Douglas Adams
Woody Allen
Susan B. Anthony
Lance Armstrong
Isaac Asimov
Marlon Brando
George Carlin
Dick Cavett
Arthur C. Clarke
George Clooney
Francis Crick - Nobel Prize laureate biophysicist, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.
Madam Marie Curie
Rodney Dangerfield
Clarence Darrow
Rhichard Dawkins
Micky Dolenz
Thomas Edison
Richard Feynman - American physicist and expert lecturer, Nobel Prize winner in Physics.
Sigmund Freud
Bill Gates
David Gilmour
Katharine Hepburn
Angelina Jolie
Stanley Kubrick
Burt Lancaster
Dave Matthews
Aurthur Miller
Marilyn Monroe
Randy Newman
Natalie Portman
Ayn Rand - Russian-born American novelist and philosopher
Ron Reagan - Son of former president Ronald Reagan
Christopher Reeve
Gene Roddenberry
Bertrand Russell
Carl Sagan
Camille Saint-Saens
William Shatner
Julia Sweeney
Uma Thurman
Ted Turner
Frank Zappa
I like the Chris Reeve and the Edison the most.
What does life mean? Why does the purposeless, random chance of evolution mean anything? Why does our brain seem to want to know what life is about? What is it about the human conscience that seems to make us believe in our hearts that this can’t be it. A feeling I’m sure everybody has had but just repressed it. But, none the less we still seek for peace on this earth. That’s interesting. What is peace and how did we get that Idea into our mind? These famouse people need no worry about it. They have fame and that will console them in the mean time. People like me and you though, must be consoled by others means. Just some thoughts. Thank you for your time.
Zulla, evolution isn’t random and purposeless. Evolution (to greatly simplify) consists of two processes, random mutation and natural selection. The mutations are indeed random, but natural selection is just the opposite. As its name suggests, it selects from the random changes. Just to clarify.
You’re quite right that people do look for something greater than themselves in the universe. Certainly I do. But there’s no reason it necessarily has to be religion. I find grandeur in the tremendous sweep of the cosmos, in the tiny intricacies of microscopic and subatomic space (”Inner Space”, as the ride at Disneyland called it). I find morals in an expanded sense of Do Unto Others What You’d Have Them Do Unto You. I even find a spiritualism of sorts in something like karma–deep down I have a feeling that what goes around comes around. And I have friends and family. These are inspirations to do the right thing, they are things that make me feel not so alone in the universe, and there’s nothing about them that has to come from religion.
I do think there’s more to life than just the plain physical world, but it’s not the presence of a supreme being who creates a world and allows it to go to hell, who tells us all how to behave yet sets a very poor example.
Leon, you should read Imanuel Kant. He is known as the greatest philosopher. Read the moral arguement. There was never a bad example in displayed, but a great example of an innocent man destroyed by us due unto other humans. If the world were not given a chance to choose, why do good? Here is the definition of religion by-the-way: Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals which generally involve a faith in a spiritual nature as well as a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life…huh sounds like you follow a religion to me and every other atheist that I have spoken to.
“Beliefs,” “Faith,” “spiritual nature.”
Atheism doesn’t sound like any kind of religion whatsoever, even by this definition.
The proper definitions of atheism involve an absence of belief in deities/spiritual world.
Only in religion do the inmates pity the escapees!
You forgot Stanley Kubrick and Ayn Rand.
Thanks Jonathan.
Hey! Where’s Penn and Teller?
They own, and it would be a travesty if they weren’t on the list. ;D
Don’t forget Dave Matthews!!!
Thanks AJ.
If anyone else can add any names of famous people, please let me know. I’ll verify that they are atheists and then add them to the list.
Capella