I stumbled upon this news article about atheist Indonesians forming a community in the virtual world. Essentially, online social networks have enabled them to share their ideas about (non)religion which are not tolerated by Indonesia in the actual world. The infrastructure of the Web 2.0 platforms have allowed them to stay anonymous so that they do not have to fear violence from their neighbors, religious authorities, and the government.
If one of the basic pillars of culture is sharing meanings, then the atheist Indonesian culture only exists online. Non-believers might arrive at these ideas by themselves, however it is only online that they can establish a community of the like-minded. Another perquisite of this community is interacting on online social networks.
Although the Internet connects benign people, it has been prominently featured as the major communication tool of globalized Islamic terrorism.
I recall that the world "religion" is derived from Latin religio meaning "to bind, connect". Though the archeology of this word is subject to a diverse array of interpretation, I think its original meaning referred to the combining of different people under one social order by common ritual and common cosmology. The government of Indonesia has required that all citizens identify with a religion to show the demographic strength of Muslims and to unify the various ethnicities in the archipelago under one nation. Ironically, disbelief has become a religion where one of the key rituals is logining on to facebook.
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