Who are some famous atheists?

Famous Atheists

Some famous atheists are: Sigmond Frued, A.J. Ayer, John Dewey, Emma Goldman, David Hume, Thomas Henry Huxley, Karl Marx, Thomas Paine, Ayn Rand, Carl Sagan, Margaret Sanger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Clarence Darrow, Madelyn Murray-O-Hair, Isaac Asimov, Ron Reagan, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Woody Allen, George Carlin, Katherine Hepburn, George Meyer, Gene Roddenberry, Robert Smith

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"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere.... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
-- Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science," New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930 .. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/einstein.htm

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To those seaching for truth -- not the truth of dogma and darkness but the truth brought by reason, search, examination, and inquiry, discipline is required. For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction -- faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.
-- Thomas Edison (attributed: source unknown)..http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-e.htm#EDISON

God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.
-- John Adams, Second President of the USA. "this awful blashpemy" that he refers to is the myth of the Incarnation of Christ, from Ira D Cardiff, What Great Men Think of Religion, quoted from James A Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/adams.htm

I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
-- Clarence Darrow, from a speech given in Toronto (1930), quoted from James A Haught, "Breaking the Last Taboo" (1996).. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-d.htm#DARROW

As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, "Self-Reliance" (First Series, 1841), from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations.. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-e1.htm#RWEMERSON

An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.
-- Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, p. 6.. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/dawkins.htm

I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.
-- Katharine Hepburn, American Actress; in Ladies' Home Journal, October 1991, from James A Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief

Our Constitution was not intended to be used by ... any group to foist its personal religious beliefs on the rest of us.
-- Katherine Hepburn, quoted from Floyd College, Rome, Georgia, "Banned Books -- Quotes"

Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808). This is his second use of the term "wall of separation," here quoting his own use in the Danbury Baptist letter. This wording was several times upheld by the Supreme Court as an accurate description of the Establishment Clause: Reynolds (98 US at 164, 1879); Everson (330 US at 59, 1947); McCollum (333 US at 232, 1948).. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/jefferson.htm

What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Mary Todd Lincoln in William Herndon's Religion of Lincoln, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beleifs of Our Presidents, p. 118.. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/lincoln.htm

I am terrified of restrictive religious doctrine, having learned from history that when men who adhere to any form of it are in control, common men like me are in peril.
-- James A Michener, The World Is My Home (1991)

Religious hatreds ought not to be propagated at all, but certainly not on a tax-exempt basis.
-- James A Michener, Report of the County Chairman, p. 95. Michener discovered that most of the "avalanche of anti-Catholic hate literature" which deluged Bucks County came from tax-exempt religious publications and church newsletters. Quoted from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom.. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-m2.htm#JAMICHENER

When an objection cannot be made formidable, there is some policy in trying to make it frightful; and to substitute the yell and the war-whoop, in the place of reason, argument and good order.
-- Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine (which contains no pagination or source citations).. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/paine.htm

All the sweetness of religion is conveyed to the world by the hands of storytellers and image-makers. Without their fictions the truths of religion would for the multitude be neither intelligible nor even apprehensible; and the prophets would prophesy and the teachers teach in vain.
-- George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methusaleh, Preface (1921).. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/gbs.htm

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
-- Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist (1891).. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-w1.htm#OWILDE

In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
-- Homer Simpson -- http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/homer.htm

see link Abraham Lincoln

First answer by Deb. Last edit by Korihor. Contributor trust: 5 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 28 [recommend question]