This is just a graphic I put together of some of the people, both current and historical, that have taken the time to question religion. Some are famous, some run little blog sites like myself, some are among the best minds mankind has ever known. I edited my list down, I certainly could have added more, but I wanted to keep the graphic in the traditional shape of the periodic table of elements. I'm sure I have missed people that should have been included, and there would most certainly be arguments that some people shouldn't qualify to be on the list. Some who made the cut have been known to be members of churches and various congregations, it is true. I would counter that each person on this list has made statements in their lifetimes concerning the validity of religion. Enjoy!
Where is Ophelia Benson (Butterflies and Wheels)?
ReplyDeleteMe? Really? ... Gosh!
ReplyDeleteI made number 97! :-)
ReplyDeleteNo Bill Nye?
ReplyDeleteNeeds more @almightygod
ReplyDeleteConsider Ed Brayton, scienceblogs.com/dispatches -- he calls himself a Deist rather than atheist but definitely anti-theist.
ReplyDeleteThis list is shallow and meaningless without Good Reason News
ReplyDeleteOphelia Benson, yes, good one.
ReplyDeleteMike...of course you. One of the first ppl I came across when diving into the atheist internet.
Staks...yep! Good stuff...keep it up!
Bill Nye. Most excellent, who would I bump off the science list?
@almightygod round 2?
Ed Brayton...will check out.
Good Reason News...will also check out.
Thanks all.
Me? Why thank you! I hardly deserve it! Everyone else on there is worthy tho!
ReplyDeleteOh wow! How did I make it here? Number 100 - Awesome! Such honor, thank you! Are you sure you meant to include little me?
ReplyDeleteNeeds more women!
ReplyDeleteSikivu Hutchinson and Henry Hubert Harrison should be represented too. I would say Verdi could be replaced with HHH. SH could replace one of the lesser-knowns in the lanth/act series (I don't want to suggest a specific one since many are unknown to me, but may in fact be bigshots).
ReplyDeleteFun idea still! Like it a lot.
Very amusing. However, I must state, that I miss my personal demigod Nietzsche!
ReplyDeleteBut, excellent work!
I'm loving it, but of course I have to point out... I don't think Charles Darwin or Neil Degrasse Tyson belong here. Darwin was no more an Atheist than Thomas Jefferson, and Dr. Tyson has stated publicly several times that he is a "passionate agnostic."
ReplyDeletePeace,
Tim
Eddie Izzard needs to be on the list of the comedians. I'm not sure who you'd bump though.
ReplyDeleteThere's some great touches - Ian McKellen is Gf.
ReplyDeleteThe crowded list doesn't excuse the obvious omissions: Richard Feynman and Steven Weinberg. I think you'd want to get all the fearless combative Nobel prize winners in there before, say, Adam Corolla.
ReplyDeleteRichard Feynman should be on the list too! In fourth grade, I read his story about how he questioned and rejected his religion when he was eight years old, and it put a seed of rational thought into my impressionable young mind. About ten years later, I became an atheist.
ReplyDeletePenn Jillette has cited Richard Feynman as an inspiration too.
So much win in that graphic. So. Much. Win. And. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteOne day I might make it onto a graphic like that... maybe.
I started this knowing it wasn't going to end up perfect. There are some great suggestions being posted, some deserve a facepalm (Nietzche duh!)and others I just haven't come across in my reading. Two years ago I couldn't have named ten atheists, so I'm quite proud of what I have discovered thus far. More to learn! Keep'em coming!
ReplyDeleteNice compilation. As for Darwin (who considered himself agnostic), if he'd had the info we have today, I'm sure he'd be atheist.
ReplyDeleteNo Ophelia Benson hurts my brain.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to name names, cuz you made this with a sense of fun. But there's a whole bunch of people I don't recognize the names of in that green section.
If you click on the link "each person" in the paragraph above, I have links for each person on the table to describe who they are if you aren't familiar with them. I've missed the boat on Ophelia, I've learned!
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ReplyDeleteThen there are those atheists-in-practice like Karen Armstrong and John Shelby Spong, who preach ecumenicalism and the compatibility of faith and science. I suggest that they be placed in the island of stability in the next row of the table (you know, the one that doesn't currently have any elements in it).
ReplyDeleteI know it's not really me at number 118, but I shall take great pleasure in pretending that it is :-)
ReplyDeleteNo Ayn Rand? I don't like her but she certainly was an influential atheist writer.
ReplyDeleteStephen Jay Gould? Of the 'Two Magisters' argument? No, no, no, no, NO!
ReplyDeleteI'm speechless and undeserving. What a neighborhood you've got me in. I must be an inert gas -- I don't know how to react.
ReplyDeleteThanks for including me in the list. We work hard to keep AtheismResource.com spreading the word. It's an honor to be on this list with such idols of mine. Keep up the good work and share your stuff on our site or Facebook page anytime.
ReplyDeleteSorry, this is ADAM BROWN (bottom right) #101.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME !! XD
ReplyDeleteI cry fowl. No Zm. Granted, I have not been discovered yet, but there should still be room for me in there.
ReplyDeleteWho is missing from the table? Abby Smith, D.J. Grothe, Stephen Novella, Bill Nye, ZomGitsCriss for a few off the top of my head. Is Joe Nickel on there? I have to look again. Betty Bowers, Sam Singleton
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot AronRA as well....
ReplyDeleteI think we are going need a bigger table......
ReplyDeleteThoughts on religion and group think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Mspv7LxRM
ReplyDeleteMade some updates. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteIt's true that Benson appears as a link on Pharyngula but she's more into aggro-feminism.
ReplyDeleteMechanically correct yet flaccid and without human context. A tool, like Viagra, that stimulates in the absence of organic passion, or even in spite of its absence. Nicely executed, if execution was the goal.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to get my name in there somewhere, or would that be paradoxical? I am known as: Fidem Turbare, the non-existent atheist goddess
ReplyDelete