List of atheists in science and technology

This is a list of atheists in science and technology. Living persons in this list are people whose atheism is relevant to their notable activities or public life, and who have publicly identified themselves as atheists. A statement by a living person that they do not believe in God is not a sufficient criterion for inclusion in this list, neither is description in a third-party source as a self-confessed atheist.

Science and technology

Zhores Alferov

Philip Warren Anderson

Hans Bethe

Niels Bohr

James Chadwick

William Kingdon Clifford

Francis Crick

Jean le Rond d'Alembert

Richard Dawkins

Paul Ehrenfest

Paul Erdős

Hugh Everett III

Richard Feynman

Stephen Hawking

Peter Higgs

Lev Landau

Ernst Mach

Andrey Markov

John McCarthy

Marvin Minsky

Gaspard Monge

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Linus Pauling

Roger Penrose

Derek J. de Solla Price

Bertrand Russell

Oliver Sacks

Meghnad Saha

Andrei Sakharov

Erwin Schrödinger

William Shockley

William James Sidis

Stephen Smale

Richard Stallman

Victor J. Stenger

Alfred Tarski

Kip Thorne

Linus Torvalds

Craig Venter

James Watson

Joseph Weber

Steven Weinberg

Frank Whittle

Eugene Wigner

Oscar Zariski

Konrad Zuse

Fritz Zwicky

• Zhores Alferov (1930–): Belarusian, Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics. He is an inventor of the heterotransistor and the winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.^[1][2]
• Jim Al-Khalili OBE (1962–): Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey^[3]
• Philip W. Anderson (1923–): American physicist. He was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977. Anderson has made contributions to the theories of localization, antiferromagnetism and high-temperature superconductivity.^[4]
• François Arago (1786–1853): French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician.^[5]
• Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927): Swedish scientist and the first Swedish Nobel Prize winner.^[6][7]
• Peter Atkins (1940–): English chemist, Professor of chemistry at Lincoln College, Oxford in England.^[8]
• Sir Edward Battersby Bailey FRS (1881–1965): British geologist, director of the British Geological Survey.^[9]
• Sir Patrick Bateson FRS (1938–): English biologist and science writer, Emeritus Professor of ethology at Cambridge University and president of the Zoological Society of London.^[10]
• William Bateson (1861–1926): British geneticist, a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he eventually became Master. He was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity and biological inheritance, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscovery.^[11]
• Charles H. Bennett (1943–): American physicist, information theorist and IBM Fellow at IBM Research. He is best known for his work in quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and is one of the founding fathers of modern quantum information theory.^[12]
• John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971): British biophysicist. Best known for pioneering X-ray crystallography in molecular biology.^[13]
• Paul Bert (1833–1886): French zoologist, physiologist and politician. Known for his research on oxygen toxicity.^[14]
• Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907): French chemist and politician noted for the Thomsen-Berthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substances and disproved the theory of vitalism.^[15][16]
• Claude Louis Berthollet (1748–1822): French chemist.^[17]
• Hans Bethe (1906–2005): German-American nuclear physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.^[18] A versatile theoretical physicist, Bethe also made important contributions to quantum electrodynamics, nuclear physics, solid-state physics and astrophysics. During World War II, he was head of the Theoretical Division at the secret Los Alamos laboratory which developed the first atomic bombs. There he played a key role in calculating the critical mass of the weapons, and did theoretical work on the implosion method used in both the Trinity test and the "Fat Man" weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.^[19]
• Norman Bethune (1890–1939): Canadian physician and medical innovator.^[20]
• Patrick Blackett OM, CH, FRS (1897–1974): Nobel Prize–winning English experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism.^[21]
• Susan Blackmore (1951–): English psychologist and memeticist, best known for her book The Meme Machine.^[22]
• Niels Bohr (1885–1962): Danish physicist. Best known for his foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.^{[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]}
• Sir Hermann Bondi KCB, FRS (1919–2005): Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist, best known for co-developing the steady-state theory of the universe and important contributions to the theory of general relativity.^[31][32]
• Paul D. Boyer (1918–): American biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1997.^[33]
• Calvin Bridges (1889–1938): American geneticist, known especially for his work on fruit fly genetics.^[34]
• Percy Williams Bridgman (1882–1961): American physicist who won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures.^[35][36][37]
• Rodney Brooks (1954–): Australian-American computer scientist and roboticist.^[38]
• Ruth Mack Brunswick (1897–1946): American psychologist, a close confidant of and collaborator with Sigmund Freud.^[39]
• Sean M. Carroll (1966–): American cosmologist specializing in dark energy and general relativity.
• James Chadwick (1891–1974): English physicist. He won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron.^[40]
• William Kingdon Clifford FRS (1845–1879): English mathematician and philosopher, co-introducer of geometric algebra, the first to suggest that gravitation might be a manifestation of an underlying geometry, and coiner of the expression "mind-stuff".^[41]
• Frank Close OBE (1945–): British particle physicist, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience, for which he was awarded the Institute of Physics's Kelvin Medal and Prize.^[42]
• Samuel T. Cohen (1921–2010): American physicist who invented the W70 warhead and is generally credited as the father of the neutron bomb.^[43]
• John Horton Conway (1937–): British mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He is best known for the invention of the cellular automaton called Conway's Game of Life.^[44]
• Brian Cox OBE (1968–): English particle physicist, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Professor at the University of Manchester. Best known as a presenter of a number of science programmes for the BBC. He also had some fame in the 1990s as the keyboard player for the pop band D:Ream.^[45][46]
• Jerry Coyne (1949–): American professor of biology, known for his books on evolution and commentary on the intelligent design debate.^[47]
• Francis Crick (1916–2004): English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist; noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.^{[48][49][50][51][52][53][54]}
• George Washington Crile (1864–1943): American surgeon. Crile is now formally recognized as the first surgeon to have succeeded in a direct blood transfusion.^[55]
• Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958): French physicist who, jointly with his wife, won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of artificial radioactivity.^[56]
• Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956): French scientist, the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. .^[57][58]
• Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783): French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie.^[59][60]
• Richard Dawkins (1941–): British zoologist, biologist, creator of the concept of the meme; outspoken atheist and popularizer of science, author of The God Delusion and founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.^[61]
• Jean Baptiste Delambre (1749–1822): French mathematician and astronomer.^[62]
• Arnaud Denjoy (1884–1974): French mathematician, noted for his contributions to harmonic analysis and differential equations.^[63]
• Paul Dirac (1902–1984): British theoretical physicist, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, predicted the existence of antimatter, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.^{[64][65][66][67][68][69]}
• Christian de Duve (1917–2013): Belgian cytologist and biochemist. He made serendipitous discoveries of two cell organelles, peroxisome and lysosome, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Albert Claude and George E. Palade ("for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell"). In addition to peroxisome and lysosome, he invented the scientific names such as autophagy, endocytosis, and exocytosis in a single occasion. .^{[70][71][72][73]}
• Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896): German physician and physiologist, the discoverer of nerve action potential, and the father of experimental electrophysiology.^[74]
• Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933): Austrian and Dutch theoretical physicist, who made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem.^[75][76]
• Thomas Eisner (1929–2011): German-American entomologist and ecologist, known as the "father of chemical ecology".^[77]
• Albert Ellis (1913–2007): American psychologist who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.^[78]
• Paul Erdős (1913–1996): Hungarian mathematician. He published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory.^[79]
• Richard R. Ernst (1933–): Swiss physical chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991.^[80]
• Hugh Everett III (1930–1982): American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he termed his "relative state" formulation.^[81]
• Hans Eysenck (1916–1997): German psychologist and author who is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas. He was the founding editor of the journal Personality and Individual Differences, and authored about 80 books and more than 1600 journal articles.^[82]
• Sandra Faber (1944–): American University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, also working at the Lick Observatory, who headed the team that discovered 'The Great Attractor.^[83]
• Gustav Fechner (1801–1887): German experimental psychologist. An early pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics.^[84]
• Leon Festinger (1919–1989): American social psychologist famous for his Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.^[85]
• Richard Feynman (1918–1988): American theoretical physicist, best known for his work in renormalizing Quantum electrodynamics (QED) and his path integral formulation of quantum mechanics . He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.^[86][87][88]
• James Franck (1882–1964): German physicist. Won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925.^[89]
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Austrian neurologist and known as Father of psychoanalysis.^[90]
• Erich Fromm (1900–1980): German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory.^[91]
• Christer Fuglesang (1957–): Swedish astronaut and physicist.^[92]
• George Gamow (1904–1968): Russian-born theoretical physicist and cosmologist. An early advocate and developer of Lemaître's Big Bang theory.^{[93][94][95][96]}
• Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1772–1850): French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for two laws related to gases.^[97]
• Vitaly Ginzburg (1916–2009): Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, Nobel laureate, a member of the Soviet and Russian Academies of Sciences and one of the fathers of Soviet hydrogen bomb.^[98]
• Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, CBE (1950–): British scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords, specialising in the physiology of the brain.^[99]
• Herb Grosch (1918–2010): Canadian-American computer scientist, perhaps best known for Grosch's law, which he formulated in 1950.^[100]
• Alan Guth (1947–): American theoretical physicist and cosmologist.^[101]
• Jacques Hadamard (1865–1963): French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex function theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations.^[102]
• Jonathan Haidt (c.1964–): Associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, focusing on the psychological bases of morality across different cultures, and author of The Happiness Hypothesis.^[103]
• J. B. S. Haldane (1892-1964): British polymath well known for his works in physiology, genetics and evolutionary biology. He was also a mathematician making innovative contributions to statistics and biometry education in India. Haldane was also the first to construct human gene maps for haemophilia and colour blindness on the X chromosome and he was one of the first people to conceive abiogenesis.^[104]
• E. T. 'Teddy' Hall (1924–2001): English archaeological scientist, famous for exposing the Piltdown Man fraud and claiming that the Shroud of Turin is a medieval fake.^[105]
• Sir James Hall (1761–1832): Scottish geologist and chemist, President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.^[106]
• Edmond Halley (1656–1742): English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist and physicist. Best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet.^[107]
• Beverly Halstead (1933–1991): British paleontologist and populariser of science.^[108]
• Frances Hamerstrom (1908–1998): American author, naturalist and ornithologist known for her work with the greater prairie chicken in Wisconsin, and for her research on birds of prey.^[109]
• W. D. Hamilton (1936–2000): British evolutionary biologist, widely recognised as one of the greatest evolutionary theorists of the 20th century.^[110]
• G. H. Hardy (1877–1947): a prominent English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis.^[111][112]
• Herbert A. Hauptman (1917–2011): American mathematician. Along with Jerome Karle, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985.^[113]
• Stephen Hawking (1942–): British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.^[114]
• Ewald Hering (1834–1918): German physiologist who did much research into color vision, binocular perception and eye movements. He proposed opponent color theory in 1892.^[115][116]
• Peter Higgs (1929–): British theoretical physicist, recipient of the Dirac Medal and Prize, known for his prediction of the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God particle".^[117]
• Roald Hoffmann (1937–): American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.^[118]
• Lancelot Hogben (1895–1975): English experimental zoologist and medical statistician, now best known for his popularising books on science, mathematics and language.^[119]
• Fred Hollows (1929 – 1993), New Zealand and Australian ophthalmologist. He became known for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of people in Australia and many other countries.^[120]
• Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): English astronomer noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally coined by him on BBC radio.^[121]
• Russell Alan Hulse (1950–): American physicist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with his thesis advisor Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr..^[122]
• Nicholas Humphrey (1943–): British psychologist, working on consciousness and belief in the supernatural from a Darwinian perspective, and primatological research into Machiavellian intelligence theory.^[123]
• Sir Julian Huxley FRS (1887–1975): English evolutionary biologist, a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund.^[124]
• François Jacob (1920–2013): French biologist who, together with Jacques Monod, originated the idea that control of enzyme levels in all cells occurs through feedback on transcription. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Jacques Monod and André Lwoff.^[125]
• Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958): French physicist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1935.^[56][126]
• Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956): French scientist. She is the daughter of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. She along with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935.^[57][58]
• Steve Jones (1944–): British geneticist, Professor of genetics and head of the biology department at University College London, and television presenter and a prize-winning author on biology, especially evolution; one of the best known contemporary popular writers on evolution.^[127][128]
• Paul Kammerer (1880–1926): Austrian biologist who studied and advocated the now abandoned Lamarckian theory of inheritance – the notion that organisms may pass to their offspring characteristics they have acquired in their lifetime.^[129][130]
• Samuel Karlin (1924–2007): American mathematician. He did extensive work in mathematical population genetics.^[131]
• Stuart Kauffman (1939-): American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life on Earth. He is best known for arguing that the complexity of biological systems and organisms might result as much from self-organization and far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian natural selection, as well as for applying models of Boolean networks to simplified genetic circuits.^[132]
• Ancel Keys (1904–2004): American scientist who studied the influence of diet on health. He examined the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and was responsible for two famous diets: K-rations and the Mediterranean diet.^[133]
• Alfred Dillwyn Knox (1884–1943): British classics scholar and papyrologist at King's College, Cambridge, and a cryptologist. As a member of the World War I Room 40 codebreaking unit, he helped decrypt the Zimmermann Telegram, which brought the USA into the war. At the end of World War I, he joined the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) and on 25 July 1939, as Chief Cryptographer, participated in the Polish-French-British Warsaw meeting that disclosed Polish achievements, since December 1932, in the continuous breaking of German Enigma ciphers, thus kick-starting the British World War II Ultra operations at Bletchley Park.^[134]
• Lawrence Krauss (1954–): Professor of physics at Arizona State University and popularizer of science. Krauss speaks regularly at atheist conferences, like Beyond Belief and Atheist Alliance International.^[135]
• Herbert Kroemer (1928–): German-American professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2000, he along with Zhores I. Alferov, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics".^[136]
• Harold Kroto (1939–2016): 1996 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.^[137]
• Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956): American biologist, sexologist and professor of entomology and zoology.^[138]
• Ray Kurzweil (1948–): American author, scientist, inventor and futurist. He is the author of several books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism.^[139]
• Jérôme Lalande (1732–1807): French astronomer and writer.^[140]
• Lev Landau (1908–1968): Russian physicist. He received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity.^[141][142]
• Christopher Langton (1948 or 1949-): American computer scientist and one of the founders of the field of artificial life.^[143]
• Richard Leakey (1944–): Kenyan paleontologist, archaeologist and conservationist.^[144]
• Leon M. Lederman (1922–): American physicist who, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988 for their joint research on neutrinos.^[145]
• Jean-Marie Lehn (1939–): French chemist. He received the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen.^[146]
• Sir John Leslie (1766–1832): Scottish mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat; he was the first person to artificially produce ice, and gave the first modern account of capillary action.^[147]
• Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792–1856): Russian mathematician. Known for his works on hyperbolic geometry.^[148][149]
• H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins FRS (1923–2004): English theoretical chemist and a cognitive scientist.^[150]
• Paul MacCready (1925–2007): American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the Kremer prize.^[151]
• Ernst Mach (1838–1916): Austrian physicist and philosopher. Known for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves.^{[152][153][154]}
• Andrey Markov (1856–1922): Russian mathematician. He is best known for his work on stochastic processes.^[155][156]
• Samarendra Maulik (1881–1950): Indian entomologist specialising in the Coleoptera, who worked at the British Museum (Natural History) and a Professor of Zoology at the University of Calcutta.^[157]
• Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759): French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He is often credited with having invented the principle of least action; a version is known as Maupertuis' principle – an integral equation that determines the path followed by a physical system.^[158]
• Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840–1916): American-born British inventor. He was the inventor of the Maxim Gun, the first portable, fully automatic machine gun and an elaborate mousetrap.^[159][160]
• John Maynard Smith (1920–2004): British evolutionary biologist and geneticist, instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution, and noted theorizer on the evolution of sex and signalling theory.^[161]
• Ernst Mayr (1904–2005): a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist. He was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists.^[162]
• John McCarthy (1927–2011): American computer scientist and cognitive scientist who received the Turing Award in 1971 for his major contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He was responsible for the coining of the term "Artificial Intelligence" in his 1955 proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Conference and was the inventor of the Lisp programming language.^[163]
• Sir Peter Medawar (1915–1987): Nobel Prize-winning British scientist best known for his work on how the immune system rejects or accepts tissue transplants.^[164]
• Jeff Medkeff (1968–2008): American astronomer, prominent science writer and educator, and designer of robotic telescopes.^[165]
• Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916): Russian biologist, zoologist and protozoologist. He is best known for his research into the immune system. Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908, shared with Paul Ehrlich.^[166]
• Jonathan Miller CBE (1934–): British physician, actor, theatre and opera director, and television presenter. Wrote and presented the 2004 television series, Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief, exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world.^[167][168]
• Marvin Minsky (1927–2016): American cognitive scientist and computer scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in MIT.^[169][170]
• Peter D. Mitchell (1920–1992): 1978-Nobel-laureate British biochemist. His mother was an atheist and he himself became an atheist at the age of 15.^[171]
• Jacob Moleschott (1822–1893): Dutch physiologist and writer on dietetics.^[172]
• Gaspard Monge (1746–1818): French mathematician. Monge is the inventor of descriptive geometry.^{[17][173][174]}
• Jacques Monod (1910–1976): French biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965 for discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis.^[175]
• Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012): Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF).^[176]
• Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (1740–1810): French chemist and paper-manufacturer. In 1783, he made the first ascent in a balloon (inflated with warm air).^[177][178]
• Desmond Morris (1928–): English zoologist and ethologist, famous for describing human behaviour from a zoological perspective in his books The Naked Ape and The Human Zoo.^[179][180]
• Luboš Motl (1973–): Theoretical physics and string theorist. He said he is a Christian atheist.^[181]
• Fritz Müller (1821–1897): German biologist who emigrated to Brazil, where he studied the natural history of the Amazon rainforest and was an early advocate of evolutionary theory.^[182]
• Hermann Joseph Muller (1890–1967): American geneticist and educator, best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation (X-ray mutagenesis). He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946.^[183]
• PZ Myers (1957–): American biology professor at the University of Minnesota and a blogger via his blog, Pharyngula.^[184]
• John Forbes Nash, Jr. (1928–2015): American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. He shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.^[185][186]
• Yuval Ne'eman (1925–2006): Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician. One of his greatest achievements in physics was his 1961 discovery of the classification of hadrons through the SU(3)flavour symmetry, now named the Eightfold Way, which was also proposed independently by Murray Gell-Mann.^[187][188]
• Paul Nurse (1949–): English geneticist, President of the Royal Society and Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Leland Hartwell and Tim Hunt for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells in the cell cycle.[^[189]
• Mark Oliphant (1901–2000): Australian physicist and humanitarian. He played a fundamental role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and also the development of the atomic bomb.^[190]
• Alexander Oparin (1894–1980): Soviet biochemist.^[191]
• Frank Oppenheimer (1912–1985): American particle physicist, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, and the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. A younger brother of renowned physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Oppenheimer conducted research on aspects of nuclear physics during the time of the Manhattan Project, and made contributions to uranium enrichment.^[192]
• Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932): Baltic German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities. He, along with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and Svante Arrhenius, are usually credited with being the modern founders of the field of physical chemistry.^[193]
• Robert L. Park (born 1931): scientist, University of Maryland professor of physics, and author of Voodoo Science and Superstition.^[194]
• Linus Pauling (1901–1994): American chemist, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962)^[65][195]
• John Allen Paulos (1945–): Professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia and writer, author of Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up (2007)^[196]
• Ruby Payne-Scott (1912–1981): Australian pioneer in radiophysics and radio astronomy, and was the first female radio astronomer.^[197]
• Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936): Nobel Prize–winning Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician, widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning.^[198]
• Judea Pearl (1936–): Israeli American computer scientist and philosopher, best known for championing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence and the development of Bayesian networks. He won the Turing Award in 2011.^[199]
• Sir Roger Penrose (1931–): English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. He is renowned for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He is also a recreational mathematician and philosopher^[200][201]
• Francis Perrin (1901–1992): French physicist, co-establisher of the possibility of nuclear chain reactions and nuclear energy production.^[202]
• Jean Baptiste Perrin (1870–1942): French physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926.^[203]
• Max Perutz (1914–2002): Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins.^[204]
• Massimo Pigliucci (1964–): Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the Stony Brook University who known as an outspoken critic of creationism and advocate of science education.^[205]
• Steven Pinker (1954–): Canadian-born American psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author.^[206]
• Norman Pirie FRS (1907–1997): British biochemist and virologist co-discoverer in 1936 of viral crystallization, an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.^[207]
• Ronald Plasterk (1957–): Dutch prize-winning molecular geneticist and columnist, and Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the fourth Balkenende cabinet for the Labour Party.^[208]
• Derek J. de Solla Price (1922–1983): British-American historian of science.^[209]
• Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930): British mathematician who also made significant contributions in philosophy and economics.^[210]
• Marcus J. Ranum (1962–): American computer and network security researcher and industry leader. He is credited with a number of innovations in firewalls.^[211]
• Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow (1942–): British cosmologist and astrophysicist.^[212]
• Oscar Riddle (1877–1968): American biologist. He is known for his research into the pituitary gland and for isolating the hormone prolactin.^[213]
• Richard J. Roberts (1943–): British biochemist and molecular biologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1993 for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.^{[214][215][216]}
• Jason Rohrer (1977–): American computer programmer, writer, musician, and game designer.^[217]
• Steven Rose (1938–): British Professor of Biology and Neurobiology at the Open University and University of London, and author of several popular science books.^[218]
• Marshall Rosenbluth (1927–2003): American physicist, nicknamed "the Pope of Plasma Physics". He created the Metropolis algorithm in statistical mechanics, derived the Rosenbluth formula in high-energy physics, and laid the foundations for instability theory in plasma physics.^[219]
• Bertrand Russell (1872–1970): British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic and political activist. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege, colleague G. E. Moore, and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. With A. N. Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a "paradigm of philosophy". His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science (see type theory and type system), and philosophy, especially the philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.^[220]
• Oliver Sacks (1933–2015): United States-based British neurologist, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings.^[221][222]
• Meghnad Saha (1893–1956): Indian astrophysicist noted for his development in 1920 of the thermal ionization equation, has remained fundamental in all work on Stellar atmospheres. This equation has been widely applied to the interpretation of stellar spectra, which are characteristic of the chemical composition of the light source. The Saha equation links the composition and appearance of the spectrum with the temperature of the light source and can thus be used to determine either the temperature of the star or the relative abundance of the chemical elements investigated.^[223][224]
• Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989): Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He gained renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a code name for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honor.^{[225][226][227]}
• Robert Sapolsky (1957–): American Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University.^[228]
• Wallace L. W. Sargent (1935–2012): American astronomer.^[229]
• Mahendralal Sarkar (1833–1904): Indian physician and academic.^[230]
• Marcus du Sautoy (1965–): mathematician and holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science.^[231]
• Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961): Austrian-Irish physicist and theoretical biologist. A pioneer of quantum mechanics and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics.^{[232][233][234][235][236][237]}
• Laurent Schwartz (1915–2002): French mathematician, awarded the Fields medal for his work on distributions.^[238]
• Claude Shannon (1916–2001): American electrical engineer and mathematician, has been called "the father of information theory", and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory.^[239]
• Edwin Shneidman (1918–2009): American suicidologist and thanatologist.^[240]
• William Shockley (1910–1989): American physicist and inventor. Along with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, Shockley co-invented the transistor, for which all three were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.^[241]
• William James Sidis (1898–1944): American mathematician, cosmologist, inventor, linguist, historian and child prodigy.^[242]
• Boris Sidis (1867–1923): Russian American psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of child prodigy William James Sidis.^[242]
• Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001): American Nobel laureate, was a political scientist, economist, sociologist, psychologist, computer scientist, and Richard King Mellon Professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics, management, philosophy of science, sociology, and political science, unified by studies of decision-making. .^[243]
• B. F. Skinner (1904–1990): American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. Skinner developed a philosophy of science that he called radical behaviorism, and founded a school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.^[244]
• Stephen Smale (1930–): American mathematician.^[245]
• Michael Smith (1932–2000): British-born Canadian biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1993.^[246]
• John Maynard Smith (1920–2004): British theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory.^[247]
• Lee Smolin (1955–): American theoretical physicist, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo.^[248]
• Alan Sokal (1955–): American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor of physics at New York University. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism, resulting in the Sokal affair in 1996.^[249]
• Richard Stallman (1953–): American software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer.^[250]
• Jack Steinberger (1921–): German-American-Swiss physicist and Nobel Laureate in 1988, co-discoverer of the muon neutrino.^[251]
• Hugo Steinhaus (1887–1972): Polish mathematician and educator.^[252]
• Victor J. Stenger (1935–2014): American physicist, emeritus professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawaii and adjunct professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado. Author of the book God: The Failed Hypothesis.^[253][254]
• Jack Suchet (1908–2001): South African born British obstetrician, gynaecologist and venereologist, who carried out research on the use of penicillin in the treatment of venereal disease with Sir Alexander Fleming.^[255]
• Eleazar Sukenik (1889–1953): Israeli archaeologist and professor of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, undertaking excavations in Jerusalem, and recognising the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Israel.^[256]
• John Sulston (1942–): British biologist. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.^[257]
• Leonard Susskind (1940–): American theoretical physicist; a founding father of superstring theory and professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University.^[258]
• Aaron Swartz (1986–2012): American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist. Swartz was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py and the social news site Reddit, in which he was an equal partner after its merger with his Infogami company.^[259]
• Raymond Tallis (1946–): Leading British gerontologist, philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic.^[260]
• Igor Tamm (1895–1971): Soviet physicist who received the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Frank, for their 1934 discovery of Cherenkov radiation.^{[261][262][263]}
• Arthur Tansley (1871–1955): English botanist who was a pioneer in the science of ecology.^[264]
• Alfred Tarski (1901–1983): Polish logician, mathematician and philosopher, a prolific author best known for his work on model theory, metamathematics, and algebraic logic.^[265]
• Kip Thorne (1940–): American theoretical physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics and also for the popular science book, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy.^[266]
• Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988): Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals.^[267]
• Gherman Titov (1935–2000): Soviet cosmonaut and the second human to orbit the Earth.^[268]
• Linus Torvalds (1969–): Finnish software engineer, creator of the Linux kernel.^[269]
• Alan Turing (1912–1954): English mathematician, logician, and cryptologist; often considered to be the father of modern computer science. The Turing Award, often recognized as the "Nobel Prize of computing", is named after him.^[270][271]
• Matthew Turner (died ca. 1789): chemist, surgeon, teacher and radical theologian, author of the first published work of avowed atheism in Britain (1782).^[272][273]
• Harold Urey (1893–1981): American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934. He played a significant role in the development of the atom bomb, but may be most prominent for his contribution to theories on the development of organic life from non-living matter.^[274][275]
• Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943): Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted his life to the study and improvement of wheat, corn, and other cereal crops that sustain the global population.^[276]
• J. Craig Venter (1946–): American biologist and entrepreneur, one of the first researchers to sequence the human genome, and in 2010 the first to create a cell with a synthetic genome.^[277]
• Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945): Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism.^[278]
• W. Grey Walter (1910–1977): American neurophysiologist famous for his work on brain waves, and robotician.^[279]
• James D. Watson (1928–): 1962-Nobel-laureate and co-discover of the structure of DNA.^[280][281]
• The flying spaghetti monster named santa clause destroyed three nations with laser beam eyes
• Joseph Weber (1919–2000): American physicist, who gave the earliest public lecture on the principles behind the laser and the maser, and developed the first gravitational wave detectors (Weber bars).^[282]
• Steven Weinberg (1933–): American theoretical physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for the unification of electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force.^{[283][284][285]}
• Victor Weisskopf (1908–2002): Austrian-American theoretical physicist, co-founder and board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.^[286]
• Frank Whittle (1907–1996): English aerospace engineer, inventor, aviator and Royal Air Force officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine (some years earlier than Germany's Dr. Hans von Ohain) and is regarded by many as the father of jet propulsion.^[287]
• Eugene Wigner (1902–1995): Hungarian American theoretical physicist and mathematician. He received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles"; the other half of the award was shared between Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen. Wigner is important for having laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics as well as for his research into the structure of the atomic nucleus. It was Eugene Wigner who first identified Xe-135 "poisoning" in nuclear reactors, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as Wigner poisoning. Wigner is also important for his work in pure mathematics, having authored a number of theorems.^[288]
• Ian Wilmut (1944–): English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly.^[289]
• David Sloan Wilson (1949–): American evolutionary biologist, son of Sloan Wilson, proponent of multilevel selection theory and author of several popular books on evolution.^[290]
• Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS British FRSL (1929–): developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster.^[291]
• Steve Wozniak (1950–): co-founder of Apple Computer and inventor of the Apple I and Apple II.^[292]
• Elizur Wright (1804–1885): American mathematician and abolitionist, sometimes described as the "father of life insurance" for his pioneering work on actuarial tables.^[293][294]
• Will Wright (1960–): American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis.^[295]
• Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979–): American artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the singularity and an advocate of friendly artificial intelligence.^[296]
• Oscar Zariski (1899–1986): American mathematician and one of the most influential algebraic geometers of the 20th century.^[297]
• Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (1914–1987): Soviet physicist born in Belarus. He played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and made important contributions to the fields of adsorption and catalysis, shock waves, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, physical cosmology, and general relativity.^[298][299]
• Emile Zuckerkandl (1922–2013): Austrian-born biologist who is considered one of the founders of the field of molecular evolution, who co-introduced the concept of the "molecular clock", which enabled the neutral theory of molecular evolution.^[300]
• Konrad Zuse (1910–1995): German civil engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world's first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, the Z3, which became operational in May 1941.^[301][302]
• Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): Swiss astronomer and astrophysicist.^[303][304]

Notes and references

1. "Prominent Russians: Zhores Alferov". RT.com. Retrieved 21 April 2012. In public life the scientist is a strong supporter of communism, an atheist strongly objecting to advancement of religious education in Russia, and proponent of science and knowledge as the means to see a better future.
2. "Zhores I. Alferov". NNDB.com. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
3. "I find it more comfortable to say I'm an atheist, and for that I probably have someone like Dawkins to thank." - Jim Al-Khalili, BBC - Radio 4 - Science Explorer: Jim Al-Khalili featured in The Life Scientific, BBC.co.uk.com.
4. Philip W. Anderson (2011). "Imaginary Friend, Who Art in Heaven". More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon. World Scientific. p. 177. ISBN 9789814350129. We atheists can, as he does, argue that, with the modern revolution in attitudes toward homosexuals, we have become the only group that may not reveal itself in normal social discourse.
5. "The same Arago who spent his time criticizing unfounded myths now peddled them. Arago the atheist now spoke of souls." Theresa Levitt, The shadow of enlightenment: optical and political transparency in France, 1789-1848, page 105.
6. Gordon Stein (1988). The encyclopedia of unbelief 1. Prometheus Books. p. 594. ISBN 9780879753078. Svante Arrhenius (I859-I927), recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry (I903), was a declared atheist and the author of The Evolution of the Worlds and other works on cosmic physics.
7. NNDB.com. "Svante Arrhenius". Soylent Communications. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
8. When asked by Rod Liddle in the documentary The Trouble with Atheism "Give me your views on the existence, or otherwise, of God", Peter Atkins replied "Well it's fairly straightforward: there isn't one. And there's no evidence for one, no reason to believe that there is one, and so I don't believe that there is one. And I think that it is rather foolish that people do think that there is one.""The Trouble with Atheism, UK Channel 4 TV". 2006-12-18. Missing or empty |series= (help)
9. "In religious matters he was an atheist." A.G. MacGregor: "Bailey, Edward Battersby", Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 1 p. 393. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.
10. "A confirmed agnostic, he [Bateson] was converted to atheism after attending a dinner where he tried to converse with a woman who was a creationist. "For many years what had been good enough for Darwin was good enough for me. Not long after that dreadful dinner, Richard Dawkins wrote to me to ask whether I would publicly affirm my atheism. I could see no reason why not." " Lewis Smith, 'Science has second thoughts about life', The Times (London), January 1, 2008, Pg. 24.
11. "William Bateson was a very militant atheist and a very bitter man, I fancy. Knowing that I was interested in biology, they invited me when I was still a school girl to go down and see the experimental garden. I remarked to him what I thought then, and still think, that doing research must be the most wonderful thing in the world and he snapped at me that it wasn’t wonderful at all, it was tedious, disheartening, annoying and anyhow you didn’t need an experimental garden to do research." Interview with Dr. Cecilia Gaposchkin by Owen Gingerich, March 5, 1968.
12. "I am so sorry to hear of Asher's passing. I will miss his scientific insight and advice, but even more his humor and stuborn integrity. I remember when one of his colleagues complained about Asher's always rejecting his manuscript when they were sent to him to referee. Asher said in effect, "You should thank me. I am only trying to protect your reputation." He often pretended to consult me, a fellow atheist, on matters of religious protocol. As we waited in line to eat the hors d'oeuvres at a conference in Evanston, he said, "There is a prayer Jews traditionally say when they do something new that they have never done before. I am about to eat a new kind of non-Kosher food. Do you think I should say the prayer?" My wife and grown children, who are visiting us this new year, and remember Asher from when we all lived in Cambridge 20 years ago, join me in sending you our condolences for this sudden loss of an irrepressible and irreplaceable person. Please convey our feelings especially to your mother at this difficult time. " Charles H. Bennett's letter written to the family of Israeli physicist, Asher Peres, A selection of the many letters of condolence sent to the Peres family during January 2005 .
13. "The Bernals were originally Sephardic Jews who came to Ireland in 1840 from Spain via Amsterdam and London. They converted to Catholicism and John was Jesuit-educated. John enthusiastically supported the Easter Rising and, as a boy, he organised a Society for Perpetual Adoration. He moved away from religion as an adult, becoming an atheist." William Reville, John Desmond Bernal – The Sage.
14. "Dr. Paul Bert, the atheist Minister of Public Instruction, in M. Gambetta's Cabinet, made the next greatest sensation of the Congress." The Phrenological journal and science of health: incorporated with the Phrenological magazine, Volume 76, page 42.
15. Robert K. Wilcox (2010). The Truth About the Shroud of Turin: Solving the Mystery. Regnery Gateway. p. 23. ISBN 9781596986008. In 1902, Marcellin P. Berthelot, often called the founder of modern organic chemistry, was one of France's most celebrated scientists—if not the world's. He was permanent secretary of the French Academy, having succeeded the giant Louis Pasteur, the renowned microbiologist. Unlike Delage, an agnostic, Berthelot was an atheist—and militantly so.
16. Thomas de Wesselow (2012). The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection. Penguin. ISBN 9781101588550. Although Delage made it clear that he did not regard Jesus as the resurrected Son of God, his paper upset the atheist members of the Academy, including its secretary, Marcellin Berthelot, who prevented its full publication in the Academy's bulletin.
17. "Napoleon replies: "How comes it, then, that Laplace was an atheist? At the Institute neither he nor Monge, nor Berthollet, nor Lagrange believed in God. But they did not like to say so." Baron Gaspard Gourgaud, Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena with General Baron Gourgaud (1904), page 274.
18. Horgan, J. (1992) Profile: Hans A. Bethe – Illuminator of the Stars, Scientific American 267(4), 32-40.
19. Denis Brian (2001). The Voice Of Genius: Conversations With Nobel Scientists And Other Luminaries. Basic Books. p. 117. ISBN 9780738204475. Bethe: "I am an atheist."
20. Larry Hannant (1998). The Politics of Passion: Norman Bethune's Writing and Art. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-0907-4. Bethune was a communist and an atheist with a healthy contempt for his evangelical father.
21. "The grandson of a vicar on his father’s side, Blackett respected religious observances that were established social customs, but described himself as agnostic or atheist." Mary Jo Nye: "Blackett, Patrick Maynard Stuart." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 19 p. 293. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.
22. In a Point of Inquiry podcast interview, Blackmore described religion as a collection of "really pernicious memes", "I think religious memeplexes are really amongst the nastiest viruses we have on the planet". Blackmore also practices Zen Buddhist meditation; later, when she was asked: "And you find this practice of Zen, the meditative practice, completely compatible with your lack of theism, your atheism...?" she replied: "Oh yes, I mean, there is no god in Buddhism...". Susan Blackmore - In Search of the Light, Point of Inquiry, December 15, 2006 (accessed April 1, 2008).
23. Simmons, John (1996). The Scientific 100: a rankings of the most influential scientists, past and present. Carol Publishing Group. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-8065-1749-0. His mother was warm and intelligent, and his father, as Bohr himself later recalled, recognized "that something was expected of me." The family was not at all devout, and Bohr became an atheist who regarded religious thought as harmful and misguided.
24. J. Faye, H. Folse, ed. (2010). Niels Bohr and Contemporary Philosophy. Springer. p. 88. ISBN 9789048142996. Planck was religious and had a firm belief in God; Bohr was not, but his objection to Planck's view had no anti-religious motive.
25. Ray Spangenburg, Diane Kit Moser (2008). Niels Bohr: Atomic Theorist (2 ed.). Infobase Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 9780816061785. Niels had quietly resigned his membership in the Lutheran Church the previous April. Although he had sought out religion as a child, by the time of their marriage he no longer “was taken” by it, as he put it. “And for me it was exactly the same,” Margrethe later explained. “[Interest in religion] disappeared completely,” although at the time of their wedding, she was still a member of the Lutheran Church. (Niels's parents were also married in a civil, not a religious, ceremony, and Harald also resigned his membership in the Lutheran Church just before his wedding, a few years later.)
26. Science and Religion in Dialogue, Two Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons. p. 416. ISBN 9781405189217. On the other hand Bohr wrote of his admiration for the writing and presentation of Kierkegaard – at the same time stating he could not accept some of it. Part of this may have followed from Kierkegaard being a very avowed, yet rather circuitous proponent of a costly Christian faith, while after a youth of confirming faith Bohr himself was a non-believer.
27. Larry Witham (2006). The Measure of God: History's Greatest Minds Wrestle with Reconciling Science and Religion. HarperCollins. pp. 138–139. ISBN 9780060858339. "Bohr's atheism, the counterpiece of Einstein's monotheism, ... was more affined to traditional Far Eastern philosophy,” according to Stent. ...The young Bohr thus lived in two worlds, but mostly the cultural Christianity of the Danish middle class. As a young man, he had read Søren Kierkegaard, a fellow Dane and a Christian existentialist from the nineteenth century, with some enthusiasm. But he finally faced a religious crisis, and by the time he went to England to study physics, the idea of God had lost its appeal. The aim of life was happiness, he wrote his fiancée, making it impossible “that a person must beg from and bargain with fancied powers infinitely stronger than himself." ... In his only published paper on the topic of religion, Bohr spoke not of deities and doctrines but of psychological experience.
28. Gunther S. Stent; Balazs Hargittai; István Hargittai (2005). Candid Science V: Conversations with Famous Scientists. Imperial College Press. p. 518. ISBN 9781860945052. Gunther S. Stent: "Niels Bohr was one of the few five-star scientists who really was an atheist — and not merely paying lip service to atheism."
29. John L. Heilbron; Finn Aaserud (2013). Love, Literature and the Quantum Atom: Niels Bohr's 1913 Trilogy Revisited. Oxford University Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 9780191669736. A statement about religion in the loose notes on Kierkegaard may throw light on the notion of wildness that appears in many of Bohr's letters. “I, who do not feel in any way united with, and even less, bound to a God, and therefore am also much poorer [than Kierkegaard], would say that the good [is] the overall lofty goal, as only by being good [can one] judge according to worth and right.”
30. Finn Aaserud, John L. Heilbron (2013). "Part 2. Nascent Science". Love, Literature and the Quantum Atom: Niels Bohr's 1913 Trilogy Revisited. Oxford University Press. p. 110. ISBN 9780199680283. Bohr's sort of humor, use of parables and stories, tolerance, dependence on family, feelings of indebtedness, obligation, and guilt, and his sense of responsibility for science, community, and, ultimately, humankind in general, are common traits of the Jewish intellectual. So too is a well-fortified atheism. Bohr ended with no religious belief and a dislike of all religions that claimed to base their teachings on revelations.
31. "Since his childhood in Vienna Bondi had been an atheist, developing from an early age a view on religion that associated it with repression and intolerance. This view, which he shared with Hoyle, never left him. On several occasions he spoke out on behalf of freethinking, so-called, and became early on active in British atheist or "humanist" circles. From 1982 to 1999, he was president of the British Humanist Association, and he also served as president of the Rationalist Press Association of United Kingdom." Helge Kragh: "Bondi, Hermann", Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 19 p. 343. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. Accessed via Gale Virtual Reference Library April 29, 2008.
32. In a letter to the Guardian, Jane Wynne Willson, Vice-President of the British Humanist Association, added to his obituary: "Also president of the Rationalist Press Association from 1982 until his death, and with a particular interest in Indian rationalism, Hermann was a strong supporter of the Atheist Centre in Andhra Pradesh. He and his wife Christine visited the centre a number of times, and the hall in the science museum there bears his name. When presented with a prestigious international award, he divided a large sum of money between the Atheist Centre and women's health projects in Mumbai." Obituary letter: Hermann Bondi, Guardian, September 23, 2005 (accessed April 29, 2008).
33. Boyer, Paul. "A Path to Atheism". Freedom From Religion Foundation. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
34. "...he always remained true to his own concepts and ideals and did not dissimulate. His open designation of himself as "atheist" in "Who's Who in America" and his opposition to the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Allies..." H J Muller, 'Dr. Calvin B. Bridges', Nature 143, 191-192 (04 Feb 1939).
35. "Percy Williams Bridgman". NNDB.com. Retrieved 24 April 2012. He was raised in the Congregational Church, but faith in God clashed with his well-known analytical nature and he told his family as a young man that he could not in good conscience become a church member.
36. Maila L. Walter (1990). Science and Cultural Crisis: An Intellectual Biography of Percy Williams Bridgman (1882-1961). Stanford University Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-0-8047-1796-0. Raymond Bridgman was extremely disappointed with his son's rejection of his religious views. Near the end of his life, however, he offered a conciliatory interpretation that allowed him to accept Percy's commitment to honesty and integrity as a moral equivalent to religion.
37. Ray Monk (2013). Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. Random House LLC. ISBN 9780385504133. In many ways they were opposites; Kemble, the theorist, was a devout Christian, while Bridgman, the experimentalist, was a strident atheist.
38. Kristi Coale (1997-07-25). "Seeding Intelligence". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 17 July 2012. I've been an atheist - I had found it difficult to have religious beliefs and scientific ones," Brooks explained. "But I've accepted that I have a duality - there's a human way of interacting with people but also a mechanistic explanation of what people are and how they work.
39. "Although in her youth she had shared her father's Zionist sympathies, she was not otherwise involved in Jewish affairs and was by conviction an atheist." 'BRUNSWICK, Ruth Jane Mack (Feb. 17, 1897-Jan. 24, 1946)' in Notable American Women: 1607-1950. Retrieved August 01, 2008, from Credo Reference
40. Andrew Brown (1997). The neutron and the bomb: a biography of Sir James Chadwick. Oxford University Press. p. 362. ISBN 9780198539926. He was a lifelong atheist and felt no need to develop religious faith as he approached the end of his life.
41. John Snygg (2011). A New Approach to Differential Geometry Using Clifford's Geometric Algebra. Springer. p. 111. ISBN 9780817682828. However, the dogmatic position of the Anglican Church against Darwin's theory of evolution induced him to reexamine his beliefs. He soon evolved into an agnostic and then an atheist.
42. When describing a total solar eclipse, Close wrote: "It was simultaneously ghastly, beautiful, supernatural. Even for a 21st century atheist, the vision was such that I thought, "If there is a heaven, this is what its entrance is like." The heavenly vision demanded music by Mozart; instead we had the crickets." Frank Close, 'Dark side of the moon', The Guardian, August 9, 2001, Guardian Online Pages, Pg. 8.
43. Gal Beckerman (January 26, 2011). "Creator of Neutron Bomb Leaves an Explosive Legacy". Forward Association, Inc. As for his own Jewish identity, Cohen was an avowed atheist who was cremated after he died, against Jewish tradition. But still he was proud of being Jewish, his daughter said, and even had a kind of “arrogant attitude” about Jewish intelligence.
44. "Conway propped up the pillow behind his head and grinned. "I like showing off. When I make a new discovery, and I really like telling people about it. I guess I'm not so much a mathematician as a teacher. In America, kids aren't supposed to like mathematics. It's so sad.' Conway sat up suddenly. 'Most people think that mathematics is cold. But it's not at all! For me, the whole damn thing is sensual and exciting. I like what it looks like, and I get a hell of a lot more pleasure out of math than most people do out of art!' He relaxed slightly, and he lowered his voice. 'I feel like an artist. I like beautiful things - they're there already; man doesn't have to create it. I don't believe in God, but I believe that nature is unbelievably subtle and clever. In physics, for instance, the real answer to a problem is usually so subtle and surprising that it wasn't even considered in the first place. That the speed of light is a constant - impossible! Nobody even thought about it. And quantum mechanics is even worse, but it's so beautiful, and it works!"", John Horton Conway in an interview with Charles Seife, The Sciences (1994).
45. Kendall, Paul (March 14, 2010). "Professor Brian Cox: bringing the solar system to your living room". The Daily Telegraph (London).
46. "Dr. Brian Cox (science consultant) - Sunshine - Interview". Sci-fi-online.com. 2007-08-27. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
47. "Yet they [the NCSE] can afford to ignore us because, in the end, where else can we atheists go for support against creationists? [...] Am I grousing because, as an atheist and a non-accommodationist, my views are simply ignored by the NAS and NCSE? Not at all. I don't want these organizations to espouse or include my viewpoint. I want religion and atheism left completely out of all the official discourse of scientific societies and organizations that promote evolution." Jerry Coyne, 'Truckling to the Faithful: A Spoonful of Jesus Helps Darwin Go Down', April 22, 2009 (accessed 23 April 2009).
48. Francis Crick, What Mad Pursuit: a Personal View of Scientific Discovery, Basic Books reprint edition, 1990, ISBN 0-465-09138-5, p. 145.
49. "How I Got Inclined Towards Atheism". Positiveatheism.org. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
50. Mark Steyn identify Crick as an atheist. See:The Twentieth-Century Darwin by Mark Steyn, published in The Atlantic Monthly, October 2004.
51. "Francis Crick was an evangelical atheist."Francis Crick's Legacy for Neuroscience: Between the α and the Ω
52. "Instead, it is interlaced with descriptions of Crick’s vacations, parties and assertions of atheism — occasionally colorful stuff that drains the intellectual drama from the codebreaking."Genome Human
53. "There is Crick the mentor, Crick the atheist, Crick the free-thinker, and Crick the playful."Entertaining Dr Crick
54. Crick, 86, said: "The god hypothesis is rather discredited." Do our genes reveal the hand of God?
55. "George Washington Crile". The Educational Broadcasting Corporation. 2002. Retrieved 10 September 2012. Although both parents were English Lutherans, Crile, after reading Paine, Ingersoll, and Voltaire in his college years, became a lifelong atheist, devoted to the concept of intellectual freedom.
56. "Raised in a completely nonreligious family, Joliot never attended any church and was a thoroughgoing atheist all his life." Perrin, Francis: "Joliot, Frédéric", Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 7 p. 151. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.
57. "It was to her grandfather, a convinced freethinker, that Irène owed her atheism, later politically expressed as anticlericalism." Joliot-Curie, Irène. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Mar. 2012.
58. Denis Brian. The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science. Wiley. p. 389. ISBN 9780471273912. There were no prayers: Irene was deeply atheist.
59. Jonathan Israel (2011). Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750-1790. Oxford University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-19-954820-0. D'Alembert, though privately an atheist and materialist, presented the respectable public face of 'la philosophie' in the French capital while remaining henceforth uninterruptedly aligned with Voltaire.
60. James E. Force, Richard Henry Popkin (1990). James E. Force, Richard Henry Popkin, ed. Essays on the Context, Nature, and Influence of Isaac Newton's Theology. Springer. p. 167. ISBN 9780792305835. Unlike the French and English deists, and unlike the scientific atheists such as Diderot, d'Alembert, and d'Holbach,...
61. Dawkins identifies himself as an atheist in his article "A Challenge to Atheists: Come Out of the Closet," Free Inquiry, Summer 2002. Excerpt reprinted at Positiveatheism.org
62. George William Foote, ed. (1887). Progress: a monthly magazine of advanced thought, Volume 7. Progressive Publishing Co. p. 127. DELAMBRE (Jean Baptiste Joseph), French astronomer, born at Amiens, 19 Sept. 1749, studied under Lalande and became, like his master, an Atheist.
63. "Denjoy was an atheist, but tolerant of others' religious views; he was very interested in philosophical, psychological, and social issues." "Denjoy, Arnaud", Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 17, p.219. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.
64. Werner Heisenberg recollects a friendly conversation among young participants at the 1927 Solvay Conference about Einstein's and Planck's views on religion. Wolfgang Pauli, Heisenberg and Dirac took part in it. Among other things, Dirac said: "I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest — and as scientists honesty is our precise duty — we cannot help but admit that any religion is a pack of false statements, deprived of any real foundation. The very idea of God is a product of human imagination.[...] I do not recognize any religious myth, at least because they contradict one another.[...]" Pauli jokingly said: "Well, I'd say that also our friend Dirac has got a religion and the first commandment of this religion is: God does not exist and Paul Dirac is his prophet." Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-131622-9.
65. "... I [Pauling] am not, however, militant in my atheism. The great English theoretical physicist Paul Dirac is a militant atheist. I suppose he is interested in arguing about the existence of God. I am not. It was once quipped that there is no God and Dirac is his prophet." Linus Pauling & Daisaku Ikeda (1992). A Lifeling Quest for Peace: A Dialogue. Jones & Bartlett. p. 22. ISBN 0-86720-277-7.
66. Helge Kragh (1990). Dirac: A Scientific Biography. Cambridge University Press. pp. 256–257. ISBN 9780521380898.
67. Sara Lippincott (August 30, 2009). "The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom' by Graham Farmelo". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 June 2012. Dirac was contemptuous of philosophy and, as many scientists do, professed atheism. But it was a narrow sort, mainly dismissive of religious orthodoxy. In notes he wrote in 1933, he embraces another creed: "[T]his article of faith is that the human race will continue to live for ever and will develop and progress without limit . . . Living is worthwhile if one can contribute in some small way to this endless chain of progress."
68. Helen Brown (23 Jan 2009). "The Strangest Man: the Hidden Life of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 June 2012. Dirac’s story ends with a whimper. As a young man he had joked that physicists were all washed up by 30 and as he aged his powers waned. The Cambridge physics department took away his parking space and an outraged Manci insisted he take up a fellowship at Florida State University. He died in 1984, aged 82. An atheist, he was buried under a gravestone chosen by Manci. It read “because God said it should be so”.
69. H. B. G. Casimir (2010). Haphazard Reality: Half a Century of Science. Amsterdam University Press. p. 151. ISBN 9789089642004. Kramers was certainly not a dogmatic atheist like, for instance, Dirac in his younger years, whose attitude was summed up by Pauli in one famous sentence: "Our friend Dirac has a religion; and the main tenet of that religion is: 'There is no God and Dirac was his prophet.
70. Michael Ruse (2010). "Introductory Essay for Life Evolving: Molecules, Mind, and Meaning". International Society for Science & Religion. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
71. John Farrell (5 August 2013). "A Nobel Laureate And Proponent Of Original Sin". Forbes. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
72. "Nobel-winning cancer researcher ends his own life". ABC. 7 May 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
73. Martin Childs (14 May 2013). "Christian de Duve: Authority on cell mechanisms". The Independent (London). Retrieved 18 November 2013.
74. Michel Meulders (2010). "5: Helmholtz and the Understanding of Nature". In Laurence Garey. Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience. MIT Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780262014489. Du Bois-Reymond was a self-proclaimed atheist but more through intimate conviction than logical necessity.
75. Ronald Clark (2011). Einstein: The Life and Times. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781448202706. That Einstein's attitude was the result more of muddle than agnostic scruple seems clear from a letter which he wrote less than two years later when Paul Ehrenfest ruled himself out from becoming Einstein's successor by roundly declaring himself an atheist.
76. Thomas Levenson (2004). Einstein in Berlin. Random House of Canada. p. 172. ISBN 9780553378443. The man he had hoped would succeed him in Prague, Paul Ehrenfest, refiased to compromise his true atheist's principles. Einstein scolded him. "Your refusal to acknowledge a religious affiliation" was just this side of "willful stupidity," he assured him, with the benefit of recent experience. Once he became a professor Ehrenfest could revert to unbelief.
77. Natalie Angier (April 4, 2011). "Paths of Discovery, Lighted by a Bug Man’s Insights". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2012. Dr. Eisner died from complications of his disease on March 25, at the age of 81. He had a notoriously mordant sense of humor: “I may not believe in God,” he once said, “but I don’t ring doorbells saying I’m a Seventh-Day Atheist,”...
78. Nielsen, Stevan Lars & Ellis, Albert. (1994). "A discussion with Albert Ellis: Reason, emotion and religion", Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 13(4), Win 1994. pp. 327-341
79. Colm Mulcahy (2013-03-26). "Centenary of Mathematician Paul Erdős -- Source of Bacon Number Concept". Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 April 2013. In his own words, "I'm not qualified to say whether or not God exists. I kind of doubt He does. Nevertheless, I'm always saying that the SF has this transfinite Book that contains the best proofs of all mathematical theorems, proofs that are elegant and perfect...You don't have to believe in God, but you should believe in the Book." (SF was his tongue- in-cheek reference to God as "the Supreme Fascist").
80. "50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God". JPararajasingham. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
81. "Everett was a life-long atheist, but he did not let that stand in his way as St. John's was well-regarded academically and socially." Peter Byrne, The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family (2010), page 29.
82. Michael Martin (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge University Press. p. 310. ISBN 9780521842709. Among celebrity atheists with much biographical data, we find leading psychologists and psychoanalysts. We could provide a long list, including...Hans Jürgen Eysenck...
83. " An atheist, Faber speaks like an evangelist as she weaves quantum physics and astronomy to describe the dawn of time. "I think that the story of the creation of the universe is the most inspiring and exciting story science can tell. I mean, who would have thought I could be telling you about events 10 to the minus 35 seconds after the big bang?" she said, seated in her cluttered, sunny UC Santa Cruz office amid photos of her two daughters and her husband. "It's just totally inspiring." " Mike Swift interviewing Faber, 'Last outer space repair of Hubble telescope pairs genius of two South Bay women', Contra Costa Times (California), May 9, 2009.
84. "The study of medicine also contributed to a loss of religious faith and to becoming atheist." Michael Heidelberger, Nature from within: Gustav Theodor Fechner and his psychophysical worldview, page 21.
85. "Festinger, a professed atheist, was an original thinker and a restless, highly motivated individual with (in his words) "little tolerance for boredom". " Franz Samelson: "Festinger, Leon", American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000 (accessed April 28, 2008) .
86. Denis Brian (2008). The Voice of Genius: Conversations with Nobel Scientists and Other Luminaries. Basic Books. p. 49. ISBN 9780465011391. Interviewer: Do you call yourself an agnostic or an atheist? Feynman: An atheist. Agnostic for me would be trying to weasel out and sound a little nicer than I am about this.
87. Feynman was of Jewish birth, but described himself as "an avowed atheist" by his early youth in Freethought of the Day, Freedom From Religion Foundation, May 11, 2006.
88. "Having abandoned the tenets of Judaism at 13, he never wavered in his gentle atheism, nor in his determination to stay away from matters about which he had opinions but no expertise." John Morrish reviewing the collection of Feynman's letters Don't You Have Time to Think?, "Particle Physics: The Route to Pop Stardom", Independent on Sunday (London), July 24, 2005, p. 21.
89. "James Franck was born in Hamburg, the son of a Jewish banker. ...As he said, science was his God and nature his religion. He did not insist that his daughters attend religious instruction classes (Religionsunterricht) in school. But he was very proud of his Jewish heritage..." David Nachmansohn, German-Jewish pioneers in science, 1900-1933: highlights in atomic physics, chemistry, and biochemistry, page 62.
90. "[Freud and Jung] were close for several years, but Jung's ambition, and his growing commitment to religion and mysticism — most unwelcome to Freud, an aggressive atheist — finally drove them apart." Sigmund Freud, by Peter Gay, The TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century.
91. "About the same time he stopped observing Jewish religious rituals and rejected a cause he had once embraced, Zionism. He "just didn't want to participate in any division of the human race, whether religious or political," he explained decades later (Wershba, p. 12), by which time he was a confirmed atheist." Keay Davidson: "Fromm, Erich Pinchas", American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000 (accessed April 28, 2008) .
92. Atlantseglaren från Bromma vill tänja gränsen mot rymden, Dagens Nyheter, December 10, 2006.
93. ANDERSON: "What, uh, one thing I’m fascinated with is, of course, George Gamow left the university in ’59 [1956], and Edward Teller had left in 1946 [1945] and went to the University of Chicago. But do you have any recollections of maybe some of the, anything between Dr. Marvin and Dr. Gamow, as far as, just before he left and went to Colorado?" NAESER: "Ah, no, I don’t know of any. I know Gamow made no, never did hide the fact that he was an atheist, but whether that came into the picture, I don’t know. But the story around the university was that Gamow and Mrs. Gamow were divorced, but they were in the same social circles some of the time, he thought it was better to get out of Washington. That’s why he went to Ohio State." The George Washington University and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia, Gamow, George and Edward Teller, October 23, 1996.
94. Grote Reber. "The Big Bang Is Bunk" (PDF). 21st Century Science Associates. p. 44. Retrieved 28 May 2012. After the initial mathematical work on relativity the ory had been done, the Big Bang theory itself was invented by a Belgian priest, Georges lemaitre, im proved upon by an avowed atheist, George Gamow, and is now all but universally accepted by those who hold advanced degrees in astronomy and the physical sciences, despite its obvious absurdity.
95. Simon Singh (2010). Big Bang. HarperCollins UK. ISBN 9780007375509. Surprisingly, the atheist George Gamow enjoyed the Papal attention given to his field of research.
96. Jane Gregory (2005). "Fighting for space". Fred Hoyle's Universe. Oxford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780191578465. Gamow was, like Hoyle, an atheist, but he was familiar with organized religion: his grandfather was the Metropolitan, the senior bishop, of Odessa Cathedral.
97. Ramesh Chopra (2005). Academic Dictionary Of Philosophy. Gyan Books. p. 143. ISBN 9788182052246. Renowned French chemist. He was one of the greatest chemists in Europe at the time. He made innumerable discoveries in the science, and even the restored royalty made him a Peer of France, although he worked politically with the anti-clericals. He was closely associated with Arago and shared his atheism.
98. "I am an atheist, that is, I think nothing exists except and beyond nature."Ginzburg's autobiography at Nobelprize.org
99. What I don't like about Richard [Dawkins] is not so much what he knows or doesn't know as the dogmatic way in which he says things. I think that is a poor advertisement for science, because the whole thing about being a scientist is that you shouldn't be prejudiced, you should have an open mind. So, I don't believe in God but that is a belief, not some thing I know. I believe I love my husband, but I couldn't prove it to you one way or the other. How could I? I just know I do. My particular belief is that there is no Deity out there, but I can't prove it and therefore I would not have the temerity to tell other people they're wrong. The coinage of proof is not appropriate for belief and Dawkins thinks it is. But if you keep an open mind, that doesn't mean you swallow anything whole. As someone has said, 'Believing in anything is as bad as believing in nothing.' 'Brain Teaser: Susan Greenfield talks to Peter McCarthy', Third Way, November 2000.
100. Grosch, Herbert (July 15, 1970). "Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 - Interview with Herbert R. Grosch" (PDF). Retrieved 12 April 2012. I made them quit essentially. When I was nine years old I decided that I was an atheist. So I told them, "Well you shouldn't go to church anymore, it's silly." Well, apparently they'd been going to church primarily for my benefit. So after I refused to go, they quit going too.
101. "The question of the origin of the matter in the universe is no longer thought to be beyond the range of science — everything can be created from nothing...it is fair to say that the universe is the ultimate free lunch." Alan Guth, The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins (1998). q:Atheism
102. Shaposhnikova, T. O. (1999). Jacques Hadamard: A Universal Mathematician. American Mathematical Soc. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-0-8218-1923-4. In 1924, Hadamard recounted his meetings with Hermite: "...When Hermite loved to direct to me remarks such as: "He who strays from the paths traced by Providence crashes." These were the words of a profoundly religious man, but an atheist like me understood them very well, especially when he added at other times: "In mathematics, our role is more that of servant than master.""
103. "Religions are technologies that are evolved over millennia to do this and many religions are very effective in doing this. I'm an atheist, I don't believe that gods actually exist, but I part company with the New Atheists because I believe that religion is an adaptation that generally works quite well to suppress selfishness, to create moral communities, to help people work together, trust each other and collaborate towards common ends." Jonathan Haidt, Interview with Jonathan Haidt, Vox Popoli November 19, 2007 (accessed April 14, 2008).
104. Haldane, J. B. S., Fact and Faith. London: London, Watts & Co., 1934.
105. "The three laboratories unanimously agreed that the cloth dated from between 1260 and 1390, a date consistent with its known history—but which demolished the notion of its being the burial shroud of Christ. Hall, who made no secret of his atheism, had no hesitation in enjoying the public attention that this definitive result attracted." Robert Hedges, 'Hall, Edward Thomas [Teddy] (1924–2001)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, Oxford University Press, January 2005 (accessed May 2, 2008).
106. " 'Unequalled stability and sweetness of disposition' are said to have been among his domestic virtues, while in politics and religion he was 'a declared democrat and avowed atheist' (The Times)." Jean Jones: 'Hall, Sir James, of Dunglass, fourth baronet (1761–1832)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, October 2006 (accessed May 1, 2008).
107. "It can hardly have been due to any reluctance on Newton's part to becoming too closely involved with Halley, the well-known atheist." Derek Gjertsen, The Newton Handbook (1986), page 250.
108. "He and the Bishop of Oxford staged another version of the great debate between Thomas Henry ('Darwin's bulldog') Huxley and Bishop ('Soapy Sam') Wilberforce that followed the publication of Darwin's Origin Of Species. The present Bishop defended the new Darwinian orthodoxy, but Dr Halstead, an atheist, took the line that the former Bishop of Oxford had been quite right to oppose Darwin's thesis. But that too was entirely characteristic. He told me that he was a member of the Athenaeum only because it had a painting of Darwin in the lobby." Tim Radford, 'A passion for dinosaurs: Obituary of Beverly Halstead', The Guardian (London), May 2, 1991.
109. Dan Barker (2011). The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God. Ulysses Press. p. 176. ISBN 9781569758465. Speaking of her 55-year marriage to Frederick Hamerstrom (a nephew of Charles Darwin), Fran quipped: “You'll notice that our 'pair bond' has lasted fairly well and I think it's because we're both remarkably tolerant people. He's an agnostic and I'm an atheist, and we've put up with each other all this time!"
110. "W. D. Hamilton, the eternal child - Gene Expression". Blogs.discovermagazine.com. 2013-04-06. Retrieved 2015-12-24.
111. "Hardy... was a stringent atheist..." Hit Play on Ramanujan, by Lisa Drostova, East Bay Express, April 30, 2003. Retrieved October 7, 2007.
112. "The first Bombe to be delivered was named Agnus by Turing: a joke that atheist Hardy might have made..." Alan Turing — a Cambridge Scientific Mind, by Andrew Hodges, Cambridge Scientific Minds (Cambridge University Press, 2002) Retrieved July 2, 2007.
113. "Outside the field of scientific research, he was known for his outspoken atheism: belief in God, he once declared, is not only incompatible with good science, but is "damaging to the wellbeing of the human race." " The Telegraph.
114. Boyett, Jason. "Stephen Hawking says there's no creator God; the twitterverse reacts", The Washington Post, September 3, 2010, Retrieved April 25, 2011.
115. "Ernst Mach". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. May 21, 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2012. Hering and Mach were atheists, and disbelieved in a soul, but still accepted the idea that nature had internal direction.
116. David Edwards (Sep 24, 2014). "Stephen Hawking comes out: ‘I’m an atheist’ because science is ‘more convincing’ than God". Raw Story. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
117. "Officially, the particle is called the Higgs boson, but its elusive nature and fundamental role in the creation of the universe led a prominent scientist to rename it the God particle. The name has stuck, but makes Higgs wince and raises the hackles of other theorists. "I wish he hadn't done it," he says. "I have to explain to people it was a joke. I'm an atheist, but I have an uneasy feeling that playing around with names like that could be unnecessarily offensive to people who are religious." Ian Sample, 'The God of Small Things', The Guardian, November 17, 2007, Weekend pages, Pg. 44.
118. Liberato Cardellini: "A final and more personal question: You defined yourself as “an atheist who is moved by religion”. Looking at the tenor of your life and the many goals you have achieved, one wonders where your inner force comes from." Roald Hoffmann: "The atheism and the respect for religion come form the same source. I observe that in every culture on Earth, absolutely every one, human beings have constructed religious systems. There is a need in us to try to understand,to see that there is something that unites us spiritually. So scientists who do not respect religion fail in their most basic task—observation. Human beings need the spiritual. The same observation reveals to me a multitude of religious constructions—gods of nature, spirits, the great monotheistic religions. It seems to me there can’t be a God or gods; there are just manifestations of a human-constructed spirituality." Liberato Cardellini, Looking for Connections: An Interview with Roald Hoffmann, page 1634.
119. "A reader who has suffered me so far will have realised how much of my mental energy had been hitherto absorbed in a fruitless search for an intellectually compelling rationale to rescue some fragments from the wreckage of my family faith. The mood of liberation I experienced when I finally discarded the last remnant of theism was no less exhilarating than that of Bunyan's Pilgrim when the burden of sin fell from his back. [...] In retrospect, the final steps seem as sudden as they were painless. [...] As I looked upward [at the night sky], I realised that the sole prospect was limitless expanse of unthreatening and impersonal emptiness — but for unapproachable galaxies — of a universe without purpose of punishment or reward for a lately arrived animal species, free to make or mar its own destiny without help or hindrance from above." Lancelot Hogben, Lancelot Hogben: Scientific Humanist: An Unauthorised Autobiography, edited by Adrian and Ann Hogben. Merlin Press, 1998.
120. Hildebrand, Joe (11 February 2008). "Fred Hollows remembered at ceremony in Bourke". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
121. Jane Gregory (2005). "Fighting for space". Fred Hoyle's Universe. Oxford University Press. p. 143. ISBN 9780191578465. According to Hoyle: "I am an atheist, but as far as blowing up the world in a nuclear war goes, I tell them not to worry."
122. "Russell A. Hulse". NNDB.com. Retrieved 17 July 2012. I consider myself a very moral person but I do not need a religion for that.
123. "He has worked with monkeys in laboratories and in the wild. He has been a media don, a campaigner against nuclear weapons and the holder of a chair in parapsychological research who was dedicated to debunking even the possibility of telepathy or survival after death. He is an atheist, and the man who suggested to Richard Dawkins the analogy of viruses of the mind for religions; yet nowadays he talks as if spirituality were the thing that makes us human." Andrew Brown interviewing Humphrey, 'A life in science: The human factor', The Guardian, July 29, 2006, Review Pages, Pg. 13.
124. "Despite his atheism Huxley could appreciate Teilhard de Chardin's vision of evolution, and like his grandfather T. H. Huxley he believed progress could be described in biological terms." Robert Olby, 'Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition, May 2007 (accessed May 2, 2008).
125. Thomas Steven Molnar (1980). Theists and Atheists: A Typology of Non-belief. Walter de Gruyter. p. 59. ISBN 9789027977885. The biologist Francois Jacob (who shared the Nobel Prize with Jacques Monod) admits that he is an atheist, but he finds, parallel to the material nature of the universe, another aspect — in man — which is not reductible to the first.
126. "Irène Joliot-Curie". Making the Modern World. 1956-03-17. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
127. "Scientists in Britain, where the film will premiere at next month's London Film Festival, with general release in December, dismissed the intelligent design lobby's expropriation of the film. Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London and an atheist, said: 'I find it sad that people with intrinsically foolish viewpoints don't recognise this as a naturally beautiful film, but have to attach their absurd social agendas to it.' " David Smith, 'How the penguin's life story inspired the US religious right: Antarctic family values', The Observer, September 18, 2005, News Pages, Pg. 3.
128. On the side of the atheists were Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, [...] Jones, meanwhile, revealed that he would "love to believe in God", because it would offer some degree of comfort. But he said he stopped believing in God as a child as soon as he discovered that what he was learning in school biology classes conflicted with the kind of things he had been taught in Sunday school - like dinosaurs and humans walking the earth at the same time." If Darwin has really killed God, when was the funeral?', Guardian Unlimited, 13 May 2009 (accessed 26 May 2009).
129. "The Law of Serialitity". Retrieved 18 July 2012. The paradox is that he thought of himself as a hard-boiled philosophical materialist. He was also what one may call a devoted atheist; a freemason; a member of the Austrian Socialist Party; and a regular contributor to the Monisticshe Monatshelfe, the monthly published by the German league of Monists.
130. "Paul Kammerer". NNDB.com. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
131. "Sam Karlin, mathematician who improved DNA analysis, dies". Stanford Report. January 16, 2008. Retrieved 21 April 2012. Karlin was born in Yonova, Poland, in 1924. His family immigrated to Chicago when he was a small child and struggled financially through the Great Depression. He was raised in a strict Orthodox Jewish household but broke with religion in his early teens and remained an atheist for the rest of his life.
132. "TSN: Stuart Kauffman". Thesciencenetwork.org. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
133. Todd Tucker (2008). The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science. U of Minnesota Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-8166-5161-0. Max's advocates made up a diverse cast of characters, from the Jewish Peace Fellowship leader Rabbi Isador Hoffman to the atheist Ancel Keys, who wrote the committee that Max “proved to be a highly reliable and conscientious man who comported himself well under the most rigorous and demanding circumstances."
134. "Dillwyn [Knox, son of an Evangelical bishop] was from his student years an unwavering atheist." Alan Hollinghurst, "The Victory of Penelope Fitzgerald" (a review of Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald [a niece of Alfred Dillwyn Knox]: A Life, Knopf, 488 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXI, no. 19 (December 4, 2014), p. 8. (The article comprises pp. 8, 10, 12.)
135. "...I had the opportunity to participate in several exciting panel discussions at the World Science Festival in New York City. But the most dramatic encounter took place at the panel strangely titled 'Science, Faith and Religion.'... I ended up being one of two panelists labeled 'atheists.'..." God and Science Don't Mix: A scientist can be a believer. But professionally, at least, he can't act like one., Lawrence M. Krauss, The Wall Street Journal, page A15, 26 June 2009 (retrieved 22 May 2010). On the 21 June 2012 Colbert Report, the author of A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing told Colbert: "There is no evidence for any deity.... You don't need him.... There's no need for God." The evolutions of the universe occur "without any supernatural shenanigans."
136. Kroemer, Herbert. "Herbert Kroemer - Science Video Interview". Interviewer: "You have no belief in a afterlife?" Kroemer: "That's correct." Interviewer: "...You don't see the evidence of a designer?" Kroemer: "No, I don't." Interviewer: "Could you say more about it?" Kroemer: "I think it's just wishful thinking."
137. Harold Kroto claims to have four "religions": humanism, atheism, amnesty-internationalism and humourism.
138. "Kinsey was also shown to be an atheist who loathed religion and its constraints on sex." 'Kinsey' critics ready, Cheryl Wetzstein, The Washington Times. Retrieved February 2, 2007.
139. "In his mythic book The Singularity Is Near, Ray Kurzweil, serial inventor, technology enthusiast, and unabashed atheist, announces: "Evolution moves toward greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, and greater levels of subtle attributes such as love. In every monotheistic tradition God is likewise described as all of these qualities, only without any limitation.... So evolution moves inexorably toward this conception of God, although never quite reaching this ideal."" - Kevin Kelly, What Technology Wants (2010).
140. "He studied at the Jesuit College in Lyon and at this stage he nearly decided to join the Jesuit Order. In fact it was his parents who encouraged him to continue his education by going to Paris to study law, which he did. It is somewhat ironical that Lalande, who would later become renowned as an atheist, should have come so close to becoming a Jesuit." J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, Joseph-Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande.
141. Henry F. Schaefer (2003). Science and Christianity: Conflict Or Coherence?. The Apollos Trust. p. 9. ISBN 9780974297507. I present here two examples of notable atheists. The first is Lev Landau, the most brilliant Soviet physicist of the twentieth century.
142. "Listed as an atheist in NNDB.com." Lev Landau, NNDB.com
143. "Chris Langton". NNDB.com. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
144. Leakey, Richard; Virginia Morell (September 2001). Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures. design by Kathryn Parise. p. 257. ISBN 0-312-20626-7.
145. Babu Gogineni (July 10, 2012). "It’s the Atheist Particle, actually". Postnoon News. Retrieved 10 July 2012. Leon Lederman is himself an atheist and he regrets the term, and Peter Higgs who is an atheist too, has expressed his displeasure, but the damage has been done!
146. "It is a scene I won’t forget in a hurry: Jean-Marie Lehn, French winner of the Nobel prize in chemistry, defending his atheism at a packed public conference at the new Alexandria Library in Egypt." Ehsan Masood, ProspectMagazine.co.uk, Islam’s reformers, 22nd July 2006.
147. "In these years Leslie was an unsuccessful candidate for the chairs of natural philosophy at the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow respectively. He failed at the former because he was then an extreme whig and an atheist who deplored the Erastianism of many of the Scottish clergy." Jack Morrell, 'Leslie, Sir John (1766–1832)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed May 2, 2008).
148. Venjamin Fedorovič Kagan (1957). N. Lobachevsky and His Contribution to Science. Foreign Languages Publishing House. p. 29.
149. Bardi, Jason (2008). The Fifth Postulate: How Unraveling a Two Thousand Year Old Mystery Unraveled the Universe. John Wiley & Sons. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-470-46736-7.
150. "By that time Longuet-Higgins had become a convinced atheist, although he still respected many of the features of the Church of England." John Murrell, 'Higgins, (Hugh) Christopher Longuet- (1923–2004)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, Oxford University Press, January 2008 (accessed May 1, 2008).
151. "Paul MacCready, the inventor, defines it thus: "A secular humanist does not believe in God, and doesn't steal."" Paul Kurtz, Is Secular Humanism a Religion?.
152. R. S. Cohen; Raymond J. Seeger (1975). Ernst Mach, Physicist and Philosopher. Springer. p. 158. ISBN 978-90-277-0016-2. And Mach, in personal conviction, was a socialist and an atheist.
153. Gregory Scott Charak (2007). Between Soul and Precision: Ernst Mach's Biological Empiricism and the Social Democratic Philosophy of Science. ProQuest. p. 94. ISBN 9780549129738. Both make explicit claims against the pseudo-problems generated by materialism, and although Mach the atheist would have no gripe with “irreligion” per se, as a pacifist and a socialist he was indeed an ardent proponent of “peace.
154. Helge Kragh (2004). Matter And Spirit In The Universe: Scientific And Religious Preludes To Modern Cosmology. OECD Publishing. p. 55. ISBN 9781860944697. The Austrian positivist physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach was nominally a Catholic, but in reality he was an atheist and strongly opposed to Christian doctrines.
155. "Of course, Markov, an atheist and eventual excommunicate of the Church quarreled endlessly with his equally outspoken counterpart Nekrasov. The disputes between Markov and Nekrasov were not limited to mathematics and religion, they quarreled over political and philosophical issues as well." Gely P. Basharin, Amy N. Langville, Valeriy A. Naumov, The Life and Work of A. A. Markov, page 6.
156. Loren R. Graham, Jean-Michel Kantor (2009). Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity. Harvard University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-674-03293-4. Markov (1856–1922), on the other hand, was an atheist and a strong critic of the Orthodox Church and the tsarist government (Nekrasov exaggeratedly called him a Marxist).
157. "He attempted to adopt a scientific attitude in his approach to all problems. His views were liberal, and he was an atheist." Leslie Bairstow, 'Dr. S. Maulik', Nature 166, 422-423 (09 Sep 1950).
158. René Bösch (2007). Labyrinth of Digressions: Tristram Shandy as Perceived and Influenced by Sterne's Early Imitators. Rodopi. p. 265. ISBN 9789042022911. Maupertuis was an atheist friend of La Mettrie.
159. Joseph McCabe (1950). A rationalist encyclopaedia: a book of reference on religion, philosophy, ethics, and science (2 ed.). Watts. p. 384. He was a member of the firm of Vickers' Sons and Maxim. Maxim was an aggressive Atheist (personal knowledge) and the compiler (with the present writer) of the collection of strong criticisms of religion...
160. The Freethinker, Volume 92. G.W. Foote. 1972. p. 45. Now Maxim really way a militant atheist!
161. From a Humanist News interview in Autumn 2001: Interviewer: What is your attitude to religion now? JMS: Ever since reading (J. B. S. Haldane's book) Possible Worlds I have been an atheist, and a semi-conscious atheist before that. I think there are two views you can have about religion. You can be tolerant of it and say, I don't believe in this but I don't mind if other people do, or you can say, I not only don't believe in it but I think it is dangerous and damaging for other people to believe in it and they should be persuaded that they are mistaken. I fluctuate between the two. I am tolerant because religious institutions facilitate some very important work that would not get done otherwise, but then I look around and see what an incredible amount of damage religion is doing.
162. "An appreciation of biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005)". Wsws.org. 2005-05-03. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
163. "Responding to Richard Dawkins's pestering his fellow atheists to "come out", I mention that I am indeed an atheist. To count oneself as an atheist one need not claim to have a proof that no gods exist. One need merely think that the evidence on the god question is in about the same state as the evidence on the werewolf question."
164. "... I believe that a reasonable case can be made for saying, not that we believe in God because He exists but rather that He exists because we believe in Him. [...] Considered as an element of the world, God has the same degree and kind of objective reality as do other products of mind. [...] I regret my disbelief in God and religious answers generally, for I believe it would give satisfaction and comfort to many in need of it if it possible to discover and propound good scientific and philosophic reasons to believe in God. [...] To abdicate from the rule of reason and substitute for it an authentication of belief by the intentness and degree of conviction with which we hold it can be perilous and destructive. [...] I am a rationalist—something of a period piece nowadays, I admit [...]" Peter Medawar, 'The Question of the Existence of God' in his book The Limits of Science (Harper and Row 1984).
165. "I met Jeff at The Amazing Meeting 5.5 in Fort Lauderdale in January. We became friends and I read his blog within hours of each posting. He was a programmer, an astronomer, a pro-bono science educator, a hard-nosed skeptic and an atheist. This random blow against a friendly and generous guy is a typical example of the non-plannedness of things." Martin Rundkvist, Jeff Medkeff 1968-2008, Aardvarchaeology blog, August 4, 2008 (accessed August 5, 2008).
166. "There is no clear record that he was professionally restricted in Russia because of his lineage, but he sympathized with the problem his Jewish colleagues suffered owing to Russian anti-Semitism; his personal religious commitment was to atheism, although he received strict Christian religious training at home." Alfred I. Tauber, Leon Chernyak, Metchnikoff and the origins of immunology: from metaphor to theory, page 5.
167. A Rough History of Disbelief Official BBC site describing the series
168. On the filming of The Atheism Tapes with Jonathan Miller: "We had been friends for a number of years, and had discussed a great many topics, but we had never, except glancingly, ever spoken about religion. We knew about our shared atheism, but the subject didn't seem to warrant much attention; in the Miller-McGinn world it was a non-existent topic. [...] It is often forgotten that atheism of the kind shared by Jonathan and me (and Dawkins and Hitchens et al.) has an ethical motive." Atheism Tapes, Colin McGinn, on his blog. (Accessed April 1, 2008)
169. Leon M. Lederman, Judith A. Scheppler (2001). "Marvin Minsky: Mind Maker". Portraits of Great American Scientists. Prometheus Books. p. 74. ISBN 9781573929325. Another area where he "goes against the flow" is in his spiritual beliefs. As far as religion is concerned, he's a confirmed atheist. "I think it [religion] is a contagious mental disease. . . . The brain has a need to believe it knows a reason for things.
170. "When we reflect on anything for long enough, we're likely to end up with what we sometimes call "basic" questions -- ones we can see no way at all to answer. For we have no perfect way to answer even this question: How can one tell when a question has been properly answered? What caused the universe, and why? What is the purpose of life? How can you tell which beliefs are true? How can you tell what is good? These questions seem different on the surface, but all of them share one quality that makes them impossible to answer: all of them are circular! You can never find a final cause, since you must always ask one question more: "What caused that cause?" You can never find any ultimate goal, since you're always obliged to ask, "Then what purpose does that serve?" Whenever you find out why something is good-or is true-you still have to ask what makes that reason good and true. No matter what you discover, at every step, these kinds of questions will always remain, because you have to challenge every answer with, "Why should I accept that answer?" Such circularities can only waste our time by forcing us to repeat, over and over and over again, "What good is Good?" and, "What god made God?" " Marvin Minsky. The Society of Mind.
171. Nobel Biography .
172. Harmke Kamminga (1995). The Science and Culture of Nutrition, 1840-1940. Rodopi. p. 31. ISBN 978-90-5183-818-3. Moleschott's atheism is much more prominent, for example, and he declares absurd Liebig's opinion that insights into the laws of nature inevitably lead us to the notion of a Being knowable only through revelation.
173. "Yet, sailing to Egypt, he had lain on deck, asking his scientists whether the planets were inhabited, how old the Earth was, and whether it would perish by fire or by flood. Many, like his friend Gaspard Monge, the first man to liquefy a gas, were atheists." Vincent Cronin, The View from Planet Earth: Man looks at the Cosmos, page 164.
174. Laure Junot Abrantès (1881). Memoirs of Napoleon, His Court and Family, Volume 2. D. Appleton. p. 276.
175. "In his final chapter de Duve turns to the meaning of life, and considers the ideas of two contrasting Frenchmen: a priest, Teilhard de Chardin, and an existentialist and atheist, Jacques Monod." Peaks, Dust, & Dappled Spots, by Richard Lubbock, Books in Canada: The Canadian Review of Books. Retrieved July 2, 2007.
176. Costantino Ceoldo (2012-12-31). "Homage to Rita Levi Montalcini". Retrieved 20 July 2013. Born and raised in a Sephardic Jewish family in which culture and love of learning were categorical imperatives, she abandoned religion and embraced atheism.
177. Joseph Mazzini Wheeler (1889). A biographical dictionary of freethinkers of all ages and nations. Progressive publishing company. p. 232. Montgolfier (Michel Joseph), aeronaut. b. Aug. 1740. He was the first to ascend in an air balloon, 5 June 1783. A friend of Delambre and La Lalande, he was on the testimony of this last an atheist. Died 26 June 1810.
178. Warren Allen Smith (2000). Who's who in hell: a handbook and international directory for humanists, freethinkers, naturalists, rationalists, and non-theists. Barricade Books. p. 762. ISBN 9781569801581. Also that year, a Montgolfier balloon sailed over Paris in the first manned free balloon flight. Montgolfier served the Revolution with zeal and was much honored. Lalande, who knew him well, wrote that Montgolfier was an atheist.
179. "[Religion] is not an easy subject to deal with, but as zoologists we must do our best to observe what actually happens rather than listen to what is supposed to be happening. If we do this, we are forced to the conclusion that, in a behavioural sense, religious activities consist of the coming together of large groups of people to perform repeated and prolonged submissive displays to appease a dominant individual. The dominant individual takes many forms in different cultures, but always has the common factor of immense power. [...] If these submissive actions are successful, the dominant individual is appeased. [...] The dominant individual is usually, but not always, referred to as a god. Since none of these gods exist in a tangible form, why have they been invented? To find the answer to this we have to go right back to our ancestral origins." Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape, p.178-179, Jonathan Cape, 1967.
180. "Man's evolution as a neotenous ape has put him in a similar position to the dog's. He becomes sexually mature and yet he still needs a parent — a super-parent, one as impressive to him as a man must be to a dog. The answer was to invent a god — either a female super-parent in the shape of a Mother Goddess, or a male god in the shape of God the Father, or perhaps even a whole family of gods. Like real parents they would both protect, punish and be obeyed. [...] These — the houses of the gods — the temples, the churches and the cathedrals — are buildings apparently made for giants, and a space visitor would be surprised to find on closer examination that these giants are never at home. Their followers repeatedly visit them and bow down before them, but they themselves are invisible. Only their bell-like cries can be heard across the land. Man is indeed an imaginative species." Desmond Morris, The Pocket Guide to Manwatching, p.234-236 Triad Paperbacks, 1982.
181. Lubos Motl, http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/09/oriana-fallaci-force-of-reason.html
182. "[Müller] was an atheist..." Review of Müller's biography, by James Mallet, Quarterly Review of Biology 79:196 (2004). Retrieved July 2, 2007.
183. "Muller, who through Unitarianism had become an enthusiastic pantheist, was converted both to atheism and to socialism." Hermann Joseph Muller. 1890–1967, G. Pontecorvo, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 14, Nov., 1968 (Nov., 1968), pp. 348-389 (Quote from p. 353) Retrieved July 14, 2007.
184. "I was brought up a Lutheran, but I became an atheist"—PZ Myers (February 14, 2007), It's the arrogance, stupid, Pharyngula. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
185. Sylvia Nasar (2011). "Chapter 17: Bad Boys". A Beautiful Mind. Simon and Schuster. p. 143. ISBN 9781439126493. In this circle, Nash learned to make a virtue of necessity, styling himself self-consciously as a "free thinker." He announced that he was an atheist.
186. Sylvia Nasar (1999). A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684853703. Nash, by then an atheist, balked at a Catholic ceremony. He would have been happy to get married in city hall.
187. Yuval Ne'eman (2003). Studies in memory of Issai Schur. Springer. p. xxi. ISBN 9780817642082. Unfortunately I am a 100% skeptic (an "Epicurus" in Yiddish), an atheist although not in an aggressive connotation.
188. Michael P. Prior (1997). The Bible and Colonialism: A Moral Critique. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-85075-815-0. Although an atheist, Neeman believes that traditions are important for a revolutionary movement, and he strongly defends the spiritual heritage of the Jewish people, preaches a retum to biblical sources, and is in constant dialogue with the ultra-nationalist-religious groupings.
189. "I gradually slipped away from religion over several years and became an atheist or to be more philosophically correct, a sceptical agnostic." Nurse's autobiography at Nobelprize.org
190. "It was nice to be honoured but I like ‘Mark’ not ‘Sir Mark’. When one’s young, one’s brash and all-knowing; when one’s old, one realises how little one knows. You asked me earlier if I believed in God and the hereafter. I would tend to say no but when one dies one could well be surprised." Mark Oliphant from an interview in 1996., Sir Mark Oliphant - Reluctant Builder of the Atom Bomb.
191. Neil Schlager; Josh Lauer (2000). Science and its times: understanding the social significance of scientific discovery (illustrated ed.). Gale Group. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-7876-3939-6. Alexander Oparin (1894-1980), an atheist, suggested that natural chemical reactions produced biological molecules that came together to form the first living thing.
192. K. C. Cole (2012). Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and His Astonishing Exploratorium. University of Chicago Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN 9780226113470. For the locals, it was as if aliens had landed. "The normal folks were wearing tight jeans and cowboy hats, and here was a rancher who didn't wear a hat," said Pete Richards, who lived on one of the neighboring ranches at the time. “He was skinnier than a rail, he was really hyper. Both he and Jackie swore like sailors. And they were atheists!”.
193. Jürgen Kocka (2010). Jürgen Kocka, ed. Work in a Modern Society: The German Historical Experience in Comparative Perspective. Berghahn Books. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-84545-575-0. Even Wilhelm Ostwald, who was the most radical atheist among these scholars, uses the instrument of the 'Monistic Sunday Sermons' to spread his ideas on rationality.
194. Park, Robert L. Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science, 2008, Princeton University Press, page viii
195. Originally a Lutheran, Pauling declared his atheism in 1992, two years before his death.
196. Amazon listing of Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up.
197. W. M. Goss, W. William Miller Goss, Richard X. McGee (2009). "Last Years". Under the Radar: The First Woman in Radio Astronomy: Ruby Payne-Scott. Springer. p. 253. ISBN 9783642031410.
198. Pavlov's follower E.M. Kreps asked him whether he was religious. Kreps writes that Pavlov smiled and replied: "Listen, good fellow, in regard to [claims of] my religiosity, my belief in God, my church attendance, there is no truth in it; it is sheer fantasy. I was a seminarian, and like the majority of seminarians, I became an unbeliever, an atheist in my school years." Quoted in George Windholz, "Pavlov's Religious Orientation", Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 25, no. 3 (Sept. 1986), pp. 320–27.
199. Mathew Philips. "Tragedy and Opportunity: The parents of slain journalist Danny Pearl have devoted their lives to improving Muslim-Jewish relations.". Retrieved 12 July 2013. I turned secular at the age of 11, by divine revelation. [Laughs.] I was standing on the roof of the house my father built, looking down on the street and suddenly it became very clear to me that there is no God.
200. Harris, Sam. "Letter to A Christian Nation". SamHarrisOrg. Retrieved 5 June 2010. Quoting Penrose's blurb for Harris's book Letter to a Christian Nation. and refers to himself as an atheist.
201. "Big Bang follows Big Bang follows Big Bang". BBC News. 25 September 2010. Retrieved 1 Dec 2010.
202. "After retirement, he remained politically active, defending Andrei Sakharov, and was President of the French Atheists' Union." D S Bell, 'Obituary: Francis Perrin', The Independent (London), July 18, 1992, Pg. 44.
203. Bernard Valeur, Jean-Claude Brochon (2001). New Trends in Fluorescence Spectroscopy: Applications to Chemical and Life Sciences. Springer. p. 17. ISBN 978-3-540-67779-6. Jean and Francis Perrin held similar political and philosophical ideas. Both were socialists and atheists.
204. "Dr Perutz, said: "It is one thing for scientists to oppose creationism which is demonstrably false but quite another to make pronouncements which offend people's religious faith -- that is a form of tactlessness which merely brings science into disrepute. My view of religion and ethics is simple: even if we do not believe in God, we should try to live as though we did."" Kam Patel, Perutz rubbishes Popper and Kuhn, 25 November 1994.
205. "...I'm an atheist..." Enough blasting Dennett and Dawkins, all right?, from Rationally Speaking, the blog of Massimo Pigliucci, October 30, 2006 (Accessed April 15, 2008)
206. "I never outgrew my conversion to atheism at 13, but at various times was a serious cultural Jew." The Guardian Profile (November 6, 1999). "Steven Pinker: the mind reader". London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
207. "During sixty years from 1937 he also wrote over forty articles on the origins, distribution, and nature of life, taking the stance of a 'dogmatic atheist'." David F. Smith, 'Pirie, Norman Wingate [Bill] (1907–1997)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition, October 2005 (accessed May 2, 2008).
208. "Ronald Plasterk (1957) is a convinced atheist. But he says expressly that he does not strive for atheism. "My own view cannot be gospel which I will defend at any cost. I respect belief, as long as people do not force it." (In Dutch: "Ronald Plasterk (1957) is een overtuigd atheïst. Maar hij zegt er nadrukkelijk bij dat hij niet streeft naar atheïsme. «Mijn eigen opvatting mag geen heilsleer zijn die ik ten koste van alles ga verdedigen. Ik respecteer geloof, zolang mensen het maar niet opdringen.» ") Interview with Ronald Plasterk, «Er is geen verband tussen altruïsme en God» ("There is no connection between altruism and God"), De Groene Amsterdammer, December 22, 2001 (accessed August 6, 2008).
209. "...my father [Derek] was a British Atheist... from a rather well known Sephardic Jewish family..." de Solla Price, Mark (2007-12-09). "Are you Jewish?". Archived from the original on 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
210. "His tolerance and good humour enabled him to disagree strongly without giving or taking offence, for example with his brother Michael Ramsey whose ordination (he went on to become archbishop of Canterbury) Ramsey, as a militant atheist, naturally regretted." D. H. Mellor, 'Ramsey, Frank Plumpton (1903–1930)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2005 (accessed May 2, 2008).
211. Ranum, Marcus. "Ranum's supports Dawkins's "out campaign" for atheists.". Retrieved 12 April 2012. Generally, I do not get a lot of satisfaction out of being identified with causes or logos. But - a couple of years ago, when Richard Dawkins started his "out campaign" for atheists, I thought that showing my support was not a bad idea.
212. Rod Dreher (April 20, 2011). "Martin J. Rees Wins 2011 Templeton Prize". Templeton Report. Retrieved 4 August 2013. As it turns out, Lord Rees is an atheist, though one who said in a recent interview that he is “not allergic to religion,” and that he enjoys participating in aesthetic and cultural activities of the Anglican church, in which he was raised.
213. "Oscar Riddle". NNDB.com. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
214. "The Nobel Laureate Dr Richard Roberts will give a public lecture entitled A Bright Journey from Science to Atheism..." A bright journey to atheism, or a road that ignores all the signs?, The Irish Times, April 20, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
215. "...Rich Roberts... delivered a public lecture on his Bright journey from Science to Atheism in April 2006." Events listing on the website of Humani, The Humanist Association of Northern Ireland, Retrieved July 24, 2007.
216. Roberts versus God: No Contest, review of Roberts' talk A Bright Journey from Science to Atheism, written by Les Reid, and published on the Belfast Humanist Group website. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
217. Jason Fagone (July 15, 2011). "Chain World Videogame Was Supposed to be a Religion—Not a Holy War". Retrieved 23 July 2013. Challenge organizer Zimmerman decided that this year’s theme would be Bigger Than Jesus: games as religion. (“My first thought was, oh my God, it couldn’t have been a more inappropriate topic for me to tackle,” Rohrer says. “I’m an atheist.”)
218. "Have you ever broken one of the ten commandments? As an atheist from an early age, I can't readily remember them. But I expect I have." Lifeline: Steven Rose, Lancet Vol. 355 Issue 9213 p. 1472, April 22, 2000.
219. I was Rosenbluth's last student, and collaborated with him on numerous research projects during and after my graduation. Near the end of his life, we more frequently discussed personal and political issues. On more than one occasion, he freely admitted to me that he was an atheist. Statement by J. Candy, 22 January 2009.
220. Russell, Bertrand (1947). "Am I An Atheist or an Agnostic?". Encyclopedia of Things. Retrieved 6 July 2005.: "I never know whether I should say "Agnostic" or whether I should say "Atheist"... As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove (sic) that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist..."
221. Charlie Rose, interviewing Oliver Sacks, asked him whether he believed in God. Sacks replied, "I can't imagine what it meant.... No, I guess not." Originally aired on Charlie Rose, 23 Feb. 1995; re-aired, in commemoration of Sacks' death, on 11 Sept. 2015.
222. "All of which makes the Wingate Prize a matter of bemusement. "Yes, tell me," he says, frowning. "What is it, and why are they giving it to an old Jewish atheist who has unkind things to say about Zionism?" "Oliver Burkeman interviewing Sacks, 'Inside Story: Sacks appeal', The Guardian, May 10, 2002, Features Pages, Pg. 4.
223. Santimay Chatterjee, Enakshi Chatterjee (1984). Meghnad Saha, scientist with a vision. National Book Trust, India. p. 5. Even though he later came to be known as an atheist, Saha was well-versed in all religious texts— though his interest in them was purely academic.
224. Robert S. Anderson (2010). Nucleus and Nation: Scientists, International Networks, and Power in India. University of Chicago Press. p. 602. ISBN 9780226019758. a self-described atheist, saha loved swimming in the river and his devout wife loved the sanctity of the spot. swimming and walking were among the few things they could do together.
225. Gennady Gorelik, Antonina W. Bouis (2005). The World of Andrei Sakharov: A Russian Physicist's Path to Freedom. Oxford University Press. p. 356. ISBN 9780195156201. Apparently Sakharov did not need to delve any deeper into it for a long time, remaining a totally nonmilitant atheist with an open heart.
226. Gennadiĭ Efimovich Gorelik, Antonina W. Bouis (2005). The World of Andrei Sakharov: A Russian Physicist's Path to Freedom. Oxford University Press. p. 158. ISBN 9780195156201. Sakharov was not invited to this seminar. Like most of the physicists of his generation, he was an atheist.
227. Todd K. Shackelford, Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford, ed. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War. Oxford University Press. p. 465. ISBN 9780199738403. The Soviet dissident most responsible for defeating communism, Andrei Sakharov, was an atheist.
228. Dan Barker: "When we invited Robert Sapolsky to speak at one of out national conventions to receive our 'Emperor Has No Clothes Award', Robert wrote to me, 'Sure! Get the local Holiday Inn to put up a sign that says Welcome, Hell-bound Atheists!' [...] So, welcome you hell-bound atheist to Freethought Radio, Robert." Sapolsky: "Well, delighted to be among my kindred souls." [...] Annie Laurie Gaylor: So how long have you been a kindred non-soul, what made you an atheist Robert?" Sapolsky: "Oh, I was about fourteen or so... I was brought up very very religiously, orthodox Jewish background and major-league rituals and that sort of thing [...] and something happened when I was fourteen, and no doubt what it was really about was my gonads or who knows what, but over the course of a couple of weeks there was some sort of introspective whatever, where I suddenly decided this was all gibberish. And, among other things, also deciding there's no free will, but not in a remotely religious context, and deciding all of this was nonsense, and within a two week period all of that belief stuff simply evaporated." Freethought Radio podcast (mp3), February 3, 2007 (accessed April 22, 2008).
229. "Wallace Sargent". NNDB.com. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
230. Manabendra Nath Roy, ed. (1973). The Radical humanist, Volume 37. Radical Humanist. p. 18. It cannot be said that Dr. Sarkar was a confirmed atheist.
231. du Sautoy, Marcus (2008-10-28). "Science Extra: Marcus du Sautoy steps into Dawkins' boots". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
232. Walter J. Moore (1994). A Life of Erwin Schrödinger. Cambridge University Press. pp. 289–290. ISBN 9780521469340. In one respect, however, he is not a romantic: he does not idealize the person of the beloved, his highest praise is to consider her his equal. "When you feel your own equal in the body of a beautiful woman, just as ready to forget the world for you as you for her - oh my good Lord - who can describe what happiness then. You can live it, now and again - you cannot speak of it." Of course, he does speak of it, and almost always with religious imagery. Yet at this time he also wrote, "By the way, I never realized that to be nonbelieving, to be an atheist, was a thing to be proud of. It went without saying as it were." And in another place at about this same time: "Our creed is indeed a queer creed. You others, Christians (and similar people), consider our ethics much inferior, indeed abominable. There is that little difference. We adhere to ours in practice, you don't." Whatever problems they may have had in their love affair, the pangs of conscience were not among them. Sheila was as much an unbeliever as Erwin, but in a less complex, more realistic way. She was never entirely convinced by his vedantic theology.
233. Andrea Diem-Lane. Spooky Physics. MSAC Philosophy Group. p. 42. ISBN 9781565430808. In terms of religion, Schrodinger fits in the atheist camp. He even lost a marriage proposal to his love, Felicie Krauss, not only due to his social status but his lack of religious affiliation. He was known as a freethinker who did not believe in god. But interestingly Schrodinger had a deep connection to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Eastern philosophy in general. Erwin studied numerous books on Eastern thought as well as the Hindu scriptures. He was enthralled with Vedanta thought and connected ideas of oneness and unity of mind with his research on quantum physics, specifically wave mechanics.
234. Moore, Walter (1994). A Life of Erwin Schrödinger. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-46934-0. Schopenhauer often called himself an atheist, as did Schrodinger, and if Buddhism and Vedanta can be truly described as atheistic religions, both the philosopher and his scientific disciple were indeed atheists. They both rejected the idea of a "personal God," and Schopenhauer thought that "pantheism is only a euphemism for atheism."
235. Moore, Walter (1989). Schrödinger: Life and Thought. ISBN 0-521-43767-9. He rejected traditional religious beliefs (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic) not on the basis of any reasoned argument, nor even with an expression of emotional antipathy, for he loved to use religious expressions and metaphors, but simply by saying that they are naive.
236. Walter J. Moore (1992). Schrödinger: Life and Thought. Cambridge University Press. p. 4. ISBN 9780521437677. He claimed to be an atheist, but he always used religious symbolism and believed his scientific work was an approach to the godhead.
237. "Erwin Schrodinger" (PDF). Retrieved 22 June 2012. He claimed to be an atheist, but he used religious symbolism and believed that his scientific work was 'an approach to God'.
238. Laurent Schwartz (2001). A Mathematician Grappling With His Century. Springer. p. 193. ISBN 9783764360528. My parents were atheists, I was an atheist, I never really felt Jewish.
239. "Shannon described himself as an atheist and was outwardly apolitical." William Poundstone, Fortune's Formula, Hill and Wang: New York (2005), page 18.
240. "The other day Vernette said he [Shneidman] was blessed. True enough, he thought, but not quite right, not blessed. On a napkin on the TV tray he scribbled down the Greek prefix, eu, for good, and then through association and sound, fell upon doria... this would be the word for his good fortune. Eudoria... gratitude without an object, no one to credit, no one to thank. No Jesus, no Yahweh, Muhammad, Vishnu or Buddha. Because he believes life isn't contingent upon god or upon prayers. There is no heaven, no hell. Happiness lies in te here and now and the satisfaction of living a good life without religion or myth to guide you." Waiting for death, alone and unafraid, Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 28 February 2009 (Accessed 18 May 2009)
241. Joel N. Shurkin (2008). Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 133. ISBN 9780230551923. He considered himself an atheist and never went to church.
242. Doug Renselle. "A Review of Amy Wallace's The Prodigy". Quantonics, Inc. Retrieved 20 June 2012. Rabid atheist by age six. (His father, Boris, was too, but intensely studied great religious works.)
243. Hunter Crowther-Heyck (2005). Herbert A. Simon: The Bounds of Reason in Modern America. JHU Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780801880254. His secular, scientific values came well before he was old enough to make such calculating career decisions. For example, while still in middle school, Simon wrote a letter to the editor of the Milwaukee Journal defending the civil liberties of atheists, and by high school he was "certain" that he was "religiously an atheist," a conviction that never wavered.
244. "Within a year I had gone to Miss Graves to tell her that I no longer believed in God. 'I know,' she said, 'I have been through that myself.' But her strategy misfired: I never went through it." B.F. Skinner, pp. 387-413, E.G. Boring and G. Lindzey's A History of Psychology in Autobiography (Vol. 5), New York: Appleton Century-Crofts, 1967.
245. Steve Batterson (2007). Steven Smale: The Mathematician Who Broke the Dimension Barrier. American Mathematical Soc. p. 11. ISBN 9780821826966. Jack and Norm were religious individuals, whereas Steve was an atheist who had never been inside a church.
246. Smith, Michael. Michael Smith: Autobiography. Nobel Prize.org. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
247. British Humanist Society, "John Maynard Smith talking to Humanist News in Autumn 2001," from the obituary "John Maynard Smith (1920–2004)," Humanism.org.uk (2004). Retrieved July 31, 2011.
248. "Another aspect of this is that a scientific cosmology can contain no residue of the idea that the world was constructed by some being who is not a part of it. As the creatures who makes things, it is our most natural impulse to ask: When we come upon something beautifully or intricately structured, who made it? We must learn to give up this impulse if we are to do scientific cosmology. As there can, by definition, be nothing outside the universe, a scientific cosmology must be based on a conception that the universe made itself." Lee Smolin, What is the Future of Cosmology?, pbs.org.
249. "Biblical scholar Jacques Berlinerblau points out, in an interesting recent book, The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously (2005), that most contemporary atheists and agnostics — myself included, I must confess — are astoundingly ignorant of the details of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Qur'an (not to mention the Bhagavad Gita and the Tripitaka, one could add). ... When all is said and done, I see no reason to amend my judgment that the existence of the Jewish, Christian, Islamic or Hindu gods is about as plausible, given the currently available evidence, as the existence of Zeus or Thor." — Alan Sokal, Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture (2008).
250. "Stallman's former personal ad". Stallman.org. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
251. Istva ́n Hargittai, Magdolna Hargittai (2006). Candid Science VI: More Conversations with Famous Scientists. Imperial College Press. p. 749. ISBN 9781860948855. Jack Steinberger: "I'm now a bit anti-Jewish since my last visit to the synagogue, but my atheism does not necessarily reject religion."
252. Steven G. Krantz (2002). Mathematical Apocrypha: Stories and Anecdotes of Mathematicians and the Mathematical. Mathematical Association of America. p. 202. ISBN 9780883855393. ...Steinhaus answered that, "God is always present." It should be noted that Steinhaus was an outspoken atheist.
253. "God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist (9781591024811): Victor J. Stenger: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
254. Archived April 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
255. "Suchet's father Jack, an atheist and eminent surgeon, emigrated from South Africa to England in the 1930s and never spoke about his family's past." 'Suchet traces Russian Jewish roots', The Press Association, 9 September 2008 (accessed 9 September 2008).
256. "I read a few sentences. It was written in beautiful Biblical Hebrew. The language was like that of the Psalms.' One of these was the Isaiah scroll, which I saw recently in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem: sections of goat-skin parchment, sewn together, 27 feet long. I felt in the presence of something numinous, although I have been a convinced atheist since boyhood. But this document is a testament to the inexplicable persistence of the human mind, in the face of all the evidence, in believing that we are on earth for a divine purpose." Eleazar Sukenik, quoted in Justin Cartwright, 'The indestructible power of belief', The Guardian, May 27, 2000, Saturday Pages, Pg. 3.
257. Sulston, John. "Another 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God". Retrieved 8 April 2012. I believe atheism makes coherent sense.
258. In a review of Susskind's book The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, Michael Duff writes that Susskind is "a card-carrying atheist." Life in a landscape of possibilities, December 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
259. Dina Kraft (Mar 14, 2013). "'Repairing the world' was Aaron Swartz’s calling". Haaretz. Retrieved 23 March 2013. And although the young technologist and activist grew up to call himself an atheist, the values he grew up with appeared foundational.
260. "He is a passionate atheist who hates materialistic interpretations of our minds." Interview: Raymond Tallis, The ardent atheist, Guardian Review, April 29, 2006 (accessed April 14, 2008).
261. Vitaliĭ Lazarevich Ginzburg (2005). About Science, Myself and Others. CRC Press. p. 253. ISBN 9780750309929. Nowadays, when we are facing manifestations of religious and. more often, pseudoreligious feelings, it is appropriate to mention that Igor Evgenevich was a convinced and unreserved atheist.
262. Евгений Львович Фейнберг (1987). Reminiscences about I.E. Tamm. Nauka. p. 82. Tamm's circumspect humorous reply: "Generally speaking, I am an atheist but may I give the answer next time?"
263. Evgeniĭ Lʹvovich Feĭnberg, A. V. Leonidov (2011). Physicists: Epoch and Personalities (2 ed.). World Scientific. p. 86. ISBN 9789812834164.
264. "They became correspondents and, surprisingly since Tansley was an avowed atheist, friends." - Peter G. Ayres, Shaping Ecology: The Life of Arthur Tansley, page 139.
265. "Most of the Socialist Party members were also in favor of assimilation, and Tarski's political allegiance was socialist at the time. So, along with its being a practical move, becoming more Polish than Jewish was an ideological statement and was approved by many, though not all, of his colleagues. As to why Tarski, a professed atheist, converted, that just came with the territory and was part of the package: if you were going to be Polish then you had to say you were Catholic." Anita Burdman Feferman, Solomon Feferman, Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic (2004), page 39.
266. Rory Carroll (21 June 2013). "Kip Thorne: physicist studying time travel tapped for Hollywood film". Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 30 October 2014. Thorne grew up in an academic, Mormon family in Utah but is now an atheist. "There are large numbers of my finest colleagues who are quite devout and believe in God, ranging from an abstract humanist God to a very concrete Catholic or Mormon God. There is no fundamental incompatibility between science and religion. I happen to not believe in God."
267. Deirdre Barrett (2010). Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-0-393-06848-1. Tinbergen had never been a religious man. Wartime atrocities, however, had highlighted the absence of a deity for him while both sides invoked one aligned with themselves, and this turned him into a militant atheist.
268. "Some say God is living there [in space]. I was looking around very attentively, but I did not see anyone there. I did not detect either angels or gods. ... I don't believe in God. I believe in man-his strength, his possibilities, his reason." Gherman Titov, comments made at World Fair, Seattle, Washington, May 6, 1962, reported in The Seattle Daily Times, May 7, 1962, p. 2.
269. "[I am] completely a-religious—atheist. I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both." Interview: Linus Torvalds in Linux Journal November 1, 1999. Retrieved January 18, 2007.
270. "This loss shattered Turing's religious faith and led him into atheism..." Time 100 profile of Alan Turing, p. 2
271. "He was an atheist..." Alan Turing: Father of the computer, BBC News, April 28, 1999. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
272. "In religion he was raised as a theist, but in 1782, in an Answer to Dr. Priestley, on the Existence of God, a response to Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, he described himself as a freethinker (p. 5). This work, first published under the pseudonym William Hammon, was subsequently republished by Richard Carlile in 1826. In the pamphlet Turner declared that he was an atheist, though he did admit that the 'vis naturae', gravity, and matter's elasticity and repulsive powers demonstrated that the universe was permeated by 'a principle of intelligence and design' (ibid., 17). Despite the 'perpetual industry' of nature, he denied that this intelligence entailed that philosophers needed to posit the existence of a deity extraneous to the material world." E. I. Carlyle, 'Turner, Matthew (d. 1789?)', rev. Kevin C. Knox, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed May 2, 2008).
273. Text of Answer to Dr. Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever at Project Guttenberg.
274. R. L. Wysong (1976). "5: Origin of Proteins". The Creation-evolution Controversy (implications, Methodology and Survey of Evidence): Toward a Rational Solution. Wysong Institute. p. 75. ISBN 9780918112026. Recently, at a seminar, Harold Urey, the noted scientist who won a Nobel prize for his experiments on the origin of life.... ...Dr. Urey, a somewhat outspoken confirmed atheist and evolutionist, answered:...
275. "Harold C. Urey". NNDB.com. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
276. Peter Pringle (2008). The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century. Simon and Schuster. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-7432-6498-3. Despite his strict upbringing in the Orthodox Church, Vavilov had been an atheist from an early age. If he worshipped anything, it was science.
277. Steve Kroft asked Venter on CBS' Sixty Minutes, 21 November 2010: "Do you believe in God?" Venter replied, "No. The universe is far more wonderful."
278. Lynn Margulis; Dorion Sagan (2000). What Is Life?. University of California Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-520-22021-8. Both the French paleontologist-priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the Russian atheist Vladimir Vernadsky agreed that Earth is developing a global mind.
279. "A firm atheist, he was interested in, though unconvinced by, the paranormal, and also did research on hypnosis." Ray Cooper, 'Walter, (William) Grey (1910–1977)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2007 (accessed May 2, 2008).
280. Watson is identified as an atheist by his acquaintance, Rabbi Marc Gellman. Trying to Understand Angry Atheists: Why do nonbelievers seem to be threatened by the idea of God?, by Rabbi Marc Gellman, Newsweek, April 28, 2006. Retrieved November 11, 2006.
281. JoAnne Viviano (October 19, 2007). "Nobel Prize-winning scientist wows some, worries others". The Vindicator. Archived from the original on June 28, 2006. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
282. "We typically never squabbled very much. If we disagreed, it was about scientific issues. He didn't believe the observational evidence for the cosmological constant, and I think it's highly probable. He was raised as an Orthodox Jew and we both attended Temple Beth Emet in Anaheim. He was actually an atheist, who wanted to maintain Jewish traditions. It was another thing we didn't have to disagree about. We both agreed that modern cosmology provided a better picture of the early universe than does the book of Genesis." Virginia Trimble, Weber's wife, quoted in Physics and Society, Vol. 30 No. 4, p.24-25.
283. Azpurua: "Would it be accurate to say that you are an atheist?" Weinberg: "Yes. I don't believe in God, but I don't make a religion out of not believing in God. I don't organize my life around that." In Search of the God Particle, by Ana Elena Azpurua, Newsweek Web Exclusive, March 24, 2008, p. 3 (Accessed March 25, 2008)
284. In a review of Susskind's book The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, string theorist Michael Duff identifies Steven Weinberg as an "arch-atheist".
285. In the book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins identifies Steven Weinberg as an atheist.richarddawkins.net.
286. "...Victor Weisskopf, who describes himself as an atheist Viennese Jew...." Quoting from page 14 of The Prism of Science, by Edna Ullmann-Margalit, Springer, 1986.
287. John Golley (2010). Jet: Frank Whittle and the Invention of the Jet Engine. Eloy Gutierrez. p. 34. ISBN 9781907472008. Although he had occasionally cut Church Parade, he had once held very strong religious beliefs, but these had eroded to such an extent that he had come to regard himself as an atheist. "By degrees", he said "I was forced to the conclusion that my beliefs were inconsistent with scientific teaching. Once the seeds of doubt were sown the whole structure of my former religious beliefs rapidly collapsed, and I swung to the other extreme".
288. Eugene Paul Wigner, Andrew Szanton (1992). Andrew Szanton, ed. The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner As Told to Andrew Szanton. Basic Books. pp. 60–61. ISBN 9780306443268. Neither did I want to be a clergyman. I liked a good sermon. But religion tells people how to behave and that I could never do. Clergymen also had to assume and advocate the presence of God, and proofs of God's existence seemed to me quite unsatisfactory. People claimed that He had made our earth. Well, how had He made it? With an earth-making machine? Someone once asked Saint Augustine, "What did the Lord do before he created the world?" And Saint Augustine is said to have answered, "He created Hell for people who ask such questions." A retort perhaps made in jest, but I knew of none better. I saw that I could not know anything of God directly, that His presence was a matter of belief, I did not have that belief, and preaching without belief is repulsive. So I could not be a clergyman, however many people might gain salvation. And my parents never pressed the point.
289. Gregory E. Pence (1998). Who's Afraid of Human Cloning?. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8476-8782-4. Ian Wilmut is a regular guy. ...Although not a believer in God himself, he believes in ethics.
290. Angier, Natalie (2002-12-24). "The Origin of Religions, From a Distinctly Darwinian View". New York Times. p. F5. Archived from the original on 2007-10-16. Retrieved 2007-06-11. ...I don't believe in God. I tell people I'm an atheist, but a nice atheist.
291. "I grew up in a Jewish family but I gave it all up at 16 when I prayed to God for something I really wanted and it didn't happen. I have been an atheist ever since. I believe in proof and I know of no evidence for the existence of God, but I am in no way hostile to religion provided it does not interfere in the lives of others or come into conflict with science." Easter special: I believe..., Independent on Sunday, April 16, 2006 (accessed April 18, 2008).
292. Wozniak, Steven. "Letters – General Questions Answered". woz.org. Retrieved 2007-09-26. ... I am also atheist or agnostic (I don't even know the difference). I've never been to church and prefer to think for myself. I do believe that religions stand for good things, and that if you make irrational sacrifices for a religion, then everyone can tell that your religion is important to you and can trust that your most important inner faiths are strong.
293. Howard B. Rock, Paul A. Gilje, Robert Asher, ed. (1995). American Artisans: Crafting Social Identity, 1750-1850. JHU Press. p. 115. ISBN 9780801850295. Wright was the son of a Connecticut farmer and teacher who moved his family to the Ohio frontier in 1810 to start a farm and open an academy. He was a quirky man who rejected evangelicalism for atheism, and Garrisonianism for the Liberty party, and then the Free Soilers.
294. In Abolitionist, Actuary, Atheist: Elizur Wright and the Reform Impulse, Wright's biographer Lawrence B. Goodheart describes him as "an evangelical atheist, an impassioned actuary, a liberal who advocated state regulation, an individualist who championed social cooperation, and a very private public crusader" (op. cit., page x)
295. "When Wright was nine his father died of leukaemia and he moved with his mother and younger sister to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There he enrolled in the Episcopal High School and duly became an atheist." Ajesh Partalay interviewing Wright, 'Master of the Universe', The Observer, 14 September 2008 (accessed 15 September 2008).
296. Eliezer Yudkowsky. "Quote by Eliezer Yudkowsky". goodreads.com. Retrieved 17 July 2012. [...] intelligent people only have a certain amount of time (measured in subjective time spent thinking about religion) to become atheists. After a certain point, if you're smart, have spent time thinking about and defending your religion, and still haven't escaped the grip of Dark Side Epistemology, the inside of your mind ends up as an Escher painting.
297. Carol Parikh (2008). The Unreal Life of Oscar Zariski. Springer. p. 5. ISBN 9780387094298. And yet it did, even though since moving into the boarding house he had become an atheist and most of his friends, including his best friend, were Russians.
298. Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (2004). R.A. Sunyaev, ed. Zeldovich: Reminiscences. CRC Press. p. 69. ISBN 9780415287906. I think that you know me well enough: I am an absolute atheist, and all days of the week are completely the same to me.
299. Andrei Sakharov: Facets of a Life. Atlantica Séguier Frontières. 1991. p. 599. ISBN 9782863320969. Speaking about religion, Yakov Borisovich could say unambiguously, "I'm an absolute atheist".
300. David Klinghoffer. "'Darwin Would Put God Out of Business'". Beliefnet, Inc. Retrieved 21 May 2013. The author is Emile Zuckerkandl of Stanford University. Prof. Zuckerkandl ferociously attacks ID and any belief in a designer, God, or other "superghost".
301. Jane Smiley (2010). The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 9780385527132. Like Alan Turing, Zuse was educated in a system that focused on a child's emotional and philosophical life as well as his intellectual life, and at the end of school, like Turing, Zuse found himself to be something of an outsider—to the disappointment of his very conventional parents, he no longer believed in God or religion.
302. Konrad Zuse (1993). The Computer, My Life. Springer. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-3-540-56453-9. The only problem was that the progressive spirit at our school did not always correspond to my parents' ideas. This was particularly true for religious instruction, which now and again seemed even to us pupils to be rather too enlightened. After the 'Abitur' my parents wanted to go to communion with me; it was a terrible disappointment to them when I wouldn't go. They had lived under the illusion that I was a good student when it came to religion, too, which wasn't the case. ...I remember a poem presented by a student, which made a great impression on me. The essence of the poem read, "Basically, you are always alone." I have forgotten the name of the poet, but have often experienced the truth of these words in later life."
303. Oliver Knill (14 July 1998). "Supernovae, an alpine climb and space travel.". Retrieved 21 June 2013. Zwicky has dealt critically with religion during his whole life. (Source: "Everybody a genius"). In a diary entry of 1971, he writes "To base the unexplainabilty and the immense wonder of nature onto an other miracle God is unnecessary and not acceptable for any serious thinker".
304. Swiss-American Historical Society (2006). Newsletter, Volumes 42-43. The Society. p. 17. Zwicky has dealt critically with religion during his whole life. A 1971 diary entry states: "To base the inexplainabilty and the immense wonder of nature upon another miracle, God, is unnecessary and not acceptable for any serious thinker." According to one story, Zwicky once discussed the beginning of the universe with a priest. The priest, quoting Scriptures, stated that the universe had started with "and there is light." Zwicky replied that he would buy this, if instead God had said "and there is electronmagnetism".

External links

• Twentieth Century Atheists on University of Cambridge's investigating atheism website