List of atheist philosophers
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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:Broader There have been many philosophers in recorded history who were atheists. This is a list of atheist philosophers who have articles in Wikipedia. Living persons in this list are people deemed relevant for their notable activities in public life, and who have publicly identified themselves as atheists. Script error: No such module "Hatnote".
- Ibn al-Rawandi (827–911): Persian philosopher, who argued that dogma is antithetical to reason, miracles are fake, prophets are just magicians, and that the Paradise described by the Qur'an is not actually desirable.[1][2][3]
- Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (973–1057): Arab philosopher, poet, and writer who was known for attacking religious dogmas, advocating social justice and living an ascetic, vegan lifestyle.
- Zakī al-Arsūzī (1899–1968): Syrian philosopher, philologist, sociologist, historian, Arab nationalist, and one of the major founders of Ba'athism.[4]
- John Anderson (1893–1962): Scottish-born Australian philosopher, founder of the empirical philosophy known as 'Sydney realism'.[5]
- Louise Antony (1953–): American philosopher of mind and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who specializes in philosophy of mind, epistemology, feminist theory, and philosophy of language.[6]
- A. J. Ayer (1910–1989): British philosopher and advocate of logical positivism. Though he viewed the concept of God existing as meaningless, he described himself as an atheist.[7][8][9]
- Julian Baggini (1968–): British writer specialising in the philosophy of personal identity, author of Atheism: A Very Short Introduction.[10]
- Alain Badiou (1937–): French philosopher.
- Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876): Russian philosopher, writer and anarchist.[11]
- Roland Barthes (1915–1980): French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic and semiotician.[12]
- Georges Bataille (1897–1962): French intellectual and literary figure. He was the author of Story of the Eye, and his writings explored areas relating to philosophy, mysticism, and eroticism.[13]
- Bruno Bauer (1809–1882): German philosopher, theologian and historian, the first propounder of the Jesus myth hypothesis.[14]
- Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007): French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator and photographer.[15][16]
- Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986): French author and existentialist philosopher. Beauvoir wrote novels and monographs on philosophy, politics, social issues and feminism.[17][18]
- David Benatar (1966–): South African philosopher, academic and author. He is best known for his advocacy of antinatalism in his book Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence, in which he argues that coming into existence is a serious harm, regardless of the feelings of the existing being once brought into existence, and that, as a consequence, it is always morally wrong to create more sentient beings.[19][20]
- Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): English author, jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He is best known for his advocacy of utilitarianism.[21][22][23]
- Simon Blackburn (1944–): English moral philosopher known for his efforts to popularise philosophy.[24]
- Peter Boghossian (1966–): American philosopher and speaker for the Center for Inquiry, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, and the Secular Student Alliance.[25]
- Maarten Boudry (1984–): Flemish philosopher and skeptic, who has been active as a researcher and teaching member of the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University since 2006.[26]
- Célestin Bouglé (1870–1940): French philosopher known for his role as one of Émile Durkheim's collaborators and a member of L'Année Sociologique.[27]
- Ludwig Büchner (1824–1899): German philosopher, physiologist and physician who became one of the exponents of 19th-century scientific materialism.[28]
- Gustavo Bueno (1924–2016): Spanish philosopher who was a modern proponent of philosophical materialism.[29]
- Mario Bunge (1919–2020): Argentine-Canadian philosopher and physicist. His philosophical writings combined scientific realism, systemism, materialism, emergentism, and other principles.[30]
- Albert Camus (1913–1960): Algerian-born French absurdist philosopher and author. His non-fiction philosophical works include The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel.[31][32]
- Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970): German philosopher who was active in central Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a leading member of the Vienna Circle and a prominent advocate of logical positivism.[33][34][35]
- Robert Todd Carroll (1945–2016): American writer and academic, professor of philosophy at Sacramento City College until 1997, and keeper of the Skeptic's Dictionary website.[36]
- David Chalmers (1966–): Australian philosopher of mind.[37]
- Émile Chartier (1868–1951): French philosopher, essayist and pacifist.[38]
- Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1918–1993): Bengali Marxist philosopher.
- Nikolay Chernyshevsky (1828–1889): Russian revolutionary democrat, materialist philosopher, critic, and socialist.[39]
- Auguste Comte (1798–1857): French positivist thinker, credited with coining the term "sociologie" ("sociology").[40][41]
- Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794): French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist who devised the concept of a Condorcet method.[42]
- Benedetto Croce (1866–1952): Italian philosopher and public figure.[43]
- Donald Davidson (1917–2003): American philosopher.[44]
- Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995): French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote many works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art.[45][46]
- Alain de Botton (1969–): British philosopher and author of Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion, 2012.[47]
- Daniel Dennett (1942–2024): American philosopher of science and author of Breaking the Spell.[48][49]
- Jacques Derrida (1930–2004): Algerian-born French philosopher.[50][51][52]
- Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809–1831): Anglo-Indian poet and teacher.[53]
- John Dewey (1859–1952): American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology. He was a major representative of progressive education and liberalism.[54]
- Dharmakirti (6th or 7th century): One of the main contributors to logic in classical India, he developed a refutation of God's existence like many of his fellow Buddhist thinkers.[55]
- Diagoras of Melos (5th century BC): Ancient Greek poet and sophist known as the Atheist of Milos, who declared that there were no gods.[56]
- Denis Diderot (1713–1784): French editor-in-chief of the Encyclopédie.[57]
- Theodore Drange (1934–): American philosopher of religion and Professor Emeritus at West Virginia University. Drange authored Nonbelief & Evil: Two arguments for the nonexistence of God.[58]
- Paul Draper (1957–): American philosopher, most known for his work on the philosophy of religion.[59]
- Umberto Eco (1932–2016): Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher that wrote on semiotics. He was also the author of Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose.[60]
- Paul Edwards (1923–2004): Austrian-American moral philosopher and editor of The Encyclopedia of Philosophy.[61]
- Friedrich Engels (1820–1895): Karl Marx's collaborator in developing the theory of communism. Engels' atheistic beliefs strained his relations with his parents.[62]
- Nicholas Everitt (1943–): English philosopher and atheist writer who specializes in epistemology and philosophy of religion.[63][64][65]
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804–1872): German philosopher whose major work, The Essence of Christianity, maintains that religion and divinity are projections of human nature.[66]
- Friedrich Karl Forberg (1770–1848): German philosopher and classical scholar.[67]
- Michel Foucault (1926–1984): French philosopher and political activist known for his analysis of power and discourse. He is best known for his revolutionary philosophical analyses of social institutions such as Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality.[68][69]
- William Godwin (1756–1836): English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism.[70]
- Rebecca Goldstein (1950–): American philosopher of science, and author of Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction.[71]
- Antonio Gramsci (1897–1937): Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist and linguist.[72]
- John Gray (1948–): English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas.[73]
- A. C. Grayling (1949–): British philosopher and author of, among others, Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness.[74]
- Susan Haack (1945–): British philosopher of science, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Law at the University of Miami. She has written on logic, the philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.[75]
- Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771): French philosopher whose ethical and social views helped shape the school of utilitarianism, later made famous by Jeremy Bentham.[57]
- Eric Hoffer (1902–1983): American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer, was published in 1951.[76]
- Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789): French philosopher and encyclopedist, one of the first outspoken atheists in Europe.[77]
- David Hume (1711–1776): Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and historian.[78]
- Eino Kaila (1890–1958): Finnish philosopher, psychologist, and critic who contributed to a variety of fields, including physics and theatre.
- Karl Kautsky (1854–1938): Czech-Austrian philosopher, political activist and Marxist theorist. Author of the work Foundations of Christianity, where he claimed that Christianity can best be explained by historical materialism rather than divinity.[79]
- Ajita Kesakambali (6th century BC): Ancient Indian philosopher who is the first known proponent of Indian materialism.[80][81]
- Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968): Russian-born French philosopher and statesman.[82]
- Leandro Konder (1936–2014): Brazilian Marxist philosopher.[83]
- Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921): Russian anarchist philosopher, revolutionary socialist and scientist who was an advocate of anarcho-communism.[84]
- Kumārila Bhaṭṭa: Hindu philosopher who attacked theism and defended the idea that the Vedas are eternal and authorless.[85]
- Corliss Lamont (1902–1995): American socialist and humanist philosopher, and advocate of various left-wing and civil liberties causes.[86]
- Stephen Law (1960–): English philosopher and editor of the philosophical journal Think.[87]
- David Kellogg Lewis (1941–2001): American philosopher.[88]
- Peter Lipton (1954–2007): British philosopher, the Hans Rausing Professor and Head of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University until his unexpected death in November 2007. He was "one of the leading philosophers of science and epistemologists in the world."[89]
- Lucretius (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC): influential Roman philosopher and early proponent of atheism in 50 BC. Wrote On the Nature of Things, one of the earliest texts in defense of Atheism.[90]
- Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998): French philosopher, sociologist and literary theorist.[91][92]
- Kazimierz Łyszczyński (also known in English as "Casimir Liszinski"; (1634–1689): Polish-Lithuanian nobleman and philosopher, author of a philosophical treatise, De non existentia Dei (On the Non-existence of God), who was condemned to death and brutally executed for atheism.[93][94][95]
- John Leslie Mackie (1917–1981): Australian philosopher who specialized in meta-ethics as a proponent of moral skepticism. Wrote The Miracle of Theism, discussing arguments for and against theism and concluding that theism is rationally untenable.[96]
- Michael Martin (1932–2015): analytic philosopher and professor emeritus at Boston University, author of Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (1989) and The Impossibility of God (2003).[97]
- Harriet Martineau (1802–1876): English writer and philosopher, renowned in her day as a controversial journalist, political economist, abolitionist and lifelong feminist.[98]
- Karl Marx (1818–1883): philosopher, political economist, sociologist, political theorist, and revolutionary. Often called the father of communism, Marx was both a scholar and a political activist. In 1843 he published Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, in which he dealt more substantively with religion, describing it as "the opiate of the people".[99]
- Todd May (1955–): American political philosopher who writes on topics of anarchism, poststructuralism, and post-structuralist anarchism.[100]
- J. M. E. McTaggart (1866–1925): British philosopher famous for his arguments about the Unreality of Time.[101]
- Jean Meslier (1678–1733): French village Catholic priest who was found, on his death, to have written a book-length philosophical essay, entitled Common Sense but commonly referred to as Meslier's Testament, promoting atheism.[102][103]
- Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751): French physician and philosopher, earliest materialist writer of the Enlightenment, claimed as a founder of cognitive science.[104][105]
- Jacob Moleschott (1822–1893): Dutch physiologist and philosopher, a representative of German materialism[106]
- Susan Neiman (1955–): American moral philosopher, cultural commentator, and essayist, who has written extensively on the juncture between Enlightenment moral philosophy, metaphysics, and politics, both for scholarly audiences and the general public.[107]
- Kai Nielsen (1926–2021): American professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Calgary.[108]
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900): German philosopher whose Beyond Good and Evil sought to refute traditional notions of morality. Nietzsche penned a memorable secular statement of the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and is forever associated with the phrase, "God is dead" (first seen in his book, The Gay Science).[109][110]
- Otto Neurath (1882–1945): Austrian philosopher of science, sociologist, economist and logical positivist who was a founding member of the Vienna Circle.[111]
- Michel Onfray (1958–): French writer, philosopher, founder of Université populaire de Caen, and author of Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.[112][113]
- Graham Oppy (1960–): Australian philosopher and Associate Dean of Research at Monash University, and Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. His main area of research is the philosophy of religion.[114]
- José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955): Spanish philosopher, author, and essayist who wrote The Revolt of the Masses.[115]
- Massimo Pigliucci (1964–): Italian philosopher of science, outspoken critic of creationism, and advocate of science education.[116]
- Georgi Plekhanov (1856–1918): Russian philosopher, revolutionary and Marxist theorist, known as the father of Russian Marxism.[117][118]
- Arthur Prior (1914–1969): New Zealand born logician and philosopher credited with the creation of tense logic and substantial contributions to intensional logic.[119][120]
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865): French philosopher, economist, political activist, anarchist and one of the founders of mutualism.[84]
- Hilary Putnam (1926–2016): American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist who was a central figure in analytic philosophy from the 1960s, especially in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science.[121] Script error: No such module "Unsubst".[122]
- Willard Van Orman Quine (1908–2000): American philosopher and logician.[123][124]
- James Rachels (1941–2003): American philosopher who specialized in ethics.[125]
- Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, also known as Thanthai Periyar (1879–1973): Indian philosopher, social activist, politician and businessman (affectionately called by his followers as Periyar or E. V. R.), who started the Self-Respect Movement or the Dravidian Movement. He is also the founder of the political party Dravidar Kazhagam.
- Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930): British mathematician who also made significant contributions in philosophy and economics.[126]
- Ayn Rand (1905–1982): Russian-American founder of Objectivism and novelist.[127]
- Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (1902-1975): Popularly known as Gora, Rao was an Indian social reformer, atheist activist and a participant in the Indian independence movement. He propagated positive atheism by his articles, speeches, books and his social work.[128]
- John Rawls (1921–2002): American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy.[129]
- Jean-François Revel (1924–2006): French politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of the Académie française.[130]
- Richard Rorty (1931–2007): American philosopher.[131]
- Alexander Rosenberg (1946–): American philosopher and author of The Atheist's Guide to Reality.[132][133]
- Michael Ruse (1940–): British philosopher of science, known for his criticism of creationism.[134]
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- Bertrand Russell (1872–1970): British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic.[135][136][137]
- Marquis de Sade (1740–1814): French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality.[138][139]
- George Santayana (1863–1952): Philosopher in the naturalist and pragmatist traditions who called himself a "Catholic atheist".[140][141]
- Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980): French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and novelist who declared that he had been an atheist from age twelve.[142] Although he regarded God as a self-contradictory concept, he still thought of it as an ideal toward which people strive.[143] According to Sartre, his most-repeated summary of his existentialist philosophy, "Existence precedes essence", implies that humans must abandon traditional notions of having been designed by a divine creator.[144]
- Moritz Schlick (1882–1936): German philosopher, physicist and the founding father of logical positivism and the Vienna Circle.[145]
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon (1967–): German author, philosopher, and public relations manager. He was chairman of the Giordano Bruno Foundation, "a humanist organization that is critical of religion".[146]
- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860): German philosopher and author of the book The World as Will and Representation.[147][148][149][150][151]
- John R. Searle (1932–): American philosopher widely noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, and to social philosophy.[152]
- Boris Sidis (1867–1923): Ukrainian psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education.[153]
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- Peter Singer (1946–): Australian utilitarian philosopher, proponent of animal rights, and Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University.[154]
- Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (1955–): American philosopher who specializes in neuroethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of law.[155]
- B. F. Skinner (1904–1990): American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher and poet.[156][157]
- George H. Smith (1949–2022): American political philosopher, author, and educator. Smith authored Atheism: The Case Against God.[158]
- Quentin Smith (1952–2020): philosopher of science who co-authored the book Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology with William Lane Craig.[159]
- Herbert Spencer (1820–1903): English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.[160]
- Max Stirner (1806–1856): German philosopher, who ranks as one of the fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism. Stirner's main work was The Ego and Its Own.[161]
- Theodorus the Atheist (lived around 300 BC): philosopher of the Cyrenaic school who taught that the goal of life was to obtain joy and avoid grief.[162]
- Michael Tooley (1941–): American philosopher of science and professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder.[163][164]
- Nick Trakakis (1972–): Greek philosopher at the Australian Catholic University, where he is Assistant Director of the recently established Centre for Philosophy and Phenomenology of Religion.[165]
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- Lucilio Vanini (1585–1619): Italian philosopher, brutally executed for his atheism.[166][167]
- Vasubandhu (4th to 5th century CE): Buddhist monk and philosopher who composed a series of arguments debunking the idea of a Creator God.[168]
- Etienne Vermeersch (1934–2019): Belgian bioethics professor, philosopher of science, and leading skeptic. In 1960, after five years' strong commitment to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Vermeersch became an atheist and philosophical materialist. He was a founding father of Belgian abortion and euthanasia law, and served as vice-rector of Ghent University. In the 1990s he wrote the influetial piece, "Why the Christian God Cannot Exist". In January 2008 a hundred prominent Flemings voted him the most influential Flemish intellectual.[169][170][171]
- Sir Bernard Williams FBA (1929–2003): British moral philosopher.[172]
- Sherwin Wine (1928–2007): founder of the non-theistic Society for Humanistic Judaism, who has also called himself an "ignostic".[173]
- Jan Woleński (1940–): Polish philosopher specializing in the history of the Lwów-Warsaw school and in analytic philosophy. He is recognized in Poland as an atheist and has promoted the replacement of religion classes with philosophy classes in Polish schools.[174][175]
- Slavoj Žižek (1949–): Slovenian philosopher, political activist, and writer.[176]
Notes and references
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- ↑ "Conversely, an absolute denial of God's existence is equally meaningless, since verification is impossible. However, despite this assertion, Ayer may be considered a practical atheist: one who sees no reason to worship an invisible deity." 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996, p. 276.
- ↑ "I do not believe in God. It seems to me that theists of all kinds have very largely failed to make their concept of a deity intelligible; and to the extent that they have made it intelligible, they have given us no reason to think that anything answers to it." Ayer, A.J. (1966). "What I Believe," Humanist, Vol.81 (8) August, p. 226.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ "The reverend Dr Tom Ambrose was sacked yesterday by his bishop for being "arrogant, aggressive, rude, bullying, high-handed, disorganised and at times petty", as a Church of England tribunal put it. Twice, he even spat at parishioners. You might expect that, as an atheist, I might rub my hands over this clerical outrage." Julian Baggini, Thought for the day - BBC Radio Bristol, blog entry, April 11, 2008 (accessed April 22, 2008).
- ↑ Multiple quotes from Bakunin substantiating his atheist views [1] Template:Webarchive.
- ↑ "(...) the writings of such atheistic post-modernists as (...) Roland Barthes (...)" Michael D. Waggoner (2011). Sacred and Secular Tensions in Higher Education: Connecting Parallel Universities. Taylor & Francis, pg. 88
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "Feuerbach's book received criticism from two quarters: expectedly from Christian theologians but surprisingly, from the atheists Max Stirner and Bruno Bauer." Van A. Harvey, Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2007 (accessed May 22, 2008).
- ↑ "(...) the writings of such atheistic post-modernists as Jean Baudrillard (...)" Michael D. Waggoner (2011). Sacred and Secular Tensions in Higher Education: Connecting Parallel Universities. Taylor & Francis, pg. 88
- ↑ "As an atheist, Baudrillard took no interest in Kierkegaard's theological work (...)" Jon Bartley Stewart (2011). Kierkegaard's Influence on the Social Sciences. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., pg. 9
- ↑ "[Beauvoir] remained an atheist until her death." Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Accessed April 21, 2008)
- ↑ "I cannot be angry at God, in whom I do not believe." Haught (1996–), p. 293
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- ↑ "Some years ago, without realizing what it might mean, I accepted a dinner invitation from a Jewish colleague for dinner on Friday night. I should say that my colleague had never appeared particularly orthodox, and he would have known that I am an atheist." Simon Blackburn, Religion and Respect Template:Webarchive (pdf) on his website, August 2004 (accessed April 23, 2008.)
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "Büchner's materialistic interpretation of the universe in Kraft und Stoff created an uproar for its rejection of God, creation, religion, and free will and for its explanation of mind and consciousness as physical states of the brain produced by matter in motion. His continued defense of atheism and atomism and his denial of any distinction between mind and matter (Natur und Geist, 1857; "Nature and Spirit") appealed strongly to freethinkers, but dialectical materialists condemned his acceptance of competitive capitalism, which Büchner viewed as an example of Charles Darwin's "struggle for survival." " 'Büchner, Ludwig', Encyclopædia Britannica Online (accessed August 1, 2008).
- ↑ Gustavo Bueno: Cuestiones cuodlibetales sobre Dios y la religión. Madrid: Mondadori, 1989.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ David Simpson writes that Camus affirmed "a defiantly atheistic creed." Albert Camus (1913–1960), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2006, (Accessed June 14, 2007).
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ R. Carnap: Intellectual Autobiography. in: P. A. Schilpp (editor): The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap. Cambridge University Press, La Salle (Illinois) 1963.
- ↑ Martin Gardner said "Carnap was an atheist..." A Mind at Play: An Interview with Martin Gardner Template:Webarchive, by Kendrick Frazier, Skeptical Inquirer, March/April 1998 (Accessed July 2, 2007).
- ↑ "Carnap had a modest but deeply religious family background, which might explain why, although he later became an atheist, he maintained a respectful and tolerant attitude in matters of faith throughout his life." Buldt, Bernd: "Carnap, Paul Rudolf", Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 20 p.43. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.
- ↑ "If I had to sum up my own atheism, I think I would have to say that it amounts to this: I have no interest in the supernatural. I also have no interest in what others believe about the supernatural as long as their belief does not involve intolerance of those who disagree with them." Robert Todd Carroll, Skeptic's Dictionary entry: atheism (accessed April 28, 2008).
- ↑ The problem of consciousness meets "Intelligent Design", David Chalmers's blog ("As it happens, I'm an atheist").
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Ana Siljak, Angel of Vengeance, page 58
- ↑ "Despite his atheism, Comte was concerned with moral regeneration and the establishment of a spiritual power." Mary Pickering, 'Auguste Comte and the Saint-Simonians', French Historical Studies Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 211-236.
- ↑ "But tragically, Comte's "remarkable clearness and extent of vision as to natural things" was coupled with a "total blindness in regard to all that pertains to man's spiritual nature and relations." His "astonishing philosophic power" served only to increase the "plausibility" of a dangerous infidelity. Comte was, once unmasked, a "blank, avowed, unblushing Atheist." [...] Some of the Reformed writers were careful enough to note that technically Comte was not an atheist since he never denied the existence of God, merely his comprehensibility. Practically, however, this made little difference. It only pointed to the skepticism and nescience at the core of his positivism. The epistemological issues dominated the criticism of Comte. Quickly, his atheism was traced to his sensual psychology (or "sensualistic psychology", as Robert Dabney preferred to say)." Charles D. Cashdollar, 'Auguste Comte and the American Reformed Theologians', Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 39, No. 1 (January–March 1978), pp. 61-79.
- ↑ "An atheist, he rejected the burden of original sin, and preached the fundamental 'moral goodness of man.'" Condorcet's Reconsideration of America as a Model for Europe, Max M. Mintz, Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 493-506 (p. 505), published by University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
- ↑ Stated in Will Durant's Outlines of Philosophy
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "Deleuze's atheist philosophy of immanence is an artistic (or creative) power at work on theology" Deleuze and Religion. Mary Bryden (2002). Routledge, p. 157.
- ↑ "Deleuze's atheist critique is powerful (...)" Iconoclastic Theology: Gilles Deleuze and the Secretion of Atheism. F. LeRon Shults (2014). Edinburgh University Press, p. 103.
- ↑ Alain de Botton told interviewer Chris Hedges, "I'm an atheist." C-SPAN 2 "After Words" interview, 31 March 2012.
- ↑ Dennett, Daniel C. (2006), Breaking the Spell, Viking (Penguin), Template:ISBN
- ↑ Dennett recommends: "If the topic comes up, acknowledge you're an atheist. No big deal. Now let's talk about something interesting." "In Reason We Trust" advertisement, Scientific American, vol. 318, no. 1 (January 2018), p. 21.
- ↑ "(...) the writings of such atheistic post-modernists as (...) Jacques Derrida (...)" Michael D. Waggoner (2011). Sacred and Secular Tensions in Higher Education: Connecting Parallel Universities. Taylor & Francis, pg. 88
- ↑ Martin Hägglund (2008). Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life. Stanford University Press.
- ↑ "So when I say “I rightly pass as an atheist” I know that because of everything that I’ve done so far, say in terms of deconstruction and so on and so forth, I’ve given a number of signs of my being a non-believer in God in a certain way, an atheist. And nevertheless, although I confirm that it is right to say “I’m an atheist”, I can’t say myself “I am an atheist” as a position, see “I am” or “I know what I am”: “I am this, and nothing else and I’m identifying myself as an atheist.” I would never say… this would sound obscene: “I am.” I wouldn’t say “I am an atheist” or I wouldn’t say “I am a believer” either." Jacques Derrida On ‘Atheism’ and ‘Belief’ (excerpt from an interview in Toronto, 2002)
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- ↑ A History of Freethought, Ancient and Modern, to the Period of the French Revolution, J.M. Robertson, Fourth Edition, Revised and Expanded, In Two Volumes, Vol. I, Watts, 1936. p173 - 174
- ↑ a b Will and Ariel Durant, Rousseau and Revolution, p. 183
- ↑ "This book... presents the strongest case yet for atheism... Drange carefully analyzes and assesses two major arguments for the nonexistence of God: the argument from Evil and the Argument from Nonbelief." [quoted from the dustjacket description] Nonbelief & Evil: Two arguments for the nonexistence of God Theodore M. Drange, Prometheus Books, 1998, Template:ISBN
- ↑ The Existence of God: William Lane Craig vs Paul Draper U.S. Military Academy at West Point. September 30, 1997.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "'There is no God, there is no life after death, Jesus was a man, and, perhaps most important, the influence of religion is by and large bad,' he wrote in the current issue of Free Inquiry, a magazine about secular humanism, a school of thought that emphasizes values based on experience rather than religion." Paul Edwards, Professor and Editor of Philosophy, Dies at 81, by Jennifer Bayot, The New York Times, December 16, 2004 (Accessed April 21, 2008)
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- ↑ "The Non-Existence of God". Routledge. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
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- ↑ "An exponent of the Idealist school developed by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Forberg is best known for his essay Über die Entwicklung des Begriffs Religion (1798; "On the Development of the Concept of Religion"), a work that occasioned Fichte's dismissal from the University of Jena on the charge of atheism after he had published a corroborative treatise. Forberg also wrote further apologetical works in support of atheism." 'Forberg, Friedrich Karl', Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2008 (accessed August 1, 2008).
- ↑ "If I were not a total atheist, I would be a monk...a good monk." David Macey (2004). Michel Foucault. Reaktion Books, p. 130.
- ↑ "(...) the writings of such atheistic post-modernists as (...) Michel Foucault (...)" Michael D. Waggoner (2011). Sacred and Secular Tensions in Higher Education: Connecting Parallel Universities. Taylor & Francis, pg. 88.
- ↑ "Coleridge also introduced Charles Lamb to Godwin. Lamb had shown some sympathy for the New Philosophy but the arguments of Coleridge and his own religiosity and common sense quickly turned him against it. He was particularly repelled by Godwin's atheism." Peter H. Marshall, William Godwin (1984), page 240.
- ↑ Luke Ford, "Interview with Novelist Rebecca Goldstein - The Mind-Body Problem", conducted by phone April 11, 2006, transcript posted at lukeford.net
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- ↑ "I would certainly describe myself as a robust or uncompromising atheist..." House Philosopher: An Interview with AC Grayling, conducted and hosted by Amazon.co.uk (Accessed April 1, 2008)
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- ↑ Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Voltaire: a History of Civilization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756, with Special Emphasis on the Conflict between Religion and Philosophy, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1965, pp. 695-714
- ↑ "The principles of Hume's philosophy implied that the question of God's existence cannot be settled definitively either way, so he was in one sense an agnostic. However, since he does not seem to have entertained any belief in God, it is probably also fair to call him an atheist—just not a campaigning one." Anthony Gottlieb, "Who Was David Hume?" (review of James A. Harris, Hume: an Intellectual Biography, Cambridge University Press, 621 pp., "the first intellectual biography of Hume"), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXIII, no. 9 (May 26, 2016), p. 70 (the full review: pp. 68, 70–71).Review of Jame Harris,'Hume: an Intellectual Biography', Cambridge University Press, by Paul Russell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 26 May 2016. See also Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ See: Rhys-Davids.T.W: Dialogues of the Buddha, 1899 quoted in Chattopadhyaya (1964/1993) pp.194
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Leandro Konder: O discreto charme do marxismo Template:Webarchive. Pesquisa FAPESP. Acesso em 12/07/2016. "— O senhor é um socialista ateu? — Eu acho que sim. (...) minha revisão e reavaliação positiva do papel da consciência religiosa não significa o abandono da minha descrença básica de ateu. (...) não acredito em Deus, mas tenho boas relações com ele."
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "As a philosopher he became a firm atheist and loud sceptic on issues of supernature and the afterlife. He concluded in The Illusion Of Immortality (1935) that this life was all there was, and that humankind should therefore make the best of it here on earth - a theory honed in The Philosophy Of Humanism (1949), which remains a classic in its genre." Jonathan Freedland, 'Obituary: Corliss Lamont', The Guardian (London), May 19, 1995, Pg. 14.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "I am an atheist." [David Lewis, "Evil for Freedom's Sake," in Papers in Ethics and Social Philosophy, 101-127 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). p. 102]
- ↑ "A self-confessed "religious atheist", Lipton was fully engaged with his religious culture, taking his family to synagogue on Saturdays and teaching children at the Sabbath school. He did not think it was necessary to believe in God to recognise the value of religion in providing the individual with a moral compass." 'Obituary of Professor Peter Lipton, Inspiring head of Cambridge's department of History and Philosophy whose atheism did not impede his religious observance', Daily Telegraph, December 17, 2007, Pg. 23.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "(...) the writings of such atheistic post-modernists as (...) Jean-François Lyotard." Michael D. Waggoner (2011). Sacred and Secular Tensions in Higher Education: Connecting Parallel Universities. Taylor & Francis, pg. 88
- ↑ Nick Land (2002). The Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and Virulent Nihilism. Routledge, pg. 12
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- ↑ Aleksander Gieysztor et al., History of Poland, 1979, p. 261.
- ↑ Jerzy Kłoczowski, A History of Polish Christianity, 2000, p. 155.
- ↑ J. L. Mackie, The Miracle of Theism, 1982.
- ↑ "Are there really no atheists? No good reason has yet been given for NA and, until one is, we professed atheists have every reason to suppose that we really are atheists." Michael Martin, Are There Really No Atheists?, 1996 (accessed April 21, 2008).
- ↑ "She became increasingly skeptical of religious beliefs, including her own liberal Unitarianism, and her avowal of atheism in the Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development (1851, with H.G. Atkinson) caused widespread shock." Martineau, Harriet Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2008 (Accessed April 15, 2008)
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Extracts from Moi Testament published as Superstition in All Ages
- ↑ Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Voltaire, 1965, pp. 611-17
- ↑ Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Voltaire, 1965, pp. 617-22
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "Since my mid-undergraduate days, I have been an atheist. By now I suppose there are some who would call me a professional atheist troikaing me with Antony Flew and Michael Scriven." Kai Nielsen, God and the Grounding of Morality, p.155 [2]
- ↑ Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, aphorisms 108 and 125 [3])
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- ↑ Amazon listing for Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, by Michel Onfray. (Accessed March 23, 2008)
- ↑ In 'Is God Good By Definition?' (1992), Oppy presented a logical argument for God's nonexistence based upon an alleged fact of metaethics: the falsity of moral realism. If moral realism is false, then that is a fact that is incompatible with God's existence.
- ↑ El legado invisible de Ortega y Gasset. El Periódico de Catalunya, 28/05/2014.
- ↑ "...I'm an atheist..." Enough blasting Dennett and Dawkins, all right?, from Rationally Speaking, the blog of Massimo Pigliucci, October 30, 2006 (Accessed April 15, 2008)
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- ↑ "In my third year of high school I walked often with my new Jamaican friends, Fred and Harold Cassidy, trying to convert them from their Episcopalian faith to atheism." Willard Van Orman Quine, Lewis Edwin Hahn, Paul Arthur Schilpp, The Philosophy of W.V. Quine (1986).
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ In God and Moral Autonomy (1997), Rachels argued for the nonexistence of God based on the impossibility of a being worthy of worship.
- ↑ "His tolerance and good humour enabled him to disagree strongly without giving or taking offence, for example with his brother Michael Ramsey whose ordination (he went on to become archbishop of Canterbury) Ramsey, as a militant atheist, naturally regretted." D. H. Mellor, 'Ramsey, Frank Plumpton (1903–1930)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2005 (accessed May 2, 2008).
- ↑ " Asked if Rand was an atheist, [Yaron] Brook said, "Yes, she was - and I have been since the age of 6, before I read Ayn Rand. But more than anti-religion, she was for reason. She spends time on the positive. She believed the way to evaluate things in life and reality is through reason, rational thought. That's what we try to emphasize." " George Hohmann, 'Ayn Rand relevant today, speaker says Template:Webarchive', Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia), June 1, 2009, Pg. P5A (accessed 5 June 2009).
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "Despite asserting that he had always loathed the family, both the one he was born into and the ones he had created, in the same year he published Le Moine et le philosophe (1997, "The Monk and the Philosopher", 1998), a book-length dialogue between Revel, the convinced atheist, and his son Mathieu Ricard, who had abandoned a career in molecular biology research to go to live in Asia, to study Buddhism, and who subsequently became a Buddhist monk." David Drake, Obituary: Jean-François Revel, The Independent (London), May 10, 2006, Pg. 44.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "Philosopher Michael Ruse has written: ' The God Delusion makes me embarrassed to be an atheist.' But in all the hype and embarrassment over geneticist Professor Richard Dawkins's anti-religious arguments, there is an important strand in his argument that has been overlooked: his views on morality." Richard Harries, 'It is possible to be moral without God', The Observer (England), December 30, 2007, Comment Pages, Pg. 25.
- ↑ Russell said: "As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist... None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist, and yet if you were to set to work to give a logical demonstration that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and the rest of them did not exist you would find it an awful job. You could not get such proof. Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line." Am I an Agnostic or an Atheist?, from Last Philosophical Testament 1943–1968, (1997) Routledge Template:ISBN. Russell was chosen by LOOK magazine to speak for agnostics in their well-known series explaining the religions of the U.S., and authored the essay "What Is An Agnostic?" which appeared 3 November 1953 in that magazine
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "Santayana playfully called himself 'a Catholic atheist,' but in spite of the fact that he deliberately immersed himself in the stream of Catholic religious life, he never took the sacraments. He neither literally regarded himself as a Catholic nor did Catholics regard him as a Catholic." Empiricism, Theoretical Constructs, and God, by Kai Nielsen, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Jul., 1974), pp. 199-217 (p. 205), published by The University of Chicago Press
- ↑ "My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe, and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests." George Santayana, 'On My Friendly Critics', in Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, 1922 (from Rawson's Dictionary of American Quotations via credoreference.com (accessed August 1, 2008).
- ↑ "He was so thoroughly an atheist that he rarely mentioned it, considering the topic of God to be beneath discussion. In his autobiography, The Words, Sartre recalled deciding at about age twelve that God does not exist, and hardly thinking about it thereafter." 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "...sagte Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Vorstand der Giordano-Bruno-Stiftung und damit so etwas wie Deutschlands Chef-Atheist." ("...said Michael Schmidt-Salomon, [who is] chairman of the Giordano Bruno Foundation, and therefore something of a 'chief atheist' for Germany.") Chef-Atheist im Chat: "Gynäkologen, die an die Jungfrauengeburt glauben", Spiegel Online, 29 May 2007 (Accessed 6 April 2008)
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- ↑ "Within Schopenhauer's vision of the world as Will, there is no God to be comprehended, and the world is conceived of as being meaningless." [4]
- ↑ Reviewing an episode of the Channel 4 series Voices: "On the one hand, Sir John Eccles, a quiet-spoken theist with the most devastating way of answering questions with a single "yes", on the other, Professor Searle, a flamboyant atheist using words I've never heard of or likely to again "now we know that renal secretions synthesize a substance called angiotensin and that angiotensin gets into the hypothalamus and causes a series of neuron firings". " Peter Dear, 'Today's television and radio programmes', The Times, February 22, 1984; pg. 31; Issue 61764; col A.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "Within a year I had gone to Miss Graves to tell her that I no longer believed in God. 'I know,' she said, 'I have been through that myself.' But her strategy misfired: I never went through it." B.F. Skinner, pp. 387-413, E.G. Boring and G. Lindzey's A History of Psychology in Autobiography (Vol. 5), New York: Appleton Century-Crofts, 1967.
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- ↑ "This book is a presentation and defense of atheism." Atheism: The Case Against God, by George H. Smith, Prometheus Books, 1989, Template:ISBN
- ↑ Smith has written numerous papers arguing for the nonexistence of God.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "As he wrote: "Stirner's egoism springs from a conscious and total atheism, with this playful indifference and apathy to any higher essence being the prerequisite for encountering one's own being, one's uniqueness, Einzigkeit." Laurel Jean Fredrickson, Duke University, Kate Millett and Jean-Jacques Lebel: Sexual outlaws in the intermedia borderlands of art and politics, page 136.
- ↑ "Theodorus, the atheistic philosopher of Cyrene, appears in Athens during the Phalerean regime." Athenian Impiety Trials in the Late Fourth Century B. C., L. L. O'Sullivan, The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 47, No. 1 (1997), pp. 136-152 (p. 142), published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
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- ↑ "While Shirley was (and is) a devout Catholic and so took the marriage as a commitment for eternity, Bernard, an atheist, had not done so when he made the wedding vows. Shirley says: "The Church and Bernard had a wonderful time debating all this. The theologians were so thrilled to be discussing it with a leading philosopher." " Stuart Jeffries, 'Profile: Bernard Williams', The Guardian, November 30, 2002, Saturday Review, Pg. 20.
- ↑ Wine said "I am an atheist." Time Magazine January 29, 1965
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- ↑ Atheism is a legacy worth fighting for, an editorial by Slavoj Zizek, The New York Times, Monday, March 13, 2006 (Accessed April 22, 2012).
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