Internet atheism

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The article Internet atheism: The thrill is gone! points out that internet atheism has been in a significant slump since 2011.

In the early part of the 21st century, atheists were very active on the internet.[1] However, by 2008 there began a marked decline in internet atheism (see: Internet atheism web traffic volume).[2]

One of the reasons why some atheist participate in internet atheism is that offline participation in the atheist community is often difficult.[3]

In an essay entitled How the Atheist Movement Failed Me, an atheist woman noted that participation in the atheist community is often expensive due to the cost of attending atheist conferences and even local atheist meetings in restaurants and bars challenged her modest budget.[3] As a result of the challenges that atheists commonly have in terms of socializing in person, many atheists turn to the internet in terms of communicating with other atheists.

In addition, Conatus News indicates:

The overwhelming anti-atheist sentiment in society means most don’t feel comfortable outwardly proclaiming their lack of faith. So instead of congregating in a large building on Sunday, many atheists have found their own community online.

This societal stigma is certainly part of the reason atheists seem so drawn to internet interactions. Anonymity, or at least the safety of separation from those around you, provides the ability to truly speak one’s mind.[4]

Numerous atheists have declared that the "atheist movement is dead" or that it is dying (see: Decline of the atheist movement).[5] In 2019, a writer at Freethought Blogs wrote: "Last month I looked at some postmortems of the atheist movement...".[6] See also: Morale of the atheist movement

Division is widespread among atheists (see: Atheist factions).

Atheism tends not to create community and most atheists are apathetic (See: Atheism and apathy and Atheism and loneliness).

Christian organizations have been significantly more successful than atheist organizations as far as evangelizing via the internet (see: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists).

Contents

Internet atheism web traffic levels

See: Internet atheism web traffic volume

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.[2]

PZ Myers is one of the more active bloggers at Freethought Blogs.

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.[7] Since 2012, Freethought Blogs (a collection of atheist bloggers) saw a significant decline in its web traffic.[8]

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."[9]

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

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

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...[1]

Atheism internet outreach efforts, however, have been very ineffective.

Decline of YouTube atheism

See also: YouTube atheism

In December 2015, a video entitled What Killed YouTube Atheism? was released giving a number of reasons YouTube atheism saw a big decline (see: What Killed YouTube atheism?).

Atheist feminism related online schism

See also: Atheist factions and Atheists and antisocial behavior

The forerunner of the feminist Atheism plus movement was the online Elevatorgate controversy involving new atheist Richard Dawkins and feminist Rebecca Watson.

The Guardian wrote about Atheism plus and the reaction of many atheists on the internet:

In the passionate world of American atheism, the venom usually directed at believers has now been turned against the wrong kind of atheists...

It took 700 years from Constantine renaming Byzantium in his own honour to papal legates circulating letters of anathema that split the Roman and Orthodox churches. Atheism, in its public, online life, has started exchanging internet anathemas – perhaps we should call them inathemas – in little more than a decade.[10]

Post Elevatorgate and Atheism plus, the conflict between atheist feminism and anti-feminism atheists continues. Two of the most anti-feminism atheists are YouTube atheists Thunderf00t and TheAmazingAtheist.

Percentage of atheists in the world is shrinking while world internet usage is expanding

See also: Global atheism and Decline of atheism and Atheist Population and Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian

The internet is a global medium which growing rapidly in usage throughout the world.[11]

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.[12] See: Global atheism

The percentage of people in the world who are atheists is shrinking (see: Global atheism statistics).

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 (GCTS) in South Hamilton, Mass."[12]

In 2011, the American Spectator citing research published in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research reported that atheism is on the decline as a whole in terms of adherents.[13]

The American Spectator declared:

The report estimates about 80,000 new Christians every day, 79,000 new Muslims every day, and 300 fewer atheists every day. These atheists are presumably disproportionately represented in the West, while religion is thriving in the Global South, where charismatic Christianity is exploding."[13]

Google trends graphs: Search of atheism/agnosticism related terms

See also: Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms and Google trends - Global searches for atheism and agnosticism terms

In 2021, worldwide Google searches for the search "atheist" decreased. Historically, pandemics increase religiosity

See also: Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms

According to Google trends, 2021 saw a drop in the times the world did Google searches for the word "atheist".[14] So far, it's a 17 year low for the times people Google the word "atheist" in a year. See also: Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms

Historically, religiosity increases during pandemics. Nearly three-in-ten U.S. adults say the outbreak has boosted their faith; about four-in-ten say it has tightened family bonds.[15]

2021 saw a drop in the times the world did Google searches for the word atheism according to Google trends.[16]. So far, it's a 17 year low for the times people Google the word "atheist" in a year.

In January 2004, according to Google Trends, the Google search "atheist" had a score of 43 out of 100. On December 23, 2021, according to Google Trends, the Google search "atheist" had a score of 30 out of 100. The Google search "atheist" is probably the most popular atheism related Google search.

In January 2021, according to Google Trends, the Google search "atheist" had a score of 40 out of 100. On December 23, 2021, according to Google Trends, the Google search "atheist" had a score of 30 out of 100. So that is a 10 point drop in 2021. Pandemics and crises have a history of causing people to be more religious.[17]

Contrastly, In January 2004, according to Google Trends, the Google search "Jesus" had a score of 57 out of 100. On December 23, 2021, according to Google Trends, the Google search "Jesus" had a score of 60 out of 100. The Google search Jesus is probably the most popular Christianity related Google search.


2020 Google trends graphs for the terms: Atheism, atheist, agnostic and agnosticism

According to Google Trends, worldwide the searches at Google for the terms atheist, atheism, agnostic and agnosticism were lower in January 2020 than in January 2004.

Google trends USA data from 2004 to January 2020

See also: Internet atheism and Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms

According to Google trends, in the United States, the Google searches for the term atheist, atheism, agnostic and agnosticism was lower in January 2020 than it was in January 2004.

Post sexual harassment allegations against Lawrence Krauss and David Silverman, searches for atheism related topics have dropped markedly

See also: Post sexual harassment allegations against Lawrence Krauss and David Silverman, searches for atheism related topics have dropped markedly

Post sexual harassment allegations against Lawrence Krauss and David Silverman, searches for atheism related topics have dropped markedly around in the world.

For more information, please see: Post sexual harassment allegations against Lawrence Krauss and David Silverman, searches for atheism related topics have dropped markedly and A shambolic atheist community faces some tough choices

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

See also: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists and Atheism and groupthink and Atheist activist

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.[18]

Elevatorgate and Richard Dawkins' loss of online influence

See also: Elevatorgate and Richard Dawkins and social media and Atheist movement

Richard Dawkins is still widely criticized for causing embarrassment to his fellow atheists via his Elevatorgate controversy and for igniting deep fractures in the atheist movement.[19]

For example, on November 26, 2013, the atheist activist and blogger Jen McCreight posted at Twitter the message: "Did anyone on Dawkins AMA ask how he feels about singlehandedly destroying the atheist movement with the Dear Muslima yet?"[20] In December 2013, atheist Jack Vance at Atheist Revolution called July 2, 2011, which is the day that Elevatorgate occurred, "The day the atheist movement died."[21]

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' website fell in 2012.[22] By October 2014, the web traffic for his website fell to a lower level according to Quantcast.[23]



The web traffic was measured via Quantcast which directly measured Dawkins' website traffic via embedded code on his website.[24]

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.[25] 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.[24]

Alexa ranking of Richard Dawkins' website

See also: Alexa rankings of Richard Dawkins' website

According to Alexa, Richard Dawkins website lost a large amount of its global market share during to period between 2010 and the beginning portion of 2012.
In 2015, Richard Dawkins' website fell in terms of its Alexa ranking.
In 2016, Richard Dawkins' website lost a considerable amount of global market share according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa.
In the latter half of 2016, Richard Dawkins' website saw a significant decline in its Alexa ranking.
In 2016 and the in the beginning portion of 2017, the global internet market share of Richard Dawkins' website has been falling according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa.
On November 27, 2017, Richard Dawkins' website was the 158,206th most popular website in the world.

His website was losing global market share in the latter quarter of 2017.
On November 9, 2018, Richard Dawkins' website was the 190,708th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

Compared to 2017, Richard Dawkins' website lost global market share according to Alexa.
On February 9, 2010, Richard Dawkins' website was the 192,367th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

Compared to 2018, Richard Dawkins' website lost global market share according to Alexa.
On November 1, 2020, Richard Dawkins' website was the 194,776th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

On November 1, 2020, the daily time on his website for an average web visitor to his website was 1 minute and 36 seconds according to Alexa.

2021 Alexa rankings of Richard Dawkins' website

On November 26, 2021, Richard Dawkins' website was the 428,287th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

Google trends: Searches for the term Richard Dawkins has seen a large decline

See: Google trends: Searches for the term Richard Dawkins has seen a marked decline

Atheist Dan Barker: Google trends data from 2004 to 2020

See also: Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms

Dan Barker is the co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Atheism Foundation.

According to Google Trends from 2004 to 2020 there has been a significant decline in web searches for the term "Dan Barker" in the United States.

RationalWiki

See also: RationalWiki and web traffic

RationalWiki.org is a politically left leaning website that skews towards atheism/agnosticism in terms of its worldview. Three of its more prominent and active moderators and/or Admins/editors are LeftyGreenMario and Techpriest, GrammarCommie and DuceMoosolini.

The RationalWiki website lost a huge amount of web traffic in the latter part of 2019 and throughout most the first half of 2020 (see graphics below). According to the web traffic tracking company Alexa, the website lost global market in the latter part of 2021 (see: RationalWiki and Alexa rankings).

1,300+ websites delinked from RationalWiki.org from May of 2021 to July 15, 2021 according to the website Semrush.com. See: 1,300+ websites delinked from RationalWiki.org from May of 2021 to July 15, 2021.

Similarweb.com: In terms of web traffic, RationalWiki's global and United States website ranking was dropping in July of 2021

As can be seen above, in terms of web traffic, RationalWiki's global and United States ranking was dropping in July of 2021 according to Similarweb.com.

Google searches for the term "RationalWiki" from 2007 to April of 2021. The number of searches for the term "RationalWiki" at Google is much lower than its peak in November of 2014

File:RationalWiki searches - Google trends 2007 to April 2021.PNG
Google Trends reports the number of Google searches per month for a given search term.

Above the Google Trends graph for the search term "RationalWiki" and as you can see the number of searches for the term RationWiki at Google is much lower than its peak in November of 2014.


RationalWiki and Alexa rankings

See also: RationalWiki and Alexa rankings

RationalWiki (RW) is a politically left leaning website that skews towards atheism/agnosticism in terms of its worldview.

On December 17, 2021, the web traffic tracking company Alexa ranked RationalWiki the 111,433th most popular website in the world. As can be seen above, in 2021 RationalWiki experienced a dramatic fall in terms of its global popularity.
On November 26, 2021, the web traffic tracking company Alexa ranked RationalWiki the 110,759th most popular website in the world. As can be seen above, in 2021 RationalWiki experienced a dramatic fall in terms of its global popularity.

October 23, 2021: RationalWiki fell below the Alexa 100,000 ranking of most trafficked websites according to Alexa

RationalWiki (RW) is a politically left leaning website that skews towards atheism/agnosticism in terms of its worldview.

On October 23, 2021, RationalWiki fell below the top 100,000 most popular websites on the worldwide web according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa. Specifically, on October 23, 2021, RationalWiki was ranked the 100,814th most popular website in the world.

On October 23, 2021, RationalWiki's website indicates: "Also since 2013, RW's Alexa rank (a measure accurate only in a broad sense) has hovered between 15,000th and 25,000th most popular website on the entire Internet...".[26] One again, atheists engage in deceit! See: Atheism and deception

However, on October 23, 2021, RationalWiki did correctly point out that RationalWiki was more popular than skeptic websites such as Freethought Blogs and Skeptoid which currently rank the 111,152th and 468,630th most popular websites in the world by Alexa.[27]

RationalWiki now gets far less Google referral traffic

See also: RationalWiki and web traffic

The Google search engine has a number of quality indicators in terms of how it ranks websites for various words/phrases.

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 (Please click the graphic above to enlarge it).
Accordimg to SEMRush.com, RationalWiki received about 185,000 monthly referral visits from Google desktop computer users in December as of December 27, 2021 and the monthly web visitors saw about a 5.8% loss.

Key point: If you click on the graphic below, you will see that RationalWiki was receiving 300,000+ monthly referral visits from Google desktop computer users in April 2021. So RationalWiki lost a large amount of its Google referral traffic in 2021. Specifically, RationalWiki lost 115,000 Google monthly referral visits from Google desktop computer users from April 2021 to December 2021.
RationalWiki lost a massive amount of Google referral traffic in 2019/2020 (Please click graphic above to enlarge it).

Freethought Blogs

See also: Freethought Blogs and The Orbit and PZ Myers' loss of influence

Freethought Blogs is a spinoff of ScienceBlogs launched by PZ Myers and Ed Brayton.

Web traffic of Freethought Blogs dramatically declines from June 2019 to September 2019

The web traffic of Freethought Blogs saw a dramatic decline from June 2019 to September 2019 according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa.

On June 23, 2019, Freethought Blogs was the 90,953th most popular website in the world according to Alexa, but by September 23, 2019 Freethought Blogs was merely the 170,112th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

Web traffic of Freethought Blogs: July 2015 to March 2019

Freethought Blogs is a spinoff of ScienceBlogs launched by PZ Myers and Ed Brayton.

Alexa is a web traffic tracking company. In 2015 and 2016, Freethought Blogs saw a large decrease in its Alexa ranking.
Freethought Blogs fell sharply in its Alexa ranking for much of the latter part of 2016
.
In May 2017, according to Alexa, Frrethoughtblogs continued to lose global market share.
According to Alexa, on March 12, 2019, Freethoughtblogs was the 90,419th most popular website in the world.

Freethought Blogs appear to receive significantly less traffic from women

See also: Atheism and women

The website Freethought Blogs has significantly less women visiting their website than men according to the web traffic tracking company Quantcast.[28] According to the website tracking firm Quantcast, women frequent Richard Dawkins' website significantly less than men.[29]

Sam Harris' website and its drop in global market share accoring to Alexa

See also: Sam Harris

On August 19, 2019, the website of Samharris.org was the 66,776th most popular website in the world and its global market share was dropping.

Global market share of Skepchick website according to Alexa

See also: Skepchick and Atheist feminism

According to the website traffic tracking company Alexa, the Skepchick website saw a large decrease in its global market share from October 2015 to September 2016.
According to Alexa, the Skepchick website continued to lose global market share in the latter part of 2016.
According to Alexa, on September 4, 2017, the Skepchick website was the 448,390th most popular website in the world in terms of its web traffic.
According to Alexa, on October 27, 2017, the Skepchick website was the 587,446th most popular website in the world in terms of its web traffic.

On August 8, 2019, Skepchick was ranked the 376,336th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

The Orbit

See also: The Orbit

In 2016, The Orbit website lost a considerable amount of its global market share according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa. On September 4, 2017 it was the 357,369th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

The atheist blogger Hemant Mehta reported about the atheist blog network The Orbit:

Nearly two dozen atheist bloggers — many from Freethought Blogs, along with a few others from Patheos, Skepchick, and independent sites — are about to launch a new website called The Orbit. (The site isn’t functional just yet, but it should come online soon.)

According to a now-deleted post, though the same information has been hinted at in several other places, the collective will be focused on atheism and social justice.

Interestingly enough, PZ Myers is not on the list of those moving. He’ll remain at Freethought Blogs, where he’s been recruiting new bloggers to the site over the past month.

I’m speculating here, but I suspect at least some of the Orbit writers are heading to the new site in part to get out from under his shadow and away from his burn-all-bridges. Maybe I’m wrong.[30]

In 2018, The Orbit lost a considerable amount of its global market share

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.

Reddit atheism

See also: Reddit atheism

Reddit atheism, also known as r/atheism, is one of the largest internet groups of atheists.[31]

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).[32]

In 2016, due to Reddit removing inactive "ghost accounts", Reddit reduced the amount of members in Reddit atheism by 10,000 user accounts.[33]

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."[31]

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..." [33]

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).

Reddit atheism and their reluctance to engage in offline atheist activism

See also: Atheism and cowardice and Evidence for Christianity

In May 2013, Policymic published an article on Reddit atheism which indicated that Reddit atheists are reluctant to share their atheism offline.[34]

The Policymic article declared:

Are we to make cowards out of Reddit’s atheists for the discrepancy between the prevalence of real life and internet proclamations of godlessness? Maybe, as the world’s loudest atheist, Richard Dawkins, first bemoaned in his TED talk, “Atheists do not want to be impolite … Can we stop being so damned polite?” Or, as R/atheist stalwart with the username “blackstar9000” explained in a very thoughtful post on the state of the atheist subreddit, “Many of the users are just recently converted, who fear being ostracized by people the religious people who make up their support system.”[34]

Atheists have a reputation for apathy and cowardice when it comes to sharing their atheism with others and defending atheism against valid criticism (See: Atheism and apathy and Atheism and cowardice).

Secular Web's significant drop in web traffic

See also: Secular Web and Growth of global desecularization

2021: Secular Web's drop in global market share

The Secular Web experienced a large drop in its global market from February 21, 2021 to May 21, 2021 according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa.

Specifically, the Secular Web went from being the 315,077th most popular website in the world to being the 577,111th most popular website during this period according to Alexa.

2019: Secular Web's drop in global market share

The Secular Web experienced a large drop in its global market from November 29, 2019 to December 29, 2019 according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa. Specifically, the Secular Web went from being the 315,077th most popular website in the world to being the 577,111th most popular website during this period according to Alexa.

Secular Web's previous drop in web traffic and global market share

According to the web traffic tracking company Quantcast, the Secular Web lost a significant amount of web traffic from the period of 6/2/07 to 7/30/11.[35]

According to Alexa, the Secular Web experienced a drop in online global market share in 2017 and 2018.[36][37]

On August 19, 2019, Alexa ranked the Secular Web the 285,436th most popular website in the world in web traffic and it was dropping in global market share at the time.

YouTube atheism/evolutionism

See also: YouTube atheism

Chuck Norris endorses the Total Gym exercise system.[38]

In 2007, WorldNetDaily featured a column by the Christian Chuck Norris which declared:

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 naivete.

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.[1]

Atheism internet outreach efforts, however, have been ineffective.

In October 2016, a video entitled What Killed YouTube Atheism? was released which gave a few reasons why YouTube atheism saw a big decline.[39]

In addition, a December 2015 video entitled How Feminism destroyed 'New Atheism', YouTube atheist/evolutionist Thunderf00t pointed out that merely 2 out of 7 YouTube atheist/evolutionist channels that he plugged in the past are now active.[40]

In 2017, YouTube atheist/skeptic videos began another period of significant decline in terms of views.[41][42]

Decline of center-left atheism on YouTube

Atheist PZ Myers says atheists are largely a population of internet nerds and geeks

See also: Atheism and marriage and Atheism and women

In 2013, the atheist PZ Myers declared:

If we're going to expand our base and we're going to draw in more people to recognize the virtues of living in a secular world, we need to appeal to more than just that geek and nerd subset of the population. We need to have a wider base. ...I seriously believe that we're on the cusp of a crisis. We're not there yet but it's looming in front of us. Will we adapt and thrive and change the world? Or will we remain an avocation for a prosperous and largely irrelevant subset of the population? Will we become something more than a scattered society of internet nerds? That's what we have to do.[43]

In response, Evolution News and Views wrote:

A crisis looms, in Myers's view, because he looks around himself and sees a not very promising basis for a mass movement. He's right. There is indeed a quality of geeky isolation from reality, common sense, and the fullness of life that I see as a motif in atheist and Darwin activism alike.[43]

Christian websites with a large focus on the topic of atheism

TFT.JPG

Four of the more notable defense of Christianity websites which have a large focus on the topic of atheism are: Shadow To Light blog, True Freethinker, the Creation Ministries International resources on atheism and the Fixed Point Foundation website.

Website with a main focus on criticizing atheism by not a Christian website

Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists

See: Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists

Atheist trolls

See: Atheist trolls

YouTube atheist TheAmazingAtheist on rape

When told that Red Army soldiers sexually assaulted German refugees, Joseph Stalin reportedly declared: "We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative."[44] See: Atheism and rape

See also: Atheism and rape and Atheism and women and Elevatorgate

TheAmazingAtheist is YouTube's most subscribed to YouTube channel produced by an atheist and as of February 2012 it had over 280,000 subscribers. In 2012, he viciously told a rape victim "you deserved it" and told her that her rapist "deserved a medal". He also told her that she should try to relive the rape in her mind.

Christian apologist Marian Grinbank wrote concerning TheAmazingAtheist's comments directed towards a rape victim:

A frightening consideration is that it may very well be this personage’s worldview which leads him to such depths of malice...

He also told another woman:

"You’re lucky it wasn’t me. I’d have busted your ******* nose and raped you."

And has also offered a graphic descriptions of how he would rape a rape victim again.

This is in keeping with his modis operandi which, sadly, is a manner whereby some people get and keep a lot of attention. Of course, it is pathetic that some people are so very desperate for attention that they seek it regardless of whether it is good, bad or ugly.

This particular Atheist is the organizer of a group, aptly, called The Atheist Scum United and refers to himself as “God of the Godless,” “subhuman,” and “scumbag.” Could not have said it better ourselves.

But the belligerence does not stop at his victimization of rape victims but he also takes aim at the dead. He has referred to people who committed suicide due to bullying as having been "weak."

What such a person needs, truly needs, is love and prayer because they are obviously hurting very, very badly.[45]

Atheism websites and polyamory

The atheist Richard Carrier divorced his wife and now practices polyamory.[46] Before divorcing his wife, he was involved in adulterous affairs.[46]

See also: Internet atheism and polyamory

Polyamory is a general term to denote relationships involving a group of men and women. In polyamorous relationships, often one man is “dating” several women and each of the women is in turn dating several men.[47]

Polyskeptic.com and polyamory

The website Polyskeptic.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 2,276,133 as of June 14, 2012.[48]

Atheist Nexus and polyamory

The website Atheist Nexus bills itself as "The World’s Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities."[49] As of June 14, 2012, the website Atheist Nexus had an entire group devoted to polyamory.[50]

Wikipedia on polyamory

The website Wikipedia was co-founded by the atheist Jimmy Wales and the agnostic Larry Sanger. Wikipedia has a pro-atheism/evolution slant.

For example, the current Wikipedia article on atheism is very flattering to atheism. As of June 14, 2012 the Wikipedia atheism article does not explicitly mention the tens of millions who died under atheist communist regimes although it does allude to it. Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term "democide" (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.[51] Starting on February 20, 2007, Wikipedia had a hotly-debated article on militant atheism that was deleted on February 18, 2012.[52][53]

As of June 14, 2012 Wikipedia had this flattering description of polyamory:

Polyamory, often abbreviated as poly, is often described as consensual, ethical, or responsible non-monogamy. The word is sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to sexual or romantic relationships that are not sexually exclusive, though there is disagreement on how broadly it applies; an emphasis on ethics, honesty, and transparency all around is widely regarded as the crucial defining characteristic.[54]


See also: Atheism, polyamory and other immoral relationships

Internet atheism and profanity

See: Atheism and profanity

Internet atheism and quarrelsome atheists

See also: Atheist factions

In 2010, the Christian apologetics website True Free Thinker wrote:

Scienceblogger Chad Orzel described the commentators on PZ Myers ' Scienceblogs.com site Pharyngula, and other Scienceblogs.com commentators, as "screechy monkeys."[55]

Richard Dawkins' battle with online fans

See also: Atheism and profanity

In February 2010, the news organization The Telegraph reported Richard Dawkins was "embroiled in a bitter online battle over plans to rid his popular internet forum for atheists of foul language, insults and 'frivolous gossip'."[56] Given that Wired Magazine and Vox Day declared for various reasons that atheists tend to be quarrelsome, socially challenged men, it is not surprising the online dispute was bitter. In addition, Richard Dawkins has a reputation for being abrasive.

Internet atheism and obesity

The 20% of overweight people who are able to achieve permanent weight loss typically report doing it through engaging in high levels of physical activity, eating a low-calorie, low-fat diet, eating breakfast regularly, self-monitoring weight, and maintaining a consistent eating pattern across weekdays and weekends.[57] Overweight individuals may need to decrease their computer and internet usage.[58]

See also: Atheism and obesity and Bariatric science

A significant portion of the world's atheists are overweight (see: Atheism and obesity).

In an essay entitled How the Atheist Movement Failed Me, an atheist woman noted that participation in the atheist community is often expensive due to the cost of attending atheist conferences and even local atheist meetings in restaurants and bars challenged her modest budget.[3] As a result of the challenges that atheists commonly have in terms of socializing in person, many atheists turn to the internet in terms of communicating with other atheists.[59]

In 2009, an Australian university study was done concerning the association between leisure time internet and computer use with being overweight and/or obese and also sedentary.[58] The study concluded: "These findings suggest that, apart from nutritional and physical activity interventions, it may also be necessary to decrease time spent in sedentary behaviors, such as leisure-time Internet and computer use, in order to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity."[58] See also: Bariatric science

As noted above, in 2013, the prominent atheist PZ Myers declared:

If we're going to expand our base and we're going to draw in more people to recognize the virtues of living in a secular world, we need to appeal to more than just that geek and nerd subset of the population. We need to have a wider base. ...I seriously believe that we're on the cusp of a crisis. We're not there yet but it's looming in front of us. Will we adapt and thrive and change the world? Or will we remain an avocation for a prosperous and largely irrelevant subset of the population? Will we become something more than a scattered society of internet nerds? That's what we have to do.[43]

Internet nerds are typically less active in sports. Also, atheists are not as active in sports as theists (See: Sports performance: Religious faith vs. atheism ). And inactivity is a major risk factor for obesity.[60] See also: Atheist nerds

American Atheists website

See also: American Atheists

In 2016, the American Atheists website saw a large drop in its Alexa ranking.
According to Alexa, after taking a large loss in global market share in 2016, the American Atheists website gained back some of its global market share in 2017. According to Alexa, on September 4, 2017, the American Atheist website was the 481,326th most popular website in the world.

On August 9, 2019, the American Atheists website was ranked the 338,824th most popular website in the world by Alexa.

Embarrassing incidents concerning the website of the American Atheists

American Atheists
Nate Phelps spoke at the 2009 American Atheists convention.[61] See also: American Atheists and obesity and Atheism and obesity (photo obtained from Flickr, see license agreement), Title: Nate Phelps AAC00 (a very brave man)

See also: Embarrassing incidents concerning the website of the American Atheists

A Question evolution! campaign blog declares:

The popular Christian YouTube video creator Shockofgod just released a hilarious video entitled Proof atheism & evolution are stupid.

On the video, he first did a Google search at Google USA for the word "atheism". The #1 search result for atheism was for the website of the American Atheists organization and they misspelled the words "separation" and "church" on the main page title tag for their website. The title of their website reads: "Supporting Civil Rights for Atheists and the Seperation of Curch and ...". Did the American Atheist organization's webmaster go to one of the many evolution indoctrinating public schools with a high drop out rate? It appears so!

Is it any wonder that the American Atheists organization has been silent concerning the 15 questions for evolutionists of the Question Evolution! Campaign? Besides being poor spellers the American Atheists organization's staff is probably poor when it comes to science as well![62]

On October 17, 2014, Shockofgod's blog declared:

In the United States, due to more women and southerners attending college/universities, atheism is now negatively correlated with education.

As a result, American atheists contribute some of the most ill-informed/uneducated commentary on the internet.

Alexa is a popular web traffic tracking company. Below is a portion of Alexa's site overview for the website of the American Atheists organization and notice that 5.01% of their search engine traffic comes from the keyword "athiest" which is a misspelling of the world atheist.

From the Alexa website on October 17, 2014:

Site Overview

atheists.org

Top Keywords from Search Engines Which search keywords send traffic to this site?

Keyword Percent of Search Traffic

  • 1. atheist 52.97%
  • 2. atheism 14.80%
  • 3. american atheists 8.97%
  • 4. athiest 5.01%
  • 5. atheists 3.82%[62]

Atheist Christopher Hitchens: Google trends data

See also: Christopher Hitchens

According to Google Trends from 2004 to 2020 there has been a significant decline in web searches for the term "Christopher Hitchens".

James Randi: Google trends data from 2004 to 2020

See also: Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms

According to Google Trends from 2004 to 2020 there has been a significant decline in web searches for the term "James Randi" in the United States.

Videos on atheism

Social media and social ostracism of atheists in religious societies

See: Social media and social ostracism of atheists

Atheist deconversion stories and the internet

See also: Atheist deconversion stories

Michael J. Kruger, President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, wrote about atheist deconversion stories:

Of course, there have always been de-conversion stories available throughout the history of the church—if one would only take the time to dig them up and listen to them. Christianity has never had a shortage of people who were once in the fold and then left.

But in recent years these de-conversion stories seem to have taken on a higher profile. Part of this is due, no doubt, to the technology that makes these de-conversion stories more available whether through podcasts, blogs, or other forms of media.[63]

See also

External links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55789
  2. 2.0 2.1 Internet atheism: The thrill is gone!
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 How the Atheist Movement Failed Me – Part 1: Cost
  4. Atheists Online: -How Atheists Grew An Active Internet Community, Conatus News
  5. The ghost of atheist past, Freethought Blogs
  6. 2015 was a terrible year for internet atheism
  7. Freethoughtblog.com uses Quantcast to measure their web traffic and the demograghhics of their web visitors - Click to see report
  8. Internet atheism and skepticism: The thrill is gone!
  9. Is American atheism heading for a schism? by Peter McGrath, The Guardian
  10. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
  11. 12.0 12.1 Global Study: Atheists in Decline, Only 1.8% of World Population by 2020
  12. 13.0 13.1 http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/28/thriving-christianity
  13. Google trends - atheist
  14. More Americans Than People in Other Advanced Economies Say COVID-19 Has Strengthened Religious Faith, Pew Forum
  15. Google trends- atheist
  16. Do people become more religious in times of crisis?, TheConversation.com
  17. Who is Not Afraid of Richard Dawkins? Using Google Trends to Assess the Reach of Influential Atheists across Canadian Secular Groups by Maryam Dilmaghani, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, First Published December 13, 2019 Research Article https://doi.org/10.1177/0008429819854353
  18. Jennifer McCreight on the Twitter about the Elevatorgate scandal
  19. The Day the Atheist Movement Died by Jack Vance at Atheist Revolution
  20. 2012 has been a very BAD year for Richard Dawkins's website according to Quantcast
  21. Richard Dawkins' loss of influence
  22. 24.0 24.1 Quantcast - Quantcast Measure
  23. Web traffic of Richard Dawkins' main website
  24. RationalWiki article at RationalWki
  25. RationalWiki article at RationalWki
  26. Multiple references:
  27. Quantcast data - Richarddawkins.net - demographics
  28. reputation Several Atheist Bloggers Are Moving to “The Orbit” by Hemant Mehta
  29. 31.0 31.1 Reddit Atheists Have New Leadership After Turbulent Coup
  30. Reddit dumps r/atheism and r/politics from its default homepage
  31. 33.0 33.1 Reddit Rapture: How r/atheism Suddenly Lost 10,000 Users
  32. 34.0 34.1 Reddit Users: Why Atheist Redditors Are Stuck On the Internet
  33. Internet atheism: The thrill is gone!
  34. Secular Web lost global market share in the first half of 2017 according to Alexa
  35. 5 atheist websites that lost global market share in 2018 according to Alexa, Examining Atheism, October 22, 2018
  36. http://www.totalgymdirect.com/
  37. What Killed YouTube Atheism?
  38. How Feminism destroyed 'New Atheism'
  39. A Supply and Demand Framework for YouTube Politics by Kevin Munger & Joseph Phillips. Penn State Political Science, October 1, 2019, See page 23
  40. You Tube atheist/skeptic videos see a decline in views from 2017 to present
  41. 43.0 43.1 43.2 in Seattle, PZ Myers Reflects Candidly on His Constituency
  42. Roberts, Andrew. "Stalin's army of rapists: The brutal war crime that Russia and Germany tried to ignore", Daily Mail, 24 October 2008. 
  43. Atheist victimizes rape victim
  44. 46.0 46.1 Coming Out Poly + A Change of Life Venue
  45. Atheist leaders and immoral relationships
  46. Atheist leaders and immoral relationships
  47. Atheist leaders and immoral relationships
  48. Atheist leaders and immoral relationships
  49. Atheist leaders and immoral relationships
  50. Atheist leaders and immoral relationships
  51. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Militant_atheism&action=history
  52. Atheist leaders and immoral relationships
  53. http://www.truefreethinker.com/articles/pz-myers-and-pavlovs-monkeys
  54. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7322177/Richard-Dawkins-in-bitter-web-censorship-row-with-fellow-atheists.html
  55. Long-term weight loss maintenance, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2005 July; 82(1 Suppl):222S-225S.
  56. 58.0 58.1 58.2 http://www.jmir.org/2009/3/e28/
  57. How to outlaw Christianity by Chuck Norris
  58. Causes of obesity
  59. http://lifewithoutfaith.com/?p=183
  60. 62.0 62.1 Uneducated and illiterate American atheists
  61. The Power of De-Conversion Stories: How Jen Hatmaker is Trying to Change Minds About the Bible by Michael J. Kruger