Google Trends data on search volumes of high profile atheist public figures are used to assess their relative reach among different types of seculars in Canada. The user query data mined from Google Trends are complemented with an extensive set of information extracted from the Canadian General Social Surveys of 2005 to 2016. The analysis shows that the reach of high profile atheists is positively correlated with the presence of strictly-seculars, a proxy for the atheists. The investigation produces no statistically significant correlation between the presence of other types of seculars, namely the unchurched believers and the nominal affiliates, and the search volumes for high profile atheists. This exploratory finding suggests that the influential atheists likely “preach to the choir,” catering to like-minded individuals, at the exclusion of those with relatively close but differing views on religion and spirituality.
ArmfieldGGHolbertRL (2003) The relationship between religiosity and internet use. Journal of Media and Religion2(3): 129–144.
2.
AskitasNZimmermannKF (2015) The internet as a data source for advancement in social sciences. International Journal of Manpower36(1): 2–12.
3.
BainbridgeWS (2009) Atheism. In: The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. Edited by ClarkePeter B.. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 319–335.
4.
BakerJOBSmithB (2009) None too simple: Examining issues of religious nonbelief and nonbelonging in the United States. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion48(4): 719–733.
5.
BarreiraNGodinhoPMeloP (2013) Nowcasting unemployment rate and new car sales in south-western Europe with Google Trends. NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking14(3): 129–165.
6.
BeamanLGTomlinsS (eds) (2014) Atheist Identities – Spaces and Social Contexts. Vol. 2. Cham: Springer.
7.
BeyerP (1997) Religious vitality in Canada: The complementarity of religious market and secularization perspectives. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion36(2): pp. 272–288.
8.
BibbyR (2006) The Boomer Factor: What Canada’s Most Famous Generation is Leaving Behind?Toronto, ON: Bastian Books.
BibbyRW (2011) Continuing the conversation on Canada: Changing patterns of religious service attendance. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion50(4): 831–837.
11.
BlankholmJ (2014) The political advantages of a polysemous secular. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion53(4): 775–790.
12.
BlazquezDDomenechJ (2018) Big data sources and methods for social and economic analyses. Technological Forecasting and Social Change130: 99–113.
13.
BoyJDUitermarkJWiersmaL (2018) Trending #hijabfashion: Using big data to study religion at the online–urban interface. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society31(1): 22–40.
14.
CampbellHA (2013) Religion and the internet: A microcosm for studying internet trends and implications. New Media & Society15(5): 680–694.
15.
CampbellHLövheimM (2011) Religion and the internet: Considering the online–offline connection. Information, Communication & Society14(8): Special issue. Abingdon: Routledge.
CarneiroHAMylonakisE (2009) Google Trends: A web-based tool for real-time surveillance of disease outbreaks. Clinical Infectious Diseases49(10): 1557–1564.
18.
CarpignanoP (1999) The shape of the sphere: The public sphere and the materiality of communication. Constellations6(2): 177–189.
19.
Carrière-SwallowYLabbéF (2013) Nowcasting with Google Trends in an emerging market. Journal of Forecasting32(4): 289–298.
20.
ChandlerV (2018) Google and suicides: What can we learn about the use of internet to prevent suicides?Public Health154: 144–150.
21.
ChoiHVarianH (2012) Predicting the present with Google Trends. Economic Record88(s1): 2–9.
22.
CiminoRSmithC (2007) Secular humanism and atheism beyond progressive secularism. Sociology of Religion68(4): 407–424.
23.
CiminoRSmithC (2011) The new atheism and the formation of the imagined secularist community. Journal of Media and Religion10(1): 24–38.
24.
ClarkeBMacdonaldS (2011) How are Canada’s five largest Protestant denominations faring? A look at the 2001 census. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses40(4): 511–534.
25.
CôtéIMDarlingES (2018) Scientists on Twitter: Preaching to the choir or singing from the rooftops?Facets3(1): 682–694.
26.
CotterCRQuadrioPATuckettJ (eds) (2017) New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates. Vol. 21. Dordrecht: Springer.
27.
DavieG (1994) Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing Without Belonging. Oxford: Blackwell.
28.
DavieG (2002) Europe: The Exceptional Case: Parameters of Faith in the Modern World. London: Darton, Longman & Todd.
29.
DawsonLLCowanDE (eds) (2013) Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet. Abingdon: Routledge.
30.
DickH (2015) Atheism in religious clothing? Accounting for atheist interventions in the public sphere. Culture and Religion16(4): 372–391.
31.
DilmaghaniM (2017) Civic participation of secular groups in Canada. Review of Social Economy75(4): 523–543.
32.
DilmaghaniM (2018a) Religiosity and the digital divide in Canada. The Communication Review21(3): 181–211.
33.
DilmaghaniM (2018b) Importance of religion or spirituality and mental health in Canada. Journal of Religion and Health57(1): 120–135.
34.
DilmaghaniM (2018c) Canadian religious trends: Secularization, polarization, or free-rider exclusion?. Social Compass65(5): 626–649.
35.
DilmaghaniM (2019a) The racial ‘digital divide’ in the predictive power of Google trends data for forecasting the unemployment rate. Journal of Economic and Social Measurement43(3-4): 119–142.
36.
DilmaghaniM (2019b) Education and religious decline: evidence from the Canadian compulsory schooling laws. Education Economics27(3): 287–307.
37.
EagleDE (2011a) Changing patterns of attendance at religious services in Canada, 1986–2008. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion50(1): 187–200.
38.
EagleD (2011b) The loosening bond of religion on Canadian society: Reply to Bibby. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion50(4): 838–839.
39.
EcklundEHLeeKS (2011) Atheists and agnostics negotiate religion and family. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion50(4): 728–743.
40.
EdgellPGerteisJHartmannD (2006) Atheists as “other”: Moral boundaries and cultural membership in American society. American Sociological Review71(2): 211–234.
41.
EdgellPHartmannDStewartEGerteisJ (2016) Atheists and other cultural outsiders: Moral boundaries and the non-religious in the United States. Social Forces95(2): 607–638.
42.
FondeurYKaraméF (2013) Can Google data help predict French youth unemployment?Economic Modelling30: 117–125.
43.
GarcíaABlankholmJ (2016) The social context of organized nonbelief: County-level predictors of nonbeliever organizations in the United States. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion55(1): 70–90.
44.
GervaisWM (2011) Finding the faithless: Perceived atheist prevalence reduces anti-atheist prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin37(4): 543–556.
GrahamMSheltonT (2013) Geography and the future of big data, big data and the future of geography. Dialogues in Human Geography3(3): 255–261.
48.
GranovetterMS (1973) The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology78: 1360–1380.
49.
GuentherKMMulliganK (2013) From the outside in: Crossing boundaries to build collective identity in the new atheist movement. Social Problems60(4): 457–475.
50.
GuzmanG (2011) Internet search behavior as an economic forecasting tool: The case of inflation expectations. Journal of Economic and Social Measurement36(3): 119–167.
51.
HaightMQuan-HaaseACorbettBA (2014) Revisiting the digital divide in Canada: The impact of demographic factors on access to the internet, level of online activity, and social networking site usage. Information, Communication & Society17(4): 503–519.
52.
HarrisS (2014) Waking up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religion. New York: Simon and Schuster.
53.
HarrisonG (2014) Deconstructing the Ben Affleck–Sam Harris cage fight. Psychology Today. Available at: https://tinyurl.com/y747rjo3(accessed 27 October 2018).
54.
HayDA (2014) An investigation into the swiftness and intensity of recent secularization in Canada: Was Berger right?Sociology of Religion75(1): 136–162.
55.
HellandC (2008) Canadian religious diversity online: A network of possibilities. In: BeyerPBeamanL (eds) Religion and Diversity in Canada. Boston, MA: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 127–148.
56.
HjarvardS (2016) Mediatization and the changing authority of religion. Media, Culture & Society38(1): 8–17.
57.
HoffmannAOttebyK (2018) Personal finance blogs: Helpful tool for consumers with low financial literacy or preaching to the choir?International Journal of Consumer Studies42(2): 241–254.
58.
HojsgaardMWarburgM (eds) (2005) Religion and Cyberspace. Abingdon: Routledge.
59.
HoutMFischerCS (2002) Why more Americans have no religious preference: Politics and generations. American Sociological Review67: 165–190.
60.
HowardRG (2000) Online ethnography of dispensationalist discourse: Revealed versus – Negotiated Truth. In: HaddenJKCowanDE (eds) Religion on the Internet: Research Prospects and Promises. New York: JAI Press, pp. 225–246.
61.
HungermanDM (2014) The effect of education on religion: Evidence from compulsory schooling laws. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization104: 52–63.
62.
HunsbergerBEAltemeyerB (2006) Atheists: A Groundbreaking Study of America’s Nonbelievers. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
63.
KatzJERiceRE (2002) Social consequences of internet use: Access, involvement, and interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
64.
KavanaghAPattersonS (2002) The impact of community computer networks on social capital and community involvement in Blacksburg. In: WellmanBHaythornthwaiteC (eds) The Internet in Everyday Life. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 325–344.
65.
KettellS (2014) Divided we stand: The politics of the atheist movement in the United States. Journal of Contemporary Religion29(3): 377–391.
66.
KnottK (2008) Spatial theory and the study of religion. Religion Compass2(6): 1102–1116.
67.
KrautRPattersonMLundmarkVKieslerSMukophadhyayTScherlisW (1998) Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?. American Psychologist53(9): 1017–1031.
68.
LangstonJAHammerJHCragunRT (2015) Atheism looking in: On the goals and strategies of organized nonbelief. Science, Religion, and Culture2(3): 70–85.
69.
LeDrewS (2013) Discovering atheism: Heterogeneity in trajectories to atheist identity and activism. Sociology of Religion74(4): 431–453.
70.
LeDrewS (2015) The evolution of atheism: The politics of a modern movement. New York: Oxford University Press.
71.
LeeL (2012) Talking about a revolution: Terminology for the new field of non-religion studies. Journal of Contemporary Religion27(1): 129–139.
72.
LevinALinCFChuCSJ (2002) Unit root tests in panel data: Asymptotic and finite-sample properties. Journal of Econometrics108(1): 1–24.
73.
LimCMacGregorCAPutnamRD (2010) Secular and liminal: Discovering heterogeneity among religious nones. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion49(4): 596–618.
74.
LövheimMLynchG (2011) The mediatisation of religion debate: An introduction. Culture and Religion12(2): 111–117.
75.
LundmarkELeDrewS (2019) Unorganized atheism and the secular movement: reddit as a site for studying ‘lived atheism’. Social Compass66(1): 112–129.
76.
MacInnisCCHodsonG (2015) Do American states with more religious or conservative populations search more for sexual content on Google?Archives of Sexual Behavior44(1): 137–147.
77.
ManovichL (2018) The science of culture? Social computing, digital humanities and cultural analytics. Journal of Cultural Analytics. DOI:10.22148/16.004.
78.
McAlisterE (2005) Globalization and the religious production of space. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion44(3): 249–255.
79.
McPhersonMSmith-LovinLCookJM (2001) Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology27(1): 415–444.
80.
NaccaratoAFalorsiSLorigaSPieriniA (2018) Combining official and Google Trends data to forecast the Italian youth unemployment rate. Technological Forecasting and Social Change130: 114–122.
81.
PasqualeFL (2009) A portrait of secular group affiliates. Atheism and Secularity2: 43–87.
82.
PasqualeFL (2012) The social science of secularity. Free Inquiry33(2): 17–23.
83.
PigliucciM (2013) New Atheism and the scientistic turn in the atheism movement. Midwest Studies in Philosophy37(1): 142–153.
84.
PutnamRDCampbellDE (2010) American Grace: How Religion Unites and Divides Us. New York: Simon & Schuster.
85.
RainieLWellmanB (2012) Networked: The New Social Operating System. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
86.
ReimerS (2017) Conservative Protestants and religious polarization in Canada. Studies in Religion46(2): 187–208.
87.
SavageMBurrowsR (2007) The coming crisis of empirical sociology. Sociology41(5): 885–899.
88.
ScheitleCP (2011) Google’s insights for search: A note evaluating the use of search engine data in social research. Social Science Quarterly92(1): 285–295.
89.
SearsDOFreedmanJL (1967) Selective exposure to information: A critical review. Public Opinion Quarterly31(2): 194–213.
90.
SherkatDE (2008) Beyond belief: Atheism, agnosticism, and theistic certainty in the United States. Sociological Spectrum28(5): 438–459.
91.
SmithCCiminoR (2012) Atheisms unbound: The role of the new media in the formation of a secularist identity. Secularism and Nonreligion. DOI:http://doi.org/10.5334/snr.ab.
92.
SmithCCiminoR (2015) The creation of secularist space on the internet. In: BrunnSD (ed.) The Changing World Religion Map. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 3733–3749.
93.
SmithJM (2011) Becoming an atheist in America: Constructing identity and meaning from the rejection of theism. Sociology of Religion72(2): 215–237.
94.
SmithJM (2013) Creating a godless community: The collective identity work of contemporary American atheists. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion52(1): 80–99.
95.
SmithJM (2017) Can the secular be the object of belief and belonging? The Sunday assembly. Qualitative Sociology40(1): 83–109.
Stromer-GalleyJMarteyRM (2009) Visual spaces, norm governed places: The influence of spatial context online. New Media & Society11(6): 1041–1060.
98.
TairaT (2013) Making space for discursive study in religious studies. Religion43(1): 26–45.
99.
ThiessenJ (2012) Marginal religious affiliates in Canada: Little reason to expect increased church involvement. Canadian Review of Sociology49(1): 69–90.
100.
ThiessenJDawsonLL (2008) Is there a “renaissance” of religion in Canada? A critical look at Bibby and beyond. Studies in Religion37(3–4): 389–415.
101.
UganderJBackstromLMarlowCKleinbergJ (2012) Structural diversity in social contagion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences109: 5962–5966.
102.
VeeversJE (1990) Canadian regional differences in religious unaffiliation: The Catholic–Protestant factor. Canadian Journal of Sociology15(1): 77–83.
103.
VernonGM (1968) The religious “nones”: A neglected category. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion: 7(2): 219–229.
104.
VoasD (2009) The rise and fall of fuzzy fidelity in Europe. European Sociological Review25(2): 155–168.
105.
VosenSSchmidtT (2011) Forecasting private consumption: Survey-based indicators vs. Google Trends. Journal of Forecasting30(6): 565–578.
106.
WellmanB (2002) The rise (and possible fall) of networked individualism. Connections24(3): 30–32.
107.
WhiteheadALPerrySL (2018) Unbuckling the Bible belt: A state-level analysis of religious factors and Google searches for porn. The Journal of Sex Research55(3): 273–283.
108.
Wilkins-LaflammeS (2014) Toward religious polarization? Time effects on religious commitment in US, UK, and Canadian regions. Sociology of Religion75(2), 284–308.
109.
Wilkins-LaflammeS (2015) How unreligious are the “religious nones”? Religious dynamics of the unaffiliated in Canada. Canadian Journal of Sociology40(4): 477–500.
110.
WuthnowR (2015) Inventing American Religion: Polls, Surveys, and the Tenuous Quest for a Nation’s Faith. New York: Oxford University Press.
