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List of agnostics

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File:Susan B Anthony c1855.png
Anthony
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Borges
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DuBois
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Hedayat
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Korczak
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Snowden
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Dunant
File:Hideaki Anno.jpg
Anno
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Bergman
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Brahms
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Chaplin
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Dalí
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Gaiman
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Lee
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Davis
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Mahler
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McCartney
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Schubert

Listed here are persons who have identified themselves as theologically agnostic. Also included are individuals who have expressed the view that the veracity of a god's existence is unknown or inherently unknowable.

List

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Confucius
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Democritus
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Epicurus
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Kant
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Popper
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Russell
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Wittgenstein
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Angell
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Darrow
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Ingersoll
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Bardeen
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Bell
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Boole
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Bose
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Cavendish
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Curie
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Darwin
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Dirac
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Einstein
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Fermi
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Florey
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Helmholtz
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Hilbert
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Thomas Huxley, coiner of the term agnostic.
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Lagrange
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Laplace
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Michelson
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Payne-Gaposchkin
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Poincaré
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Poisson
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Raman
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Rayleigh
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Rotblat
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Sagan
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Sanger
File:Leo Szilard.jpg
Szilárd
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Teller
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Tyndall
File:Neil deGrasse Tyson.jpg
Tyson
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Ulam
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von Neumann
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Weil
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Wiener
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Yang

Activists and authors

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"To be sure, when she wrote her groundbreaking book, Friedan considered herself an "agnostic" Jew, unaffiliated with any religious branch or institution." Kirsten Fermaglich, American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares: Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal America, 1957–1965 (2007), page 59.</ref>

  • Frederick James Furnivall (1825–1910): English second editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • John Galsworthy (1867–1933): English novelist and playwright; The Forsyte Saga (1906–1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter; won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Neil Gaiman (born 1960): English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films including the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Maxim Gorky (1868–1936): Russian and Soviet author who brought Socialist Realism to literature.<ref>"...Gorky – a religious agnostic praised as a social realist by the communist regime during the demise of imperial Russia..." James Redmond, Drama and Philosophy, p. 161.</ref><ref>"Gorky had long rejected all organized religions. Yet he was not a materialist, and thus he could not be satisfied with Marx's ideas on religion. When asked to express his views about religion in a questionnaire sent by the French journal Mercure de France on April 15, 1907, Gorky replied that he was opposed to the existing religions of Moses, Christ, and Mohammed. He defined religious feeling as an awareness of a harmonious link that joins man to the universe and as an aspiration for synthesis, inherent in every individual." Tova Yedlin, Maxim Gorky: A Political Biography, p. 86.</ref>
  • Thomas Hardy (1840–1928): English novelist and poet; while his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Sadegh Hedayat (1903–1951): Iranian author and writer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988): American science fiction writer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Joseph Heller (1923–1999): American satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright; Catch-22.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Alexander Herzen (1812–1870): Russian writer and thinker; the "father of Russian socialism"; one of the main fathers of agrarian populism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Aldous Huxley (1894–1963): English writer of novels, such as Brave New World, and wide-ranging essays.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • A.J. Jacobs (born 1968): American author.<ref>During an interview on his book The Year of Living Biblically with George Stroumboulopoulos on the CBC Program 'The Hour' Jacobs states "I'm still an agnostic, I don't know whether there's a god."[1] Template:Webarchive</ref>
  • James Joyce (1882–1941): Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde movement of the early 20th century; best known for his novel Ulysses.<ref >" Neither Joyce's agnosticism nor his sexual libertinism were known to his mentors at Belvedere and he remained to the end a Prefect of the Sodality of Mary." Bruce Stewart, James Joyce (2007), p. 14.</ref>
  • Franz Kafka (1883–1924): Czech-born Jewish writer.<ref>"Kafka did not look at writing as a "gift" in the traditional sense. If anything, he considered both his talent for writing and what he produced as a writer curses for some unknown sin. Since Kafka was agnostic or even an atheist, it is best to assume his sense of sin and curse were metaphors." Franz Kafka – The Absurdity of Everything Template:Webarchive, Tamer i.com.</ref><ref>"Kafka was also alienated from his heritage by his parents' perfunctory religious practice and minimal social formality in the Jewish community, though his style and influences were sometimes attributed to Jewisfolklorere. Kafka eventually declared himself a socialist atheistand, Spinoza, Darwin and Nietzsche e some of his influences." C. D. Merriman, Franz Kafka Template:Webarchive.</ref>
  • John Keats (1795–1821): English Romantic poet.<ref>"Keats shared Hunt's dislike of institutionalized Christianity, parsons, and the Christian belief in man's innate corruption, but, as an unassertive agnostic, held well short of Shelley's avowed atheism." John Barnard, John Keats, pp. 38–39.</ref>
  • Janusz Korczak (1878 or 1879–1942): Polish Jewish educator, children's author and pediatrician. After spending many years working as director of an orphanage in Warsaw, Korczak refused freedom and remained with the orphans as they were sent to Treblinka extermination camp during the Grossaktion Warsaw of 1942.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Stanisław Lem (1921–2006): Polish science fiction novelist and essayist.<ref name="SP-19960115">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937): American writer of strange fiction and horror.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Lucretius (99 BC–55 BC): Roman poet and philosopher.<ref>"Lucretius did not deny the existence of gods either, but he felt that human ideas about gods combined with the fear of death make human beings unhappy. He followed the same materialist lines as Epicurus, and by denying that the gods had any way of influencing our world he said that humankind not needed to fear the supernatural." Ancient Atheists Template:Webarchive. BBC.</ref>
  • Bernard Malamud (1914–1986): American author of novels and short stories; one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • H. L. Mencken (1880–1956): German-American journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic and freethinker, known as the "Sage of Baltimore".<ref>"When asked what he would do if on his death he found himself facing the twelve apostles, the agnostic Mencken answered, "I would simply say, 'Gentlemen, I was mistaken." American Experience; Monkey Trial; People & Events: The Jazz Age Template:Webarchive, PBS, 1999–2001. Retrieved 28 July 2007.</ref>
  • Thomas Mann (1875–1955): German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977): Russian novelist, poet and short story writer; known for his novel Lolita.<ref>

"Nabokov is a self-affirmed agnostic in matters religious, political, and philosophical." Donald E. Morton, Vladimir Nabokov (1974), p. 8.</ref>

  • Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953), American playwright; won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936.<ref>"O'Neill, an agnostic ann anarchist, maintained little hope in religion or politics and saw institutions not serving to preserve liberty but standing in the way of the birth of true freedom." John P. Diggins, Eugene O'Neill's America: desire under democracy (2007), p. 130.</ref>
  • Larry Niven (born 1938): American science fiction author; Ringworld (1970).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935): Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in Portuguese.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Marcel Proust (1871–1922): French novelist, critic and essayist, known for his work In Search of Lost Time.<ref>"Marcel Proust was the son of a Christian father and a Jewish mother. He was baptized (on 5 August 1871, at the church of Saint-Louis d'Antin) and later confirmed as a Catholic, but he nevepractiseded that faith and as an adult could best be described as a mystical atheist, someone imbued with spirituality who nonetheless did not believe in a personal God, much less in saviour." Edmund White, Marcel Proust: A Life (2009).</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Philip Pullman (born 1946): English children's author of the trilogy His Dark Materials; has said that he is technically an agnostic,<ref name=agnostic01>Template:Cite web</ref> though he also calls himself an atheist.<ref name=atheist01>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
  • Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837): Russian author of the Romantic era, considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Edward Said (1935–2003): Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights; university professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University; a founding figure in postcolonialism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917–2007): American historian and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Mary Shelley (1797–1851): English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein (1818).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Edward Snowden (born 1983): American computer specialist, privacy activist and former CIA employee and NSA contractor; disclosed classified details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902): American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the Seneca Falls Convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Late in life she led the effort to write the Woman's Bible to correct the injustices she perceived against women in the Bible.
  • Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950): English philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • John Steinbeck (1902–1968): American writer known for novels such as The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden; won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Stendhal (1783–1842) (a.k.a. Marie-Henri Beyle): French writer.<ref>"It must be extremely consoling, he admitted, to have faith in religion, yet even for an agnostic, like himself, life held many beautiful realities – the art of Raphael or Titian, the prose of Voltaire and the poetry of Byron in Don Juan." F. C. Green, Stendhal (2011), p. 200.</ref>
  • Boris Strugatsky (1925–2012): Soviet-Russian science fiction author who collaborated with his brother, Arkady Strugatsky, on various works; their novel Piknik na obochine was translated into English as Roadside Picnic in 1977 and was filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky under the title Stalker.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Charles Templeton (1915–2001): Canadian evangelist; author of A Farewell to God.<ref>CBC News reports that Templeton "eventually abandoned the pulpit and became an agnostic". Journalist, evangelist Charles Templeton dies</ref>
  • Thucydides (c. 460–c. 395): Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th-century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history", because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883): Russian novelist, short-story writer and playwright; author of A Sportsman's Sketches and of Fathers and Sons.<ref>"For example, Leonard Schapiro, Turgenev, His Life and Times (New York: Random, 1978) 214, writes about Turgenev's agnosticism as follows: "Turgenev was not a determined atheist; there is ample evidence which shows that he was an agnostic who would have been happy to embrace the consolations of religion, but was, except perhaps on some rare occasions, unable to do so"; and Edgar Lehrman, Turgenev's Letters (New York: Knopf, 1961) xi, presents still another interpretation for Turgenev's lack of religion, suggesting literature as a possible substitution: "Sometimes Turgenev's attitude toward literature makes us wonder whether, for him, literature was not a surrogate religion – something in which he could believe unhesitatingly, unreservedly, and enthusiastically, something that somehow would make man in general and Turgenev in particular, a little happier." - Harold Bloom, Ivan Turgenev, Chelsea House Publishers (2003), pp. 95–96. ISBN 9780791073995</ref>
  • Mark Twain (1835–1910): American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer, most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;<ref>"In one of our walks about Hartford, when he was in the first fine flush of his agnosticism, he declared that Christianity had done nothing to improve morals and conditions..." William Dean Howells, My Mark Twain [2] Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>"William Dean Howells and Mark Twain had much in common. They were agnostic but compassionate of the plight of man in an indifferent world..." Darrel Abel (2002), Classic Authors of the Gilded Age, iUniverse, Template:ISBN</ref> has also been identified a deist.<ref>"At the most, Mark Twain was a mild agnostic, usually he seems to have been an amused Deist. Yet, at this late da, te hin daughter has refused to allow his comments on religion to be published." Kenneth Rexroth, "Humor in a Tough Age;" The Nation, 7 March 1959. [3] Template:Webarchive</ref>
  • Adam Bruno Ulam (1922–2000): Polish and American historian and political scientist at Harvard University; one of the world's foremost authorities on Russia and the Soviet Union, and the author of twenty books and many articles.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Ibn Warraq (born 1946): known for his books critical of Islam.<ref>"Warraq, 60, describes himself now as an agnostic..." Dissident voices, World Magazine, 16 June 2007, Vol. 22, No. 22.</ref>
  • Hale White (1831–1913): British writer and civil servant.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007): American author and futurologist<ref>Wilson explains that he is agnostic about everything in the preface to his book Cosmic Trigger Template:Webarchive.</ref>
  • Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797): English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • David Yallop (1937–2018): English true crime author.<ref>The Herald, "Why did this "saint" fail to act on sinners within his flock?", Anne Simpson, 26 May 2007</ref>
  • Émile Zola (1840–1902): French writer; prominent figure in the literary school of naturalism; important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Business

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Media and arts

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On his religious beliefs: ANNO: "I don't belong to any kind of organized religion, so I guess I could be considered agnostic. Japanese spiritualism holds that there is kami (spirit) in everything, and that's closer to my own beliefs." Anno's Roundtable Discussion.</ref>

"Henry Fonda claims to be an agnostic. Not an atheist but a doubter." Howard Teichmann, Fonda: My Life, p. 303.</ref>

Philosophy

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Idealistic agnostics

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  • Confucius (551 BC–479 BC): Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a Chinese religious system known as Confucianism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): German philosopher; known for Critique of Pure Reason<ref>"While this sounds skeptical, Kant is only agnostic about our knowledge of metaphysical objects such as God. And, as noted above, Kant's agnosticism leads to the conclusion that we can neither affirm nor deny claims made by traditional metaphysics." Andrew Fiala, John Meiklejohn, Critique of Pure Reason – Introduction, page xi.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Laozi (born 604 BC): Chinese religious philosopher; author of the Tao Te Ching; this association has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of philosophical religion Taoism<ref>"It is ridiculous to describe that Laozi had started the Dao religion. In fact Laozi is much more sympathetic to atheism than even Greek philosophers in general. To the most, like Buddha and philosophers of Enlightenment, Laoism is agnostic about God." Chen Lee Sun, Laozi's Daodejing-From the Chinese Hermeneutical and the Western Philosophical Perspectives: The English and Chinese Translations Based on Laozi's Original Daoism (2011), p. 119.</ref>

Unclassified philosophers-agnostics

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  • Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997): British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, thought by many to be the dominant scholar of his generation<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Noam Chomsky (born 1928): American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author; lecturer, Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar<ref>"Like everyone participating I'm what's called here a "secular atheist", except that I can't even call myself an "atheist" because it is not at all clear what I'm being asked to deny." Noam Chomsky, Edge Discussion of Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival Template:Webarchive, November 2006 (Retrieved 21 April 2008).</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Democritus (460 BC – 370 BC): Ancient Greek philosopher; influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos<ref>"Most histories of atheism choose the Greek and Roman philosophers Epicurus, Democritus, and Lucretius as the first atheist writers. While these writers certainly changed the idea of God, they didn't entirely deny that gods could exist." Ancient Atheists Template:Webarchive, BBC.</ref>
  • John Dewey (1859–1952): American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer; his ideas have been influential in education and social reform<ref>"Dewey started his career as a Christian but over his long lifetime moved towards agnosticism. His philosophical writings start out apologetic; over his life he gradually lost interest in formal religion and focused more on democratic ideals. Moreover, he became very devoted to applying the scientific method of inquiry to both democracy and education." Shawn Olson, John Dewey – American Pragmatic Philosopher Template:Webarchive, 2005.</ref>
  • Epicurus (341 BCE–270 BCE): Ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism<ref>"Epicurus taught that the soul is also made of material objects, and so when the body dies the soul dies with it. There is no afterlife. Epicurus thought that gods might exist, but if they did, they did not have anything to do with human beings." Ancient Atheists Template:Webarchive, BBC.</ref>
  • Fred Edwords (born 1948): longtime Humanist activist; national director of the United Coalition of Reason<ref>"Frederick Edwords, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, who labels himself an agnostic..." Atheism 101 Template:Webarchive, by William B. Lindley, Truth Seeker Volume 121 (1994) No. 2, (Retrieved 14 April 2008)</ref>
  • James Hall (born 1933): philosopher; describes himself as an agnostic Episcopalian<ref>Template:Cite video</ref>
  • Sidney Hook (1902–1989): American philosopher of the Pragmatist school known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics<ref>"This faith in rationality emerged early in Hook's life. Even before he was a teenager he proclaimed himself to be an agnostic." Edward S. Shapiro, Letters of Sidney Hook: Democracy, Communism, and the Cold War, 1995, page 2.</ref>
  • David Hume (1711–1776): Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and scepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume is often grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Edmund Husserl (1859–1938): German philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th-century philosophical school of phenomenology<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Harold Innis (1894–1952): Canadian political philosopher and professor of political economy at the University of Toronto; author of seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Anthony Kenny (born 1931): president of Royal Institute of Philosophy, wrote in his essay "Why I'm not an atheist" after justifying his agnostic position that "a claim to knowledge needs to be substantiated; ignorance need only be confessed".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996): American historian and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was deeply influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term "paradigm shift," which has since become an English-language staple<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • G. E. Moore (1873–1958): English philosopher; one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Karl R. Popper (1902–1994): Philosopher of science; promoted falsifiability as a necessary criterion of empirical statements in science<ref>"Referring to himself as an agnostic and an advocate of critical realism, Popper gained an early reputation as the chief exponent of the principle of falsification rather than verification." Karl Popper: philosopher of critical realism Template:Webarchive, by Joe Barnhart, The Humanist magazine, July–August 1996. (Retrieved 13 October 2006)</ref>
  • Protagoras (died 420 BCE): Greek Sophist; first major Humanist; wrote that the existence of the gods was unknowable<ref>Only fragments of Protagoras' treatise On the Gods survive, but it opens with the sentence: "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life."</ref>
  • Pyrrho (360 BC – c. 270 BC): Greek philosopher of classical antiquity; credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism, founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Bertrand Russell (1872–1970): British philosopher and mathematician; considered himself a philosophical agnostic, but said that the label "atheist" conveyed a more accurate impression to "the ordinary man in the street"<ref>Russell said: "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 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... None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist, and yet if you were to set to work to give a logical demonstration that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and the rest of them did not exist you would find it an awful job. You could not get such proof. Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line." Am I an Agnostic or an Atheist? Template:Webarchive, from Last Philosophical Testament 1943–1968, (1997) Routledge Template:ISBN. Russell was chosen by LOOK magazine to speak for agnostics in their well-known series explaining the religions of the U.S., and authored the essay "What Is An Agnostic?" which appeared 3 November 1953 in that magazine.</ref>
  • Michael Schmidt-Salomon (born 1967): German philosopher, author and former editor of MIZ (Contemporary Materials and Information: Political magazine for atheists and the irreligious)<ref>MIZ title in German: Materialien und Informationen zur Zeit (MIZ) (Untertitel: Politisches Magazin für Konfessionslose und AtheistInnen)</ref> Schmidt-Salomon has specified that he is not a "pure atheist, but actually an agnostic."<ref>"Like many other so-called "Atheists" I am also not a pure atheist, but actually an agnostic..." Life without God: A decision for the people Template:Webarchive (Automatic Google translation of the original Template:Webarchive, hosted at Schmidt-Salomon's website), by Michael Schmidt-Salomon 19 November 1996, first published in: Education and Criticism: Journal of Humanistic Philosophy and Free Thinking January 1997 (Retrieved 1 April 2008)</ref>
  • Herbert Spencer (1820–1903): English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Theophrastus (c. 371 BC – 287 BC): Greek philosopher; a native of Eresos in Lesbos; the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820–1891): Indian Bengali polymath; a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951): Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is best known for his philosophical works like the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Politics and law

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Science and technology

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</ref>

  • Heber Doust Curtis (1872–1942): American astronomer; known for his participation in the Great Debate with Harlow Shapley on the nature of nebulae and galaxies, and the size of the universe<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 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<ref>Darwin wrote: "my judgment often fluctuates... In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an Atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, that an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind." The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Template:Webarchive, Ch. VIII, p. 274. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1905. See Charles Darwin's views on religion</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • David Deutsch (born 1953): British physicist at the University of Oxford; pioneered the field of quantum computation by formulating a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Paul Dirac (1902–1984): British theoretical physicist; a founder of quantum mechanics; predicted the existence of antimatter; won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933<ref>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."Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Eugène Dubois (1858–1940): Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist; earned worldwide fame for his discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus), or 'Java Man'<ref>"As far as I know Dubois never expressed any atheistic ideas, but he did sometimes show evidence of fiercely anti-Catholic sentiments. His attitude towards religious belief as such can best be characterised as agnostic." Bert Theunissen, Eugène Dubois and the ape-man from Java: the history of the first missing link and its discoverer (1989), p. 24.</ref>
  • Émile Durkheim (1858–1917): French sociologist; had a Jewish bar mitzvah at thirteen, was briefly interested in Catholicism after a mystical experience, but later became an agnostic<ref>On Durkheim, Larry R. Ridener, referencing a book by Lewis A. Coser, wrote: "Shortly after his traditional Jewish confirmation at the age of thirteen, Durkheim, under the influence of a Catholic woman teacher, had a short-lived mystical experience that led to an interest in Catholicism. But soon afterwards he turned away from all religious involvement, though emphatically not from interest in religious phenomena, and became an agnostic." See Ridener's page on famous dead sociologists Template:Webarchive. See also Coser's book: Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, 2nd Ed., Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1977, pp. 143–144.</ref>
  • Freeman Dyson (1923–2020): British-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering<ref>"First, the same award was given to an agnostic Mathematician Freeman Dyson, ..." Moses Gbenu, Back to Hell (2003), p. 110.</ref><ref>"Officially, he calls himself an agnostic, but his writings make it clear that his agnosticism is tinged with something akin to deism." Karl Giberson, Donald A. Yerxa, Species of origins: America's search for a creation story (2002), p. 141.</ref><ref>"A theologically more modest version is offered by physicist Freeman Dyson (2000), who describes himself as "a practicing Christian but not a believing Christian"" Garrett G. Fagan, Archaeological fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public (2006), p. 360.</ref>
  • Albert Einstein (1879–1955): German theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity and the mass–energy equivalence, <math>E = m c^2</math><ref>"My position concerning God is that of an agnostic." Albert Einstein in a letter to M. Berkowitz, 25 October 1950; Einstein Archive 59–215; from Alice Calaprice, ed., The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 216. As quoted at stephenjaygould.org Template:Webarchive (Retrieved 20 June 2007)</ref>
  • John Ericsson (1803–1889): Swedish-American inventor and mechanical engineer<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Enrico Fermi (1901–1954): Italian-American physicist; known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics; awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity<ref>"Enrico Fermi's attitude to the church eventually became one of indifference, and he remained an agnostic all his adult life." Emilio Segre, Enrico Fermi: Physicist (1995), page 5.</ref>
  • Edmond H. Fischer (1920–2021): Swiss American biochemist; he and his collaborator Edwin G. Krebs were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1992 for describing how reversible phosphorylation works as a switch to activate proteins and regulate various cellular processes
  • Howard Florey (1898–1968): Australian pharmacologist and pathologist; shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the making of penicillin<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Lee de Forest (1863–1961): American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit; invented the Audion; considered to be one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use of electronics; credited with one of the principal inventions that brought sound to motion pictures<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Edward Frankland (1825–1899): British chemist; expert in water quality and analysis; originated the concept of combining power, or valence, in chemistry<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958): British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer; made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite<ref>"This flat declaration prompted Ellis Franklin to accuse his strong-willed daughter of making science her religion. He was right. Rosalind sent him a four-page declaration, eloquent for a young woman just over 20 let alone a scientist of any age. ..."It has just occurred to me that you may raise the question of a creator. A creator of what?.... I see no reason to believe that a creator of protoplasm or primeval matter, if such there be, has any reason to be interested in our insignificant race in a tiny corner of the universe, and still less in us, as still more insignificant individuals. Again, I see no reason why the belief that we are insignificant or fortuitous should lessen our faith – as I have defined it." Brenda Maddox, Mother of DNA Template:Webarchive, NewHumanist.org.uk – Volume 117 Issue 3 Autumn 2002.</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on NNDB.com. Rosalind Franklin Template:Webarchive, NNDB.com.</ref>
  • Jerome I. Friedman (born 1930): American physicist; Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; in 1968–1969 he conducted experiments with Henry W. Kendall and Richard E. Taylor at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center which gave the first experimental evidence that protons had an internal structure, later known to be quarks; for this, they shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Milton Friedman (1912–2006): American economist, writer and public intellectual, winner of Nobel Prize in Economics<ref>In correspondence with conservative Christian commentator John Lofton, Milton Friedman wrote: "I am an agnostic. I do not 'believe in' God, but I am not an atheist, because I believe the statement, 'There is a god' does not admit of being either confirmed or rejected." An Exchange: My Correspondence With Milton Friedman About God, Economics, Evolution And "Values", by John Lofton, The American View Template:Webarchive, October–December 2006, (Retrieved 12 January 2007)</ref>
  • William Froude (1810–1879): English engineer, hydrodynamicist and naval architect; first to formulate reliable laws for the resistance that water offers to ships (such as the hull speed equation) and for predicting their stability<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Dennis Gabor (1900–1979): Hungarian-British electrical engineer and inventor; known for his invention of holography and received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>"The family adopted the Lutheran faith in 1918, and although Gabor nominally remained true to it, religion appears to have had little influence in his life. He later acknowledged the role played by an antireligious humanist education in the development of his ideas and stated his position as being that of a "benevolent agnostic". "Gabor, Dennis." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (30 January 2012). [7] Template:Webarchive</ref>
  • Francis Galton (1822–1911): English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician; a cousin of Charles Darwin<ref>

"The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species totally transformed his intellectual life, giving him a sense of evolutionary process without which much of his later work would have been unimaginable. Galton became a "religious agnostic", recognising the social value of religion but not its transcendental basis". Robert Peel, Sir Francis Galton FRS (1822–1911) – The Legacy of His Ideas - .</ref>

"'You really can't know,' answered Bill Nye the Controversial Guy." Steve Wartenberg, The Morning Call Template:Webarchive, 6 April 2006.</ref>

"Now Ibn al-Haytham was a devout Muslim – that is, he was a supernaturalist. He studied science because he considered that by doing this he could better understand the nature of the god that he believed in – he thought that a supernatural agent had created the laws of nature. The same is true of virtually all the leading scientists in the Western world, such as Galileo and Newton, who lived after al-Haytham, until about the middle of the twentieth century. There were a few exceptions – Pierre Laplace, Siméon Poisson, Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac and Marie Curie were naturalists for example." John Ellis, How Science Works: Evolution: A Student Primer, p. 13.</ref>

Celebrities and athletes

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  • Steve Austin (born 1964): American professional wrestler.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Kristy Hawkins (born 1980): American IFBB professional bodybuilder and scientist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Edmund Hillary (1919–2008): New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. He along with Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed as having reached the summit of Mount Everest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Pat Tillman (1976–2004): American professional football player and U.S. Army veteran.<ref>Krakauer, Jon Where Men Win Glory, Doubleday, 2009, pp. 116 and 314. "Tillman was an agnostic, perhaps even an atheist". See also quotes from Tillman's brother Kevin.</ref>
  • Rafael Nadal (born 1986): Spanish professional tennis player.<ref name="bleacherreport">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Rob Van Dam (born 1970): American professional wrestler, winner of three separate major promotion world championships.
  • Mike Mentzer (1951–2001): American IFBB Professional bodybuilder, businessman, philosopher and author.

See also

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Notes

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Template:Belief systems

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