Holy crap, the Internet is crawling with atheists!

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2006-11-11 04:43pm

I've noticed that the Internet, or at least the parts that aren't explicitly inhabited by idiots like AOL and Rapture Ready, tends to have an amazing density of atheists, agnostics, and other non-religious folks. This board is only one example, and perhaps not the best. A better example is the link aggregator Reddit, which is not explicitly targeted toward any particular demographic and doesn't have moderators bitchslapping evasive lying dumbass posters -- but for some reason religion-bashing articles get consistently voted up and there seems to be a very solid atheist majority.

Even individual people follow this general pattern; it's gotten to the point where I just assume that anybody I respect on the Internet (for whatever reason) is an atheist until I see some evidence otherwise. This seems to be a damn good heuristic.

What I want to know is: why? I don't see this kind of thing in Real Life very often; why is the Internet somehow different?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-11-11 04:48pm

In real-life, the Christians are the only ones who regularly mouth off about their beliefs regarding the supernatural. On the Internet, everyone talks about what they believe or don't believe. That's why the atheists are more noticeable. Also, atheists are less likely to worry about suffering some kind of low-level persecution on the Internet, whereas in real-life they may worry about not getting promotions at work, not getting dates from Christian girls, being ostracized from their own families in some cases, etc.

Hell, we have some people here on this board who have stated that they don't believe in the Bible any more but who have also said that they haven't told anyone they know in real-life about this.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2006-11-11 05:38pm

Crazily enough, it could well be that the majority of the people on the internet are wealthy enough to own a computer;　the majority of people on sites you, Sketerpot frequent are educated enough to give a rational argument, and the majority of people talking openly and freely about their beliefs with people who don't necessarily share those beliefs　(outside of Faith-only boards) are objective (is that the word I want?) enough to apply critical thinking to those beliefs。

These people could well represent a demographically unproportional number of atheists and agnostics. I know that the circles I personally move in IRL are educated, middle class, British critical thinkers, and so often atheist.

Medic · Post by **Medic** » 2006-11-11 05:39pm

Darth Wong wrote:Hell, we have some people here on this board who have stated that they don't believe in the Bible any more but who have also said that they haven't told anyone they know in real-life about this.

Ha, I can totally see that. I myself keep my lack of faith as invisible as possible with all but my closest friends.

I'm sure Rye though could bust your bubble, or do you not remember the thread on APASNB [a priori anti-supernatural bias]. In the absence of religion, something as inane as Matrix philosophy can still come in to fill the void. Still, good news all around.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-11-11 06:29pm

You'd be amazed how many people I've met in real-life who aren't Christian, but still embrace the supernatural and give me funny looks when I say I don't believe in souls, ghosts, past lives or any bullshit like that. These same people can suddenly become experts on the subject and try and show me the error of my ways, what with my horrible habit of using rational logic and science to dictate the world around me.

Just this past Friday in my workplace, I was having lunch and somehow we got on to the subject of death where I made the throwaway contributory comment of not believing in an afterlife. That caused one co-worker to start aggressively questioning why I accept there's nothing after death, as if it's fucking insane to believe in something so terribly depressing and, gasp, logical.

For the purposes of confirming IB's little theory, this guy was a) not wealthy enough to own a computer, b) ignorant of a great many things I discuss quite happily online with others from history to science to morality and politics.

Honorable Mention · Post by **Honorable Mention** » 2006-11-12 02:33am

Darth Wong wrote:Hell, we have some people here on this board who have stated that they don't believe in the Bible any more but who have also said that they haven't told anyone they know in real-life about this.

That and those in a sort of "crisis of faith" who are openly exploring atheism as a real possibility but may not be vocal about it being that. Just, at least as far as I am concerned, being raised Catholic, for example, can be tough to break from.

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2006-11-12 04:28pm

Darth Wong wrote:Hell, we have some people here on this board who have stated that they don't believe in the Bible any more but who have also said that they haven't told anyone they know in real-life about this.

I can't even imagine what my grandma would say/do if I told her that I regard the Bible as one of the most steaming piles of fundie asswipe bullshit written in the history of human kind.

Luckily there isn't a big amount of fundie christerrorists near me that would threaten to kill me if I told them that I dont believe in Christian God. The normal attitude in Poland is "I don't care" (apart from some fundie old ladies with too much spare time on their hands and desire to save humanity from damnation)

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2006-11-12 08:01pm

Darth Wong wrote:In real-life, the Christians are the only ones who regularly mouth off about their beliefs regarding the supernatural. On the Internet, everyone talks about what they believe or don't believe. That's why the atheists are more noticeable. Also, atheists are less likely to worry about suffering some kind of low-level persecution on the Internet, whereas in real-life they may worry about not getting promotions at work, not getting dates from Christian girls, being ostracized from their own families in some cases, etc.

Hell, we have some people here on this board who have stated that they don't believe in the Bible any more but who have also said that they haven't told anyone they know in real-life about this.

It's long been another form of coming out.

"Dad, there's something I've been meaning to tell you. You see, I've had to do some thinking about some things that I find important and..."

"Oh here we go..."

"I'm an athiest."

"Oh...so you're not gay then?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, it's just that it doesn't look like either of your sisters are going to have any children and you've never brought any girls around, we were concerned that..."