List of atheists
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The people in this list have been included because they are/were atheists, that is, they do not or did not believe in gods, and this disbelief can be asserted because they themselves have expressed it openly (on the record), or in their works, personal corresponce, diaries, etc. Presumed atheists are not included here.
Given the different possible qualifications of the word atheist and its varied uses through time, some people listed here would be called agnostics or anti-religionists rather than simply atheists, but the list attempts to be inclusive on this matter. The reader should consult the relevant biographical articles for details.
The list has two sections. The first one is for atheists who are or were notable defenders of the cause of atheism, or who advocated views of the human condition, society, economy, etc., that were compatible with atheism. In short, these people are or were important for other atheists, since they contribute(d) to the popularization, understanding, and acceptance of atheism in society, either through their works or through their deeds.
The other section is for famous people who just happen/happened to be atheists, and whose unbelief is/was relevant in their life, but who do not/did not actively fight for its cause.
- There might not be a consensus on whether a given person belongs in the second section, since obviously there is no way of listing all famous people who just happen to be atheists (there is no point, either). Many of these profess their atheism as just a peripheral issue in their lives, or simply keep quiet about it, and they will not be listed here.
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Influential or outspoken atheists
Living
- Phillip Adams (1939-) - Australian broadcaster, writer, film-maker, left-wing radical thinker, iconoclast, Australian Humanist of the Year 1987.
- Ingmar Bergman (1918-) - Swedish film director and playwright.
- George Carlin (1937-) - American comedian, actor and author, wrote a number of monologues about the non-existence of God.
- André Comte-Sponville (1952-) - French materialist philosopher.
- Richard Dawkins (1941-) - British zoologist, biologist, creator of the concept of the selfish gene and the meme; outspoken atheist and popularizer of science.
- Daniel Dennett (1942-) - American philosopher, leading figure in evolutionary biology and cognitive science, well-known for his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
- Paul Kurtz (1926-) - American philosopher, skeptic, founder of Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the Council for Secular Humanism.
- Michael Newdow - American citizen, sued his daughter's school claiming that the words "under God" in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance constitute a breach in church-state separation.
- Camille Paglia (1947-) - American post-feminist literary and cultural critic.
- Matt Ridley (1958-) - British zoologist, science writer and journalist, open supporter of libertarianism in politics and reductionism in biology.
- Richard Rorty (1931-) - American philosopher, whose ideas combine pragmatism with a Wittgensteinian ontology that declares that meaning is a social-linguistic product.
- Peter Singer (1946-) - Australian philosopher and teacher, working on practical ethics from a utilitarian perspective, controversial for his opinions on abortion and euthanasia.
- Barbara Smoker (1923-) - British humanist activist and freethought advocate. Wrote the book Freethoughts: Atheism, Secularism, Humanism - Selected Egotistically from "The Freethinker".
- James D. Watson (1929- ) - Nobel Prize laureate, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA
Dead
- Alfred Adler (1870-1937) - Austrian psychiatrist, believed that God was a psychological projection, though helpful.
- Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) - Russian philosopher, writer and anarchist leader.
- Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) - British jurist, eccentric, philosopher and social reformer, founder of utilitarianism. He had John Stuart Mill as his disciple.
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) - American writer, author The Devil's Dictionary.
- Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) - British Member of Parliament, political activist, secularist, freethinker, advocate of trade unionism, republicanism and women's suffrage.
- Albert Camus (1913-1960) - French philosopher and novelist, a luminary of existentialism.
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857) - French philosopher, considered the father of sociology.
- Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) - American lawyer and civil libertarian, defense attorney at the Scopes Monkey Trial, where he defended a school teacher who taught the theory of evolution.
- Denis Diderot (1713-1784) - French philosopher, author, editor of the first encyclopedia.
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872) - German philosopher, postulated that God is merely a projection by humans of their own best qualities.
- Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991) - founder of the theory of situational ethics, pioneer in the field of bioethics, transhumanist.
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) - Austrian neurologist, father of psychoanalysis, considered the belief in God to stem from an unconscious fear of one's own biological father.
- Paul Henry Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) - French homme de lettres, philosopher and encyclopedist, member of the philosophical movement of French materialism, attacked Christianity and religion as counter to the moral advancement of humanity.
- David Hume (1711-1776) - Scottish philosopher and historian, a figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and the most radical of the British Empiricists, whose philosophy includes scepticism and naturalism.
- Primo Levi (1919-1987) - Italian novelist and chemist, survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp.
- Karl Marx (1818-1883) - German philosopher, sociologist, political economist, journalist and revolutionary, founder of Marxism. 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."
- Joseph McCabe (1867-1955) - English writer, anti-religion campaigner.
- Henry Louis Mencken (usually "H. L. Mencken") (1880-1956) - American editor, journalist and social critic.
- Jean Meslier (1678-1733) - French erstwhile priest.
- James Mill (1773-1836) - British historian and philosopher, father of John Stuart Mill; he supported the utilitarian principles of Jeremy Bentham.
- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) - British philosopher and political economist, liberal thinker, advocate of utilitarianism, who proposed the harm principle (people should be free to engage in whatever behavior they wish as long as it does not harm others).
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919-1995) - American militant atheist, founder of American Atheists, campaigner for the separation of church and state; filed the lawsuit that led the US Supreme Court to ban teacher-led prayer and Bible reading in public schools.
- Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751) - French physician and philosopher, earliest of the materialist writers of the Enlightenment.
- Periyar (1879-1973) - Indian rationalist, freedom fighter and activist against the caste system.
- Karl Popper (1902-1994) - Austrian-born British philosopher of science, who claimed that empirical falsifiability should be the criterion for distinguishing scientific theory from non-science.
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982) - American novelist and philosopher, founder of Objectivism. Her philosophy and her fiction emphasize her notions of individualism, egoism, "rational self-interest" and capitalism.
- M. N. Roy (1887-1954) - Indian political thinker, founder his Radical Humanism school of philosophy.
- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) - British mathematician, philosopher, logician, political liberal, activist, populariser of philosophy, and 1950 Nobel Laureate in Literature. On the issue of atheism/agnosticism, he wrote the essay "Why I Am Not a Christian".
- Mark Twain (pen-name of Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910) - American writer and humorist.
- Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse François de Sade) (1740-1814) - French aristocrat, writer of philosophy-laden pornography and pure philosophy, who denied the existence of morality based on a mandate from divine authority.
- Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) - French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) - British Romantic poet, contemporary and associate of John Keats and Lord Byron, author of The Necessity of Atheism.
- Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) - British philosopher, follower of utilitarianism.
- Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) - American psychologist and author, a pioneer on experimental psychology, advocate of behaviorism, and writer of two books on social engineering.
- Max Stirner (1806-1856) - German philosopher, Young Hegelian, one of the literary grandfathers of nihilism, existentialism and anarchism.
- Nanasaheb Gore () - Indian freedom fighter and political thinker.
Classical
- Anaxagoras (500?-428? BCE) - Greek philosopher, freethinker, regarded the conventional gods as mythic abstractions endowed with anthropomorphic attributes.
- Diagoras (called Diagoras the Atheist of Melos) (5th cent. BCE) - Greek poet and sophist.
- Protagoras (481?-411 BCE) - Greek philosopher.
- Democritus (460?-357 BCE) - Greek philosopher, father of materialism, viewed everything as matter composed of indestructible particles ("atoms").
- Epicurus (341-270 BCE) - Greek materialist philosopher.
- Lucretius (96?-55 BCE) - Roman philosopher and poet, Epicurean atomist, wrote On the Nature of Things.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the Younger" (4-65 CE) - Roman stoic philosopher, writer and politician.
Other atheists
Living
- Tariq Ali (1943-) - British author, filmmaker, historian, one of the founders of the New Left, and spokesman for anti-imperialism.
- Peter Atkins (1940-) - chemist, former husband of Susan Greenfield, professor at Oxford University.
- David Attenborough (1926-) - British natural history presenter and anthropologist.
- Robert Bruce Avakian - American political activist, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
- Iain Banks (1954-) - Scottish writer and left-wing activist.
- Jello Biafra (1958-) - Punk rock musician and political activist.
- Nathaniel Branden (1930-) - Canadian psychologist and philosopher, associated with Objectivism.
- Mario Bunge (1919-) - Argentine philosopher and physicist, left-wing liberal, author of a monumental Treatise on Basic Philosophy.
- Fidel Castro (1926-) - Cuban dictator since 1959.
- Noam Chomsky (1928-) - American philosopher, linguist, radical left-wing political activist, describes himself as "libertarian socialist" and "anarcho-syndicalist".
- David Cross (1964-) - Actor and stand-up comedian.
- Kamal Haasan (1954-) - Indian actor, self-professed rationalist, atheist, activist, and a follower of Periyar.
- Jonathan Miller (1934-) - British physician, theatre and opera director and television presenter; wrote and presented a series on atheism.
- Penn and Teller - American magicians and hosts of Bullshit!, Teller (born 1948 as Raymond Joseph Teller) and Penn Fraser Jillette (1955-).
- James Randi (1928-) - American professional magician and debunker of psychics and other kinds of pseudoscience; has also denounced blasphemy laws.
- Ron Reagan (1958-) - American magazine journalist, board member of the politically activistic Creative Coalition, son of former U. S. President Ronald Reagan.
- Richard M. Stallman (1953-) - American computer programmer and founder of the Free Software Foundation.
Dead
- Douglas Adams (1951-2001) - British comic radio dramatist and novelist, self-avowed "radical atheist".
- Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) - American civil-rights activist, who led the effort to grant women the right to vote in the United States.
- Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) - Russian-born American writer of fiction and nonfiction works, scientist and science popularizer.
- Béla Bartók (1881-1945) - Hungarian composer and pianist, one of the founders of the field of ethnomusicology.
- Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) - Spanish filmmaker and important activist of the surrealist movement.
- George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788-1824) - British Romantic poet.
- Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912) - American feminist and activist.
- Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) - Polish-born English author.
- Francis Crick (1916-2004) - Nobel Prize laureate biophysicist, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, a figure of molecular biology and also neuroscience.
- Zoran Djindjic (1952-2003) - Serbian philosopher, politician, statesman and former Prime Minister, assassinated.
- Thomas Edison (1847-1931) - American inventor and businessman.
- Richard Feynman (1918-1988) - American physicist and expert lecturer, Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics.
- Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) - Italian general and nationalist leader.
- Enver Hoxha (1908-1985) - Albanian Stalinist dictator, declared Albania "the first atheist state in history".
- James Joyce (1882-1941) - Irish writer.
- Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) - Researcher in the field of human sexuality and entomology.
- Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827) - French mathematician and astronomer.
- Vladimir Ilich Lenin (1870-1924) - Russian revolutionary leader.
- H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) - American author of fantasy and horror fiction.
- Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), English dramatist and poet.
- Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) - Indian statesman.
- Culbert Olson (1876-1962) - American politician, former governor of California, then president of the United Secularists of America.
- Diego Rivera (1886-1982) - Mexican muralist painter.
- Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991) - American television producer.
- Margaret Sanger (1883-1966) - American birth control activist, founder of Planned Parenthood.
- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) - Irish-born English playwright.
- Josef Stalin (1879-1953) - Soviet politician, dictator of the USSR.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) - American suffragist.
- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) - Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman.
- Mao Zedong (1893-1976) - Chinese revolutionary and statesman, former chairman of the Communist Party of China and dictator of the People's Republic of China, creator of the variant of Marxist-Leninist theory called Maoism.
See also
External links
- The Celebrity Atheist List (includes living atheists and agnostics) (http://www.celebatheists.com/)
- Famous black freethinkers (http://www.infidelguy.com/modules.php?name=Black_Freethinkers)
- Famous Dead Nontheists (http://www.visi.com/~markg/atheists.html)eo:Listo de ateistoj