Madame Quixote

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Posts by Madame Quixote

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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

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  Madame Quixote

  Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix chemistry/mechanics. (Nobel for that). Also a teacher, researcher and scientist who continued to make important contributions to science until he died.
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Madame Quixote

  JT said:

  "There are those who out of respect for a wondrous universe have created a god and worship it.

  There are those who out of respect for a wondrous universe can not accredit a measly god for it.

  So what? We're all here together.

  j"

  And why not take a few extra moments, then to honor the individuals (of god's or of no-god's universe) who have helped to make it a more livable one for us all?

  Obviously, someone must care, because someone asked and a few other someones have replied with answers. If you do not care, then don't. Who cares?
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Madame Quixote

  And now, for blood transfusions!

  Let's hear it for Paul D. Boyer who won a Nobel in Chemistry, and whose work on stabilizing serum albumin for transfusions went on for years.

  He also made important contributions to understanding the operations of enzymes, most especially how ATP is enzymatically synthesized.
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Madame Quixote

  Linus Pauling's activism alone (not to mention the fact that he earned a Nobel in Science and then one in Peace) might lead you to believe that he too made a positive difference in society:

  Activism

  Pauling had been practically apolitical until World War II, but the war changed his life profoundly, and he became a peace activist. During the beginning of the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer invited him to be in charge of the Chemistry division of the project, but he declined, saying that he was a pacifist. In 1946, he joined the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, chaired by Albert Einstein; its mission was to warn the public of the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons. His political activism prompted the U.S. State Department to deny him a passport in 1952, when he was invited to speak at a scientific conference in London. His passport was restored in 1954, shortly before the ceremony in Stockholm where he received his first Nobel Prize. Joining Einstein, Bertrand Russell and eight other leading scientists and intellectuals, he signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955.

  In 1957, Pauling began a petition drive in cooperation with biologist Barry Commoner, who had studied radioactive strontium-90 in the baby teeth of children across North America and concluded that above-ground nuclear testing posed public health risks in the form of radioactive fallout. He also participated in a public debate with the atomic physicist Edward Teller about the actual probability of fallout causing mutations. In 1958, Pauling and his wife presented the United Nations with a petition signed by more than 11,000 scientists calling for an end to nuclear-weapon testing. Public pressure subsequently led to a moratorium on above-ground nuclear weapons testing, followed by the Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963 by John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. On the day that the treaty went into force, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded Pauling the Nobel Peace Prize, describing him as "Linus Carl Pauling, who ever since 1946 has campaigned ceaselessly, not only against nuclear weapons tests, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts." Interestingly, the Caltech Chemistry Department, wary of his political views, did not even formally congratulate him. However, the Biology Department did throw him a small party, showing they were more appreciative and sympathetic toward his work on radiation mutation.

  Many of Pauling's critics, including scientists who appreciated the contributions that he had made in chemistry, disagreed with his political positions and saw him as a naïve spokesman for Soviet communism. He was ordered to appear before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, which termed him "the number one scientific name in virtually every major activity of the Communist peace offensive in this country." An extraordinary headline in Life magazine characterized his 1962 Nobel Prize as "A Weird Insult from Norway". Pauling was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR in 1970.

  (from Wikipedia)
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Madame Quixote

  Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie for their work in atomic physics, a Nobel Prize in chemisty. They helped us all come to a much clearer understandig of basic atomic physics with the discovery of the neutron. After that, Frederic made important contributions to our understanding controlled nuclear fission (and chain reactions) necessary for the development of nuclear reactors.
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Madame Quixote

  Marie Curie, the first ever to receive a double Nobel prize, and in two separate fields of science. Where would we be today without the medical technology she and her husband, Pierre Curie, helped discover and promote? Incidentally, Marie died a horrible death as the result of radioactive exposure after learning and teaching the wonders of radioctivity.

  Of humanitarianism, Curie said:

  " You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful."

  Not bad for an atheist, eh?
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Madame Quixote

  Mikhail Gorbachev (Nobel Peace Prize winner) who helped to end the cold war with glanost and was largely responsible for helping to end the dominance of the single poli party system in USSR. He was not perfect, but it cannot be argued that he did not make a positive difference in that very oppressed society.
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Madame Quixote

  RWC said,"That is a long list Kid -A Thank you. But I can't say that I agree that they have all benefited society. Is it your position that all on this list have provided a benefit to society?"

  I suppose one could argue all day as to whether or not so and so was a decent person, which I'd rather not do, RWC. However, I will be happy to explain to you why I believe certain atheists listed here have done good for society.

  I think that I shall start with the Nobel Laureates and work my way over to the lesser-known atheists.

  Both Jean Paul Sartre and Bertrand Russell because they inspired others to think, question and to act in ways that changed our world for the better. Those influenced by Sartre included Simone de Beauvoir (brilliant feminist writer and his lover), and Andre Gide, another brilliant French writer. Sartre's work and writing eventually helped to end the oppression of French-colonial Algeria. He and Russell both fought against the Viet Nam war as well.

  Russell said that "no one gossips about other people's secret virtues."
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  49

  Professed Atheists who have helped society

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there seem to be quite a number of atheists who comment here.

  when they argue how bad religion has been for society they point to actions done in the name of religion that are indeed horrific, such as the inqusitions.

  there are also examples of course of non believers who have done great damage to society.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Madame Quixote

  Activists And Educators:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheists#Activists_and_educators
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  92

  Need some education on THEOLOGY? Start here! Evolutionists take note!

  by LittleToe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.monergism.com/systematic.html.

  http://www.rtrc.net/documents/wcf/hodge/wcftoc.htm.

  http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.htmlhttp://www.lgmarshall.org/reformed/berkhof_summary.html.

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  Madame Quixote

  LT - "atheology"

  That's cute. I could invent some (terms).

  MS - Thanks for that link. I think the Cappadocian Fathers of the 4th century nailed it right on the head in the logical theology department :

  "Exemplars of the via negativa, the Cappadocian Fathers of the 4th century said that they believed in God, but they did not believe that God exists."

  Now, that's my kind of theology.