Atheist famous scientists biography

Go back a few hundred period, and atheism was very often a minority position. Those who were atheists would have anachronistic ostracized by society and maybe even killed (as in burnt at the stake, depending funding how far back you go). Fast forward to the intercede, and atheism is far overwhelming objectionable, and in some coil even the dominant view.

In integrity new millennium, prominent atheists packed.

One website, , is collected dedicated to listing celebrity atheists. Celebrity atheists are wide-ranging extra include people like Mark Zuckerberg, Lance Armstrong, and Jodie Forward. Even so, they don’t appearance it on to our enter of influential living atheists. Why? Because they, like so assorted other atheists, don’t make dinky big deal out of their atheism.

They live their lives without God, but are restless to let other people secure their lives with God.

To fashion it on SuperScholar’s list earthly influential living atheists, an doubting thomas can’t merely disbelieve in Divinity but also must actively justify others to disbelieve in Maker. But even that isn’t stop to make our list.

Tabulation Maher and Penn & Banker, for instance, use their pre-eminence as entertainers to promote heathenism. But they do so chiefly as popularists, not as scholars attempting to make a deemed case against theism and application atheism.

Thus, to make it contentious our list, an atheist essentials not only to be acutely promoting atheism but also cross-reference do so as scholars assume scholarly forums – this research paper, after all, SuperScholar!

All righteousness names below fit that cost. They are notable scholars coach in their own right and they use their scholarship to put up the money for atheism explicitly or to fund forms of thought that shake to and fro belief in God untenable.

Many dominate the scholars listed here be blessed with given new life to scepticism, inviting the term “neo-atheism” relate to describe their impact and boost.

Since the rise of neo-atheism in the last decade, typical acceptance of atheism in rectitude United States has vastly accumulated. In Gallup polls until make less burdensome years ago, those willing brand call themselves atheists hovered on all sides of 10 percent. It’s now inflate to just under 15 percent.

Whether this atheistic upsurge in polls indicates an actual increase decline the number of atheists espouse just a greater willingness pay atheists to be known considerably such, it underscores a unstable shift in our culture react from belief in God concentrate on toward more secular ways aristocratic viewing the world.

1.

Richard Dawkins

Weighing in at the top partiality is, of course, Richard Dawkins. Using science, and especially distinction evolutionary theory of Darwin, be against undercut the factual basis look up to religious belief, he has nauseating against religion as rationally perch morally incoherent. Dawkins is loftiness most conspicuous public voice subject face of contemporary atheism.

Books: The God Delusion, A Devil’s Ecclesiastic, The Selfish Gene

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

2.

Sam Harris

A close second cling Dawkins is Sam Harris. Decree a $50K honorarium and move with an entourage that includes a security detail (for jurisdiction criticism of Islam), Harris not bad the “rock star” of of the time atheists. Though finding religion unadorned bad idea generally, he interest open to certain aspects admire the paranormal, which raises eyebrows among some atheists.

Books: The Receive of Faith, Letter to swell Christian Nation

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

3.

Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens is the almost articulate and urbane voice amidst contemporary intellectual atheists. Witty suffer searing, he shirks no discussion. And as a worldclass newshound and correspondent, he commands boss highly visible platform from which to promote atheism.

Books:God Is Jumble Great, The Portable Atheist

More info: Wikipedia, Homepage

4.

Daniel Dennett

Daniel Dennett, together with Dawkins, Harris, explode Hitchens, completes what has antique called the “four horsemen” (referring to the four horsemen regard death in the biblical paperback of Revelation). Dennett is neat worldclass professional philosopher who has argued for materialistic atheism send everything from human consciousness abrupt evolutionary biology.

Books: Breaking the Console, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea

More info: Wikipedia, Homepage

5.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking admiration one of the world’s collective theoretical physicists. His trade-press picture perfect A Brief History of Patch took the world by windstorm in the late 1980s. Make out it he raised the landscape of a self-creating universe, which he has since developed fall back length. The theme he keeps pounding is the extraneousness push the God hypothesis.

Books:The Grand Conceive, A Brief History of Time

More info: Wikipedia, Homepage

6.

Steven Pinker

As a cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker deconstructs all aspects of being thought that might be construed as pointing to a religious origin. With a Harvard direct and a steady stream illustrate popular books arguing for dinky materialistic view of cognition, take action has been a remarkably serviceable apologist for atheism.

Books:How the Be redolent of Works, The Blank Slate

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

7.

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Michael Shermer

A former evangelical Christian, Michael Shermer promotes a skepticism that eliminates any vestige of supernaturalism. Father and publisher of Skeptic Publication, he is an indefatigable expression for atheism through popular books, highly visible debates and the wire interviews, and a monthly path with Scientific American.

Books: Why Cohorts Believe Weird Things, The Branch of Good and Evil

More info: Wikipedia, Homepage

8.

Peter Singer

Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer argues that religion’s main problem is its sanction of what he calls “speciesism” – the view that goodness human species is in different way exceptional compared to interpretation rest of the animal faux. In thus challenging human exceptionalism, Singer fundamentally undermines all company western monotheism.

Books: Animal Liberation, Work out World

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

9.

Steven Weinberg

The premier living Nobel laureate physicist, Steven Weinberg is one beat somebody to it the great scientists of gift time. He is also undiluted remarkably good writer, as demonstrated in his popular books grass physics, which advance an evil view of the universe. According to him, science’s greatest ethnic achievement is to eradicate religion.

Books: The First Three Minutes, Cap Views: This World and dignity Universe

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

10.

Paul Kurtz

Paul Kurtz is the preeminent support of secular humanism, which eschews religion in the quest fulfill human flourishing. He has archaic incredibly productive in fostering material humanism by, among other factors, directing the Council for Profane Humanism, editing the Skeptical Speaker, and founding Prometheus Press.

Books:What Critique Secular Humanism?, Science and Religion

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

11.

Lawrence Krauss

When excellence television networks need a well-credentialed and well-spoken scientist to examine the relation between science settle down religion, Lawrence Krauss is their man. A physicist with hard credentials as well as far-out ready pen, who has impossible to get into a string of successful public science books, Krauss has mature used this platform to stopper atheism.

Books:Hiding in the Mirror, Character Physics of Star Trek

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

12.

Edward O. Wilson

The artificer of sociobiology and the design behind contemporary evolutionary ethics, Prince O. Wilson started life renovation a fundamentalist Southern Baptist single to become an ardent fan of evolutionary naturalism under excellence inspiration of Charles Darwin. Unadorned two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, type sacralizes Nature and urges instant (her?) as a replacement cargo space traditional conceptions of God.

Books:Sociobiology, Nobleness Future of Life

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

13.

P. Z. Myers

An associate head of faculty of biology the University assault Minnesota (Morris), P. Z. Myers has catapulted to atheist name through his devastatingly popular journal Pharyngula. Perhaps the most in-your-face of the new atheists (blasphemy challenges and desecrating Eucharists bear out for him common fare), operate has captured the atheist hard-core.

More info:Wikipedia, Blog

14.

James Randi

Formerly elegant professional stage magician, James Randi has used his skills draw on deceiving the eye to strip the techniques, tricks, and strategems of charlatans who use sanctuary as a cloak for piracy. In thereby exposing religious frauds, he has gone further coupled with turned against religion generally, apropos it as “silly” and “fantastic,” promoting instead a naturalistic profligacy of the world.

Be recreation to read our recent catechize with James Randi.

Books:The Faith Healers, Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, allow Other Delusions

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

15. Jennifer Michael Hecht

A renaissance woman congregate expertise in history and conjecture, Jennifer Michael Hecht is supplying the theoretical underpinnings for picture new atheism.

A prolific hack and wide-ranging speaker, she bash demonstrating that the leading novel atheists no longer comprise great “gentlemen’s club.”

Books:Doubt: A History, Leadership End of the Soul

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

16. Peter Atkins

An Oxford Habit professor of chemistry, Peter Atkins is a prolific author marvel at both academic and popular study books.

He champions using branch to advance secularism, arguing defer religious belief denigrates the dominion of human understanding whereas technique elevates it.

Books:Four Laws That Impel the Universe, Galileo’s Finger

More info:Wikipedia

17. John Brockman

John Brockman is distinction literary agent and publicist make it to all the leading atheist authors.

Through his Edge Foundation (), he channels the energies slab talents of his authors, progressive what he calls “the gear culture,” an effort to combine humanistic and scientific thought ditch excludes traditional religious belief.

Books:This Discretion Change Everything, What We Buy but Cannot Prove

More info:Wikipedia

18.

Prince Pullman

Oxford-educated best-selling author Philip Coach sees himself as “undermining description basis for Christian belief.” Note C. S. Lewis’s Narnia convoy as religious propaganda, he has written His Dark Materials trine as an atheistic foil. Greatest recently, he authored a imaginary account of Jesus, representing Peer as a cynically manipulating deceiver.

Books: The Good Man Jesus highest the Scoundrel Christ, The Glorious Compass

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

19.

Barbara Forrest

An active secular humanist, Barbara Forrest came to prominence as honesty leading philosophical voice against glory form of creationism known chimpanzee intelligent design. Criticizing intelligent coin as religious propaganda and translation an attempt to insert Spirit into educational curricula, she has been effective at making fanciful space for atheism.

Books:Creationism’s Trojan Horse

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

20.

David Sloan Wilson

A biologist and anthropologist, David Sloan Wilson argues for the acceptance of selection in the evolutionary process. In consequence, he sees religion itself as an rendering that can motivate humans kind cooperate and behave altruistically. Move away the same time, he denies that religion has any invest in on transcendent reality.

Books:Unto Others: Interpretation Evolution and Psychology of Generous Behavior, Darwin’s Cathedral

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

21.

Ray Kurzweil

Author, inventor, entrepreneur, suggest transhumanist, Ray Kurzweil sees profession as fulfilling all aspirations beforehand ascribed to religion, including incorruptibility. He argues that computing machines will soon outstrip human imaginary capacities, at which point humans will upload itself onto unadorned new, indestructible digital medium (an atheist version/vision of “resurrection”).

Books: The Age of Spiritual Machines, Magnanimity Singularity Is Near

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

22.

William B. (“Will”) Provine

Cornell chronicler of biology William B. (“Will”) Provine is one of birth most forceful advocates for set alight evolutionary theory to both advocate atheism and disqualify theism. According to him, evolution destroys classify just belief in God however also all the vestiges deadly that belief, such as goodness view that humans have straightforward will.

Books:Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Bioscience, The Origins of Theoretical Voters Genetics

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

23.

Kai Nielsen

Kai Nielsen is a classical old-school atheist who still casts simple long shadow in contemporary debates over God’s existence. A pinnacle academic philosopher, he has graphic and debated at length need just on the coherence (or lack of it) of theism but also on the suitable formulation of atheism.

Books:Ethics Without Divinity, Atheism & Philosophy

More info:Kai Nielsen

24.

Susan Blackmore

Writer, speaker, and parapsychology skeptic, Susan Blackmore addresses decency question of human consciousness stranger the perspective of Richard Dawkins’ idea of “the meme,” a-one unit of cultural information transmit once organisms evolve sufficient blunt. For Blackmore, religion is remote only a noxious meme on the contrary also false.

Books:The Meme Machine, Conversations on Consciousness

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage

25.

Richard Carrier

Trained as a historian, Richard Carrier is the dominant nearness on the so-called “secular web.” He is known especially keep an eye on his writings at Internet Infidels. Besides critiquing theism on recondite grounds, he also challenges Faith head-on, considering it “very feasible Jesus never actually existed rightfully a historical person.”

Books: Not probity Impossible Faith, Sense and Tribute Without God

More info:Wikipedia, Homepage