Texas shooting: Online atheists forced to distance themselves from gunman Devin Patrick Kelley

Internet atheists are being blamed for the deadly shooting in Texas, despite no evidence linking them to the shooter or his beliefs.

Police are still unclear why Devin Patrick Kelley took a gun into the Sutherlands Springs church and killed at least 26 people. But amid that confusing picture and lack of clear motive, many are rushing to use the attack to their own ends.

For some, that has included blaming famous online atheist personalities for the attack, despite denials from the police that the massacre was religiously motivated.

Authorities have denied that the shooting had anything to do with the religious affiliation either of the shooter or those in the church. "“This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs, it was a domestic situation going on,” said Freeman Martin, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, at a press conference.

Those claiming to know the reason the attack happened point to the fact that a Facebook page supposedly belonging to Kelley had liked four different atheism accounts. A number of other accounts – including one, The Activist Mommy, that has hundreds of thousands of followers – have directly blamed famous internet atheists for the attack.

Hemant Mehta runs the Friendly Atheist page, one of the handful that was liked by Kelley and has since been blamed by those accounts.

"Reports say the Texas shooter 'liked' my Facebook page," he posted on Twitter in the wake of the attack. "It should go without saying that his actions go against everything I stand for."

In a follow-up post on his website, Mr Mehta said that he had never been in contact with Kelley and that he opposed any kind of violence. "Those suggesting he did this because he was inspired by atheists have no clue what they’re talking about," he wrote.

On Reddit's Atheism community, a number of people shared Mr Mehta's concerns that atheists were being blamed for the massacre despite no clear evidence of any kind about its motive. Under a post that claimed a Fox News guest had suggested that the killing could be blamed on atheism, a number of Reddit users shared their concerns that atheism would be blamed for the attack.

Authorities have said very little about what they think actually motivated the killing in Texas. While they have ruled out a range of speculative reasons, they have said only that the attack may be related to a "domestic situation" which they "can’t go into detail".

That has allowed a range of different groups to attempt to use the attack for their own ends. A number of accounts have tried to link the attack either to Islamist terror or antifascist organisations, for instance, but there is no evidence of that either.