List of atheist activists and educators

Main article: Lists of atheists

There have been many atheists who have been active in advocacy or education. This is a list of atheist activists and educators. Living persons in this list are people whose atheism is relevant to their notable activities or public life, and who have publicly identified themselves as atheists.

## Atheist activists and educators

[edit]

Barker Goldman Holyoake Johnson Penn and Teller Randi Randolph Ray Ron Reagan Sanderson

* Clark Adams (1969–2007): prominent American freethought leader and activist.[1]
* Seth Andrews (born 1968): American author and host of The Thinking Atheist radio podcast.[2]
* Natalie Angier (born 1958): nonfiction writer and science journalist for The New York Times; 1991 winner of Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.[3]
* Dan Barker (born 1949): American atheist activist, current co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, alongside his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor.[4]
* Peter Brearey (1939–1998): British secularist, socialist and journalist, Editor of The Freethinker from 1993 until his death.[5]
* William Montgomery Brown (1855–1937): Episcopal bishop and Communist author.[6]
* Richard Carlile (1790–1843): English activist. He was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom.[7]
* Richard Carrier (born 1969): American author, public speaker, and atheist activist.[8]
* Robin Cavendish (1930–1994): British advocate for the disabled, a pioneering developer of medical aids for the paralyzed, and known for being one of the longest-lived "responauts"[a] in Britain.[9]
* Greta Christina (born 1961): American blogger, speaker, and author.[10][11]
* Chapman Cohen (1868–1954): English freethought writer and lecturer, and an editor of The Freethinker and president of the National Secular Society.[12]
* Matt Dillahunty (born 1969): former president of the Atheist Community of Austin until May, 2013. He is a former host of the live internet radio show "Non-Prophets Radio" and of the Austin Public-access television cable TV show The Atheist Experience.[13] He is also the founder and contributor of the counter-apologetics encyclopedia Iron Chariots and its subsidiary sites.[14]
* Margaret Downey (born 1950): atheist activist who is a former President of Atheist Alliance International.[15]
* Joseph Edamaruku (1934–2006): Indian journalist, author, leader in the rationalist movement, and winner of the International Atheist Award in 1979.[16][17]
* Sanal Edamaruku (born 1955): Indian rationalist, president of the Indian Rationalist Association.[18]
* Reginald V. Finley, Sr., (born 1974): ("The Infidel Guy"): internet radio host and pioneering podcaster based in Atlanta, Georgia, co-founder of the Atheist Network and founder of FreethoughtMedia.com. Mr. Finley is a lifetime educational activist, critical thinker, humanist and atheist. During his show's tenure (1999–2010), he produced over 500 media programs that challenged his listeners as well as himself. He's also well known for his appearance on ABC's Wife Swap (2005) when his spouse (Amber Finley) swapped places with a fundamentalist pastor's wife, Kelly Stonerock.[19]
* Stephen Fry (born 1957): English actor and media commentator. Fry has frequently expressed opposition to organised religion in the media. In 2010, he was made a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.[20]
* Annie Laurie Gaylor (born 1955): co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and, with her husband Dan Barker, is the current co-president.[21]
* Emma Goldman (1869–1940): Lithuanian-born radical, known for her writings and speeches defending anarchist communism, feminism, and atheism.[22]
* Debbie Goddard (born 1980): Director of African Americans for Humanism.[23][24]
* Gora (1902–1975): Indian atheist leader, co-founder with his wife of the Atheist Centre in Andhra Pradesh.[25]
* Saraswathi Gora (1912–2006): Indian social activist, wife of Gora and leader of the Atheist Centre for many years, campaigning against untouchability and the caste system.[25]
*   * John William Gott (1866–1922): English trouser salesman and leader of the Freethought Socialist League, the last person in Britain to be sent to prison for blasphemy.[26]
*   * E. Haldeman-Julius (1889–1951): American author, editor and publisher of the Little Blue Books series[27]
* Erkki Hartikainen (1942–2021): Finnish atheist activist. He is the chairman of the Atheist Association of Finland (Suomen Ateistiyhdistys) and former chairman of the Union of Freethinkers of Finland (Vapaa-ajattelijoiden liitto), the biggest atheistic association in Finland.[28]
* Rebecca Hensler: founder of Grief Beyond Belief, a support group for grieving people who do not believe in God or an afterlife, which she founded in 2011.[29][30][31]
* Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011): British-American columnist, polemicist, and free-thought activist. Author of New York Times best seller God is not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything.
* George Holyoake (1817–1906): English secularist.[32] Holyoake was the last person in England to be imprisoned (in 1842) for being an atheist.[33] He coined the term "secularism" in 1846.[34]
* Penn Jillette (born 1955): one half of debunking illusionist team Penn & Teller[35][36][37]
* Ellen Johnson: President of American Atheists, 1995–2008.[38]
* Edwin Kagin (1940–2014): lawyer, activist, founder of the Camp Quest secular summer camp, and American Atheists' Kentucky State Director.[39]
* Paul Kurtz (1925–2012): Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, best known for his prominent role in the United States humanist and skeptical communities.[40]
* Viktor Emanuel Lennstrand (1861–1895): leader of the Swedish Freethought movement in the 1880s and early 1890s.[41]
* Joseph Lewis (1889–1968): American freethinker and atheist, president of Freethinkers of America 1920–1968.[42]
* Barry McGowan (born 1961): author of How to Separate Church & State. Long-time atheist activist and former President and Vice-President of Freethought organizations, he is the creator and webmaster of AtheistActivist.org before the domain was sold to the Rational Response Squad in 2014.[43][44]
* Hemant Mehta (born c.1983): author of I Sold My Soul on eBay, chair of the Secular Student Alliance and author of the blog FriendlyAtheist.com.[45][46]
* William L. Moore (1927–1963): postal worker and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) member who staged lone protests against racial segregation. He was murdered on his final protest.[47]
* Maryam Namazie (born 1963): human rights activist, commentator and broadcaster. Namazie has served as the executive director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees. She is spokesperson for the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain.[48]
* Michael Newdow (born 1953): American physician and attorney, who sued a school district on the grounds that its requirement that children recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, containing the words "under God", breached the separation-of-church-and-state provision in the establishment clause of the United States Constitution.[49]
* Michael Nugent (born 1961): Irish writer and activist, chairperson of Atheist Ireland.[50]
* Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919–1995): 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. Murdered September 1995.[51]
* Robert L. Park (1931–2020): scientist, University of Maryland professor of physics, and author of Voodoo Science and Superstition.[52]
* Philip K. Paulson (1947–2006): American plaintiff in a series of lawsuits to remove a Christian cross from a prominent summit in the city of San Diego.[53]
* Herman Philipse (born 1951): professor of philosophy at Utrecht University, the Netherlands and University of Oxford, United Kingdom, writer of Atheistisch manifest & De onredelijkheid van religie [54]
* James Randi (1928–2020): magician, paranormal investigator, and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation.[55]
* A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979): African-American leader during the Civil Rights Movement.[56]
* Darrel Ray (born 1950): psychologist, author, and founder of Recovering from Religion and the Secular Therapy Project.[57]
* Ron Reagan (born 20 May 1958): In a 23 June 2004 interview on the CNN show Larry King Live, while discussing reasons why he would not run for political office, Ron Reagan stated: "I'm an atheist... I can't be elected to anything because polls all say that people won't elect an atheist."[58][59]
* J. M. Robertson (1856–1933): Scottish journalist, advocate of rationalism and secularism, social reformer and Liberal Member of Parliament.[60]
* Terry Sanderson (1946–2022): British secularist and gay rights activist, author and journalist, President of the National Secular Society since 2006.[61]
* Ellery Schempp (born 1940): American physicist and church-state separation activist.[62]
* Ariane Sherine (born 1980): English comedy writer and journalist. She created the UK version of the Atheist Bus Campaign, which ran in January 2009. She lives in London.[63]
* Charles Lee Smith (1887–1964): atheist activist in the United States and an editor of the Truth Seeker until his death. He also founded the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. Smith was arrested twice in 1928 for selling atheist literature and for blasphemy. Since he refused to swear an oath to God on the Bible, he was not allowed to testify in his own defense.[64]
* Barbara Smoker (1923–2020): British humanist activist and freethought advocate. Wrote the book Freethoughts: Atheism, Secularism, Humanism – Selected Egotistically from The Freethinker.[65]
* Teller (magician) (born 1948): one half of debunking illusionist team Penn & Teller
* Mandisa Thomas (living): founder and president of Black Nonbelievers Inc, which she founded in 2011.[66][67]
* Polly Toynbee (born 1946): British journalist, columnist for The Guardian.[68]
* Nicolas Walter (1934–2000): British anarchist and atheist writer, speaker and activist."Mr Walter is a third-generation atheist, very proud that his grandparents, on both sides, shrugged off various forms of Protestantism. His father was W Grey Walter, the eminent neurologist, who often appeared on The Brains Trust. "He was a left-wing humanist and believed that science could solve everything." " Hunter Davies interviewing Walter, 'O come all ye faithless: Nicolas Walter, a militant atheist, sees no reason to celebrate Christmas. But he'll still be singing a carol or two', The Independent[69]
* Keith Porteous Wood (born 1948): Executive Director, formerly General Secretary, of the National Secular Society in the United Kingdom.[70]

## Other activists and educators

[edit]

People who are/were activists or educators in other areas (social reform, feminism etc), but who were also atheists.

Berkman Ettinger Jabotinsky Kropotkin Sakharov Sanger Suzuki Swartz

* Pietro Acciarito (1871–1943): Italian anarchist activist who attempted to assassinate King Umberto I.[71]
* Zackie Achmat (born 1962): South African anti-HIV/AIDS activist; founder of the Treatment Action Campaign.[72]
* Baba Amte (1914–2008): respected Indian social activist, known for his work with lepers.[73]
* Julian Assange (born 1971): Australian publisher, journalist, media and internet entrepreneur, media critic, writer, computer programmer and political/internet activist.[74]
* Alexander Berkman (1870–1936): anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century. While living in France, Berkman continued his work in support of the anarchist movement, producing the classic exposition of anarchist principles, Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism.[75][76]
* Walter Block (born 1941): Austrian School economist and classical liberal[77]
* Richard Dawkins (born 1941): British biologist, author of The God Delusion, The Greatest Show on Earth, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, A Devil's Chaplain, The Ancestor's Tale, The Blind Watchmaker, The Extended Phenotype, River Out of Eden, and The Selfish Gene. Founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, a non–profit charitable organization that promotes critical thinking, science-based education, and evidence–based understanding of the world.[78] Richard Dawkins has produced several documentaries, including Root of all Evil? and Enemies of Reason.
* Robert Ettinger (1918–2011): American academic, known as "the father of cryonics" because of the impact of his 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality.[79]
* David D. Friedman (born 1945): Economist, law professor, novelist, and libertarian activist.[80]
* Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989): American political and social activist.[81]
* Ze'ev Jabotinsky (1880–1940): Revisionist Zionist (nationalist) leader, author, orator, activist, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odessa.[82][83]
* Franklin E. Kameny (1925–2011): American gay rights activist and former astronomer.[84]
* Adam Kokesh (born 1982): American libertarian anti-war activist and self-professed anarcho-capitalist.[85]
* Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921): Russian anarchist communist activist and geographer, best known for his book, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which refutes social Darwinism.[86]
* Gustav Landauer (1870–1919): German anarchist and activist. He was one of the leading theorists on anarchism in Germany in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of social anarchism and an avowed pacifist.[87]
* Taslima Nasrin (born 1962): Bangladeshi physician, writer, feminist human rights activist and secular humanist.[88]
* Ingrid Newkirk (born 1949): British-born animal rights activist, author, and president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the world's largest animal rights organization.[89][90]
* Deng Pufang (born 1944): Chinese handicap people's rights activist, first son of China's former Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.[91]
* Ron Reagan (born 1958): American magazine journalist, board member of the politically activistic Creative Coalition, son of former U. S. President Ronald Reagan.[92]
* Henry Stephens Salt (1851–1939): English writer and campaigner for social reform in the fields of prisons, schools, economic institutions and the treatment of animals, a noted anti-vivisectionist and pacifist, and a literary critic, biographer, classical scholar and naturalist, and the man who introduced Mahatma Gandhi to the influential works of Henry David Thoreau.[93]
* Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989): Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He gained renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honor.[94][95][96]
* Margaret Sanger (1879–1966): American birth-control activist, founder of the American Birth Control League, a forerunner to Planned Parenthood. The masthead motto of her newsletter, The Woman Rebel, read: "No Gods, No Masters".[97]
* Rosika Schwimmer (1877–1948): Hungarian-born pacifist, feminist and female suffragist.[98]
* Bhagat Singh (1907–1931): Indian revolutionary freedom fighter.[99]
* Marie Souvestre (1830–1905): French headmistress, a feminist educator who sought to develop independent minds in young women.[100]
* David Suzuki (born 1936): Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist.[101]
* Aaron Swartz (1986–2012): American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist. Swartz was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py and the social news site Reddit, in which he was an equal partner after its merger with his Infogami company.[102]
* Periyar (1879–1973): social activist and politician.[103]

## Notes

[edit]

^ a: A person permanently dependent upon a mechanical ventilator to maintain breathing.[104]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "In college, after reading material from American Atheists, he became, in his words, 'a pretty hard core atheist.'" Clark Adams: 1969–2007 Archived 2008-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, American Humanist Association News Flash, May 24, 2007 (Accessed April 14, 2008)
2. ^ Prothero, Donald R (27 August 2014). "The Thinking Atheist Confesses". ESkeptic. The Skeptics Society. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
3. ^ "My God Problem". secularhumanism.org. Archived from the original on January 10, 2006. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
4. ^ "Minister Turned Atheist". archive.is. Archived from the original on May 26, 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2016.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
5. ^ "He was an old-fashioned rationalist and radical. He detested modern politics and despised Blairite froth, spin-doctoring and cloned MPs and betrayal of principles. I share Peter's doubts about the milk-and-water term "humanism." He and I called ourselves atheists." Karl Heath, 'Obituary Letter: Peter Brearey', The Guardian, May 30, 1998, Pg. 21.
6. ^ "An ecclesiastical court [...] sitting at Cleveland, Ohio, yesterday, found Dr. William Montgomery Brown, retired Bishop of Arkansas, a self-styled "Christian Atheist", guilty of heresy." 'U.S. Heresy Trial. A "Christian Atheist."' The Times, Monday, June 02, 1924; p. 13; Issue 43667; col C.
7. ^ Willem B. Drees (2003). Willem B. Drees (ed.). Is Nature Ever Evil?: Religion, Science, and Value. Routledge. p. 159\. ISBN 9780415290609. "The issue was baldly expressed by the nineteenth-century atheist Richard Carlile in a critique of natural theology..."
8. ^ "Biography of Richard Carrier". infidels.org. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
9. ^ Renton, Alice; Renton, Tim (August 10, 1994). "Obituary: Robin Cavendish". The Independent.
10. ^ "Greta Christina". Greta Christina. Archived from the original on October 7, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
11. ^ "Greta Christina | Secular Student Alliance: Atheists, Humanists, Agnostics & Others". Secularstudents.org. December 20, 2009. Archived from the original on September 3, 2011. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
12. ^ "Cohen was a witty, courteous, and effective public speaker and debater, and a prolific writer with over fifty titles to his credit. Typical of his writings are A Grammar of Freethought (1921), Theism or Atheism (1921), Materialism Restated (1927), and four series of Essays in Freethinking (1923–38), culled from occasional pieces in the Freethinker. His achievement was to transform Victorian freethought from an emphasis on anti-biblical argument to the positive advocacy of materialism [...]". Edward Royle, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47685 'Cohen, Chapman (1868–1954)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed May 2, 2008). Note that there were actually five series of Essays.
13. ^ Lyz (February 22, 2010). "Matt Dillahunty". Secular Student Alliance. Archived from the original on April 3, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
14. ^ Iron Chariots \- the counter-apologetics wiki.
15. ^ National and International Contacts Archived 2008-05-15 at the Wayback Machine, Atheist Alliance International website, 2008 (Accessed April 14, 2008)
16. ^ Edamaruku dead: A staunch campaigner of rationalism, The Hindu, 2006 (Accessed March 31, 2008)
17. ^ Honorary Associates of Rationalist International: Joseph Edamaruku (India) Archived 2008-06-25 at the Wayback Machine, profile at the website of Rationalist International (Accessed March 31, 2008)
18. ^ On March 3, 2008, Edamaruku challenged a tantrik on TV to kill him using only magic. After two hours of failure, "[t]he tantrik, unwilling to admit defeat, tried the excuse that a very strong god whom Sanal might be worshipping obviously protected him. "No, I am an atheist", said Sanal Edamaruku." The Great Tantra Challenge Archived 2008-03-18 at the Wayback Machine, Rationalist International article (Accessed March 31, 2008)
19. ^ Thinking Beyond The Standard (accessed April 14, 2008).
20. ^ "Stephen Fry: "it is essential to nail one's colours to the mast as a humanist"". British Humanist Association. 10 February 2010.
21. ^ "Air America... last Saturday aired its first Freethought show, hosted by [Dan] Barker and his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor, who co-chair an atheist activist group called the Freedom of [sic] Religion Foundation." Atheist Radio Show Goes National on Air America, With Ron Reagan as Guest, by Catherine Donaldson-Evans, foxnews.com, October 12, 2007 (Accessed April 14, 2008)
22. ^ Emma Goldman (February 1916). "The Philosophy of Atheism". positiveatheism.org. Archived from the original on December 11, 2006. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
23. ^ "About AAH". African Americans for Humanism. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
24. ^ Greta Christina (June 18, 2015). "8 atheist leaders actually worth listening to". Salon. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
25. ^ a b The Atheist Centre Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine (official website).
26. ^ "Inspector Elphick said the defendant [John William Gott] was considered to be a Socialist and Atheist of the worst type, and had been convicted many times." 'Blasphemer Sent To Prison', The Times, 10 Dec 1921; p. 7; Issue 42900; col B.
27. ^ The Militant Agnostic. Haldeman-Julius, E. Prometheus Books. 1995.
28. ^ Erkki Hartikainen's profile, hosted at the website of the Atheist Association of Finland (Accessed April 15, 2008)
29. ^ Greta Christina (2015-06-18). "8 atheist leaders actually worth listening to". Salon.com. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
30. ^ "Grief without God is a challenge for nonbelievers – USATODAY.com". Usatoday30.usatoday.com. 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
31. ^ Greta Christina (2013-06-25). "7 groups atheists can turn to in times of need". Salon.com. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
32. ^
* Life and letters of George Jacob Holyoake by Joseph McCabe, pp 201, 221
* A history of atheism in Britain: from Hobbes to Russell, by David Berman, pp 212-213
33. ^ Meek, James (2000-02-02). "Free fall". Religion in the UK: special report. The Guardian. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
34. ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 113
35. ^ Steigerwald, Bill (May 24, 2003). "Dear graduates: Work for freedom". Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Retrieved March 27, 2007.
36. ^ "Penn's Blasphemy". YouTube. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
37. ^ His cars' license plates read "atheist", "nogod", and "godless".Wang, K.S. (June 1, 2009). "Celebrity Drive: Penn Jillette, Magician, Comedian, Host, Author". Motor Trend. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
38. ^ Ellen Johnson (2006). "Welcome from the president of American Atheists". American Atheists. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
39. ^ American Atheists: Kentucky (Accessed April 30, 2008)
40. ^ "It's not that these atheists [Julia Sweeney, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Paul Boyer, Paul Kurtz] expect to rid America of religion." The New Atheists, Betty Rollin (reporting), Bob Abernethy (anchor), Religion and Ethics Newsweekly (pbs.org), January 5, 2007 Episode no. 1019, (Accessed April 14, 2008)
41. ^ Robertson, J. M. (2006). A History of Free Thought in the Nineteenth Century, Volume 2. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing Co. p. 487. ISBN 1-4286-5906-4, ISBN 978-1-4286-5906-3.
42. ^ Lewis wrote extensively on atheism, including Atheism Archived 2008-05-17 at the Wayback Machine (1930), An Atheist Manifesto Archived 2008-05-12 at the Wayback Machine (1954) and The Philosophy of Atheism Archived 2008-05-17 at the Wayback Machine (1960). From Atheism: "I came to accept Atheism as the result of independent thought and self-study."
43. ^ McGowan, Barry (May 2012). How to Separate Church & State: Barry McGowan: 9780615638027: Amazon.com: Books. ISBN 978-0615638027.
44. ^ Atheist Activist
45. ^ "Atheist Hemant Mehta talks about his book 'I Sold My Soul on eBay' and his visits to Christian churches - Beliefnet.com". beliefnet.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
46. ^ "Friendly Atheist — You can be skeptical and friendly at the same time". friendlyatheist.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
47. ^ "In Binghamton, people always thought Moore was peculiar. He was a pacifist and an atheist, who even objected to the words 'In God We Trust' on U.S. coins." In Bill Moore's Footsteps, Friday, May 10, 1963, TIME Magazine (Accessed 18 November 2008)
48. ^ "Maryam Namazie: Faith no more". maryamnamazie.blogspot.com. 26 July 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
49. ^ Tom Curry (2004-03-24). "Atheist pleads with justices to stop recitation of pledge". NBC News. Archived from the original on May 3, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
50. ^ Interview with Michael Nugent[permanent dead link] Sunday Business Post, 28 June 2009: ” Atheist Ireland stands for two things. The first is promoting atheism and reason over superstition and supernaturalism, and the second is promoting an ethical and secular Ireland in which the state doesn’t fund or favour any particular religion.”
51. ^ Conrad F. Goeringer (June 2000). "The Murray O'Hair Family". American Atheists. Archived from the original on November 12, 2006. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
52. ^ Park, Robert L. Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science, 2008, Princeton University Press, page viii
53. ^ "The real message is equal treatment under the law, and religious neutrality. That's the purpose of why I did it. It has nothing to do with me being an atheist. The fact is, the Constitution calls for no preference and that's why every judge ruled for me." Philip K. Paulson, quoted in Kelly Thornton, 'Vietnam veteran dies of liver cancer Archived 2009-08-17 at the Wayback Machine', The San Diego Union-Tribune, October 26, 2006 (accessed August 1, 2008).
54. ^ Uitgeverij Promotheus, Atheïstisch manifest & De onredelijkheid van religie, ISBN 978-90-351-2654-1 [1]
55. ^ Randi wrote: "...I am a concerned, forthright, declared, atheist." Our Stance on Atheism, Swift: Online Newsletter of the JREF, August 5, 2005. (Accessed June 1, 2007)
56. ^ "Although greatly influenced by his father's political and racial attitudes, Randolph resisted pressure to enter the ministry and later became an atheist." Paula F. Pfeffer: "Randolph, Asa Philip", American National Biography Online Feb. 2000 (accessed April 28, 2008) [2].
57. ^ PEARCE, JONATHAN (4 September 2017). "The Updated Secular Therapy Project". Patheos.com/. Patheos. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
58. ^ In a 23 June 2004 interview on the CNN show Larry King Live, while discussing reasons why he would not run for political office, Ron Reagan stated: "I'm an atheist... I can't be elected to anything because polls all say that people won't elect an atheist."
59. ^ Ron Reagan's advertisement on MSNBC, urging viewers to join the Freedom from Religion Foundation, 17 March 2025 and prior.
60. ^ "In that year he came under the influence of the radical freethinker Charles Bradlaugh and, after being active in the Edinburgh Secular Society, accepted Bradlaugh's invitation to join him in London as assistant editor of the National Reformer. When Bradlaugh died, Robertson became editor until the publication failed in 1893, when he founded the Free Review, which he edited until 1895. [...] During the late 1880s and the 1890s Robertson extended his interests beyond atheism, free thought, and neo-Malthusianism and became increasingly involved with radical and ethical causes [...]." Michael Freeden, 'Robertson, John Mackinnon (1856–1933)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 (accessed May 6, 2008).
61. ^ "Many members of the NSS are, of course, also atheists. Some, including myself, have come to the conclusion that belief in the supernatural is fallacious, and they don't hesitate to say so. The fact that adherents to the supernatural explanation of life apparently cannot bear to hear any opposition, and rush to label atheists as "fundamentalist", is a measure of where we are." Terry Sanderson, 'All at sea over faith and secularism', The Guardian, February 28, 2007, Reply Letters and emails, Pg. 35.
62. ^ "I am a strong supporter of the Secular Coalition for America. Whatever We are as skeptics, as freethinkers, as humanists, as atheists, as naturalists, as methodological materialists--I embrace it all. But I try to understand anti-humanist and non-humanist perspectives. [...] I shied away from the word "atheist" most of my life, partly I think because of [American Atheists' founder] Madalyn Murray O'Hair's stridency, perhaps because of the general opprobrium that is attached to atheists. [...] About a decade ago, I began to wonder why I wasn't an atheist. I knew I was a humanist, even during the many years I wasn't a member of any church, nor of the several humanist associations in existence. [...] I do accept that a god-belief is very real for many people, but never having found any evidence in the natural world for gods, ghosts, gurus, astrologers, Atlanteans, homoeopathists, and the whole ocean of non-natural beliefs, I decided that I could join the community of nonbelievers and skeptics who call themselves atheists." Ellery Schempp, 'The Humanist Interview: Ellery Schempp', Humanist, Jan/Feb 2008, Vol. 68, Issue 1.
63. ^ Ariane Sherine (September 4, 2009). "The Atheist's Guide To Christmas (AKA The Atheist Book Campaign)". Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
64. ^ "Closer to home, in Arkansas, atheist activist Charles Lee Smith was twice arrested in 1928, first for selling atheist literature and then for blasphemy. Moreover, since he couldn't as an atheist swear an oath to God on the Bible, he wasn't permitted to testify in his own defense!" American Humanist Association Executive (AHA) Director Roy Speckhardt, as quoted in an AHA press release: Did Politician Really Apologize for Anti-Atheist Rant? Archived 2008-09-27 at the Wayback Machine April 11, 2008 (Accessed April 15, 2008)
65. ^ Smoker, Barbara (2002). Freethoughts: Atheism, Humanism, Secularism. Foote (G.W.) & Co Ltd. ISBN 0-9508243-5-6.
66. ^ "Confessions of a black atheist". CNN.com. 2015-03-28. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
67. ^ "Mandisa Thomas on "The Alan Eisenberg Show" | Mythicist Milwaukee". Mythicistmke.publishpath.com. 2014-09-16. Archived from the original on 2015-04-15. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
68. ^ Polly Toynbee (2006-04-14). "This is a clash of civilisations - between reason and superstition". The Guardian. Retrieved December 13, 2006. "Even an old atheist like me sees no good in this ignorance of basic Christian myths."
69. ^ (London), December 20, 1994, Life, Pg. 19.
70. ^ "I have been an atheist all my life and I have been the executive director of the National Secular Society for six years." Minutes of Evidence, House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences in England and Wales, July 18, 2002 (accessed April 18, 2002).
71. ^ Vizetelly, Ernest Alfred (1911), Barcelona Outrages - The Empress Elizabeth and Luccheni, The Anarchists: Their Faith and Their Record, Turnbull and Spears Printers, Edinburgh. Retrieved March 19, 2007.
72. ^ "I am a married gay man and an atheist ..." Zackie Achmat, Life is Sacred: Zackie Achmat on the Pope, Condoms, Choice, Freedom and Equality, IRMA - Rectal Microbicide Advocacy. March 23, 2009.
73. ^ "Atheist though he was..." Obituary: Baba Amte, The Economist March 1, 2008: 93. (Retrieved March 21, 2008)
74. ^ Listed his religion as "Atheism" in his Ok Cupid profile. Julian Assange’s OK Cupid Profile Archived 2012-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, BuzzFeed.com.
75. ^ David Burns (2013). The Life and Death of the Radical Historical Jesus. Oxford University Press. p. 97\. ISBN 9780199929504. "Alexander Berkman was a self-declared atheist attempting to lift the stultifying fog of the gods from the mind of humankind."
76. ^ Paul Avrich; Karen Avrich (2012). "Impelling Forces". Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674067677. "Berkman, an atheist, refused to be sworn in."
77. ^ Block, Walter. "Open Letter to Ron Paul by Walter Block." LewRockwell.com. 28 December 2007. [3]
78. ^ "Richard Dawkins Foundation". richarddawkins.net. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
79. ^ "The son of Russian immigrants of Jewish stock, Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on December 4, 1918. The family later moved to Detroit and young Robert was educated locally and at Wayne State University where he studied Physics and Maths. Despite his Jewish roots, he grew up a determined atheist." Robert Ettinger, The Telegraph, 24 Jul 2011.
80. ^ Friedman wrote "I'm also an atheist" in his blog article titled Atheism and Religion. This blog is linked from his personal web site, [4] which is in turn linked from his Santa Clara Law site.[5]
81. ^ Marty Jezer (1993). Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel. Rutgers University Press. p. 16\. ISBN 978-0-8135-2017-9. "According to Abbie, the teacher took issue with his defense of atheism."
82. ^ Joanna Paraszczuk (2011-04-28). "A revisionist's history". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved February 25, 2013. "Even religious Zionist settlers in the West Bank have adopted Jabotinsky as a symbol – although he was an atheist who believed that the Arab minority would share equal rights with Jews in a future Jewish state, famously declaring: "In every cabinet where the prime minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab, and vice versa.""
83. ^ Michael Stanislawski (2001). "Jabotinsky's Road to Zionism". Zionism and the Fin de Siècle: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism from Nordau to Jabotinsky. University of California Press. p. 158\. ISBN 9780520935754. "In sum, just as his turn to Symbolism and Decadence in the late 1890s was typical rather than idiosyncratic, Jabotinsky's abandonment of Symbolism and Decadence was also typical rather than idiosyncratic. A thoroughgoing atheist and rationalist, he could not, to the end of his days, comprehend any mystical or religious sensibility or even any metaphysical philosophical stance, idealist or not."
84. ^ Asked in interview "Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?", Kameny replied: "This depends upon the definition of faith. As a scientist by training, background, and temperament, for the past 68 years I have termed myself "a good pious atheist." I believe in reason and actual, credible, valid, persuasive evidence, wherever they may lead, and those have given me the basis for my approaches to the world generally, to our society and culture specifically, and, more narrowly, to the specific issues in contention at any time." Credo: Franklin Kameny[permanent dead link], Washington Examiner (USA), 9 March 2009 (accessed 9 March 2009).
85. ^ "AVTM shares Catholic-Atheist liberty hug with Tom Woods". Youtube. July 1, 2012. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
86. ^ "[T]he noblest man, the one really greatest of them all was Prince Peter Kropotkin, a self-professed atheist and a great man of science."—Ely, Robert Erskine (October 10, 1941), New York World-Telegram.
87. ^ Studies in Contemporary Jewry : Volume VII: Jews and Messianism in the Modern Era: Metaphor and Meaning: Volume VII: Jews and Messianism in the Modern Era: Metaphor and Meaning. Oxford University Press. 1991. p. 353\. ISBN 9780195361988.
88. ^ "I was born in a Muslim family, but I became an atheist." For freedom of expression, Taslima Nasreen, November 12, 1999 - Taslima Nasreen took the floor during Commission V of UNESCO's General Conference, as a delegate of the NGO International Humanist and Ethical Union (Accessed December 23, 2006).
89. ^ "Newkirk considers herself a feminist and an atheist." Michael Specter interviewing Newkirk, 'Mother Nature', The Observer, June 22, 2003, Observer Magazine Pages, Pg. 24.
90. ^ " I do have a personal philosophy. I’m an atheist." Ingrid Newkirk. What do you Believe? Ingrid Newkirk, Big Think. February 21, 2008.
91. ^ "Mother Teresa of Calcutta told the handicapped son of China's leader, Deng Xiaoping, yesterday that his efforts for the disabled showed he loved God. 'But I am an atheist,' said Deng Pufang, whose legs were paralysed when fellow students forced him out of a window during the Cultural Revolution." John Gittings, 'How a Maoist mob hunted down descendants of Peng Pai, Communist Party's first peasant organiser', The Guardian (London), January 23, 1985.
92. ^ "I'm an atheist so... I can't be elected to anything, because polls all say that people won't elect an atheist." Ron Reagan Jr. during an interview on Larry King Live, June 26, 2004. See clip Archived 2008-06-11 at the Wayback Machine.
93. ^ "I approached Henry Salt's Life with caution, knowing him to be a "compendium of cranks" (he was an atheist, vegetarian, ex-Eton master, ethical socialist, prison reformer, correspondent of Gandhi, and married a lesbian perhaps without realising it)." Richard North reviewing Life of Henry David Thoreau by Henry S Salt, 'Stubborn, lop-sided hermit with a pinch of salt', The Independent (London), November 24, 1993, Page 19.
94. ^ Gennady Gorelik; Antonina W. Bouis (2005). The World of Andrei Sakharov: A Russian Physicist's Path to Freedom. Oxford University Press. p. 356\. ISBN 9780195156201. "Apparently Sakharov did not need to delve any deeper into it for a long time, remaining a totally nonmilitant atheist with an open heart."
95. ^ Gennadiĭ Efimovich Gorelik; Antonina W. Bouis (2005). The World of Andrei Sakharov: A Russian Physicist's Path to Freedom. Oxford University Press. p. 158\. ISBN 9780195156201. "Sakharov was not invited to this seminar. Like most of the physicists of his generation, he was an atheist."
96. ^ Todd K. Shackelford; Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford, eds. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War. Oxford University Press. p. 465\. ISBN 9780199738403. "The Soviet dissident most responsible for defeating communism, Andrei Sakharov, was an atheist."
97. ^ Haught, James A. (1996). 2,000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt. Prometheus Books. pp. 261–262\. ISBN 1-57392-067-3.
98. ^ " Schlotfeldt sent her another letter on Jan. 11, 1927, in which he specifically asked her about a statement she had made to Col. Lee Alexander Stone in September 1925, in which she wrote: "I am an uncompromising pacifist for whom even Jane Addams is not enough of a pacifist. I am an absolute atheist. I have no sense of nationalism, only a cosmic consciousness of belonging to the human family." (Both Schwimmer and Rabe knew Addams, the noted co-founder of Chicago's famed Hull House and the first woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize.) Schwimmer responded to "my dear Mr. Schlotfeldt" in a Jan. 21, 1927, letter that she was "quoted correctly" in her response to Stone. " Ronald K. L. Collins and David L. Hudson Jr., 'Remembering 2 forgotten women in our free-speech history Archived 2008-08-21 at the Wayback Machine', May 27, 2008 (accessed May 29, 2008).
99. ^ Singh, Bhagat (June 18, 2002). "Why I Am An Atheist". Boloji Media Inc. Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2007. "I had become a pronounced atheist."
100. ^ "To learn at Les Ruches came Anna (Bamie) Roosevelt, the favourite sister and later adviser of Theodore Roosevelt [...] and Richard Potter—though Beatrice Potter (later Webb), then antipathetic to the Frenchwoman's energetic atheism, declined to follow her sister Rosy. [...] In London, Souvestre became intimate, as well as with the Harrisons and Stracheys, with Leslie Stephen, the Morleys, the Chamberlains, Mrs J. R. Green, and a wider circle of radicals and freethinkers, including the young Beatrice Webb. A convinced humanist, candidly pro-Boer, anti-imperialist, and anti-clerical—though she also frequented and liked the Mandell Creightons—she impressed with her intellect and charmed with her personality." D. A. Steel, 'Souvestre, Marie Claire (1835–1905)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed May 6, 2008).
101. ^ Suzuki, David (1987). Metamorphosis: States in a Life. Stoddart. ISBN 978-0-7737-2139-5. "As a life-long atheist, I have dreaded, not the process of dying, but the terrible consequence of not being forever after."
102. ^ Dina Kraft (Mar 14, 2013). "'Repairing the world' was Aaron Swartz's calling". Haaretz. Retrieved March 23, 2013. "And although the young technologist and activist grew up to call himself an atheist, the values he grew up with appeared foundational."
103. ^ There is no god, there is no god at all. He who invented god is a fool. He who propagates god is a scoundrel. He who worships god is a barbarian. "ACA: Online Articles". Archived from the original on 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2007-06-21..
104. ^ "responaut". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 17, 2017.

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