It is no secret that the Huffington Post Religion Section is hostile toward atheists. Some atheist bloggers even refuse to share HuffPo articles in protest of that hostility. That’s totally fair, but I want to come at it from the opposite angle. I want you to share atheist articles from HuffPo… a lot.
In full disclosure, I do write for Huffington Post and they pay me absolutely nothing. I also write here and I only get paid through AdSense, Amazon Affiliate links, and donations. So I am basically writing here for free too. The only real income I get from my writing is through Examiner. So please share those Examiner articles. Still, I do have some vested interest in promoting HuffPo.
The thing about HuffPo is the audience. When I write here, I am mostly writing to atheists. When I write on Examiner, I am writing to a mixed crowd. It is more of a general audience. But Huffington Post is where liberals and progressives are. The HuffPo Religion Section has religious liberals and progressives and a few wacky fundies. To put it in Biblical terms, writing for HuffPo Religion is like Jesus hanging with the taxes collectors and prostitutes. I get to “preach” reason to those who need it most.
That is why I fought so hard to become a HuffPo contributor in the first place. Here is the problem. HuffPo Religion is hostile toward atheists and I am an atheist writer. That is why my first article was sort of an article that religious believers could get behind. It was based off of my Atheism 101 article on atheist spirituality. It got me in the door and still allowed me to be true to my views. Even then, I needed the help of a super liberal Christian to unlock that door.
Now the door is open for me and a select few other atheist writers on Huffington Post. You will notice that the atheist articles that get published in the Religion Section tend to be articles that are friendly toward religion. You will see a lot of Chris Stedman and Greg Epstein’s works. Occasionally, something critical of religion will slip through the cracks like my article on the Pope a few weeks ago.
Mostly though, if an atheist like me or Roy Speckhardt writes an article even remotely critical of religion, the editors of the Religion Section will reassign the article to another section in an attempt to bury it. For example, my latest article was put in the Politics Section and also in the Science Section even though I sent it to the Religion Section.
Here is the thing though. I suspect that if articles do particularly well, they are promoted more internally on Huffington Post. This means that they will show up in the Religion Section anyway. This is why it is important to share atheist Huffington Post articles that are critical of religious beliefs. I also suspect that if atheist writers are popular enough, the Religion Section will want us there because they will feel that what we are saying can’t be too controversial if we are popular. Plus, they are going to want the hits that our popular articles generate.
I could be wrong about that, but that’s my feeling on it. The fact is that there are a lot of atheist readers on Huffington Post who may not be engaged in the atheist community. There are also a lot of liberal Christians who are close to losing their faith. I think it is really important to reach out to them.
You can check out my HuffPo articles HERE.
Related articles
- Interfaith: The very name is exclusive (examiner.com)
- Catholic Priest: Disbelief in the Devil main cause of atheism (examiner.com)
- Is Sci-Fi A Vaccine Against Religion? (skepticink.com)
- Atheists Are Everywhere! (skepticink.com)
- When Religious Believers Get Hateful (skepticink.com)
