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Lists of atheists

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The people in this list have been included because they are/were atheists, that is, they do not or did not believe in God or gods, and this disbelief can be asserted because they themselves have expressed it openly (on the record), or in their works, personal correspondence, diaries, etc. Presumed atheists are not included here.

Given the different possible qualifications of the word atheist and its varied uses through time, some people listed here would be called agnostics or anti-religionists rather than simply atheists, but the list attempts to be inclusive on this matter. The reader should consult the relevant biographical articles for details.

The list has two sections. The first one is for atheists who are or were notable defenders of the cause of atheism, or who advocated views of the human condition, society, economy, etc., that were compatible with atheism. In short, these people are or were important for other atheists, since they contribute(d) to the popularization, understanding, and acceptance of atheism in society, either through their works or through their deeds.

The other section is for famous people who just happen/happened to be atheists, and whose unbelief is/was relevant in their life, but who do not/did not actively fight for its cause.

There might not be a consensus on whether a given person belongs in the second section, since obviously there is no way of listing all famous people who just happen to be atheists (there is no point, either). Many of these profess their atheism as just a peripheral issue in their lives, or simply keep quiet about it, and they will not be listed here.

Influential or outspoken atheists, by primary occupation

Activists

Entertainment

Literature & Art

Philosophy

  • Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) - British jurist, eccentric, philosopher and social reformer, founder of utilitarianism. He had John Stuart Mill as his disciple.
  • Albert Camus (1913-1960) - French philosopher and novelist, a luminary of existentialism.
  • Auguste Comte (1798-1857) - French philosopher, considered the father of sociology.
  • André Comte-Sponville (1952-) - French materialist philosopher.
  • Paul Henry Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) - French homme de lettres, philosopher and encyclopedist, member of the philosophical movement of French materialism, attacked Christianity and religion as counter to the moral advancement of humanity.
  • Marquis de Condorcet (1743 - 1794) - French philosopher and mathematician of the Enlightenment.
  • Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse François de Sade) (1740-1814) - French aristocrat, writer of philosophy-laden pornography and pure philosophy, who denied the existence of morality based on a mandate from divine authority.
  • Daniel Dennett (1942-) - American philosopher, leading figure in evolutionary biology and cognitive science, well-known for his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
  • Denis Diderot (1713-1784) - French philosopher, author, editor of the first encyclopedia. Known for the quote "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
  • Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872) - German philosopher, postulated that God is merely a projection by humans of their own best qualities.
  • Paul Kurtz (1926-) - American philosopher, skeptic, founder of Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the Council for Secular Humanism.
  • Karl Marx (1818-1883) - German philosopher, sociologist, political economist, journalist and revolutionary, founder of Marxism. His famous formulation was: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
  • James Mill (1773-1836) - British historian and philosopher, father of John Stuart Mill; he supported the utilitarian principles of Jeremy Bentham.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) - German Existentialist philosopher who wrote Beyond Good and Evil which refuted the traditional notions of morality. Nietzsche is forever associated with the phrase "God is dead" (from his book Also sprach Zarathustra).
  • Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994) - Austrian-born British philosopher of science, who claimed that empirical falsifiability should be the criterion for distinguishing scientific theory from non-science.
  • Richard Rorty (1931-) - American philosopher, whose ideas combine pragmatism with a Wittgensteinian ontology that declares that meaning is a social-linguistic product of dialogue. He actually rejects the theist/atheist dichotomy and prefers to call himself "anti-clerical."
  • M. N. Roy (1887-1954) - Indian political thinker, founder his Radical Humanism school of philosophy.
  • Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM (1872-1970) - British mathematician, philosopher, logician, political liberal, activist, popularizer of philosophy, and 1950 Nobel Laureate in Literature. On the issue of atheism/agnosticism, he wrote the essay "Why I Am Not a Christian".
  • Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) - French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic.
  • Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) - British philosopher, follower of utilitarianism.
  • Peter Singer (1946-) - Australian philosopher and teacher, working on practical ethics from a utilitarian perspective, controversial for his opinions on abortion and euthanasia.

Politics & Law

Science & Medicine

Classical

  • Anaxagoras (500?-428? BCE) - Greek philosopher, freethinker, regarded the conventional gods as mythic abstractions endowed with anthropomorphic attributes.
  • Brihaspati - Traditionally taken to be the founder of the Lokayata philosophical school in India, along with Carvaka.
  • Carvaka - Materialist philosopher in ancient India.
  • Democritus (460?-357 BCE) - Greek philosopher, father of materialism, viewed everything as matter composed of indestructible particles ("atoms").
  • Diagoras (called Diagoras the Atheist of Melos) (5th cent. BCE) - Greek poet and sophist.
  • Epicurus (341-270 BCE) - Greek materialist philosopher.
  • Lucretius (96?-55 BCE) - Roman philosopher and poet, Epicurean atomist, wrote On the Nature of Things.
  • Protagoras (481?-411 BCE) - Greek philosopher.
  • Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the Younger" (BCE 4-65 CE) - Roman stoic philosopher, writer and politician.

Other known atheists by primary occupation

Activism & Education

Entertainment

Literature and Art

Philosophy

  • Noam Chomsky (1928-) - American philosopher, linguist, radical left-wing political activist, describes himself as "libertarian socialist" and "anarcho-syndicalist".

Politics & Law

Science and Medicine

See also

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