Add to this list of Celebrity Atheists and Agnostics... anyone here whom YOU admire?

[Radio_Lady]

http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

I have always liked Mike Nichols...

Your turn...

[NYCGirl]

1. Bill Maher. NT

[Radio_Lady]

2. NYC Girl, is his name on one of the main lists?

[NYCGirl]

6. I have no idea, but he's talked about his Atheism a great deal. NT

[Pool Hall Ace]

22. Bill Maher is on the main page, under 'The Ambiguous.'

Great link! :hi:

[Radio_Lady]

26. Thanks, Pool Hall. I should have looked for it myself but didn't have time.

My husband and I have been busy fighting (!) all day...

Marriage is for the birds. At least, today it is.

[mitchum]

3. Howlin' Wolf

[Radio_Lady]

7. Not sure who this is, but thank you very much.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

9. Blues musician.

[Radio_Lady]

16. OK, now I know...

Thanks.

[DBoon]

23. Really?

He was absolutely the best!

[Radio_Lady]

27. Sorry, I don't like (most of) the blues. I had just never heard of him.

No biggie. Thanks for your post.

[DBoon]

32. No, I meant was Howlin Wolf really an atheist

I don't seen him listed on the site as "Howlin Wolf" or as Chester Arthur Burnett (his real name).

It would be cool if this blues icon were really a non-believer

On Edit: I'm sure you are aware of many classic performers I have not yet heard of. That's OK

[mitchum]

38. Seems to have been...

I have read several accounts of his being dismissive of both religion and the notion that there was some type of supreme being
Also, his mother was a crazed religious fanatic who rejected him for all of his adult life because he played "the devil's music"

He was absolutely the best

[BurtWorm]

47. I didn't know that about him.

What a great American!

:patriot:

[wildhorses]

4. billy joel

:woohoo:

[hellbound-liberal]

5. I admire a lot of people on this list. I was surprised to see Barry Manilow on the list!

He just always seemed to be pretty clean-cut and wholesome.

[Radio_Lady]

8. So... atheists aren't clean-cut and wholesome? Hmmmmm....

[Connonym]

29. I know! why do we have such a bad reputation?

We're not a bunch of evil Satan worshipers trying to lure children into opium dens to watch porn. We don't need the fear of god to make us behave. I personally think that makes us more virtuous. We're good because we have good hearts, not because we're afraid.

[montanto]

56. Satan worshipers . . .

I love it when I tell someone I'm an atheist and they ask me if I worship the devil! Hello!

[Skittles]

37. you must be brainwashed to be wholesome

yes INDEED! :7

[hellbound-liberal]

50. Sorry I should have put wholesome in quotation marks

and I meant wholesome as in something that Lawrence Welk fans would appreciate, most of whom, I believe, are God-fearing Christians.

[idgiehkt]

10. Susie Bright

:)

:hi:

[Xipe Totec]

11. Carl Sagan nt

[Bjornsdotter]

13. Ditto on Sagan n/t

[sarge43]

36. Second that. n/t

[nytemare]

39. Surely.

Didn't see him on the list, though. Strange.

[Fire Walk With Me]

41. Although I am most decidedly not an athiest, I respect and thank Carl Sagan.

My spirituality is pragmatic and empiric. I'm suprised that more scientists don't dig where actual results are achieved, such as in the Buddhist mindfulness/breathing techniques, Vedanta, and other aspects which demonstrate actual change in a person. Some of these things have been around for thousands of years because they work. It seems that people who challenge religion ignore them for some reason, most likely because they are not widely known and thus most have no experience in them, in the West.

These things are changing rapidly. How odd it will be, as they continue to do so. As India rises as a financial giant, and America gains spiritual insight.

And note, there is a lot of dangerous and misleading stuff out there, making it very hard for the enthusiastic and inexperienced to gain ground. Few fields are more open for taking advantage of others.

[pokerfan]

12. Bertrand Russell

"The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell."

"I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex."

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

"I was told that the Chinese said that they would would bury me by the Western lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen, as I might have become a god, which would have been very _chic_ for an atheist."

[TheCentepedeShoes]

24. I got his book

"Why I Am Not a Christian" today.

[pokerfan]

30. It's been in my library for thirty years

Enjoy. I can certainly see how Carl Sagan was influenced by him and Russell was in turn influenced by John Stuart Mill. He even sounds like Sagan at times.


"He goes on about the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It comes in one verse after another, and it is quite manifest to the reader that there is a certain pleasure in contemplating the wailing and gnashing of teeth, or else it would not occur so often." (Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not a Christian")

"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown, and partly the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing - fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand."
(Bertrand Russell, 6/3/27)

"We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world -- its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it."
(Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian")

"Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own."
(Bertrand Russell, "What I believe")

[MonkeyFunk]

14. Butterfly McQueen

[no_hypocrisy]

52. I met her at a Freedom From Religion function in Morristown, NJ.

One of the audience members mortified me when he asked her to exclaim, "Lordy, Lordy, Lordy".

She was a true lady in every way.

This was about five years before she died in her house fire.

[Arugula Latte]

15. Some of the brightest and funniest people are on that list.

That is so cool!

There are a lot more of us out there than most people realize. Maybe millions more ...

[Radio_Lady]

17. Yes, that's true.

[Radio_Lady]

18. I got to thinking about Stephen Hawking's beliefs... here are some of them...

http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9501/bigbang2.html

[Madspirit]

19. Joss Whedon

The creator and main writer of Buffy, Angel, Firefly and the movie Serenity, calls himself an "angry atheist". He is also a leftist.

Lee

[Radio_Lady]

20. If you don't believe in God, how can you be angry at... God?

Well, I guess you can be angry about the situations and things God produces?

This is a conundrum... and it's almost lunch time. I'll have to decide which is predominant...

[Madspirit]

21. I never said he is angry at god

...and he never said that either. We don't believe in a god so we can't be angry at it. He's angry because the country is overrun by fundie crapheads and that mythology still rules in the world in 2007.
Lee

[Radio_Lady]

25. OK, I misinterpreted your phrase "angry atheist." I thought one word

modified the other. Sorry about that.

In peace,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[Connonym]

28. I watched the movie Jesus Camp today

these lists are a refreshing reminder that not everyone in the world is as batshit crazy (my apologizes to the bat shit) as the people in this film. Including Tim Haggert preaching about the sin of homosexuality. That was mind boggling.

[Onceuponalife]

31. The comment about Joss Whedon is interesting

His show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, starred Sarah Michelle Gellar whom I have heard describes herself as an atheist. Amber Tamblyn who appeared in an episode of Buffy is probably agnostic based on what I have heard and the statements she has made ("My Dad steered me away from religion...").

[Madspirit]

35. You Should

You should go to The Onion and read some of their interviews with Joss. He is SO cool.

He also said:

"When I go to Europe I always want to wear a t-shirt with a picture of Bush and the words, 'I'm sorry' written on it."

He is also a great leftist.

Lee

[More Than A Feeling]

43. Amber Tamblyn? She played Joan of Arcadia, right?

That's ironic.

[Onceuponalife]

46. Yes, that's her

One of the coolest chicks on the planet. Going to see her at Girlfest in SF next month.

[Alexander]

33. Douglas Adams

[bedpanartist]

34. Penn Jillette

of course I am biased. He sends me e-mails of praise for my music and art, and has requested we play in Las Vegas so he can attend a drexel show.

[Vidar]

40. Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw.

[More Than A Feeling]

42. Those are some great people. I admire too many of them to list

However, I will say that it's nice to have something in common with Angelina Jolie (Even if she is Rand-influenced)! :woohoo:

[RebelOne]

44. I am pretty sure that Woody Harrelson is an atheist.

He once stated that he was a free thinker.

[deepthought42]

45. Douglas Adams and Isaac Asimov

It is too bad they are not around today...

[AndreaCG]

48. How did they ever find out Monica Lewinsky is ambiguous?

Nothing against her (well gross stupidity in confiding in Linda Tripp) but her 15 minutes are WAY UP.

I was surprised to see Ray Romano on the atheist list. I'm glad Patricia Witchface (can't think of her real last name but this one fits, apologies to real Wiccans) didn't convert him.

[Connonym]

49. maybe she's the reason he's an atheist

I know there are a lot of good people of faith, I really do, unfortunately the ones who seem to be determined to convert the rest of us very rarely seem to be stunning examples of this.

[sarge43]

51. Another for the list

Sir David Attenborough.

[kwassa]

53. This list is BS

I spot-read half a dozen bios on this list. The evidence that they are atheists is hardly clear from what little is quoted from each person.

this for instance is the evidence that Bill Gates is an atheist, as he is listed on the main page:

Gates was interviewed November 1995 on PBS by David Frost. Below is the transcript with minor edits.

Frost: Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?

Gates: I don't. I'm not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I'm a huge believer in. There's a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very very positive impact.

Frost: I sometimes say to people, do you believe there is a god, or do you know there is a god? And, you'd say you don't know?

Gates: In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don't know if there's a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.

Gates was profiled in a January 13, 1996 TIME magazine cover story. Here are some excerpts compiled by the Drudge Report:

"Isn't there something special, perhaps even divine, about the human soul?" interviewer Walter Isaacson asks Gates "His face suddenly becomes expressionless," writes Isaacson, "his squeaky voice turns toneless, and he folds his arms across his belly and vigorously rocks back and forth in a mannerism that has become so mimicked at MICROSOFT that a meeting there can resemble a round table of ecstatic rabbis."

"I don't have any evidence on that," answers Gates. "I don't have any evidence of that."

He later states, "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning."

[Treclo]

54. Molly Ivens

Henry Rollins, Ani Difranco, Noam Chomsky...and on and on.

[montanto]

55. David Gilmore!!

Gilmore's stock couldn't get much higher without finding that we have this in common.