List of atheist activists and educators

Main article: Lists of atheists

There have been many atheists who have been active in advocacy or education. The 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

Other activists and educators

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

References

  1. "In college, after reading material from American Atheists, he became, in his words, 'a pretty hard core atheist.'" Clark Adams: 1969–2007, American Humanist Association News Flash, May 24, 2007 (Accessed April 14, 2008)
  2. Ian Buruma (2005-08-05). "Sacred freedom". Financial Times. Retrieved December 22, 2006. Too much reason can reform a faith away, which would be fine with Hirsi Ali, who regards herself as an atheist.
  3. Infidel author promotes her second book, Lateline, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
  4. "My God Problem". secularhumanism.org. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  5. "Minister Turned Atheist". archive.is. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  6. Block, Walter. "Open Letter to Ron Paul by Walter Block." LewRockwell.com. 28 December 2007.
  7. "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.
  8. "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.
  9. 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...
  10. "Biography of Richard Carrier". infidels.org. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  11. "Greta Christina". Greta Christina. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  12. "Greta Christina | Secular Student Alliance: Atheists, Humanists, Agnostics & Others". Secularstudents.org. 2009-12-20. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  13. "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.
  14. "Richard Dawkins Foundation". richarddawkins.net. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  15. National and International Contacts, Atheist Alliance International website, 2008 (Accessed April 14, 2008)
  16. Lyz (February 22, 2010). "Matt Dillahunty". Secular Student Alliance. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  17. Iron Chariots - the counter-apologetics wiki.
  18. Edamaruku dead: A staunch campaigner of rationalism, The Hindu, 2006 (Accessed March 31, 2008)
  19. Honorary Associates of Rationalist International: Joseph Edamaruku (India), profile at the website of Rationalist International (Accessed March 31, 2008)
  20. 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, Rationalist International article (Accessed March 31, 2008)
  21. Thinking Beyond The Standard (accessed April 14, 2008).
  22. "Ideas: Atheism and Religion". daviddfriedman.blogspot.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  23. "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)
  24. Emma Goldman (February 1916). "The Philosophy of Atheism". positiveatheism.org. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
  25. 1 2 The Atheist Centre (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. "Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an atheist, has been reborn a saint in the desolate Bolivian village where he was captured and executed nearly 37 years ago." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0817-07.htm
  28. The Militant Agnostic. Haldeman-Julius, E. Prometheus Books. 1995.
  29. Erkki Hartikainen's profile, hosted at the website of the Atheist Association of Finland (Accessed April 15, 2008)
  30. Greta Christina (2015-06-18). "8 atheist leaders actually worth listening to". Salon.com. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  31. "Grief without God is a challenge for nonbelievers – USATODAY.com". Usatoday30.usatoday.com. 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  32. Greta Christina (2013-06-25). "7 groups atheists can turn to in times of need". Salon.com. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
    • 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". 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. 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 (1930), An Atheist Manifesto (1954) and The Philosophy of Atheism (1960). From Atheism: "I came to accept Atheism as the result of independent thought and self-study."
  43. "How to Separate Church & State: Barry McGowan: 9780615638027: Amazon.com: Books". web.archive.org. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  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. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  49. Tom Curry (2004-03-24). "Atheist pleads with justices to stop recitation of pledge". MSNBC. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
  50. Interview with Michael Nugent 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. 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', 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
  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) .
  57. "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).
  58. "The Afghan King of New York : My 35th Year Birthday Message to the World (English)". nematsadat.blogspot.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  59. "Afghanistan's 'coming out' for LGBT rights can pave the road to peace | GlobalPost". globalpost.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  60. "Is the Next Theodor Herzl an Ex-Muslim Gay Atheist from Afghanistan? | Voice of Israel". voiceofisrael.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  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. "The Rediff Interview: Bipan Chandra". Rediff India Abroad. 2003-03-03. Retrieved December 13, 2006. Savarkar was an atheist. When he was the Hindu Mahasabha president he used to give lectures on why there is no god.
  63. "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.
  64. "Index of /". weareatheism.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  65. "Atheism Resource". atheismresource.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  66. Ariane Sherine (September 4, 2009). "The Atheist's Guide To Christmas (AKA The Atheist Book Campaign)". Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  67. "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? April 11, 2008 (Accessed April 15, 2008)
  68. Smoker, Barbara (2002). Freethoughts: Atheism, Humanism, Secularism. Foote (G.W.) & Co Ltd. ISBN 0-9508243-5-6.
  69. Updated 1:49 PM ET, Sat March 28, 2015 (2015-03-28). "Confessions of a black atheist". CNN.com. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
  70. "Mandisa Thomas on "The Alan Eisenberg Show" | Mythicist Milwaukee". Mythicistmke.publishpath.com. 2014-09-16. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
  71. 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.
  72. (London), December 20, 1994, Life, Pg. 19.
  73. "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).
  74. 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.
  75. "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. MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2009.
  76. "Atheist though he was..." Obituary: Baba Amte, The Economist March 1, 2008: 93. (Retrieved March 21, 2008)
  77. Listed his religion as "Atheism" in his Ok Cupid profile. Julian Assange’s OK Cupid Profile, BuzzFeed.com.
  78. 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.
  79. 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.
  80. "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.
  81. Friedman wrote "I'm also an atheist" in his blog article titled Atheism and Religion. This blog is linked from his personal web site, which is in turn linked from his Santa Clara Law site.
  82. 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.
  83. 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.”
  84. 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.
  85. 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, Washington Examiner (USA), 9 March 2009 (accessed 9 March 2009).
  86. "AVTM shares Catholic-Atheist liberty hug with Tom Woods". Youtube. July 1, 2012. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  87. "[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.
  88. 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.
  89. "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).
  90. "Newkirk considers herself a feminist and an atheist." Michael Specter interviewing Newkirk, 'Mother Nature', The Observer, June 22, 2003, Observer Magazine Pages, Pg. 24.
  91. " I do have a personal philosophy. I’m an atheist." Ingrid Newkirk. What do you Believe? Ingrid Newkirk, Big Think. February 21, 2008.
  92. "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.
  93. "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.
  94. "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.
  95. 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.
  96. 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.
  97. 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.
  98. 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.
  99. " 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', May 27, 2008 (accessed May 29, 2008).
  100. Singh, Bhagat (2002-06-18). "Why I Am An Atheist". Boloji Media Inc. Retrieved April 11, 2007. I had become a pronounced atheist.
  101. "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).
  102. 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.
  103. 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.
  104. 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. .
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