List of atheists Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
A number of noted individuals have been atheists. Please note that the atheist beliefs of most of those included in this list are not typically connected to their notability or reputation.A partial list of persons believed to be atheists:
- Forrest J. Ackerman - writer, noted science fiction fan
- Douglas Adams - novelist
- Tariq Ali - historian and novelist
- Woody Allen - film director, actor, comedian
- Susan B. Anthony - American civil-rights leader.
- Lance Armstrong - cyclist
- Isaac Asimov - author and scientist
- Peter Atkins - chemist, husband of Susan Greenfield, professor at Oxford University
- David Attenborough - natural history presenter and anthropologist
- Mikhail Bakunin - philosopher and anarchist
- Iain Banks - novelist
- Clive Barker - British author, producer, director, screenwriter
- Dave Barry - writer
- John Baskerville - printer and typefounder
- Steve Benson - editorial cartoonist
- Ingmar Bergman - Swedish film and theater director
- Björk - singer, actress
- Pierre Boulez - conductor, composer
- T. Coraghessan Boyle - author
- Charles Bradlaugh - British Member of Parliament
- Nathaniel Branden - psychologist and philosopher, associated with Objectivism
- Marlon Brando - actor
- Richard Branson - Virgin Group mogul, global circumnavigator by balloon
- George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron - Romantic poet
- Albert Camus - philosopher and novelist
- George Carlin - comedian, wrote a number of monologues about the non-existence of God
- Adam Carolla - television and radio personality
- John Carpenter - filmmaker
- Asia Carrera - adult film actress
- Fidel Castro - Cuban leader
- Dick Cavett - talk show host
- Charlie Chaplin - British actor and director.
- Noam Chomsky - philosopher, linguist, political activist
- André Comte-Sponville - philosopher
- Francis Crick - Nobel Prize laureate biophysicist, co-discoverer of structure of DNA
- David Cronenberg - Canadian filmmaker
- David Cross - comedian, actor
- Marie Curie - physicist who isolated polonium and radium
- Clarence Darrow - defense attorney at the Scopes Monkey Trial. Was largely demonized in the press for his atheism.
- William B. Davis - actor, Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files
- Richard Dawkins - biologist, author of science texts for the layman
- Daniel Dennett - philosopher, well-known for his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea
- Diagoras
- Ani DiFranco - singer
- Amanda Donohoe - actress
- Thomas Edison - inventor
- Paul Ehrlich - entomologist
- Brian Eno - music producer, composer
- Ludwig Feuerbach - philosopher, postulated that God is merely a projection by humans of their own best qualities
- Richard Feynman - physicist
- Jodie Foster - actress
- Sigmund Freud - neurologist, father of psychoanalysis, considered the belief in God to stem from an unconscious fear of one's own biological father
- Bill Gates - Microsoft CEO
- Susan Greenfield - neuroscientist, professor at Oxford University, brain researcher, writer of populist science books, director of Britain's Royal Institution since 1998
- Kamal Haasan - noted Indian actor
- Christopher Hitchens - political commentator and author
- David Hume - Scottish philosopher and historian
- Angelina Jolie - actress
- Maynard James Keenan - recording artist (Tool)'
- Ben Klassen - founded a church worshipping the creative force of the white race
- Paul Kurtz - philosopher, founder of Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the Council for Secular Humanism
- Primo Levi - novelist and chemist
- John Malkovich - actor
- Karl Marx - philosopher, 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
- H.L. Mencken - journalist and social critic.
- James Mill - British philosopher and psychologis
- John Stuart Mill - British philosopher and economist.
- Jonathan Miller - British physician, theatre and opera director and television presenter.
- Dr. Henry Morgentaler - Canadian abortion rights activist. Founder of Humanist Association of Canada.
- 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
- Michael Newdow - California man who sued his daughter's school saying the words "under God" in Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional
- Randy Newman - musician
- Jack Nicholson - American actor, writer, director, and producer.
- Friedrich Nietzsche - German philosopher
- George Orwell - British author and journalist.
- Camille Paglia - post-feminist literary and cultural critic.
- Penn and Teller - magicians
- 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
- William Pierce - neo-fascist
- Karl Popper - German-born British Falsificationist philosopher. Believed that the concept of God/gods is unfalsifiable, and therefore meaningless.
- Jacques Prévert - French poet.
- Philip Pullman - British writer
- 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
- Ron Reagan - magazine journalist and board member of the Creative Coalition
- Christopher Reeve - American actor, director, and writer.
- Matt Ridley - science writer and journalist
- La Rochefoucauld
- Richard Rorty
- Gene Roddenberry - TV writer, producer, creator of Star Trek
- Andy Rooney - American journalist and commentator.
- Bertrand Russell - British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and Nobel Laureate in literature
- Marquis de Sade - author, denied the existence of morality based on a mandate from divine authority
- Jean-Paul Sartre - French philosopher and novelist
- 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, founder of the Free Software Foundation
- Howard Stern - shock jock
- Max Stirner - Young Hegelian philosopher, anarchist
- Charles Templeton - former American and Canadian evangelist, Canadian journalist, broadcaster and politician.
- Mark Twain - author
- Gore Vidal - author
- Joss Whedon - TV writer, producer, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Virginia Woolf - author and feminist
- Mao Zedong - former leader of the Communist Party of China, who said, "Religion is poison."
See also
External links
- The Celebrity Atheist List (includes living atheists and agnostics)
- Famous black freethinkers
- Famous Dead Nontheists
This is an Article on List of atheists. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About List of atheists