Herding Cats: The Godless in Dixie Guide to Wrangling Atheists Online

[rug]

August 10, 2015
by Neil Carter

Christians go to church; atheists go to the internet.

Seriously though. A Christian podcaster once vented to me that he couldn’t believe how inundated he got with feedback the day he dared to take on an atheist author. He saw a huge spike in traffic and commenters kept him busy for the next three days. I had to work to convince him that the author himself didn’t intentionally orchestrate the social media blitz that ensued. “That’s just how atheists are,” I told him. They stay very aware of what’s going on around the interwebs. In fact, around here, most atheists don’t have IRL (“in real life”) communities like Christians do. They live online. That’s their best shot at connecting with others, particularly if they live in one of the many highly religious sectors of the country. Naturally you would expect those folks to be the most passionate about their atheism.

People are also surprised to learn that among the many “channels” on Patheos, it is the atheist channel that stays the busiest. Some months the atheist channel attracts as much traffic as the next three most popular channels combined. Rather ironic, I think, for a website that currently holds the #1 spot among religious websites in the world. It’s certainly not that atheists make up that large a share of the English speaking global population. It’s just that atheists congregate online to an extent which other faith traditions wouldn’t even understand.

Which is why learning how to manage groups of atheists online matters so much to me. This is our “church,” more often than not. We depend on social media in ways that other traditions don’t. That’s also why it can be devastating when secularists/agnostics/freethinkers build their social and intellectual lives around their preferred network only to see it implode and collapse under the weight of…well…humanity.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2015/08/10/herding-cats-wrangling-atheists-online/

[stone space]

1. I must be a Luddite!

Last edited Thu Aug 13, 2015, 01:34 AM - Edit history (1)

“That’s just how atheists are,” I told him. They stay very aware of what’s going on around the interwebs. In fact, around here, most atheists don’t have IRL (“in real life”) communities like Christians do. They live online.

Most of the atheists who I know are IRL.