https://atheismus.ch has existed since 1998. Originally, the website was created in DokuWiki with many custom plugins. However, this concept became difficult to maintain over time. After a hard drive failure, the site was no longer put back into operation. At the end of 2024, a relaunch with WordPress was undertaken.
The founder of https://atheismus.ch grew up in a Christian (New Apostolic) family and was raised religiously. At the age of 13, he began to question the religion he was born into. The New Apostolic Church considered itself the only true religion, which led him to the fundamental question: How can one distinguish between right and wrong in religions? He soon concluded that there is no objective criterion for this. People usually defend the religion they were born into without objectively comparing all religions. Even if a comparison is made, it remains subjective because there are no objective standards.
In contrast, science operates with clear methods to distinguish right from wrong. Theories like Darwinism or the age of the Earth are open to scrutiny and correction. This methodological approach gives science a competence that religions completely lack. Another problem he faced was the explanation of the world by a creator god. This answer only leads to a further question: Where does God come from? The usual explanation, that God is eternal, could just as easily be applied to the universe. If God can be eternal, then the universe could just as well be eternal, which also doesn’t solve the question, but makes God
as an explanation entirely unnecessary. Within a few weeks, he lost his faith. After standing up to his parents, the topic of religion was settled for him.
During his time at high school and technical college, he hardly met anyone who seriously believed in a god. Later, as a software developer in a large corporation, he also worked mainly among atheists. However, in the late 1990s, he encountered a colleague who was intelligent and yet religious, mainly advocating the ideas of C.S. Lewis. This led to debates, first during coffee breaks and later on the joint homepage IsThereAGod
on Geocities. When the colleague left the company and demanded the site be taken down, the first version of https://atheismus.ch was created in 1998 from the atheist texts.
The website ran on DokuWiki for over 20 years. Several attempts to migrate to a modern WordPress system failed because visitors preferred the old format. In 2021, the server that hosted the site broke down, and the site was offline for over a year. The relaunch with WordPress was planned for December 2022, but it took another two years until finally, in 2024, a new start with a stronger focus on philosophy was made. However, religious criticism remains an important pillar. Overall, the site is being made more modern and up-to-date.