Friday, March 6, 2015

Attention Atheists: Google trends indicates: You are in a slump!

 As you can see below, across the board, words associated with atheism/agnosticism have seen lower search volume since at least April of 2012.

      *  General Agnostic and atheism terms - World

Specific atheism terms


The article Internet atheism: The thrill is gone! points out that many internet atheism websites have been in a significant slump since 2008. For more information see: Internet atheism - post 2007 market share loss
Fallout from Elevatorgate?
Richard Dawkins
Elevatorgate is a term commonly used to describe a scandal involving New Atheist Richard Dawkins' 2011 comments made to atheist Rebecca Watson which are perceived to have been inappropriate by a sizable portion of the atheist community and to the public at large.

Specifically, in July of 2011, Richard Dawkins was widely criticized within the atheist community and in various press outlets for his insensitive comments made to atheist Rebecca Watson about an incident which occurred in an elevator (see: Richard Dawkins' Elevatorgate comments).[1] Specifically, Watson was invited for coffee and a conversation late at night by a man who was a fellow atheist. Watson was upset by this and subsequently blogged about it. Following this, Richard Dawkins wrote an open letter to a fictitious Muslim woman, satirically equating Rebecca's plight with that of abused Muslim women. Watson has written about perceived widespread misogny within the atheist community and she has received threats of rape (see also: Atheism and women and Atheism and rape)..[2].

 

The day Elevatorgate occurred has been called the day the atheist movement died

See also: Atheist movement
 
Richard Dawkins is still widely criticized for igniting deep fractures in the atheist movement through his Elevatorgate scandal. For example, on November 26, 2013, the atheist activist and blogger Jen McCreight posted at Twitter the message: "Did anyone on Dawkins AMA ask how he feels about singlehandedly destroying the atheist movement with the Dear Muslima yet?" In December of 2013, atheist Jack Vance at Atheist Revolution called July 2, 2011, which is the day that Elevatorgate occurred, "The day the atheist movement died."
 
See also: Atheism and the internet

It was all predicted!
 
 In August of 2010, Conservapedia created the article Women's views of Richard Dawkins indicating that Richard Dawkins had a significant problem with the women segment of the marketplace and that he was abrasive and cowardly.

Atheist men scoffed at the article.

 As noted above, in July of 2011, the Elevatorgate scandal occured. A woman in the Skepchick community says "I look forward to watching your legacy crash and burn."
 


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