists Ed Brayton and PZ Myers.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Skeptoid.com's Loss of Google referral web traffic

See also: Skeptoid

Since December of 2018, the website Skeptoid has lost a high proportion of its Google referral traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

ReligiousTolerance.org website and its loss of monthly Google referral traffic (Has a significant amount of atheism/skepticism content)

ReligiousTolerance.org contains a large archive of articles and essays on subjects relating to atheism, religion and skepticism. According to the Religioustolerance.org website, they do have an atheist and agnostic on staff, but no religious conservatives on staff. In addition, one of the website's core beliefs is the separation of church and state.

According to the leading web marketing website SEMRush, ReligiousTolerance.org has lost a very large portion of its monthly Google referral traffic visits.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Atheist Republic's loss of Google referral web traffic

See also: Atheist Republic

Since May 2019, the Atheist Republic website lost a large majority of its Google referral web traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Atheist Alliance International website: Loss of Google referral traffic

Atheism is in decline worldwide. See: Global atheism statistics

See also: Atheist Alliance International

The Atheist Alliance International website lost a very large proportion of its Google referral traffic since its peak amount of Google referral web traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Atheist Community of Austin website's loss of Google referral traffic

The Atheist Community of Austin website lost a high proportion of its Google referral web traffic. According to the leading web marketing company SEMRush, on May 5, 2020 the website received 6,698 Google referral visits in the previous 30 days. On August 5, 2022, the website received 3,519 Google referral visits in the previous 30 days.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Secular Web's website: Loss of Google referral traffic

See also: Secular Web

Since 2011, the Secular Web's website lost a high proportion of its Google referral web traffic.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

The Atheist Experience Show website's loss of Google referral traffic

Matt Dillahunty is a host of the Atheist Experience Show.

According to the leading web marketing company SEMRushm, the Atheist Experience website lost a high proportion of its Google referral web traffic. SEMRush is not registering any Google referral traffic going to the Atheist Experience Show website which means it is receiving little to no Google referral traffic monthly visits.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

EvilBible.com website and its loss of monthly Google referral traffic

According to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.com, EvilBible.com has lost a very large portion of it monthly Google referral traffic visits.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

The Orbit: Loss of Google referral traffic

In 2018, The Orbit website lost a considerable amount of its global market share according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa. On December 24, 2018, Alexa ranked The Orbit the 661,244th most popular website in the world.

See also: The Orbit

Since March 2017, The Orbit website lost a large portion of its Google referral web traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

The AtheistForums.org website's loss of Google referral traffic

AtheistForums.org website lost a very large proportion of its Google referral traffic since its peak amount of Google referral web traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Atheist Ireland website: Loss of Google referral traffic

See also: Michael Nugent

The Atheist Ireland website lost a very large proportion of its Google referral traffic since its peak amount of Google referral web traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

The ArgumentsForAtheism.com website and its loss of monthly Google referral traffic

According to the leading web marketing website SEMRush, the ArgumentsForAtheism.com website has lost a very large portion of its monthly Google referral traffic visits.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

RationalResponders.com website and its loss of monthly Google referral traffic

According to the leading web marketing website SEMRush, RationalResponders.com has lost a very large portion of its monthly Google referral traffic visits.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

The Atheist Revolution website: Loss of Google referral traffic

See also: Internet atheism

The Atheist Revolution website lost a very large proportion of its Google referral traffic since its peak amount of Google referral web traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

John W. Loftus' Debunking Christianity website: Loss of Google referral traffic

See also: John W. Loftus

John W. Loftus' Debunking Christianity website lost a very large proportion of its Google referral traffic since its peak amount of Google referral web traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

AtheistScholar.org website and its loss of monthly Google referral traffic

According to the leading web marketing website SEMRush, AtheistScholar.org has lost a very large portion of its monthly Google referral traffic visits.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

AskTheAtheist.com website and its loss of monthly Google referral traffic

According to the leading web marketing website SEMRush, RationalResponders.com has lost a very large portion of its monthly Google referral traffic visits.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Christian websites and the coronavirus pandemic

By a wide margin, the Bible is the best selling book in the world. In 2015, the Guinness Book of World Records estimated that more than 5 billion copies of the Bible have been printed.

See also: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists

A number of major Christian websites, such as Christianity.com and Gotquestions.org, saw significant increases in their Google referral traffic during the difficult coronavirus pandemic time period.

Biblegateway.com and Google referral traffic

During the coronavirus pandemic, the multilingual website Biblegateway.com experienced an increase in Google referral traffic from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to July 30, 2022 according to the data from the leading web marketing company SEMRush.com.

Large multilingual websites with a lot of Google referral traffic from around the world such as Biblegateway.com have a large amount of relevant inbound links from around the world.

Christianity.com and Google referral traffic

Christ And The Rich Young Ruler by Heinrich Hofmann (1824–1911), 1889.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the website Christianity.com had an increase in Google referral traffic from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to July 30, 2022 according to the data from the leading web marketing company SEMRush.com.

The amount of Google referral traffic to Christianity.com has gone significanly since February 2016 according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush and the website's Google referral traffic increased during the pandemic. SEMRush says the website is getting about 6,250,000 monthly referral visits from Google in July 2022.

Got Questions Ministries and Google referral traffic

See also: Got Questions Ministries

In December of 2020, the Christian internet ministry Got Questions Ministries saw a very large increase in its Google referral traffic according to the leading web marketing website SEMRush.

According to the article 1,000+ Winners and Losers of the December 2020 Google Core Algorithm Update the website Gotquestions.org saw the 7th biggest increase in Google referral traffic as far as the 50 domains that saw the greatest percent gain in Google visibility.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Large multilingual websites with a lot of Google referral traffic from around the world such as Gotquestions.org have a large amount of relevant inbound links from around the world.

See also

• Atheism and leadership

• Atheism and charity

• Atheism and mental toughness