List of atheists
A number of noted individuals have been atheists. Please note that the atheist beliefs of most of those included in this list are not typically connected to their notability or reputation.
A partial list of persons believed to be atheists:
- Forrest J. Ackerman - writer, noted science fiction fan
- Douglas Adams - novelist
- Tariq Ali - historian and novelist
- Woody Allen - film director, actor, comedian
- Lance Armstrong - cyclist
- Isaac Asimov - author and scientist
- Peter Atkins - chemist, husband of Susan Greenfield, professor at Oxford University
- David Attenborough - natural history presenter and anthropologist
- Mikhail Bakunin - philosopher and anarchist
- Iain Banks - novelist
- Clive Barker - British author, producer, director, screenwriter
- Dave Barry - writer
- John Baskerville - printer and typefounder
- Steve Benson - editorial cartoonist
- Ingmar Bergman - Swedish film and theater director
- Björk - singer, actress
- Pierre Boulez - conductor, composer
- T. Coraghessan Boyle - author
- Charles Bradlaugh - British Member of Parliament
- Nathaniel Branden - psychologist and philosopher, associated with Objectivism
- Marlon Brando - actor
- Richard Branson - Virgin Group mogul, global circumnavigator by balloon
- Lord Byron - Romantic poet
- Albert Camus - philosopher and novelist
- George Carlin - comedian, wrote a number of monologues about the non-existence of God
- Adam Carolla - television and radio personality
- John Carpenter - filmmaker
- Asia Carrera - adult film actress
- Fidel Castro - Cuban leader
- Dick Cavett - talk show host
- Noam Chomsky - philosopher, linguist, political activist
- Francis Crick - Nobel Prize laureate biophysicist, co-discoverer of structure of DNA
- David Cronenberg - Canadian filmmaker
- David Cross - comedian, actor
- Clarence Darrow - defense attorney at the Scopes Monkey Trial. Was largely demonized in the press for his atheism.
- William B. Davis - actor, Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files
- Richard Dawkins - biologist, author of science texts for the layman
- Daniel Dennett - philosopher, well-known for his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea
- Diagoras
- Ani DiFranco - singer
- Amanda Donohoe - actress
- Thomas Edison
- Paul Ehrlich - entomologist
- Ludwig Feuerbach - philosopher, postulated that God is merely a projection by humans of their own best qualities
- Richard Feynman - physicist
- Sigmund Freud - neurologist, father of psychoanalysis, considered the belief in God to stem from an unconscious fear of one's own biological father
- Susan Greenfield - neuroscientist, professor at Oxford University, brain researcher, writer of populist science books, director of Britain's Royal Institution since 1998
- Kamal Haasan - noted Indian actor
- Christopher Hitchens - political commentator and author
- David Hume - Scottish philosopher and historian
- Maynard James Keenan - recording artist (Tool)'
- Ben Klassen - founded a church worshipping the creative force of the white race
- Paul Kurtz - philosopher, founder of Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the Council for Secular Humanism
- Primo Levi - novelist and chemist
- Karl Marx - philosopher, sociologist, founder of Marxist political and economic philosophy. His famous formulation was: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
- John McCarthy - AI researcher and inventor of Lisp programming language
- H.L. Mencken - journalist and social critic.
- James Mill - British philosopher and psychologis
- John Stuart Mill - British philosopher and economist.
- Dr. Henry Morgentaler - Canadian abortion rights activist. Founder of Humanist Association of Canada.
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair - founder of American Atheists, filed the lawsuit that led the US Supreme Court to ban teacher-led prayer in public schools
- Benito Mussolini - Italian dictator, who said "Religion is a species of mental disease."
- Roy Neuberger - financier and art collector, his preference of wealth over spirituality estranges him from his son, who wrote a book on the need for spirituality in his life and rediscovering Judaism
- Michael Newdow - California man who sued his daughter's school saying the words "under God" in Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional
- Friedrich Nietzsche - German philosopher
- Camille Paglia - post-feminist literary and cultural critic.
- Penn and Teller - magicians
- Periyar - rationalist, freedom fighter from India, (in)famous for his act of adorning a picture of a Hindu deity in public with a garland made of footwear
- William Pierce - neo-fascist
- Karl Popper - German-born British Falsificationist philosopher. Believed that the concept of God/gods is unfalsifiable, and therefore meaningless.
- Jacques Prévert - French poet.
- Philip Pullman - British writer
- Ayn Rand - novelist and philosopher. Founder of Objectivism. Wrote extensively on her position that individuals should abandon what she considered superstitious beliefs.
- James Randi - professional magician and debunker of psychics
- Ron Reagan - magazine journalist and board member of the Creative Coalition
- Matt Ridley - science writer and journalist
- La Rochefoucauld
- Richard Rorty
- Gene Roddenberry - TV writer, producer, creator of Star Trek
- Bertrand Russell - British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and Nobel Laureate in literature
- Marquis de Sade - author, denied the existence of morality based on a mandate from divine authority
- Jean-Paul Sartre - French philosopher and novelist
- Percy Bysshe Shelley - poet, author of The Necessity of Atheism
- Henry Sidgwick - British philosopher
- Peter Singer - Australian philosopher
- B. F. Skinner - psychologist
- Josef Stalin - Soviet dictator
- Richard M. Stallman - computer programmer, founder of the Free Software Foundation
- Howard Stern - shock jock
- Max Stirner - Young Hegelian philosopher, anarchist
- Mark Twain - author
- Gore Vidal - author
- Joss Whedon - TV writer, producer, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Virginia Woolf - author and feminist
- Mao Zedong - former leader of the Communist Party of China, who said, "Religion is poison."
See also
