Atheism is a religion where the presence of any god is not accepted or in other words, where people do not believe in god. It is to be kept in mind that Atheism is considered as a religion as explained in the journal article; Is Atheism a Religion? By Derek Davis.

Atheist’s arguments for the non-presence of God are deductive or inductive. Deductive contentions for the non-presence of God are either single or various property disproofs that assert that there are consistent or theoretical issues with one or a few properties that are fundamental to any being deserving of the title “God.” Inductive contentions ordinarily present experimental proof that is utilized to contend that God’s presence is doubtful or preposterous.

On the other hand, fundamental contentions are: God’s non-presence is similar to the non-presence of Santa Claus. The presence of inescapable human and non-human enduring is incongruent with an almighty, all knowing, all great being. Revelations about the beginnings and nature of the universe and about the development of life on Earth make the God speculation an impossible clarification. Broad non-conviction and the absence of convincing proof show that a God who looks for confidence in people does not exist.

The basic topic of this piece is to showcase how Atheism is portrayed on the internet and how much the internet has helped or influenced this religion as a whole. Furthermore, by researching different journal articles, papers, books and websites I have found how the atheists respond to the certain stigma about them. It is to be kept in mind the questions that I had before researching about this topic which were answered in the research process.

How do people without any belief present themselves on the internet? Did the internet help in spreading atheism? Do atheists get hate for not believing in god on the internet or any sort of punishment?  How do atheists interact with other religions?

Data and analysis

The journal article of Phil Zuckerman offers an exhaustive introduction and conversation of the most recent sociological exploration concerning the personalities, qualities, and practices of individuals who do not have confidence in God or are non-strict, and addresses the manners by which skepticism and commonness are emphatically associated with cultural prosperity. This article started with a notable Biblical statement expressing that nonbelievers are essentially not good people. However, this is not true. Atheism and mainstream quality have numerous positive relates, for example, more significant levels of instruction and verbal capacity, lower levels of bias, ethnocentrism, bigotry, and homophobia, more noteworthy help for ladies’ uniformity, youngster raising that advances autonomous reasoning and a nonappearance of whipping, and so on Also, at the cultural level, with the significant special case of self-destruction, states and countries with a higher extent of common individuals charge extraordinarily in a way that is better than those with a higher extent of strict individuals.

Saskia examines the online activism of Indonesian atheists. While the vast majority of the little existent grant on atheism in Indonesia sees the dubious cases in the light of the infringement of Western-style rights to free discourse and strict freedom, a more critical glance at the public talks both on the web and disconnected uncovers a more perplexing picture. The article implants this activism and the notable instance of Alexander an in the changing scene of religion and state in post-Suharto Indonesia. It focuses at the multifaceted connection among secularism and sacrilege and shows how activists cut a space for them on the web, yet in addition try to counter the negative and against strict picture that long term battling has made for nonbelievers. Activists use Facebook, Twitter, informing frameworks, and gatherings, for example, Quora, both to get obvious but take into consideration namelessness. Their online correspondence and activism is frequently combined with disconnected gatherings. Along these lines, agnostics take into consideration a flourishing network and present atheism emphatically openly. In any case, to shield secularism this way likewise has its disadvantages, as it adjusts Indonesian nonbelievers to a worldwide organization of predominantly Western-financed common liberties activists and subsequently risks further distancing them from a country that unequivocally characterizes itself along strict personality.

Will Gervais and Maxine Najle for their research article investigated intend to beat the disgrace related with atheism and the potential for closeted nonbelievers to keep away from excursion, when talking namelessly to surveyors. Taking a gander at skeptics’ endeavors on the web, they are discovering occasions to introduce their own accounts and stories, participating in the particular and considerable issues that the world class or traditional press. In this article highlights the event of a Maldives’ mainstream blogger being killed in the wake of scrutinizing strict fundamentalism and fierce radicalism. Following the murdering, President Abdulla Yameen said the public authority would not permit anybody to distribute content that derides Islam, either via web-based media or in the standard media. In Malaysia, for example, the public authority researched a gathering of skeptics in Kuala Lumpur and later pronounced atheism to be unlawful. Different nations where the public authority pestered this gathering incorporate Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

‘Pakistan’s secret atheists ‘article tells 4 stories of atheists living in Pakistan but it uses anonymous names except for Taimoor Raza’s name. Raza sentenced to death for an atheist post. Furthermore, this article highlights how life of an atheist is in Pakistan. Being an atheist in Pakistan can be perilous. However, in secret, non-adherents are getting together to help each other. In this country there is capital punishment for anyone who disrespects Islam. In Pakistan, posting about secularism online can have consequences. Now under law cyber-crime law, it is presently illicit to post atheism on the web even in a private group. The public authority took out adverts in public papers requesting individuals from the general population to report any substance they think could be related to this.

In 2017 six atheists have supposedly been kidnapped in the wake of posting on discussions that are favorable to nonbelievers and hostile to the government. Omar, one of the establishing individuals from an online gathering for the skeptics of Pakistan accepts the public authority is at battle with nonbeliever bloggers. As of late, non-believers state, the Islamic faith has gotten more noticeable in open life. Saudi-style clothing regulations are progressively implemented. Televangelists shape mainstream society and to be Pakistani is progressively connected to being a passionate Muslim. In spite of the fact that secularism is not actually illicit in Pakistan, abandonment is considered to be deserving of death in certain understandings of Islam. Therefore, talking openly can be perilous.

Numerous Pakistani agnostics meet at mystery, greeting just social affairs. The Atheists of Lahore have month to month parties in watched structures or private homes. At these meet-ups, agnostics are transcendently well-off, English-talking city-occupants. Cash gives a level of advantage and assurance from the individuals who are unfriendly towards atheism. However, numerous self-distinguished agnostics additionally live in Pakistan’s towns. Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a columnist who has reported the public authority’s reaction to secularism in the public space. He accepts online skeptic activists are being snatched by the public authority in light of the fact that difficult religion and testing the state regularly go inseparably.

“Suhaib,” a person who used a fake name graduated from university told his experience of being an atheist in the documentary of Mobeen Azhar, ‘Diary of a Pakistani Atheist,’ where we can just listen to the stories of numerous atheists using the documentary as a diary. Suhaib said that, ” This afternoon at university an acquaintance approached me and said: ‘I want to have a debate with you. I heard you’re an atheist.’ It was an expression of disbelief, as if to ask: ‘How do you function?’ She wanted to know where I get my morals from. For her, morality comes from religion and without faith you can’t be expected to have morals. Later that afternoon I text all my friends. ‘Stop telling people I’m an atheist. I don’t want to die.’ I must learn that discretion is a good thing.”

Another person using a fake name of ‘Hamza’ a blogger and a founding member of an online atheist forum said in the documentary that, “Some people have called it an arrest but it was abduction. I was held for 28 days. They wouldn’t identify themselves but I’m sure it was the military. There were eight days of torture and 20 days for healing. My whole body was black. They made me sign a statement that said I regretted what I had done and that I would not engage with political or religious blogging. And that my family could be targeted if I spoke to the media.”

On the other hand, in America the non-believers are open to do any discussion, even on the internet. One of the most important websites is that of American Atheists. American Atheists imagines a world wherein public strategy is caused utilizing the best proof that they have as opposed to strict creed and where strict convictions are not, at this point seen as a reason for dogmatism or cause to get unique treatment from the public authority.

They endeavor to establish a climate where secularism and atheists are acknowledged as individuals from their country’s networks and where easygoing fanaticism against our locale is viewed as loathsome and unsatisfactory. They want advance comprehension of atheists through training, effort, and network building and work to end the shame related with being an atheist in America.

They plan to make the way to validness, receptiveness, and genuineness about the things they accept and do not accept simpler for the following individual who voyages it by being blunt about their atheism and by guaranteeing that the voices of atheists are constantly heard in networks all through the country, in legislative issues, and in the media. By working with alliance accomplices inside the atheist development and across the political range where they can discover shared conviction, American Atheists battles to improve public arrangement for all Americans, ensure genuine strict opportunity by guarding the mass of detachment among religion and government, and advance the acknowledgment and comprehension of atheists. By utilizing each apparatus accessible to them, including their country’s overall set of laws, political backing, and effort crusades; American Atheists attempt to propel skepticism in the United States and abroad. (American Atheists)

With the ascent of agnosticism in the most recent decade or more, media and others have offered numerous translations for the evident development of nonbelief, going from the prophetically catastrophic to the idealistic. Many refer to the Internet as a significant contributing variable to this development; without a doubt new media have given agnosticism more prominent deceivability. It is contended that skepticism as an Internet wonder should be seen less as the indication of a social reality. Concerning media and computerized culture, this article has caused a significant assortment of information which has already just got intermittent notification in conversations of the New Atheism. Agnosticism today is performed at any rate as much across each type of new media as it has been inside customary structures, for example, print. Similarly as with investigations of each other Internet marvel, that of virtual agnosticism presents numerous difficulties: overpowering amount, variable quality, just as inquiries of portrayal and arrival at all current themselves.

However, atheists do get attacked at the end of the day for their non-belief. Chris Stedman shared how his life changed after he appeared on the news channel to talk about this and after he had started his atheism blog. The attacks were not only from people of belief but also amongst the atheists’ community on his blog. He also talked about how in the atheist’s community no one is willing to talk about racism, xenophobia and sexism.

Hussein Kesvani also shares his experiences with online atheism. He believes that for a developing number of individuals who go to the web to discuss leaving religion, the online agnostic/doubter community has gotten more estranging than tolerating. Hussein believes that it is far-fetched that the online skeptic community will fall any time soon even though it is considered to be the quickest developing religion-related development on the web. However, all things considered, the developing worries over bigotry and sexism locally may drive it to fragment into more identitarian groups.The nonbeliever community on the internet has moved so distant from its expressed point of offering places of refuge to individuals needing to decide their personalities themselves. It is not, at this point, about needing to be superior to strict gatherings which force conventionality or confine free reasoning. (Kesvani, 2014)

Steve Shives made a video titled “5 Toxic Things About YouTube Atheism”, itemizing occasions of inconspicuous sexism and bigotry, shrouded in realist intellectualism, that exists in the online agnostic space. Other atheists Youtubers, such as Jaclyn Glenn, have cautioned that specific segments of the online cynic local area could be confining a portion of its most weak individuals.

On the other hand, Allen Downey says that, “For people living in homogeneous communities, the internet provides opportunities to find information about people of other religions (and none), and to interact with them personally. Also, for people with religious doubt, the internet provides access to people in similar circumstances all over the world.” Both of these fit unequivocally into the American secularist vision of skepticism as a freedom from the folly of rustic life.

Through this data and examples one could tell how atheism has progressed. By the data collected it can be seen how atheists present themselves on the Internet and how they respond to other religious people. Furthermore, how much the internet helps in spreading atheism as it helps in connecting people. Through this research I found out that they do get attacked online even in their own online community is not safe.

However, the piece is not written keeping in mind one place. Atheism is one of those religions which is still considered not good in the 20th century. Most people do not prefer telling that they do not have any religion in fear of getting judged, getting attacked, jailed, or even worse getting murdered.