Internet outreach and the Matthew effect: Atheist websites vs. religious websites

Saint Matthew

Study.com defines the Matthew effect thusly: "The Matthew Effect is a term that describes the concept in society of accumulated advantage. It argues that people who start from a place of advantage, like intelligence, fame, wealth, or skill, will have the opportunity to accrue more of that advantage compared to others. The Matthew Effect is often thought of by the phrase, "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer."" The Matthew effect's etymology can be traced to Gospel of Matthew which declares Jesus as saying: "For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (Matthew 25:29, RSV).

Because the religious population is larger than the atheist/agnostic populations and raises more money for web marketing budgets than the atheist/agnostic populations, they greatly outperform atheist websites in terms of web traffic. In addition, Google tends to rank large websites with a lot of traffic higher at Google for various search terms - especially high volume searches. So large Christian websites with a lot of web traffic have a big competitive advantage over atheist websites. Furthermore, religious groups often have more evangelistic zeal and also have more international cooperation in terms of web outreach efforts.

As time has progressed the gap between the effectiveness of religious websites vs. atheist websites in terms of reaching larger audiences has widened and will most likely widen further. For example, Christian websites are greatly outperforming atheist websites in terms of their respective web outreaches (see: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists and Internet atheism has a small audience and an insignificant influence on the world).

Major Christian internet evangelism ministries reach over 2 billion people via the internet

The Christian internet evangelism organization Global Media Outreach indicated that as of September 2019 over 1,900,000,000 "gospel visits" have occured via their websites. Global Media Outreach works with many Christians around the world (see: Global Christianity).

The Christian internet evangelism] organization Network211 indicates that as of September 2019, over 37,000,000 web visits have occured on their websites. Network211 works with many Christians/churches throughout the world.

In 2022, the Billy Graham Evangelism Association announced:

“

Launched in 2012, Search for Jesus impacts website users with the truth of the Gospel and relies on a network of over 1,400 trained volunteers who interact with users and answer live questions. With a mission to reach those hurting and in need, Search for Jesus utilizes the accessibility of the internet to reach places otherwise closed to the Gospel. Using these digital tools, more than 300 million people have indicated a decision for Christ and received follow-up through the internet ministry. To date, the PeaceWithGod.net websites have welcomed over 100 million online users. With messages in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, American Sign Language, and Russian, Search for Jesus has been able to expand globally and cross language and accessibility barriers. “This is significant because we’re following Billy Graham’s legacy of spreading the Gospel across the globe using every opportunity we have. The average person spends nearly seven hours a day on the internet, so we want to meet these people where they are,” said Mark Appleton, director of internet evangelism for BGEA, in a press release. “Search for Jesus has given us the chance to spread the Gospel like never before.”

”

The Christian Post states:

“

Online evangelism is producing real disciples for Christ, according to a recent study. Over half of those who made a decision for Jesus over the Internet have subsequently shared their faith with others, Global Media Outreach's study reveals. Additionally, 34 percent read their Bibles daily and nearly half pray for at least 10 minutes a day... The study, called the Christian Growth Index, measured the responses of more than 100,000 people from around the world... Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they shared their faith three times or more and 37 percent said they shared their faith at least once or twice. Global Media Outreach is a global ministry that presents the Gospel online through websites such as WhoisJesus-Really.com and GrowinginChrist.com. There are more than 5,500 trained online missionaries worldwide who respond to questions asked by seekers through emails.

”

There are other significant Christian internet evangelism efforts as well. For example, the Billy Graham Association is also active in internet evangelism.

Major Christian apologetics websites and their web traffic

See: Major Christian apologetics websites and their web traffic

Large list of atheist websites that have lost much of their web traffic with supporting data

• Large list of atheist websites that have lost web traffic - with supporting data

Google trends research suggesting that internet atheism preaches to the atheist choir and is not effective at atheist evangelism

See also: Atheist activist and Atheism and groupthink and Atheist apologetics and Christian apologetics

The abstract for the journal article Who is Not Afraid of Richard Dawkins? Using Google Trends to Assess the Reach of Influential Atheists across Canadian Secular Groups published in the journal Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses indicates:

“

Google Trends data on search volumes of high profile atheist public figures are used to assess their relative reach among different types of seculars in Canada. The user query data mined from Google Trends are complemented with an extensive set of information extracted from the Canadian General Social Surveys of 2005 to 2016. The analysis shows that the reach of high profile atheists is positively correlated with the presence of strictly-seculars, a proxy for the atheists. The investigation produces no statistically significant correlation between the presence of other types of seculars, namely the unchurched believers and the nominal affiliates, and the search volumes for high profile atheists. This exploratory finding suggests that the influential atheists likely “preach to the choir,” catering to like-minded individuals, at the exclusion of those with relatively close but differing views on religion and spirituality.

”

Internet atheism and web traffic drops to atheist websites

As far as internet atheism, during the period of 2008 to 2012, the atheist community made a concerted effort to spread atheism through means of the internet. However, leading atheist websites saw plunges in web traffic during the latter period of this time. See also: Internet atheism

An article entitled Internet atheism: The thrill is gone! declares: "In 2007, the Bible believer Chuck Norris noted that atheists were making a concerted effort to spread atheism via the internet. As you you will soon see via the graphs below, it has been an abysmal failure! The atheist community flooded the internet with a lot of shallow, ill-reasoned fluff that many in the public quickly dismissed."

In 2011, the Elevatorgate incident caused the atheist movement to fracture, decline and later die. Numerous atheists have declared that the "atheist movement is dead" or that it is dying (see: Decline of the atheist movement). In 2019, a writer at Freethought Blogs wrote: "Last month I looked at some postmortems of the atheist movement...". See also: Morale of the atheist movement

The atheist movement dying caused web traffic to atheist websites to drop significantly.

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

See also: Internet atheism and the coronavirus pandemic

Many atheist websites did very poorly during the coronavirus pandemic and lost a large amount of their traffic since the early part of 2020 (See: Internet atheism and the coronavirus pandemic).

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 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).

Christian websites and the pandemic

See also: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists

A number of major Christian websites, such as Biblegateway.com, Christianity.com and Gotquestions.org, saw significant increases in their Google referral traffic during the difficult coronavirus pandemic time period (See: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists).

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 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

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

According to Got Questions Ministries, within one month of their launch, GotQuestions.org was receiving over 30 questions a day. The volunteer staff grew from 5 writers, to 10, to 20, to 50, and ultimately to its current staff of over 275 writers (In 2013, Got Questions Ministries reported having over 275 writers). Gotquestions.org relies on three things: 1) SEO 2) Content marketing 3) Volunteer recruitment/management." See: S. Michael Houdmann - 10-Year Anniversary Presentation and Got Questions? Interview with Got Questions founder, Shea Michael Houdmann (October 2022 interview) and Apply to serve with GotQuestions.org

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.

Atheist organizations vs. Christian organizations and fundraising

See also: Atheist organizations and fundraising

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science had a scandal related to an embezzlement allegation. See: Atheist organizations and scandals

According to an international study done by William Bainbridge, atheism is frequent among people whose interpersonal social obligations are weak and is also linked to lower fertility rates in advanced industrial nations (See also: Atheism and fertility rates).

Jacques Rousseau wrote in the Daily Maverick: "Elevatorgate..has resulted in three weeks of infighting in the secular community. Some might observe that we indulge in these squabbles fairly frequently."

See also: Atheist factions and Atheism and intolerance

In 2017, the atheist activist Lee Moore declared about American atheist organizations:

“

If you look at the major atheist groups right now, like the national groups, the ones that are doing the real activist work... They are not bringing in the kind of donations they used to. Most of them are starved for cash. They're downsizing left and right. Because people aren't just giving like they used to. And I talked to a lot of the major donors out there and they said, "Well, we're kind of tired of seeing the atheist community just fight amongst itself and not really get anything done. We'd rather not give money if we don't think it's going to go somewhere."

”

The 2017 IRS tax exempt form of the American Atheists organization shows that in 2016 the contributions and grants to the American Atheists organization was $1,160,208 and in 2017 contributions and grants to the American Atheists organization dropped to $408,922 (see: 2017 contributions and grants to American Atheists).

See also:

• Atheist factions

• Atheism and social skills

• Atheists and conflict resolution

• Atheist fundraising vs. religious fundraising

Atheist fundraising vs. religious fundraising

Because there are more Christians and other religious people, religious people tend to be more charitable, and religious people tend to be more harmonious and socially engaged, religious people greatly outfund atheist (see: Atheist fundraising vs. religious fundraising and Atheism and charity).

Atheist population, intelligence, web marketing skills and a lack of coordination between Western atheists and Eastern atheists

Global atheism

See also: Global atheism and Desecularization

Atheism is in decline worldwide. See: Global atheism statistics

The atheist population mostly resides in East Asia (particularly China) and in secular Europe/Australia primarily among whites. See also: Atheist population and Western atheism and race

Razib Khan points out in Discover Magazine, "most secular nations in the world are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed “Confucian societies.” It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s atheists are actually East Asian." See: Asian atheism

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 2% of the world's population self-identifies as atheist and the average annual global change for atheism from 2000 to 2010 was −0.17%. See: Global atheism statistics

In respect to the 2.3% figure just mentioned, the 2005 survey cited by Encyclopedia Britannica survey did not include Buddhist in regards to the 2.3% figure and Buddhism can be theistic or atheistic. Ipsos, a major global market research company, published a report on report on religious belief/skepticism from a worldwide perspective and the report provides various statistics gained from survey results.

Atheists as a percentage of the world's population have declined since 1970 and global atheism is expected to face long term decline. See: Global atheism statistics

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.

Professor Eric Kaufmann, who teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London, specializes in the academic area of how demographic changes affect religion/irreligion and politics. Kaufmann is an agnostic.

On December 23, 2012, Kaufmann wrote:

“

I argue that 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious. On the other hand, the secular West and East Asia has very low fertility and a rapidly aging population... In the coming decades, the developed world's demand for workers to pay its pensions and work in its service sector will soar alongside the booming supply of young people in the third world. Ergo, we can expect significant immigration to the secular West which will import religious revival on the back of ethnic change. In addition, those with religious beliefs tend to have higher birth rates than the secular population, with fundamentalists having far larger families. The epicentre of these trends will be in immigration gateway cities like New York (a third white), Amsterdam (half Dutch), Los Angeles (28% white), and London, 45% white British.

”

Larger religious population in the world, Google and large websites with a lot of traffic ranking higher at Google for search terms

The religious population of the world is much larger than the atheist population. And Christianity and Islam both have a lot of adherents.

Google tends to rank large websites with a lot of traffic higher at Google for various search terms - especially high volume searches.

Western atheism, the United States, internet atheism and English widely being spoken

English is very widely spoken in the world.

In the West, the United States is more religious than the rest of the Western World. However, because the U.S. has such a large English-speaking population compared to the Western World, the atheist websites based in the United States have had more traffic than atheist websites based elsewhere in the Western World.

Worldwide digital marketing skills shortage, high cost of digital marketing, intelligence and American atheists

See also: Atheism and intelligence

Digital marketing is a field that rapidly changes over time. In addition, websites receive a lot of web traffic from search engines. Due to the large market share of Google among search engines and the complexity of the Google algorithm which is proprietary, the field of search engine optimization requires a person with above-average intelligence. Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Quality web marketing is expensive and can take months/years to achieve big results - especially search engine optimization (SEO).

In 2015, the Forbes article How To Plan And Budget For SEO stated about search engine optimization (SEO): Real SEO isn’t cheap. How much does SEO cost? If you’re hiring a high quality SEO firm to provide comprehensive SEO services, be prepared to pay $3,000 to $5,000 per month, at a minimum. Many companies are spending tens of thousands of dollars per month on SEO. I wouldn’t hire a company offering SEO services for less than $1,000 per month, unless it’s a specialized sub-section of SEO, like local citation management.

In 2019, the website The Drum indicated about skills related to web development and web marketing:

“

For ten years now our industry has been talking about the skills shortage. At the beginning it was something we referred to as the “rush to the middle”. This was created by the sudden realisation in Adland that agencies needed to be far more digital to stay ahead of the curve and therefore putting them in direct competition with the big tech brands when it came to securing talent. To compound this a wave of new start-ups like UberCab, AirBed & Breakfast and Picaboo (snapchat) were tempting new talent in a different direction. In total, demand was outstripping supply. Digital skills are more in demand than ever. Fast forward to 2019 and the situation has become far worse. Entrepreneurship is at an all-time high with over 10% of UK companies launching as start-ups this year. New starters often expect a level of pay and flexibility that matches experience they don’t yet have – this can feed the exploitation of internship programmes.

”

In 2018, the website Leveraged Digital Media indicated:

“

If you think the overabundance of fake digital marketing experts is a strictly American problem, you will be surprised to discover that a similar trend is occurring across the globe. The Digital Marketing Institute’s ‘Skills Gap Study’ states that only 38 percent of respondents working in digital marketing in the United States reached a competent skill level when gauged using a test. The United Kingdom had similar results, with only 37 percent of respondents meeting the minimum competency level for a digital marketing professional. Countries like South Korea and Bangladesh also received subpar scores.

”

American atheists and intelligence

Citing data from the General Social Survey (GSS), the author of the book The Irrational Atheist writes: "..the two most common types of atheists are the High Church atheists with +2SD IQs (128+) and Low Church atheists with -2SD IQs (65-72). Note that the Low Church atheists actually outnumber the High Church atheists, 22.9 to 17.2 percent." (click on the graph above to enlarge)

In his article How Many Americans are Atheists? Fewer than You Might Think, Bradley Wright wrote:

“

Another quality measure is offered by the General Social Survey, probably the best-known, most rigorous social survey out there. It gives respondents a series of statements about their beliefs in God, and it asks which come closest to what they believe. The 2010 survey found that: • 3% of Americans “don’t believe in God.” • (Another 6% reported that they “don’t know whether there is a God and don’t believe there is any way to find out,” i.e., agnostics.)

”

The General Social Survey (GSS) is the "largest project funded by the Sociology Program of the National Science Foundation. Except for the U.S. Census, the GSS is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences."

As you can see above, the social scientists at the General Social Survey do not define as strictly as encyclopedias of philosophy and many other reference works. As a result, in reporting their survey results there is some overlap with individuals who some may consider to be merely agnostics.

Citing data from the General Social Survey, the author of the book The Irrational Atheist writes about atheist intelligence quotient (IQ) scores:

“

"..the two most common types of atheists are the High Church atheists with +2SD IQs (128+) and Low Church atheists with -2SD IQs (65-72). Note that the Low Church atheists actually outnumber the High Church atheists, 22.9 to 17.2 percent... Now, the statistically naive might look at this chart, note that the +2SD theists only account for 3.5 percent of the theistic population, and assume that this means there are more highly intelligent atheists than highly intelligent theists. This is not the case. As it happens, there are 11.4x more +2SD theists who either know God exists or believe God exists despite having the occasional doubt than there are +2SD atheists who don't believe God exists.

”

In a 2010 article, Beale writes: "Never forget that the smarter and more knowledgeable act put on by many atheists is inevitably nothing more than that, an act, and one that has absolutely no basis in empirical reality except for a three-point average advantage in IQ which is almost surely a statistical artifact of their insignificant numbers and self-selected identification.

Thus, in the world as a whole, the USA and in most countries of the world, the larger religious population is bound to have far more intelligent people who are competent in the web marketing field than the atheist/agnostic populations.

Atheism vs. Christianity: Geographic distribution of their populations, multilingual websites and websites with a large amount of traffic

In terms of its geographic distribution, Christianity is the most globally diverse religion. Christianity has recently seen explosive growth outside the Western World. In 2000, there were twice as many non-Western Christians as Western Christians. In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western Christians as there were Western World Christians. There are now more non-Western missionaries than Western missionaries. See also: Global scope of indigenous evangelical Christianity evangelism

Europe has a significant amount of atheists, but Christianity is more geographically diverse than atheist population.

Therefore, Christianity has a competitive advantage when it comes to having large, multilingual websites with a lot of web traffic. For example, Biblegateway.com mentioned above is such a website. Google tends to give more referral traffic to large websites with a lot of web traffic.

In addition, with their bigger donation base, Christians can more readily afford pay per click Google/Bing advertising campaigns for their websites that reach various countries.

Atheism and poor international cooperation among atheists

See also: Atheism and international cooperation among atheists

Atheism is not a movement which tends to create community as most atheists are apathetic when it comes to such matters (see: Atheism and apathy).

Western atheists have not done a significant amount of outreach to poor countries. Christians have done a significant amount of outreach to poor countries

See also: Lack of significant global outreach by atheist organizations and Western atheism and race and Global atheism

A photograph of Tanzanian children taken by a blogger of the Christian relief organization Compassion International.

Doing overseas evangelism and relief outreaches to third-world countries, often requires significant hardships/persecution and Western atheists have been unwilling to endure such hardships in order to spread atheistic ideology (see: Atheism and hedonism).

The atheist population in the Western World has not had significant outreaches to spread atheism outside the Western World nor have atheist organizations done a significant amount of relief efforts to poor countries.

Doing overseas evangelism/outreaches often requires significant hardships/persecution and Western atheists have been unwilling to endure such hardships in order to spread atheistic ideology (see: Atheism and hedonism).

Historically, Christians have made great evangelism efforts to reach every people group across the earth. They have also engaged in a lot of Christian relief work to help lessen poverty. In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western World Christians as there were Western World Christians. In terms of its geographic distribution, Christianity is the most globally diverse religion. Christianity has recently seen explosive growth outside the Western World. In 2000, there were twice as many non-Western Christians as Western Christians.

The current atheist population mostly resides in East Asia (particularly China) and in secular Europe/Australia among whites. See: Global atheism

Translation of Darwin's Origin of the Species vs. the Bible

Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists and agnostics (see also: Causes of evolutionary belief). Charles Darwin's evolutionary book The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life has been translated into 35 languages.

The Bible has been translated into 518 languages and 2,798 languages have at least some portion of the Bible.

See also: Social darwinism

Cooperation between Asian atheists and Western atheists nonexistent or virtually non-existent

See also: China and atheism and Cooperation between Asian atheists and Western atheists nonexistent or virtually non-existent

China has the largest atheist population in the world.

China has the world's largest atheist population and practices state atheism.

East Asia contains about 25 percent of the world’s population. China’s population represents 20 percent of the people on earth.

Razib Khan points out in Discover Magazine, "most secular nations in the world are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed “Confucian societies.” It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s atheists are actually East Asian." See: Asian atheism and Global atheism

China is not sending out atheist activists to evangelize the world as far as atheism. There are no Chinese, atheist evangelists evangelizing Africa. In fact, such an idea probably never occurred to them - especially given Chinese racism (see: China and racism).

In fact, evangelical Christianity is experiencing explosive growth in China (see: Growth of Christianity in China). To see the magnitude of the explosive growth of Christianity in China, examine this graph about the growth of Christianity in China in a DW news story about Chinese Christianity (DW is a mainstream news outlet in Germany).

Chinese Christians and plans for evangelism outside of China

See also: East Asia and global desecularization

Professor Fenggang Yang indicates: "One sign of the advancing state of Christianity in China is that it is reaching out to the larger world. Nine hundred Chinese pastors gathered in Hong Kong this fall for the Mission 2030 Conference. Their goal: To send out 20,000 missionaries from mainland China by 2030."

Communism, historical expansion of atheism, cooperation of communists and decline of the secular left

See also: Atheism and communism and militant atheism.

Joseph Stalin, the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, patronised the League of Militant Atheists, whose chief aim, under the leadership of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, was to propagate militant atheism and eradicate religion.

According to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power."

The most rapid expansion of atheism was due to militant atheism and state atheism.

Historically, state atheism has been extremely repressive (see: Militant atheism and Atheism and mass murder and Atheistic communism and torture).

Karl Marx said "Religion is the opium of the people". Marx also stated: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."

Vladimir Lenin similarly wrote regarding atheism and communism: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."

Friedrich Engels wrote of atheistic evolutionism and Communism: "Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered law of development of human history."

In 1955, Chinese Communist leader Zhou Enlai declared, "We Communists are atheists". In 2014, the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that members of their party must be atheists. See also: China and atheism

In 2016, the International Business Times reported: "A senior Chinese advisor on religious affairs has said the country should promote atheism throughout society, in remarks that appear to reflect a deepening campaign to reinforce traditional Marxist values in China — and could add to concern about official attitudes among believers in the country’s five officially recognized religions.}}

Soviet atheism was expansionary and communists did cooperate with each other in various countries. Chinese communism has been less expansionary than Soviet communism, but it has aided other communist regimes like Vietnam and North Korea which both have state atheism.

Decline of state atheism in the world

See also: State atheism

The dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991 was a watershed event in terms of the decline of leftism and the decline of the secular left (see also: Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe and desecularization).

In the latter part of the 20th century and presently, state atheism is increasing losing power (see: Growth of Christianity in China and Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union).

On November 1, 2014, an article in The Economist entitled Cracks in the atheist edifice declared:

“

Officials are untroubled by the clash between the city’s famously freewheeling capitalism and the Communist Party’s ideology, yet still see religion and its symbols as affronts to the party’s atheism... Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.

”

Decline of the secular left

See also: Decline of the secular left

In 2019, John Feffer wrote at the left leaning The Nation:

“

In the Americas, the Trump tsunami has swept across both continents and the 'pink tide' of progressivism has all but disappeared from the southern half of the hemisphere... In this planet-wide rising tide of right-wing populism, the liberal left commands only a few disconnected islands — Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Uruguay... Worse, crafty operators with even more ambitious agendas stand ready to destroy the liberal status quo once and for all."

”

In September 2018, Pew Research indicated: "Due to the decline of the center-left across much of Western Europe and the comparative steadiness of the center-right, most Western European countries are led by center-right parties, as measured by the party of the prime minister or other head of government." In June 2014, Forbes reported that it is undeniable that politically right wing parties are ascendant in Europe.

Decline of transnational organizing among the left

Most atheists skew to the left politically (see: Atheism and politics and Secular left).

In 2019, The Nation indicated in an article entitled Nationalism Is Global. The Left Is on the Defensive: "The left has not abandoned transnational organizing. But at a time when transnational organizing is needed more than ever to deal with global scourges..., progressives have shifted to the defensive—and to the domestic—as politics has moved rightward globally. “Internationalism is now a problem for the left,” observes Israeli activist and academic Gadi Algazi, “and a reality for the right.”"

Christian internet evangelism and international cooperation: Atheists vs. Christians

See also: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists

Christian internet evangelism

See also: Internet evangelism

Global Media Outreach is an internet evangelism ministry.

The Christian internet evangelism organization Global Media Outreach indicates that as of September 2019 over 1,900,000,000 "gospel visits" have occured via their websites. Global Media Outreach works with many Christians around the world.

The Christian internet evangelism organization Network211 indicates that as of September 2019, over 37,000,000 web visits have occured on their websites. Network211 works with many Christians/churches throughout the world.

The Christian Post states:

“

Online evangelism is producing real disciples for Christ, according to a recent study. Over half of those who made a decision for Jesus over the Internet have subsequently shared their faith with others, Global Media Outreach's study reveals. Additionally, 34 percent read their Bibles daily and nearly half pray for at least 10 minutes a day... The study, called the Christian Growth Index, measured the responses of more than 100,000 people from around the world... Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they shared their faith three times or more and 37 percent said they shared their faith at least once or twice. Global Media Outreach is a global ministry that presents the Gospel online through websites such as WhoisJesus-Really.com and GrowinginChrist.com. There are more than 5,500 trained online missionaries worldwide who respond to questions asked by seekers through emails.

”

There are no atheist organizations with very strong web presences such as Global Media Outreach that are working with atheists and atheist organizations around the world.

Protestant missionaries, cooperation and economic/societal development

See also: Protestant cultural legacies and Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The atheist and Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the Protestant societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."

There are networks of Protestant Christians who work together to advance Christian evangelism and internet evangelism.

For example, visionSynergy helps Christian organizations work together so they can maximize thier impact by developing and strengthening strategic ministry networks and partnerships in critical areas of world mission.

The atheist and Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the Protestant societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."

The article The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries published in Christianity Today notes:

“

In his fifth year of graduate school, Woodberry created a statistical model that could test the connection between missionary work and the health of nations. He and a few research assistants spent two years coding data and refining their methods. They hoped to compute the lasting effect of missionaries, on average, worldwide... One morning, in a windowless, dusty computer lab lit by fluorescent bulbs, Woodberry ran the first big test. After he finished prepping the statistical program on his computer, he clicked "Enter" and then leaned forward to read the results. "I was shocked," says Woodberry. "It was like an atomic bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge. I kept adding variables to the model—factors that people had been studying and writing about for the past 40 years—and they all got wiped out. It was amazing. I knew, then, I was on to something really important." Woodberry already had historical proof that missionaries had educated women and the poor, promoted widespread printing, led nationalist movements that empowered ordinary citizens, and fueled other key elements of democracy. Now the statistics were backing it up: Missionaries weren't just part of the picture. They were central to it... Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations. In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary."

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Contemporary atheism lacks foreign missionaries spreading atheism in the world. No economic/societal development due to atheist missionaries spreading atheism

See also: Atheism and economics and Atheism and sloth and Atheism and apathy and Atheism and motivation

Contemporary atheists lacks foreign missionaries spreading atheism in the world. There is no economic/societal development in developing countries due to atheist missionaries spreading atheism.

See also:

• Atheism and economics

• Atheism and sloth

• Atheism and apathy

• Atheism and motivation

See also

Essay:

• Christianity and its margin of victory over atheism

Humor:

• Humorous quotes about atheist web marketing