Atheism

A partial list of celebrities who have been said to be openly atheist.

Douglas Adams, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Woody Allen, Lance Armstrong, Darren Aronofsky, Isaac Asimov, Dan Barker, Dave Barry, Ingmar Bergman, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, James Cameron, George Carlin, John Carmack, Adam Carolla, John Carpenter, Asia Carrera, Fidel Castro, Dick Cavett, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Clarkson, Billy Connolly, Francis Crick, David Cronenberg, David Cross, Alan Cumming, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Ani DiFranco, Micky Dolenz, Harlan Ellison, Richard Feynman, Harvey Fierstein, Larry Flynt, Dave Foley, Jodie Foster, Janeane Garofalo, Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Ricky Gervais, Ira Glass, James Gleick, Robert Heinlein, Katharine Hepburn, Christopher Hitchens, Jamie Hyneman, Eddie Izzard, Penn Jillette, Billy Joel, Angelina Jolie, Diane Keaton, Michael Kinsley, Artie Lange, Richard Leakey, Bruce Lee, Tom Lehrer, Tom Leykis, James Lipton, H.P. Lovecraft, Bill Maher, John Malkovich, Barry Manilow, Todd McFarlane, Sir Ian McKellen, Arthur Miller, Frank Miller, Marvin Minsky, Julianne Moore, Randy Newman, Mike Nichols, Jack Nicholson, Gary Numan, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Camille Paglia, Steven Pinker, Paula Poundstone, Terry Pratchett, Robin Quivers, James Randi, Ron Reagan Jr., Keanu Reeves, Rick Reynolds, Gene Roddenberry, Joe Rogan, Henry Rollins, Andy Rooney, Salman Rushdie, Bob Simon, Steven Soderbergh, Annika Sorenstam, George Soros, Richard Stallman, Howard Stern, Julia Sweeney, Teller, Studs Terkel, Pat Tillman, Linus Torvalds, Alan Turing, Eddie Vedder, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Steven Weinberg, Joss Whedon, Ted Williams, Steve Wozniak, HUNDREDS MORE... edit
http://www.celebatheists.com/wiki/Main_Page

How do y'all feel about the "Brights" ?

http://www.the-brights.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brights_movement

I'm a little afraid that it might make us appear arrogant. That's a bad thing in a society whose majority is made up of stupids, and maybe the occasional tween.

People COME OUT as atheist in your country???!!!

I don't think that's it. Likely most of these names were heard to mention. I don't know.

One might follow someone called Mynga Futrell to the ends of the earth.

Will the Brights be calling for all the magical and mystical place names in the US to be changed to catalogue numbers. Names such as Los Angeles and Corpus Christi and Sacramento and Wichita and suchlike do carry a mystical baggage and produce a romantic yearning in the minds of potential tourists which could easily be avoided with zone nomenclatures such as 17/A/69/y or xo9 486D. It would avoid all the mix-ups and confusions caused by similar or even identical place names.

There is an important psychological theory which Cervantes in Dom Quixote goes to some trouble over which is connected to the feeling a name conjures up. His Dulcinea, simply by her name, is given an aura of glowing beauty which is totally at odds with her actual appearance, habits and station in life.

What's in a name? Good authors take a lot of trouble with names. Sophia Western for example.

I play around with the theory quite a bit on the Acronym game where Elsie and Betty are used when a slapper is called for, Dierdrie for a pompous dimwit, Gertrude for an ex-slapper (retd), Brenda for the frigid, Sammy for a bit of a scallywag, Geoffrey for a pedantic gump and so on and so on.

Johnny Cash has a song about the matter. It is thought that one's name sets the tone for one's personality.

I came across a Sophie Clapsaddle Cox in my reading about American mining families in the old days.

Even "Brights" is not free from supernatural and mystical elements. It conjures up balding dickheads who need their mirrors servicing every year to deal with the wear and tear.

Why is that list over 95% men? Where are all the atheist women?
The world needs more atheist women

I'm sure somebody will pipe in with an answer.

On the Marx principle (Groucho, not Karl), i'd just point out that being atheist has a great deal to do with not being a member of any organization (whether they'd have me or not) . . .

Snatched from the KHOU.Chron website:

Congress established a national prayer day in 1952 and in 1988 set the first Thursday in May as the official day for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray. Many state and local officials follow suit on that day.

Two years ago, the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the federal government, alleging the day violated the separation of church and state. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled April 15 that the day amounts to a call to religious action. She included a caveat, though, that said her ruling would have no effect until all appeals are exhausted.

A day after Crabb's ruling, the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, fired off letters to mayors telling them it has no bearing on prayer day activities.

"Public officials should be able to participate in public prayer activities just as America's founders did, and a recent federal judge's ruling does not prevent America's cities from lawfully observing the National Day of Prayer," ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson said in a statement.

On Friday, the Madison offices of the Freedom From Religion Foundation " a converted rectory now dubbed "The Freethought Hall" " were bustling.

Employees prepared letters to governors and the mayors of more than 1,000 cities urging them not to participate in prayer day. They worked under signs that quoted Richard Dawkins ("The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction") and Mark Twain ("Faith is believing what you know ain't so").

They were drafting an online petition where people could urge Obama to honor Crabb's ruling and "leave days of prayer to individuals, private groups and churches, synagogues, mosques and temples." Annie Laurie Gaylor, one of the foundation's leaders, was putting the finishing touches on a full-page ad for the New York Times.

The foundation also plans to take out billboards promoting the separation of church and state in Colorado Springs, Co., home of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. The signs will read "God and government: A dangerous mix."

"Whether or not we win in court, I want to win in the court of public opinion," said Gaylor. "This law is based on lies and bad history."

John Bornschein, executive director of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said atheists try to sway government leaders from participating in the prayer day every year, but are being more aggressive. He called such efforts a waste of money that could go toward the poor.

"We're an office full of patriots," Bornschein said. "To see bickering over these sorts of things, it's not a positive environment for people who need encouragement now more than ever."

Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt said he issues a proclamation every year recognizing the prayer day and attends a prayer breakfast with his name on the invitation. Nothing will change this year, he said.

Carl Brewer, mayor of Wichita, Kan., said the city recognizes prayer day every year. Officials often take prayer breaks and read Bible passages at events. He said this year will be no different.

"Prayer, he said, "is the foundation of the Midwest."

___

Atheists by definition are not patriots?

I don't think I'd fit in terribly well in the Midwest.

Sorry, I'm from Missouri. Karl Brewer will need to "Show Me (TM)".

Young adults less devoted to faith
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Most young adults today don't pray, don't worship and don't read the Bible, a major survey by a Christian research firm shows.
If the trends continue, "the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships," says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. In the group's survey of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds, 72% say they're "really more spiritual than religious."

Among the 65% who call themselves Christian, "many are either mushy Christians or Christians in name only," Rainer says. "Most are just indifferent. The more precisely you try to measure their Christianity, the fewer you find committed to the faith."

Key findings in the phone survey, conducted in August and released today:

•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.

•65% rarely or never attend worship services.

•67% don't read the Bible or sacred texts.

Many are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven: Half say yes, half no.

"We have dumbed down what it means to be part of the church so much that it means almost nothing, even to people who already say they are part of the church," Rainer says.

The findings, which document a steady drift away from church life, dovetail with a LifeWay survey of teenagers in 2007 who drop out of church and a study in February by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which compared the beliefs of Millennials with those of earlier generations of young people.

The new survey has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.

Even among those in the survey who "believe they will go to heaven because they have accepted Jesus Christ as savior":

•68% did not mention faith, religion or spirituality when asked what was "really important in life."

•50% do not attend church at least weekly.

•36% rarely or never read the Bible.

Neither are these young Christians evangelical in the original meaning of the term " eager to share the Gospel. Just 40% say this is their responsibility.

Even so, Rainer is encouraged by the roughly 15% who, he says, appear to be "deeply committed" Christians in study, prayer, worship and action.

Collin Hansen, 29, author of Young, Restless, Reformed, about a thriving minority of traditionalist Christians, agrees. "I'm not going to say these numbers aren't true and aren't grim, but they also drive people like me to build new, passionately Christian dynamic churches," says Hansen, who is studying for the ministry. He sees many in his generation veering to "moralistic therapeutic deism " 'God wants you to be happy and do good things.' ... I would not call that Christianity, however."

The 2007 LifeWay study found seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30, both evangelical and mainline, who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23. And 34% of those had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30.

The Pew survey found young people today were significantly more likely than those in earlier generations to say they didn't identify with any religious group. Neither are Millennials any more likely than earlier generations to turn toward a faith affiliation as they grow older.

You're from Missouri?

T
K
O

Most surveys published here give some indications of where, how and when the survey was conducted. Even then the conclusions are treated with suspicion.



Is that a good thing as well?

Polling booths next I suppose. Nobody has yet found a way of running an atheist culture with polling booths.

thats the grand plan, intelligent design huh, lets call it ocracy

Only spiritually. I have close friends in Missouri, and I always liked their state motto.

Mr Brewer needs to pray harder, the city finances are in a mess...

I don't know if someone else has written this yet, but i just find this idea interesting.

I came across it in some educational CDs about philosophy, and it's this argument that an atheist can explain a Christian (or Jew, or various other people with certain religious beliefs) but a Christian can't explain an atheist. This means that an Atheist can come up with reasons why someone would want to believe in God, independently of whether or not God exists. If God exists, that's reason enough. If God does not exist, then belief can be explained away as a desire to believe in "something more", something that gives life meaning/purpose, a desire to believe in a parent-like God who cares about people and what's going on in the world because people want to have someone who cares, etc. However, if God exists, the Christian can come up with no reasonable idea of why someone would deny this. It is inconceivable that, given the existence of a supreme being, the existence of Heaven, that someone could decide to turn away from these things.Why would they? The concept of Atheism is unfathomable to a true Christian. I think that concept, in itself, is very interesting.