About r/atheism
In its own words:
Welcome to r/atheism, the web's largest atheist forum. All topics related to atheism, agnosticism and secular living are welcome. If you wish to learn more about atheism, please begin by reading the FAQ. If you are a theist, please be aware that proselytizing in any form is strictly prohibited. * Feel free to join our Discord](https://discord.gg/gYPuj8R.
Community guide
r/atheism (#370, about 3.0 million) is a large forum for atheism, agnosticism, and secular living; the description asks newcomers to read the FAQ and forbids proselytizing. Rules remove trolling, personal attacks, off-topic posts, spam, low-effort content, and proselytizing. Text/link dominant (~47.9 ppd).
Secular discussion, not recruitment
Topics about atheism and secular life fit; proselytizing is a removal reason in both description and rules.
Effort and images
Low-effort and incorrectly submitted images are listed removals—bring a clear point, not a bare meme dump.
Practical pointers
Stay on topic; no harassment/bigotry or brigading per the rule list.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Jan 25, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 760 subscribers (+0.03%). It sits just behind r/ksi (#369) and ahead of r/meme (#371) in our ranking.
What sets r/atheism apart
r/atheism is far more text-driven than most big subreddits: 75% of its recent posts are text posts, against a median of 34% across the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (16:00 UTC) sees about 14.0× as many posts as the quietest (05:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/atheism climbed from 2,971,185 to 2,976,581 subscribers (+5.4K, +0.18%). That is about 123 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/atheism talks about
Across 333 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “god”, “religion”, “religious”, “christian” and “atheist”. Other frequent themes are church, bible, trump, atheists, muslim and ffrf. Recurring phrases include “christian nationalist”, “adam hamilton”, “abdul el-sayed” and “james talarico”. By format, 75% are text posts, 23% are links and 2% are videos.
Popular post flairs: Low Effort (13), Spam (3), [Proseytizing] (2), Survey (2), Common repost [Proseytizing] (1), Offtopic (1).
Activity and best time to post
r/atheism gets about 48 new posts a day. The public archive holds 1,364,172 posts and 31,759,293 comments in total, about 23.3 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Thursday (57 posts) and the quietest was Monday (40). Posting peaks around 16:00 UTC and is lowest around 05:00 UTC.
Rules of r/atheism
The moderators of r/atheism list 9 rules. In short:
- No Trolling
- Personal Attacks or Flaming
- Off Topic
- Image not submitted correctly.
- Spam
- Low-Effort Posts
- Proselytizing
- Reddit Rule: Harassment or Bigotry
- Reddit rule: Brigading
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/atheism and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/atheism have?
r/atheism has 2,976,581 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #370 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 5,396 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/atheism created?
r/atheism was created on Jan 25, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years.
Is r/atheism still active?
Yes. r/atheism gets about 48 new posts a day (average of the last week). Over its lifetime the archive counts 1,364,172 posts and 31,759,293 comments. In a sample of 333 recent posts we counted 256 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/atheism?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Thursday and the quietest Monday, and most posts arrive around 16:00 UTC, with the fewest around 05:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/atheism?
The community describes itself as: “Welcome to r/atheism, the web's largest atheist forum. All topics related to atheism, agnosticism and secular living are welcome. If you wish to learn more about atheism, please begin by reading the FAQ. If you are a th…” Recent post titles often mention god, religion, religious, christian and atheist. Most posts are text posts (75%).
Is r/atheism SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/atheism as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/atheism?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/atheism accepts both text and link posts. It has 9 posted rules, starting with: “No Trolling”; “Personal Attacks or Flaming”; “Off Topic”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/atheism?
Communities with similar topics include r/webdev (3.3M), r/minimalism (2.6M), r/vandwellers (3M), r/Teachers (2.4M) and r/Economics (5.8M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/atheism.