Internet atheism web traffic volume

PZ Myers is one of the more active bloggers at Freethoughtblogs.

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

In 2016, an article entitled 2015 was a terrible year for internet atheism featured Alexa web traffic graphs which indicated that some prominent atheist websites lost a significant portion of their global market share. Since 2012, Freethoughtblogs (a collection of atheist bloggers) saw a significant decline in its web traffic.

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.

”

For more information see: Internet atheism - post 2007 market share loss

Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms

Eric Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, using a a wealth of demographic studies, argues that there will be a significant decline of global atheism in the 21st century which will impact the Western World.

See also: Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms

Google trends measures the interest in various words/phrases as far as Google searches over time.

Google trend data as a reflection of various events/trends

Google trend data is often a reflection of what is happening in the offline world and various events in online communities.

On July 24, 2013, CNS News reported:

“

Atheism is in decline worldwide, with the number of atheists falling from 4.5% of the world’s population in 1970 to 2.0% in 2010 and projected to drop to 1.8% by 2020, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass."

”

In the latter portion of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st century, due to various historical events/trends, the atheist movement has had lower confidence/morale (see: Atheists and the endurance of religion).

Google trend data

Below is Google trends data for various terms relating to atheism/agnosticism for various countries and the the world as a whole and in general their is a recent downward trends as far as atheism related searches:

• General atheism/agnostic terms - World

• General atheism/agnostic terms - USA

• General atheism/agnostic terms - UK

• General atheism/agnostic terms - Canada

• General atheism/agnostic terms - Australia

• General atheism/agnostic terms - New Zealand

• General atheism/agnostic terms - Singapore

On February 24, 2015, the Science Nordic website declared: "Creationism has particularly been on the rise in step with the internet, which according to Peter Kjærgaard has made it much easier for people to become activists...

Specific atheism terms

• Specific atheism terms worldwide

• Specific atheism terms USA

Worldwide interest in evolutionary ideas

• Worldwide interest in evolutionary ideas
• Worldwide online interest in Jesus vs. worldwide online interest in Charles Darwin

Elevatorgate and Richard Dawkins' loss of online influence

Richard Dawkins

See also: Atheist movement and Elevatorgate

Richard Dawkins is still widely criticized for causing embarrassment to his fellow atheists via his Elevatorgate scandal and for igniting deep fractures in the atheist movement.

Graph showing Richard Dawkins' loss of influence post Elevatatorgate

See also: Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website

As can be seen by the graph below, by means of embedded code on his website from Quantcast, Quantcast directly measured the web traffic of Richard Dawkins' website. Traffic to Dawkins website is significantly down post-Elevatorgate scandal.

Although his following of Dawkian atheist has significantly waned post-Elevatorgate and due to his generally abrasive manner, he does retain a small cult following (See: Richard Dawkins' loss of influence and Richard Dawkins' cult of personality and Atheist cults).

According to the web traffic tracking company Quantcast, the web traffic of Richard Dawkins's website fell in 2012. By October of 2014, the web traffic for his website fell to a lower level according to Quantcast.

The website traffic is measured via Quantcast which directly measures Dawkins' website traffic via embedded code on his website.

Recent web traffic according to Quantcast which directly measured Dawkins' website traffic

The above graph shows the monthly website traffic to Richard Dawkins' website as of June 22, 2015 in terms of unique monthly web visitors. As you can see above, in 2012, Richard Dawkins saw a very large decrease in web traffic.

The website traffic is measured via Quantcast which directly measures Dawkins' website traffic via embedded code on his website.

Alexa ranking of Richard Dawkins' website

In 2015, Richard Dawkins' website fell in terms of its Alexa ranking.

Reddit atheism

See also: Reddit atheism

Reddit atheism, also known as r/atheism, is one of the largest internet groups of atheists.

In 2013 Reddit atheism lost its main page status

In 2013 it suffered a major setback as it lost its status as a default subreddit (default subreddits are the forums that all non-logged in users see when they visit the site. In other words, the atheism subreddit was removed from its homepage).

In 2016, due to Reddit removing inactive "ghost accounts", Reddit reduced the amount of members in Reddit atheism by 10,000 user accounts.

Reddit atheism has a bad reputation

A June 14, 2013 Mashable article declared: "In recent years, r/atheism has become known for memes, images, quote pictures and other content viewed by some as "low brow."

According to the website Motherboard.com, "The term “reddit atheist” has evolved as a shorthand in recent years for a negative internet cliché, that of the rabid Richard Dawkins supporter, the mansplainer..."

Historically, the atheist population has often used mockery as a substitution for reasonable discussion/debate and Reddit atheism is a continuation of this tradition (see: Atheism and mockery).

Ineffectiveness of much of internet material

In 2007, WorldNetDaily featured a column by Chuck Norris concerning atheism and the internet which declared:

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Atheists are making a concerted effort to win the youth of America and the world. Hundreds of websites and blogs on the Internet seek to convince and convert adolescents, endeavoring to remove any residue of theism from their minds and hearts by packaging atheism as the choice of a new generation. While you think your kids are innocently surfing the Web, secular progressives are intentionally preying on their innocence and naïveté. What's preposterous is that atheists are now advertising and soliciting on websites particularly created for teens... YouTube, the most popular video site on the Net for young people, is one of their primary avenues for passing off their secularist propaganda.

”

Atheism internet outreach efforts, however, Ineffectiveness of atheist internet outreach.