alt.atheism

alt.atheism is a Usenet newsgroup within the alt.* hierarchy that discusses atheism.^[1] The group was originally created on February 6, 1990 ^[2] by a member of the alt.pagan newsgroup, to provide an alternative forum for the numerous discussions on atheism that were overwhelming the pagan group. A survey of usenet groups in 1994–1995 found that, among 70 groups discussing "consciousness, spirituality, and religion (broadly defined)", it was the group with the highest traffic volume.^[3] Nash (2002) writes that "atheist and freethought newsgroups" including alt.atheism have "done much to remove the sense of isolation felt by many with antireligious opinions".^[4]

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Discussion matter

According to the alt.atheism FAQ,^[5] the purpose of the group is to discuss atheism and atheist topics such as the following:

Whether it is reasonable to pretend to be religious in order to avoid upsetting your family
Prayer in schools
Discrimination against atheists
Sunday trading laws
The Satanic Child Abuse myth
Whether you should be an overt atheist or 'stay in the closet'
How religious societies prey on new college students
How to get rid of unwanted proselytizers
Whether religion is a danger to society and/or the individual
Why people become atheists

Ricker (2006) calls out another common discussion topic, the proper definition of atheism, as being "the thread that never dies on alt.atheism".^[6] The popularization of the "weak and strong atheism" terminology for different definitions of atheism has been credited to discussions on the alt.atheism newsgroup.

References

^ Holbrook, N. (October 25, 1998), "Atheism Online", The Lantern, archived from the original on 2007-06-16, retrieved 2009-05-22.
^ Brian R. Holt's alt.pagan post announcing his creation of alt.atheism as sourced from Google Groups on January 15, 2016.
^ Kinney, Jay (1995), "Net worth? : Religion, cyberspace and the future", Futures, 27 (7): 763–776, doi:10.1016/0016-3287(95)80007-V.
^ Nash, David (2002), "Religious sensibilities in the age of the internet: freethought culture and the historical context of communication media", in Hoover, Stewart M.; Clark, Lynn Schofield (eds.), Practicing religion in the age of the media: explorations in media, religion, and culture, Columbia University Press, p. 281, ISBN 978-0-231-12089-0.
^ alt.atheism FAQ as sourced by the Internet Archive on February 11, 2005.
^ Ricker, George A. (2006), Godless in America: Conversations With an Atheist, iUniverse, p. 131, ISBN 978-0-595-39101-1.