2007-04-26 15:28:30 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Depends if current or past.
I think the US orator Robert Ingersoll made some of the lovliest speeches in this regard. If the US followed his advice, they would be the most respected nation on earth.
Bertrand Russell - best writings I have ever read on the matter. Wonderfully ethical and clever man. Champion of knowledge and pacifism.
Richard Dawkins - his earliest books seem now overlooked. His book 'UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW' combines the beauty of art and poetry and the wonder of science. He didn't need to become so outspoken, but he saw a need and has provided such a rational and well-mannered argument for atheism. Ok so he may tear people a new intellectual asshole but he does it with the manners of an English gentlemen.
2007-04-26 15:42:13 · answer #1 · answered by nicevolve 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Albert Einstein.
He did not let his disbelief in a theistic or deistic deity stop him from marveling at the beauty and splendor of the universe, and he never forgot that imagination is more important than any other mental gift we have. He did what was meaningful to him, and was unafraid of rituals that made him feel that beauty and splendor even though he didn't believe in anything but the way the rituals made him feel.
At most, he said he believed in Spinoza's God, an atheistic concept that recognizes in natural law beauty and awe.
He was a kid at heart.
"I am a deeply religious non-believer. This is a somewhat new kind of religion." -- Albert Einstein.
2007-04-26 22:37:07 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
John Lennon
2007-04-26 22:39:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Gee, I don't know.
For me it would be somebody who's only famous in Holland: Ronald Plasterk, an atheist scientist who just was appointed as Minister of Education in the Netherlands. That guy is so bright, tolerant and to-the-point that it sometimes truly makes me jealous.
Dawkins comes to mind, of course, but I don't really like him as a person. Sam Harris seems a more friendly human being, but I sometimes think he should be more to-the-point.
2007-04-26 22:34:38 · answer #4 · answered by ? 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Madalynn Murray O'Hair - nasty, irreverent, and sarcastic old broad - all of the evil qualities that atheists are best known for, those vile dregs of humanity. When a hospital chaplain visited her in her room and asked if there was anything that he could do for her, she said "yeah, get lost."
2007-04-26 22:41:10 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
George Carlin.
2007-04-26 22:32:55 · answer #6 · answered by Resident Heretic 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Probably Daniel Dennett.
2007-04-26 22:39:49 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, the smart people I respect I don't know for sure call themselves atheists. I think it is more of a stigma to call yourself an atheist than to be of a religious persuasion.
2007-04-26 22:34:21 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thomas Jefferson...
2007-04-26 22:32:42 · answer #9 · answered by Julian X 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
James Randi. He's spent more time in the trenches advancing critical thought and debunking the mythological mindset than anyone else I can name.
2007-04-26 22:40:16 · answer #10 · answered by wanfuforever 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋