Can you name any historical Atheist?

Question

You can go as far back in history as you like. A reference, some proof would be great. Just wish to learn. Thanks.

Answer 1

Some famous atheists and doubters in history:

Diogenes - ancient Greek philosopher

Epicurus -another ancient Greek philosopher, he wrestled with the concept of the incompatibility of an omnipresent god with the existence of evil. Also believed in hedonism as a way of life, but held intellectual pleasure higher, and preferred the permanent pleasures to momentary ones.

Xenophanes - Another ancient Greek philosopher, he was quoted as saying : "we make god in our own image." Many atheists today also believe this is so.

Anaxagoras - This Greek has the distinction of being the earliest person known to have been indicted for atheism, in 467 B.C.

Aristotle - He argued that the world could not have been created, although he apparently believed in his god nevertheless.

Freud - a father of psychoanalysis, taught us about the id, ego and superego, as well as repression. Quoting Freud: "A Religion is an illusion, and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses."

Schopenhauer - The essential or absolute reality is a blind and restless will to live; life is an evil, to be cured by overcoming will to live.

Nietzsche - German philosopher, advocated overcoming the slave mentality and nihilism that he thought were exemplified in historical Christianity.

David Hume - He made scathing critiques of the traditional arguments for the existence of god. He also held that god was the product of the human mind.

Voltaire- Railed against the Catholic Church, and called its methods of ensuring adherence to its teachings "the logic of the sword."

Answer 2

Voltaire, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Nietsche, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao Tse-Tung, Madeline Murray O'Hare, Margaret Sanger, John Lennon, Bill Gates, Stephen King, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, etc.

Answer 3

Plenty.

Living:
Annika Sorenstam
Lance Armstrong
Bill Gates
Warren Buffett
Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate still teaching at U. Texas
Richard Dawkins
Barbara Forrest (the person creationists hate the most)

Dan Barker
Ellen Johnson
Edwin Kagin

Dead:

Issac Asimov
HL Mencken
Robert Ingersoll
Mark Twain
Albert Einstein (despite the lies told about him)

Stalin was Russian Orthodox Christian, "Papa Doc" Duvalier was Catholic. Smell your strawmen burning?

Answer 4

Socrates
Buddha
David Hume
Percy Shelley
Mary Shelley
Marie Curie
Thomas Hardy
H.G. Wells
Bertrand Russell
Albert Camus
Jean-Paul Sartre
Simone de Beauvoir
Carl Sagan
Douglas Adams

Answer 5

Atheists do no longer have leaders. EDIT: I misunderstood the question. You had to understand if any leaders contained in the previous were atheists. the answer is convinced. There have also been leaders contained in the previous which have had mustaches. Neither having a mustache or being an atheist under no circumstances determines the way a pacesetter makes their judgements re: politics.

Answer 6

I think the first known recorded atheist philosopher/poet dates back to 400 BCE.

http://www.stenudd.com/myth/greek/diagoras.htm

Some others:

Anaxagoras (500? -428? BCE), a Greek philosopher and teacher, was thrown in a dungeon for impiety after suggesting that the sun is a hot stone and the moon made of earth. He also believed that the gods were mythical and anthropomorphic abstractions. His philosophy that all matter had existed originally as atoms prepared the way for the atomic theory of Democritus.

Diagoras "the Atheist" of Melos (c. 430 BCE) once threw a wooden image of a god into a fire, saying that the deity should perform another miracle and save itself. The Athenians put a price on his capture, dead or alive, and he fled, living the rest of his life in Sparta.


Theodorus "the Atheist" of Cyrene (c. 310 BCE) was one of the Cyrenaics. They believed that humankind should seek to control its own destiny, and that pleasure is the meaning of life. However, Theodorus argued that lasting happiness and tranquility are better than intense but transient pleasures. Cyrenaicism was the precursor to the more sophisticated form of hedonism of the Epicurus and his followers.


The Greek philosopher Protagoras (480? -411?BC) had said, "Man is the measure of all things". He was an outspoken agnostic who had said, "As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or do not exist. For many are the obstacles that impede knowledge, both the obscurity of the question and the shortness of human life." For this he was accused of impiety, banished, and copies of his writings were confiscated for public burning.


Sextus Empericus (4th century BCE) was a Greek philosopher and atheist. Sextus wrote about atheists before him such as Euhemerus, Diagoras of Melos, Theodorus and Prodicus of Ceos. Prodicus was also was a Sophist, and Sophists were the first to systematize education. According to the writings of Sextus, Euhemerus believed that the gods were "certain men of power" who were thought to be gods for that reason. Prodicus reduced God to that which benefits life. Critias believed that lawgivers invented the idea of gods and divine vengeance in order to prevent secret wrong doings against others. Theodorus "demolished" Greek theology using various arguments in his treatise "On Gods".

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/humanism/79214

Answer 7

I shall let their own words speak for them:

Albert Einstein- "I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
Aldous Huxley- "You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough."
Buddha- Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it ... or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

Diagoras (5th century BCE): Ancient Greek poet and sophist known as the Atheist of Milos, who declared that there were no Gods.

Answer 8

If By Historical, you mean Profound, I am thinking?
Isaac Asimov [considered] one of the most intelligents if not the most, he studied everything he could while he was on the earth :)

Asimov called himself an atheist, though he felt the term was somewhat inadequate, describing more what he did not believe than what he did. Later, he found the term "humanist" a useful substitute.

I personally know Jesus Christ as God...

Answer 9

Douglas Adams, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Woody Allen, Lance Armstrong, Darren Aronofsky, Isaac Asimov, Dave Barry, Ingmar Bergman, Lewis Black, Richard Branson, Berkeley Breathed, Warren Buffett, George Carlin, John Carmack, Adam Carolla, John Carpenter, Asia Carrera, Fidel Castro, Dick Cavett, Noam Chomsky, Billy Connolly, Francis Crick, David Cronenberg, David Cross, Alan Cumming, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Ani DiFranco, Micky Dolenz, Harlan Ellison, Brian Eno, Richard Feynman, Harvey Fierstein, Larry Flynt, Dave Foley, Jodie Foster, Janeane Garofalo, Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Ricky Gervais, Ira Glass, James Gleick, Robert Heinlein, Nat Hentoff, Katharine Hepburn, Christopher Hitchens, Eddie Izzard, Penn Jillette, Billy Joel, Angelina Jolie, Wendy Kaminer, Diane Keaton, Ken Keeler, Neil Kinnock, Michael Kinsley, Richard Leakey, Bruce Lee, Tom Lehrer, Tom Leykis, James Lipton, H.P. Lovecraft, John Malkovich, Barry Manilow, Todd McFarlane, Sir Ian McKellen, Arthur Miller, Frank Miller, Marvin Minsky, Julianne Moore, Desmond Morris, Randy Newman, Mike Nichols, Jack Nicholson, Gary Numan, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Camille Paglia, Steven Pinker, Paula Poundstone, Terry Pratchett, James Randi, Ron Reagan Jr., Keanu Reeves, Rick Reynolds, Gene Roddenberry, Joe Rogan, Henry Rollins, Andy Rooney, Salman Rushdie, Bob Simon, Steven Soderbergh, Annika Sorenstam, George Soros, Richard Stallman, Bruce Sterling, Howard Stern, J. Michael Straczynski, Julia Sweeney, Matthew Sweet, Teller, Studs Terkel, Tom Tomorrow, Linus Torvalds, Eddie Vedder, Paul Verhoeven, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Sarah Vowell, James Watson, Steven Weinberg, Joss Whedon, Ted Williams, Steve Wozniak.......
[ http://www.celebatheists.com ]



more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheists

Answer 10

Karl Marx