Dawkins’ List

[Who created God? The argument, here.]

Here is a list Richard Dawkins (Richard Dawkins because he is arguably the most famous atheist today) would be proud of. It constitutes the names of a few famous atheists and agnostics. To be more precise, people who were born into religious families, but turned atheists or agnostics over their lifetimes.

The information has been collected over time from books, magazines, well-sourced Wikipedia articles, and other websites.

ATHEISTS:

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995): Indian American Astrophysicist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.

Thomas Alva Edison:  American Inventor

Stephen Hawking (1942–): British theoretical physicist, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.

Amartya Kumar Sen (1933–): 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–): Former Soviet president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964): First prime minister of India (1947–1964)

Bhagat Singh (1907–1931): Indian freedom fighter. Wrote a pamphlet entitled, “Why I am an atheist”.

Sir Richard Branson (1950—): British entrepreneur, founder of the Virgin Group.

Mark Zuckerberg (1984–): Founder and CEO of Facebook.

Lance Armstrong (1971–): American cyclist, winner of the Tour de France seven consecutive times.

Bob Geldof (1951–): Irish singer/songwriter organized the Live Aid and Live 8 charity concerts.

Mick Jagger (1943–): lead vocalist and front man of The Rolling Stones,
Golden Globe and Grammy-winning English rock musician, actor, songwriter, record and film producer.

Ayn Rand (1905–1982): founder of Objectivism and novelist.

Woody Allen: “Who’s God?”

Jodie Foster (1962–): American film actress, director, and producer.

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003): American actress. Winner of four Academy Awards for Best Actress.

Hugh Laurie (1959–): English actor, comedian and writer, star of the television show House.

Bruce Lee (1940–1973): Martial artist and philosopher.

Jack Nicholson (1937—): American actor, three times Academy Award-winner.

Steven Soderbergh (1963–): American filmmaker, Academy Award-winning director of such films as Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s Eleven, and Sex, Lies and Videotape.

Ram Gopal Varma (1962–): Indian film director, writer and film producer.

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992): Russian-born American author of science fiction and popular science books.

George Orwell (1903–1950): English writer and journalist, a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture, one of the most admired English-language essayists of the twentieth century. Author of, “Animal Farm”.

Salman Rushdie (1947–): Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction, known for his frequent criticism of Islam.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822): British Romantic poet, contemporary and associate of John Keats and Lord Byron, and author of The Necessity of Atheism.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966): Indian revolutionary freedom fighter, and Hindu nationalist leader.

Baba Amte (1914-2008): Respected Indian social activist, a Gandhian. He was the founder of several ashrams (communities) for treatment and rehabilitation of leprosy patients, the disabled, and other people from marginalized sections of society .

Taslima Nasrin (1962–): Bangladeshi physician, writer, feminist human rights activist and secular humanist.

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AGNOSTICS:

Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Needs no introduction.

Mark Twain: American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Warren Buffett (b. 1930): an American investor.

Matt Groening (b. 1954): creator of animated TV series The Simpsons, Futurama, and the comic Life in Hell.

Carrie Fisher: American actress, screenwriter and novelist.

Larry King: (b. 1933), host of Larry King Live, on CNN.

Matt Stone (b. 1971): co-creator of the cartoon South Park, considers himself an agnostic Jew, though he has also denied the existence of God.

Helen Clark: New Zealand Prime Minister.

Sir David Attenborough (1926-) – English natural history presenter and anthropologist.

Marie Curie (1867–1934): Polish-French physicist and chemist. She became the first and the only Nobel laureate to win two Nobel Prize in two different sciences.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882): founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection, once described himself as being generally agnostic, though he was a member of the Anglican Church and attended Unitarian services.

Milton Friedman (1912-2006): winner of Nobel Prize in Economics.

Steve Wozniak (1950—): Co-founder of Apple.

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I would love to see a list of famous people born into atheistic families who turned into believers. I have been unsuccessful in putting one together.

Interesting fact: disbelief in God and IQ and educational attainment is correlated. However, wealth, power and success is not.

Does it matter that a few arguably intellectual people have turned atheists?

[Who created God? The argument, here.]