Discussing Religion on YouTube

Brian Flemming notes that 6 out of 20 of the all-time most discussed videos on YouTube have to do with religion. It’s a small sampling, but the breakdown is interesting:

Five of those six videos are strongly critical of religion, and three of them are from a specifically atheist point of view. Not a single one advocates for religion.

It’s a different story if you look at most viewed videos, where the religious videos fade away quickly and you realize how people are more interested in a laughing baby than anything that makes them think.

Just like many of the threads on this blog, I would think the “discussion” on the religious videos are overrun by a relatively small number of people who make an abnormally large number of comments each. So the numbers may not be as impressive.

That’s not a complaint, though. The videos are still seen and discussed by more people than any blog posting and perhaps even many atheist books.

[tags]Brian Flemming, YouTube, atheist, atheism[/tags]

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Maria

yeah, that makes sense. a lot of the people of all backgrounds on youtube scare me. it seems all the really angry and mean people like to get on there……..
Karen

I think it’s great that the religious videos are highly discussed. Definitely gets a lot of people thinking. And it’s not a topic they feel comfortable discussing with their family and co-workers because it can make people mad or threatened.

And I think Flemming is right, the conversations about religion are happening at places like this and YouTube and the MSM is still afraid to “rock the boat” and even mention religion. Or if they do, it’s handled with kid gloves or it’s botched (like that atheist travesty Paula Zahn committed a while back).
olvlzl, no ism, no ist

Totally nothing to do with religion or atheism, but even with the cute and funny things I’ve seen, You Tube is pretty much just another way to dumb down the mass media. I still say that saving as text only is the greatest contribution to intellectual culture in the history of the internet. Text is the most efficient means of learning, faster than speaking and listening. Easier to review and understand.