List of atheists

A partial list of persons believed to be atheists:

• Douglas Adams, novelist
• Woody Allen, film director, actor, comedian
• Isaac Asimov, author and scientist
• Iain Banks, novelist
• John Baskerville, printer and typefounder
• Charles Bradlaugh, British Member of Parliament
• Nathaniel Branden, psychologist and philosopher, associated with Objectivism.
• George Gordon, Lord Byron; Romantic poet
• George Carlin - comedian. Wrote a number of monologues about the non-existence of a God.
• Noam Chomsky, philosopher, linguist, political activist.
• Clarence Darrow Defense attorney at the Scopes Monkey Trial. Was largely demonized in the press for his atheism.
• Richard Dawkins - biologist and science writer.
• Daniel Dennett - philosopher, well-known for his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
• Diagoras.
• Thomas Edison.
• Paul Ehrlich - entomologist.
• Ludwig Feuerbach, philosopher, postulated that God is merely a projection by humans of their own best qualities.
• Richard Feynman, physicist.
• Sigmund Freud - neurologist. Father of psychoanalysis; considered the belief in God to stem from an unconscious fear of one's own biological father.
• Stephen Hawking - one of the world's leading theoretical physicists.
• Christopher Hitchens - political commentator and author
• David Hume - Scottish Philosopher and major skeptic of The Enlightenment period.
• Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, one of the most popular orators in late 19th century America, speaking in favor of atheism in every part of the country before large crowds.
• Kamal Hassan- noted Indian actor
• Paul Kurtz - philosopher and founder of Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism
• Karl Marx - philosopher and sociologist. Founder of Marxist political and economic philosophy. His famous formulation was: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
• John McCarthy - AI researcher and inventor of Lisp programming language
• Henry Louis Mencken - journalist and social critic.
• James Mill - British philosopher and psychologist.
• John Stuart Mill - British philosopher and economist.
• Madalyn Murray O'Hair Founder of American Atheists; filed the lawsuit that led the US Supreme Court to ban teacher-led prayer in public schools.
• Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, who said "Religion is a species of mental disease."
• Roy Neuberger, financier and art collector, his preference of wealth over spirituality estranges him from his son, who wrote a book on the need for spirituality in his life and rediscovering Judaism
• Kai Nielsen, contemporary professor of philosophy, specializes in philosophy of religion as a leading advocate of atheism.
• Friedrich Nietzsche, German existentialist philosopher and fierce critic of what he called the 'slave morality' of Christianity.
• Camille Paglia, post-feminist literary and cultural critic.
• Periyar-rationalist, freedom fighter from India; (in)famous for his act of adorning a picture of a Hindu deity in public with a garland made of footwear
• Jacques Prévert, French poet.
• Ayn Rand - novelist and philosopher. Founder of Objectivism. Wrote extensively on her position that individuals should abandon what she considered superstitious beliefs.
• James Randi, professional magician and debunker of psychics.
• Matt Ridley, science writer and journalist.
• La Rochefoucauld
• Richard Rorty
• Gene Roddenberry-TV Writer, producer, creator of Star Trek.
• Bertrand Russell - philosopher; author of Why I am not a Christian and Science and Religion.
• Marquis de Sade - author. Denied the existence of morality based on a mandate from divine authority.
• Carl Sagan - physicist, popular-science writer.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet, author of The necessity of Atheism.
• Henry Sidgwick, British philosopher.
• Peter Singer, Australian philosopher.
• B. F. Skinner, psychologist.
• Josef Stalin, Soviet dictator.
• Richard M. Stallman - computer programmer and founder of the Free Software Foundation.
• Max Stirner, Young Hegelian philosopher and anarchist.
• Mark Twain - author.
• Gore Vidal - author.
• Joss Whedon
• Virginia Woolf - author and feminist.
• Mao Zedong - Chinese dictator, who said, "Religion is poison."

See also

• List of people by belief
• List of people
• List of agnostics

External Link

• The Celebrity Atheist List (includes living atheists and agnostics)
• Famous black freethinkers
• Famous Dead Nontheists

Referenced By