Civil question for atheists?

Question

Does the fact that Newton, Kepler, Huygens and Copernicus were Xtian make them weak minded individuals? Are they worthy of your scorn?

Most answers are very good. Then there are the ones who answered my question with a question...they really have nothing to offer to anybody.

A fellow atheist.

PLEASE, JANE. Which of the "dudes" mentioned was executed? Just dying to know...

Answer 1

No, because they challenged, and didn't just say "It must be so".

Don't forget, Darwin was studying for the ministry, and it was a fully ordained Anglican minister (Rev. William Buckland) who started the whole disproof of Noah.

It is not religion that "scares" me, but blindness.

Answer 2

I think Newton was mentally ill. A mad genius. Don't know much about the others. Plenty of intelligent people are Xtian. However, we now know much more about science and natural laws to make the existence of an anthropomorphic God seem highly unlikely. Times were different back then - ignorance made the world seem a far more mysterious place. Hence it was more understandandable to believe in a God. Today, there seems to be enough evidence to contradict the existence of the Xtian/Judaic god and the bible, that Xtains are seen to be extremely irrational to Atheists.

Answer 3

No. Does the fact that these people are/were atheists make them worthy of yours?

Anthrax - Music
Björk - Music
Napoleon Bonaparte - French emperor
Marlon Brando - actor
Adam Carolla(no big surprise)- actor/talk show host
Asia Carrera (may be a Satanist....http://www.celebatheists.com/) - adult film
Chumbawamba - Band
Jodie Foster - actress
Seth Green (existentialist - see Sartre) - actor
Sartre - writer
John Lennon - singer
Helen Keller - American lecturer
Gene Roddenberry - Creator of Star Trek
Fidel Castro (I graduated with a girl whos grandmother dated him) - Dictator
John Adams - Former President and founder of the USA
John Malkovich - Actor
James Madison - American president and political theorist
Karl Marx - German political philosopher and economist
Barry Manilow - Singer
Todd McFarlane - Comic Artist/Writer
Jack Nicholson (lets not forget the axe) - Actor
Christopher Reeve (Died Sunday, Oct. 10 at the age of 52, may he RIP) - actor
Tool - Band
Linus Torvalds - Created Linux
Slayer - Band
Freidrich Nietzsche - German philologist and philosopher
Frank Zappa - American musician
Galileo Galilei - Italian astronomer
Elizabeth Cady-Stanton - American suffragist
Billy Joel - American musician
Ayn Rand - Russian-born author
Benjamin Franklin - American Founding Father, author, and inventor
Dave Matthews - South African rock musician
Charles Darwin - English naturalist
Ernest Hemingway - American author
Abraham Lincoln - American president
Albert Einstein - German-born American physicist
Sigmund Freud - Austrian physician and pioneer psychoanalyst

Answer 4

The mere fact that any one of those men claimed to be Xians means nothing other than that is what would keep them free and living men. Giordano Bruno was imprisoned for 7 years and then burned alive for making claims against the church (probably the "dude" Jane is referring to). The Xian faith has been dead for any reasoning person since the time of Copernicus, and has persisted on the fear surrounding those who refuse to accept reason.

Answer 5

Absolutely not. The Creation story of the Bible was the best explanation for our existence at the times they worked. Being scientists, they were constantly aware of the need to test and measure theories and explanations - each of those you name offered something dramatically new to our thinking, changing the way we see the world. Since their time, science has disclosed better explanations for our existence and it is no surprise to find that there are virtually NO theists among our great scientists today. Those who blindly expect things to be exactly as they were described during the Bronze age would not make good scientists. I reserve my scorn for them.

Answer 6

no. personally i admire Kepler for his ability to respect the facts no matter how disquieting they might be. Kepler was even trained to defend the faith.

not believing in god doesnt mean you scorn everyone that thinks differently than you, which is more than i can say for scripture. heresy, in the old testiment, is delt by "shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them" ..a prety common phrase in the bible o.0
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addendum::
Jane was referring to Galileo, who WAS NOT executed by the church. that is a myth. he did, however, spend the rest of his life in isolation, a sentence passed down by the church for his crime of heresy

"Galileo was allowed to return to his villa at Arcetri near Florence, where he spent the remainder of his life under house arrest, dying on January 8, 1642"

--my mistake, i said Copernicus at first--post edited :)

p.s. im not an athiest; i'm agnostic. close enough tho :)

Answer 7

Not at all, but nor is their believe any evidnce of the truth of what they believed. All a respected intelligent persons belief in something should encourage one to do is to examine the evidence for themselves. Why they believed it is important in comeing to your own conclusion, but the fact that they believed it should have no brearing on that conclusion beyound getting you to look at it.

Answer 8

They were products of their time, before the 15th century people thought the Sun went round the earth. Almost all 19th century white people were racists, they would not be so today.

Answer 9

I wouldn't scorn them.

All of those great scientists discovered many concepts that we accept today and have improved upon very little. However, at the time of their discoveries, the "Church" (Pope, et. al.) and other believers labeled them heretics.

Answer 10

Of course they were Christians....Some Catholics???? What else would they be less they be burned alive!!!!!
REMEMBER that one of those dudes was executed for being a heretic and because he said something that merely THREATENED the Christian power structure...
come on now.