In the aftermath of the US Aurora theatre shooting, CNN's Belief blog has noted how the internet has become the de-facto church for atheists and doubters of god.

As unbelievers often have no physical place to gather, they have turned to the web as a place to share their beliefs, experiences and offer each other support. The internet's anonymity also helps those still in the closet who don't want to have to deal with family and friends who'll likely disagree with them.

The article also includes some really nice quotes from reddit's r/atheism page (one of my favourite places on the internet) from atheists talking about their lives.

(CNN) – The Internet has become the de facto global church for atheists, agnostics and other doubters of God, who of course don’t have bricks-and-mortar churches in which to congregate.

We see this phenomenon in motion every day on the CNN Belief Blog, where atheists/agnostics/humanists are among the most zealous commenters.

Recent string of posts around the question of “Where was God in Aurora?” drew especially large waves of comments that show atheists are using the Internet to commune with one another and to confront religious believers in ways that they don’t usually do in church.

Atheists and other secularists have offline organizations that stage in-person meetings – the Secular Student Alliance has seen its number of campus chapters quadruple in the last five years, to 368 – but the Internet has probably played a bigger role in the rise of the so-called New Atheism. The movement’s adherents evangelize their godlessness, just as many religious folks evangelize their God, often taking to the Belief Blog to do so.

“A lot of millennials who are coming of age have found that the Internet is a fantastic place to talk about their doubt,” says Jesse Galef, communications director for the Secular Student Alliance. “Before the Internet, there was no place for young people to do that. The only place to go was really church, and that wasn’t always a welcoming place.

“But they can go online and discuss these ideas without being judged by friends and families,” Galef says.

For closeted atheists, the Internet’s anonymity is a big draw. A coalition of national atheist groups recently launched a program to transition doubting clergy to lives of open atheism by first having ministers come out anonymously in a closed online community.

Plenty of other atheists, though, are using the Internet to connect with real, named people through Facebook and other online social networks.

“It’s the ability to access a larger community, particularly for people growing up in religiously conservative areas,” Galef says. “There is nobody they can point to to discuss their atheism or their doubts about the Bible or their morality, and the Internet provides that.”

This explains why atheists are so active in the religion section. Follow the link for more.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/01/where-was-god-in-aurora-comments-show-internet-as-church-for-atheists/

Then when we Àtheism is fast becoming a religion of its own you all argue......

Na small small sha......

And the constant battles here are tedious. I'd hang out in atheism/black but it's mostly american folk, with little action anyways. Any other web hangouts for atheist 9ja?

ijawkid: Then when we Àtheism is fast becoming a religion of its own you all argue......

Na small small sha......

You scared?

Logicbwoy:


You scared?

Lol....

I aint bro.....

I'll be happy when one day u guys will agree that ur a religious group.(An anti-God) group....

Soon u'"ll be having pastors and all of it....hehehehehe

ijawkid:

Lol....

I aint bro.....

I'll be happy when one day u guys will agree that ur a religious group.(An anti-God) group....

Soon u'"ll be having pastors and all of it....hehehehehe

I give up. I have never met an ignorant person like you who is happy to be ignorant. Daviddylan is a smart guy. He is a good liar. But you, you know nothing and you are damn proud of being damn ignorant.

Atheism is not a religion. Can never be.

ijawkid: Then when we Àtheism is fast becoming a religion of its own you all argue......

Na small small sha......

The opaque view of a religionist, condemn hopelessly all as religion.

^^^^ Atheism, the evangelical form of it, is the religion for and of fools.

^^^
Despite being evangelical, doesn't qualify it as a religion.

^^^ Na so!

D - e - n - i - a - l

ijawkid:

Lol....

I aint bro.....

I'll be happy when one day u guys will agree that ur a religious group.(An anti-God) group....

Soon u'"ll be having pastors and all of it....hehehehehe

They already have pastors etc; below is just one example (there are others).




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-ZvD09uS2c



EDIT see also http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/01/harvards-atheist-chaplain.html

Logicbwoy:


I give up. I have never met an ignorant person like you who is happy to be ignorant. Daviddylan is a smart guy. He is a good liar. But you, you know nothing and you are damn proud of being damn ignorant.

Atheism is not a religion. Can never be.

It is my bro.....its a damn religion....

Ur here spreading the atheism gospel.....

Bishop logic boy.......

Ur preaching atheism,ur an evangelist.....

It might sound annoying but it is what it is.......

The internet has become ur church.....

Soon u'll be on d streets knocking peoples doors to convert theists to atheists........

Enigma:

They already have pastors etc; below is just one example (there are others).




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-ZvD09uS2c



EDIT see also http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/01/harvards-atheist-chaplain.html

Lol.....

They'll always keep denying a fact that is right in front of them.........

The truth is logicboy would fit for an atheist bishop.....lol.....

He's good @ the evangelizing job......lol

ijawkid:

Lol.....

They'll always keep denying a fact that is right in front of them.........

The truth is logicboy would fit for an atheist bishop.....lol.....

He's good @ the evangelizing job......lol

Damn ignorance again!

Watch the video and you would realise that the guy's job was to cater for atheist,agnostic and humnanist students.



Atheism is a religion myth....

All these guys saying atheism is a religion and all this talk about envangelizing just goes to show that they believe that there is something underhanded about this whole religion business they don't really like so they need to paint atheism in that same (religious) light in order to feel comfortable. "Look you're just as bad as we are," they say.

phxc: All these guys saying atheism is a religion and all this talk about envangelizing just goes to show that they believe that there is something underhanded about this whole religion business they don't really like so they need to paint atheism in that same (religious) light in order to feel comfortable. "Look you're just as bad as we are," they say.

Thank you. The are trying to project their epic fails on atheists

phxc: All these guys saying atheism is a religion and all this talk about envangelizing just goes to show that they believe that there is something underhanded about this whole religion business they don't really like so they need to paint atheism in that same (religious) light in order to feel comfortable. "Look you're just as bad as we are," they say.

Nicely put, you just nailed it bro.
Welldone.

My current signature . . . .

"To insist that religion is peculiarly malignant is fanaticism, or mere stupidity." - John Gray

Enigma: My current signature . . . .

is not a sentence that I agree with

^^ Cool!

I agree especially with people like logicboy actively seeking or anticipating new converts.

Uyi Iredia: I agree especially with people like logicboy actively seeking or anticipating new converts.

Have I offered any link to any atheist organisation? Have i promoted any atheist book?

All I do is tell people that atheists are not fools/devils and that religion has its problems. I'm quite content with agnostics and skeptics

lol! @ Topic.

The problem of the atheist is not a disbelief in God, it is a belief in anything besides God, however ridiculous it is.
CHURCH OF THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER is strictly for atheists.

PS: '' The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.''' PSALM 53vs1

make una rest abeg

The fool says In his heart that there is No God! Are you a Fool? Eternal Damnation awaits Haters of Jehovah God!!

Logicbwoy:


Have I offered any link to any atheist organisation? Have i promoted any atheist book?

All I do is tell people that atheists are not fools/devils and that religion has its problems. I'm quite content with agnostics and skeptics

No you don't. But you do branch off it to a whole lo9t of threads in a manner that makes you look like an atheist activist. And I'm not the only one saying this.

what shocks me most is that this so called atheists spend all their time talking about God.

Uyi Iredia:

No you don't. But you do branch off it to a whole lo9t of threads in a manner that makes you look like an atheist activist. And I'm not the only one saying this.

There is nothing bad about that. I am just a debater

again another serious thread devolves into an empty slinging around of generic irrelevancies. Very little substance when a discussion involves the likes of kay 17, area boy and logicboy. quite sad

davidylan: again another serious thread devolves into an empty slinging around of generic irrelevancies. Very little substance when a discussion involves the likes of kay 17, area boy and logicboy. quite sad

Shut up.


Nairaland is on the internet. The topic is on atheism on the internet. We are talking about Nairaland atheists. Dumbazz

Being an evangelist athiest aint wrong. so far they are not forcing atheism on anyone.

OFF TOPIC:
I'M COMPLETELY CONFUSED RIGHT NOW. I think I'm embracing agnostism.