Atheist/Agnostics..you'r e in good company

badwillie

Famous People who were also Atheists:

Simon Bolivar, revolutionary of Venezuela
Abraham Lincoln, president
Thomas Edison, inventor
George Bernard Shaw, playwright
Katherine Hepburn, actress
Charlie Chaplin, actor and filmmaker
Mark Twain, writer
Marie Curie, scientist
Woody Allen, actor and filmmaker
Walt Disney, founder of Disney Inc.
Ernest Hemmingway, writer
Charles Schultz, cartoonist
Frank Lloyd Wright, architect

..and some more

George Orwell

Benjamin Franklin

Gene Kelly

Carl Sagan

Barry White

Dave Matthews

SixofNine

The others can be criticized, but Mark Twain proves there is no God!

franklin J

with th exception of woody allen, the persons named on your list are all dead.

I wonder what contributions they are making in the "here after".

SixofNine

with th exception of woody allen, the persons named on your list are all dead.
I wonder what contributions they are making in the "here after".

lol. To a man, they'd tell you, "none".

ThiChi

You are in even better company as a Christian!

SCIENCE & MATHNicolaus Copernicus: 1473-1543 Polish Astronomer
Developed the heliocentric theory of the solar system.

Galileo Galilei: 1564-1642 Italian Physicist
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

Johannes Kepler: 1571-1630 German Astronomer
The 3 laws of planetary motion. Advanced Copernicus' heliocentric theory.
"Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."

Blaise Pascal: 1623-1662 French Mathemetician and Theologian
"There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ." (Pensees)?

"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false?... if you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."

"But by Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ, we prove God and teach doctrine and morals. Jesus Christ, then, is the true God of men."

Newton Isaac: 1642-1727 (born Dec 25) English Mathemetician
Laws of gravitation and motion, developed calculus. Major contributions to optics, physics, math and astronomy.
The solar system itself could not have been produced by blind chance or fortuitous causes but only by a cause "very well skilled in mechanics and geometry."

Michael Faraday: 1791-1869 English Chemist
Discovered Benzene, electromagnetic induction, lines of force, relationship between polarized light and magnetic fields. Strong believer in the literal interpretation of Scripture. Deacon and elder in his church.
"Since peace is alone in the gift of God; and since it is He who gives it, why should we be afraid? His unspeakable gift in His beloved Son is the ground of no doubtful hope."

Lord Kelvin: 1824-1907 (William Thomson) British Physicist
First and second laws of thermodynamics. Absolute temp scale. Trans-Atlantic cable.
"I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism."

POLITICS

John Adams: 1735-1826 American Statesman
Helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Second President.
"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Patrick Henry: 1736-1799 American Statesman (apparently, this quote cannot be confirmed)
Lawyer, legislator and later governor of Virginia.
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists but by Christians; not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!"

slipnslidemaster

Do you believe in the hereafter?

Then you know what I'm here AFTER!!!!

RunningMan

Truth has never been determined by a show of hands. The vast majority of the people who have lived on this planet have held the belief that the sun revolves around the earth. They were wrong.

ThiChi

I thought you might be interested in some info the Abraham Lincoln Org. sent me a while back.

The truth is, nobody knows what Lincoln's religious beliefs were the day he died.

Lincoln did have a close friend who was, like Lincoln, a skeptic when both were young men. His name was Joshua Speed. Speed later published a small volume called Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln (available at the restored Speed home called "Farmington" in Louisville, Kentucky). Here's a story Speed relates from 1864 when he visited Lincoln in Washington:

"I have often been asked what were Mr. Lincoln's religious opinions. When I knew him, in early life, he was a skeptic. He had tried hard to be a believer, but his reason could not grasp and solve the great problem of redemption as taught. He was very cautious never to give expression to any thought or sentiment that would grate harshly upon a Christian's ear. For a sincere Christian he had great respect. He often said that the most ambitious man might live to see every hope fail; but, no Christian could live to see his fail, because fulfillment could only come when life ended. But this was a subject we never discussed.

"The only evidence I have of any change, was in the summer before he was killed. I was invited out to the Soldier's Home to spend the night. As I entered the room, near night, he was sitting near a window intently reading his Bible.

"Approaching him I said, 'I am glad to see you so profitably engaged.'

"'Yes,' said he, 'I am profitably engaged.'

"'Well,' said I, 'If you have recovered from your skepticism, I am sorry to say that I have not.'

"Looking me earnestly in the face, and placing his hand on my shoulder, he said, 'You are wrong Speed, take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.'"

Lincoln's faith is still a matter of controversy among scholars, but this incident is about as revealing as the notoriously private Lincoln would allow.

Hope it is of some help to you.

Rhoda Sneller
ALO Editor

One thing they didn't include: according to Mary Todd, among his last words were "I have always wanted to see Jerusalem." So who knows? I suppose the scholars and historians are right on this matter; we should reserve judgement in areas which are extremely uncertain. It's only fair to Lincoln to provide unbiased accounts of his life and faith -- however unsatisfying that may be to you or I!

gumby

It news to me the Abraham Lincoln was also an Atheist. I knew he threw the bible and christianity out the window, but I thought he at least believed in god.

My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.
-- Abraham Lincoln, to Judge J. S. Wakefield, after Willie Lincoln's death (Willie died in 1862), quoted by Joseph Lewis in "Lincoln the Freethinker," also appearing in Remsburg's "Six Historic Americans" (Authenticity questioned by some because it allegedly does not appear in Wakefield's papers [Andrew Lutes, persistent picker of insignificant separationist nits]; authenticity questioned by others who claim that Wakefield did not exist [forgotten web site which also featured all the regular and long-refuted arguments for Lincoln's Christian piety]. Go figure!)

What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Mary Todd Lincoln in William Herndon's Religion of Lincoln, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beleifs of Our Presidents, p. 118

It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to Infidelity.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Manford's Magazine, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 144

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession.
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Joseph Lewis in "Lincoln the Freethinker"

The only person who is a worse liar than a faith healer is his patient.
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Victor J. Stenger in Physics and Psychics

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged.
-- Abraham Lincoln, sarcasm in his Second Innaugural Address (1865)

It is an established maxim and moral that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.
-- Abraham Lincoln, chiding the editor of a Springfield, Illinois, newspaper, quoted from Antony Flew, How to Think Straight, p. 17

Gumby

Satanus

take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.

He is just saying that people of faith feel better, and are better. People who believe in something often go through hardships better that skeptics. Brainwashed people fare the best of all. However, he says nothing about the truthfulness of the bible's contents.

SS

Atheist/Agnostics..you'r e in good company

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