List of atheists (authors)

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Main article: Lists of atheists

Authors

Douglas Adams (1952–2001): British radio and television writer and novelist, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.^[1]
Tariq Ali (1943–): British-Pakistani historian, novelist, filmmaker, political campaigner and commentator.^[2]
Jorge Amado (1912–2001): Brazilian author.^[3]
Sir Kingsley Amis (1922–1995): English novelist, poet, critic and teacher, most famous for his novels Lucky Jim and the Booker Prize-winning The Old Devils.^[4]
Eric Ambler OBE (1909–1998): influential English writer of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre.^[5]
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992): Russian-born American author of science fiction and popular science books.^[6]
Diana Athill (1917–1992): British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the most important writers of the 20th century.^[7]
Iain Banks (1954–): Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks.^[8]
Pierre Berton CC, O.Ont (1920–2004): Noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist.^[9]
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922): English poet, writer and diplomat.^[10]
William Boyd CBE (1952–): Scottish novelist and screenwriter.^[11]
Marshall Brain (1961–): Author of WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com and GodIsImaginary.com and HowStuffWorks founder.
Lily Braun (1865–1916): German feminist writer.^[12]
Howard Brenton (1942–): English playwright, who gained notoriety for his 1980 play The Romans in Britain.^[13]
John Brockman (1941–): American literary agent and author, specializing in scientific literature, and founder of the Edge Foundation.^[14]
Brigid Brophy, Lady Levey (1929–1995): English novelist, essayist, critic, biographer, and dramatist.^[15]
Alan Brownjohn (1931–1995): English poet and novelist.^[16]
Lawrence Bush (19??–): Author of several books of Jewish fiction and non-fiction, including Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist.^[17]
Mary Butts (1890–1937): English modernist writer.^[18]
João Cabral de Melo Neto, (1920–1999): Brazilian poet, considered one of the greatest Brazilian poets of all time.^[19]
Angela Carter (1940–1992): English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism and science fiction works.^[20]
Luigi Cascioli (19??–): Italian author, who trained to become a Roman Catholic priest, but he left to become a pronounced atheist, arguing that Jesus never existed.^[21]
Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008): British scientist and science-fiction author.^[22]
Edward Clodd (1840–1930): English banker, writer and anthropologist, an early populariser of evolution, keen folklorist and chairman of the Rationalist Press Association.^[23]
Claud Cockburn (1904–1981): Renowned radical British writer and journalist, controversial for his communist sympathies.^[24]
Jonathan Coe (1961–): British novelist and satirical writer.^[25]
G. D. H. Cole (1889–1959): English political theorist, economist, writer and historian.^[26]
Ivy Compton-Burnett DBE (1884–1969): English novelist.^[27]
Cyril Connolly (1903–1974): English intellectual, literary critic and writer.^[28]
Edmund Cooper (1926–1982): English poet and prolific writer of speculative fiction and other genres, published under his own name and several pen names.^[29]
William Cooper (1910–2002): English novelist.^[30]
Jim Crace (1946–): English writer, winner of numerous awards.^[31]
Theodore Dalrymple (1949–): pen name of British writer and retired physician Anthony Daniels.^[32]
Rhys Davies (1901–1978): Welsh novelist and short story writer.^[33]
Frank Dalby Davison (1893–1970): Australian novelist and short story writer, best known for his animal stories and sensitive interpretations of Australian bush life.^[34]
Alain de Botton (1969–): English writer and television producer.^[35]
Marquis de Sade (1740–1814): French aristocrat, revolutionary and writer of philosophy-laden and often violent pornography.^[36]
Isaac Deutscher (1907–1967): British journalist, historian and biographer.^[37]
Thomas M. Disch (1940–2008): American science fiction author and poet, winner of several awards.^[38]
Roddy Doyle (1958–): Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter, winner of the Booker Prize in 1993.^[39]
Ruth Dudley Edwards (19??–): Irish historian, crime novelist, journalist and broadcaster.^[40]
Carol Ann Duffy (1955–): Award-winning British poet, playwright and freelance writer.^[41]
Turan Dursun (1934–1990): Islamic scholar, imam and mufti, and latterly, an outspoken atheist.^[42]
Terry Eagleton (1943–): British literary critic, currently Professor of English Literature at the University of Manchester.^[43]
Greg Egan (1961–): Australian computer programmer and science fiction author.^[44]^[45]
Dave Eggers (1970–): American writer, editor, and publisher.^[46]
Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–): American feminist, socialist and political activist. She is a widely read columnist and essayist, and the author of nearly 20 books.^[47]
George Eliot (1819–1890): Mary Ann Evans, the famous novelist, was also a humanist and propounded her views on theism in an essay called Evangelical Teaching'.^[48].
Harlan Ellison (1934–): American science fiction author and screenwriter.^[49]
Gavin Ewart (1916–1995): British poet.^[50]
Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006): Italian journalist, author, and political interviewer.^[51]
Vardis Fisher (1895–1968): American writer and scholar, author of atheistic Testament of Man series.^[52]
Tom Flynn (19??–): American author and Senior Editor of Free Inquiry magazine.^[53]
Ken Follett (1949ndash;): British author of thrillers and historical novels.^[54]
E. M. Forster OM (1879–1970): English novelist, short story writer, and essayist, best known for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th century British society.^[55]
John Fowles (1926–2005): English novelist and essayist, noted especially for The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Magus (novel).^[56]
Maureen Freely (1952–): American journalist, novelist, translator and teacher.^[57].
Frederick James Furnivall (1825–1910): English philologist, one of the co-creators of the Oxford English Dictionary.^[58]
Alex Garland (1970–): British novelist and screenwriter, author of The Beach and the screenplays for 28 Days Later and Sunshine.^[59]
Constance Garnett (1861–1946): English translator, whose translations of nineteenth-century Russian classics which first introduced them widely to the English and American public.^[60]
Nicci Gerrard (1958–): British author and journalist, who with her husband Sean French writes psychological thrillers under the pen name of Nicci French.^[61]
Sir William Golding (1911–1993): British novelist, poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies.^[62]
Rebecca Goldstein (1950–1993): American novelist and professor of philosophy.^[63]
Nadine Gordimer (1923–): South African writer and political activist. Her writing has long dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. She won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1991.^[64]^[65]
Robert Graves (1895–1985): English poet, scholar, translator and novelist, producing more than 140 works including his famous annotations of Greek myths and I, Claudius.^[66]
Graham Greene OM, CH (1904–1991): English]] novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer and critic.^[67]^[68]
Germaine Greer (1939–): Australian feminist writer. Greer describes herself as a "Catholic atheist".^[69]
David Grossman (1954–): Israeli author of fiction, nonfiction, and youth and children's literature.^[70]
Jan Guillou (1944–): Swedish author and Journalist.^[71]
Daniel Handler (1970–): American author better known under the pen name of Lemony Snicket. Handler has admitted to being both an atheist^[72] and a secular humanist.^[73] Handler has hinted that the Baudelaires in his children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events might be atheists.^[74]
Sam Harris (1967–): American author, researcher in neuroscience, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.^[75]
Harry Harrison (1925–): American science fiction author, anthologist and artist whose short story The Streets of Ashkelon took as its hero an atheist who tries to prevent a Christian missionary from indoctrinating a tribe of irreligious but ingenuous alien beings.^[76]
Tony Harrison (1937–): English poet, winner of a number of literary prizes.^[77]
Seamus Heaney (1939–): Irish poet, writer and lecturer, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.^[78]
Zoë Heller (1965–): British journalist and novelist.^[79]
Dorothy Hewett (1923–2002): Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist, and playwright.^[80]
Archie Hind (1928–2008): Scottish writer, author of The Dear Green Place, regarded as one of the greatest Scottish novels of all time.^[81]
Christopher Hitchens (1949–): Author of God Is Not Great, journalist and essayist.^[82]
Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792–1862): British biographer, and co-author with Percy Bysshe Shelley of The Necessity of Atheism.^[83]
R. J. Hollingdale (1930–2001): English biographer and translator of German philosophy and literature, President of The Friedrich Nietzsche Society, and responsible for rehabilitating Nietzsche's reputation in the English-speaking world.^[84]
Michel Houellebecq (1958–): French novelist.^[85]
A. E. Housman (1859–1936): English poet and classical scholar, best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad.^[86]
Stanley Edgar Hyman (1919–1970): American literary critic who wrote primarily about critical methods.^[87]
Howard Jacobson (1942–): British author, best known for comic novels but also a non-fiction writer and journalist.^[88]
Susan Jacoby (1945–): an American atheist, secularist, and author, most recently of the New York Times best seller, The Age of American Unreason, which is about anti-intellectualism.^[89]
Clive James (1939–): Australian author, television presenter and cultural commentator.^[90]^[91]
Robin Jenkins (1912–2005): Scottish writer of about thirty novels, though mainly known for The Cone Gatherers.^[92]
Neil Jordan (1950-): Irish novelist and filmmaker.^[93]
S. T. Joshi (1958–): American editor and literary critic.^[94]
Ismail Kadare (1936–): Albanian novelist and poet, winner of the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca and the inaugural Man Booker International Prize.^[95]^[96]
Ludovic Kennedy (1919–): British journalist, author, and campaigner for voluntary euthanasia.^[97]
James Kelman (1946–): Scottish author, influential and Booker Prize-winning writer of novels, short stories, plays and political essays.^[98]
Douglas Kennedy (1955–): American-born novelist, playwright and nonfiction writer.^[99]
Paul Krassner (1932–): American founder and editor of the freethought magazine The Realist, and a key figure in the 1960s counterculture.^[100]
Pär Lagerkvist (1891–1974): Swedish author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951. He used religious motifs and figures from the Christian tradition without following the doctrines of the church.^[101]
Philip Larkin CH, CBE, FRSL (1922–1985): English poet, novelist and jazz critic.^[102]^[103]
Marghanita Laski (1915–1988): English journalist and novelist, also writing literary biography, plays and short stories.^[104]
Rutka Laskier (1929–1943): Polish Jew who was killed at Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of 14. Because of her diary, on display at Israel's Holocaust museum, she has been dubbed the "Polish Anne Frank."^[105]
Stanislaw Lem (1921–2006): Polish science fiction novelist and essayist.^[106]
Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837): Italian poet, linguist, essayist and philosopher. Leopardi is legendary as an out-and-out nihilist.^[107]
Primo Levi (1919–1987): Italian novelist and chemist, survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp.^[108]
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799): German scientist, satirist, philosopher and anglophile. Known as one of Europe's best authors of aphorisms. Satirized religion using aphorisms like "I thank the Lord a thousand times for having made me become an atheist."^[109]
Pierre Loti (1850–1923): French novelist and travel writer.^[110]
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937): American horror writer.^[111]
Franco Lucentini (1920–2002): Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies.^[112]
Norman MacCaig (1910–1996): Scottish poet, whose work is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity.^[113]
Colin Mackay (1951–2003): British poet and novelist.^[114]
Naguib Mahfouz - Egyptian novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature and is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature.^[115]
Gareth McLean (19??–): Scottish journalist, writer for The Guardian and Radio Times, shortlisted for the Young Journalist of the Year Award at the British Press Awards in 1997 and 1998.^[116]
Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958): French author, winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature.^[117]
W. Somerset Maugham CH (1874–1965): English playwright, novelist, and short story writer, one of the most popular authors of his era.^[118]^[119]
Charles Maurras (1868–1952): French author, poet, and critic, a leader and principal thinker of the reactionary Action Française.^[120]
Joseph McCabe (1867–1955): English writer, anti-religion campaigner.^[121]
Mary McCarthy (1912–1989): American writer and critic.^[122]
Ian McEwan, CBE (1948–): British author and winner of the Man Booker Prize.^[123]
China Miéville (1972–): British Science Fiction author.^[124]
Arthur Miller (1915–2005): American playwright and essayist, a prominent figure in American literature and cinema for over 61 years, writing a wide variety of plays, including celebrated plays such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman, which are widely studied.^[125]
David Mills (author) (1959–): Author who argues in his book Atheist Universe that science and religion cannot be successfully reconciled.^[126]
Terenci Moix (1942–2003): Spanish writer who wrote in both Spanish and in Catalan.^[127]
Brian Moore (1921–1999): Irish novelist and screenwriter, awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1975 and the inaugural Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times.^[128]
Sir John Mortimer CBE QC (1923–): English barrister, dramatist and author, famous as the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey.^[129]
Dame Iris Murdoch (1919–1999): Dublin-born writer and philosopher, best known for her novels, which combine rich characterization and compelling plotlines, usually involving ethical or sexual themes.^[130]
Aziz Nesin (1915–1995): Turkish humorist and author of more than 100 books.^[131]
Joyce Carol Oates (1938–): American author and Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton University.^[132]
Redmond O'Hanlon (1947–): British author, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[133]
George Orwell (1903–1950): English writer and journalist, a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture, one of the most admired English-language essayists of the twentieth century, and most famous for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general (Nineteen Eighty-Four), and Stalinism in particular (Animal Farm).^[134]^[135]
John Oswald (activist) (c.1760–1793): Scottish journalist, poet, social critic and revolutionary.^[136]
Frances Partridge (1900–2004): English member of the Bloomsbury Group and a writer, probably best known for the publication of her diaries.^[137]
Camille Paglia (1947–): American post-feminist literary and cultural critic.^[138]
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975): Italian poet, intellectual, film director, and writer.^[139]
Edmund Penning-Rowsell (1913–2002): British wine writer, considered the foremost of his generation.^[140]
Calel Perechodnik (1916–1943): Polish Jewish diarist and Jewish Ghetto policeman at the Warsaw Ghetto.^[141]
Harold Pinter (1930–): British playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist, best known for his plays The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978). Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.^[142]
Fiona Pitt-Kethley (19??–): British poet, novelist, travel writer and journalist.^[143]
Terry Pratchett (1948–): English Fantasy author known for his satirical Discworld series.^[144]
Kate Pullinger (19??–): Canadian-born novelist and author of digital fiction.^[145]
Philip Pullman CBE (1946–): British author of His Dark Materials fantasy trilogy for young adults, which have atheism as a major theme.^[146]
Craig Raine (1944–): English poet and critic, the best-known exponent of Martian poetry.^[147]
Ayn Rand (1905–1982): Russian-born American author and founder of Objectivism.^[148]
Derek Raymond (1931–1994): English writer, credited with being the founder of English noir.^[149]
Stan Rice (1942–2006): American poet and artist, Professor of English and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, and husband of writer Anne Rice.^[150]
Michael Rosen (1946–): English children's novelist, poet and broadcaster, Children's Laureate 2007–2009.^[151]
Salman Rushdie (1947–): Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction, known for his frequent criticism of Islam.^[152]
José Saramago (1922–): Portuguese writer, playwright and journalist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998.^[153]
Dan Savage (1964–): Author and sex advice columnist.^[154] Despite his atheism, Savage considers himself Catholic "in a cultural sense."^[155]
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822): British Romantic poet, contemporary and associate of John Keats and Lord Byron, and author of The Necessity of Atheism.^[156]
Michael Shermer (1954–): Science writer and editor of Skeptic magazine. Has stated that he is an atheist, but prefers to be called a skeptic.^[157]
Joan Smith (1953–): English novelist, journalist and human rights activist.^[158]
Warren Allen Smith (1921–): Author of Who's Who in Hell.^[159]
David Ramsay Steele (19??–): Author of Atheism Explained: From Folly to Philosophy.^[160]
George Warrington Steevens (1869ndash;1900): British journalist and writer.^[161]
Bruce Sterling (1954–): American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his seminal work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.^[162]
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894): Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer, especially famous for his works Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.^[163]
Allen Tate (1899–1979): American poet, essayist and social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress 1943–1944.^[164]
Vladimir Tendryakov (1923–1984): Russian short story writer and novelist.^[165]
Tiffany Thayer (1902–1959): American author, advertising copywriter, actor and founder of the Fortean Society.^[166]
James Thomson ('B.V.') (1834–1882): British poet and satirist, famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night (1874).^[167]
Miguel Torga (1907–1995): Portuguese author of poetry, short stories, theatre and a 16 volume diary, one of the greatest Portuguese writers of the 20th century.^[168]
Sue Townsend (1946–): British novelist, best known as the author of the Adrian Mole series of books.^[169]
Freda Utley (1898–1978): English scholar, best-selling author and political activist.^[170]
Frances Vernon (1963–1991): British novelist.^[171]
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007): American author, writer of Cat's Cradle, among other books. Vonnegut said "I am an atheist (or at best a Unitarian who winds up in churches quite a lot)."^[172]
Ethel Lilian Voynich (1864–1960): Irish-born novelist and musician, and a supporter of several revolutionary causes.^[173]
Edmund White (1940–): American novelist, short-story writer and critic.^[174]
Simon Winchester OBE (1944–): British author and journalist.^[175]
Tom Wolfe: Noted author and member of 'New Journalism' school^[176]
Leonard Woolf (1880–1969): Noted British political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant, husband of author Virginia Woolf.^[177]
Gao Xingjian (1940–): Chinese émigré novelist, dramatist, critic, translator, stage director and painter. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000.^[178]

Journalists

Writers who are primarily known for their journalism.

David Aaronovitch (1954–): British journalist, author and broadcaster.^[179]^[180]
Amy Alkon (19??–): American advice columnist known as the Advice Goddess, author of Ask the Advice Goddess, published in more than 100 newspapers within North America.^[181]
Lynn Barber (1944–): British journalist, currently writing for The Observer.^[182]
Paul Barker (1935–): English journalist and writer.^[183]
Anna Blundy (1970–): British journalist and author.^[184]
Richard Boston (1938–2006): English journalist and author, dissenter and pacifist.^[185]
Jason Burke (1970–): British journalist, chief foreign correspondent of The Observer.^[186]
Chandler Burr (1963–): American journalist and author, currently the perfume critic for the New York Times.^[187]
John Diamond (1953–2001): British broadcaster and journalist, noted for his column chronicling his fight with cancer.^[188]^[189]
Robert Fisk (1946–): Multi-award-winning British journalist, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, "probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain" according to the New York Times.^[190]
Paul Foot (1937–2004): British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party.^[191]
Linda Grant (1951–): British journalist and novelist.^[192]
Muriel Gray (1958–): Scottish journalist, novelist and broadcaster.^[193]
Johann Hari (1979–): British journalist and writer, columnist for The Independent and the London Evening Standard.^[194]
John Harris (1969–): British journalist, writer, and critic.^[195]
Simon Heffer (1960–): British journalist and writer.^[196]
Anthony Holden (1947–): British journalist, broadcaster and writer, especially of biographies.^[197]
Mick Hume (1959–): British journalist – columnist for The (London) Times and editor of Spiked. Described himself as "a longstanding atheist", but criticised the 'New Atheism' of Richard Dawkins and co.^[198]
Tom Humphries (19??–): English-born Irish sportswriter and columnist for The Irish Times.^[199]
Simon Jenkins (1943–): British journalist, newspaper editor, and author. A former editor of The Times newspaper, he received a knighthood for services to journalism in the 2004 New Year honours.^[200]
Terry Lane (1943–): Australian radio broadcaster and newspaper columnist.^[201]
Dominic Lawson (1956–): British journalist, former editor of The Spectator magazine.^[202]
Magnus Linklater (1942–): Scottish journalist and former newspaper editor.^[203]
Heather Mallick (1959–): Canadian columnist, author and lecturer.^[204]
Lucy Mangan (19??–): British journalist, columnist for The Guardian.^[205]
Andrew Marr (1959–): Scottish journalist and political commentator.^[206]
Jules Marshall (1962–): English-born journalist and editor.^[207]
Jonathan Meades (1947–): English writer and broadcaster on food, architecture and culture.^[208]
Padraic McGuinness AO (1938–2008): Australian journalist, activist, and commentator.^[209]
Stephanie Merritt (1974–): British critic and feature writer for a range of newspapers, Deputy Literary Editor at The Observer since 1998.^[210]
Martin O'Hagan (1950–2001): Northern Irish journalist, the most prominent journalist to be assassinated during the the Troubles.^[211]
Deborah Orr (19??–): British journalist and broadcaster, married to writer and satirist Will Self.^[212]
Matthew Parris (1949–): South African-born British journalist and former Conservative politician.^[213]
Ruth Picardie (1964–1997): British journalist and editor, noted for her memoir of living with breast cancer, Before I Say Goodbye.^[214]
Claire Rayner OBE (1931–): British journalist best-known for her role for many years as an agony aunt.^[215]
Jay Rayner (1966–): British journalist, writer and broadcaster.^[216]
Ron Reagan (1958–): American magazine journalist, board member of the politically activist Creative Coalition, son of former U. S. President Ronald Reagan.^[217]
Jill Singer (19??–): Australian journalist, columnist and television presenter.^[218]
Matt Taibbi (1970–): American journalist and political writer, currently working at Rolling Stone.^[219] note: he calls himself an agnostic/atheist.
Jeffrey Tayler (1970–): American author and journalist, the Russia correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly.^[220]
Bill Thompson (1960–): English technology writer, best known for his weekly column in the Technology section of BBC News Online and his appearances on Digital Planet, a radio show on the BBC World Service.^[221]
Nicholas Tomalin (1931–1973): British journalist and writer, one of the top 40 journalists of the modern era.^[222]
Jerzy Urban (1933–): Polish journalist, commentator, writer and politician, editor-in-chief of the weekly Nie and owner of the company which owns it, Urma.^[223]
Francis Wheen (1957–): British journalist, writer and broadcaster.^[224]
Peter Wilby (1944–): British journalist, former editor of The Independent on Sunday and New Statesman.^[225]

Notes and references

^ "I am a radical Atheist..." Adams in an interview by American Atheists[1].
^ "It is well known that I am not a religious person, I grew up and remain an atheist [...]". Tariq Ali, Interview: Tariq Ali, Socialist Review November 2006 (accessed April 22, 2008).
^ Amado is described as an "ateu convicto", or "convinced atheist". Cynara Menezes (August 8, 2001). "Velório de Jorge Amado foi discreto" (in Portuguese). Folha de S. Paulo. Retrieved on 2007-11-24.
^ "His son Martin, who led the ceremony, said: "His relationship with the Christian God was not entirely frictionless. In 1962 (the Russian poet) Yevtushenko asked him 'Are you an atheist?'. He replied: 'Well, yes - but it's more that I hate Him'." " John Ezard, 'Secular send-off for an 'old devil' who did not wans too much fuss over his funeral', The Guardian (London), October 23, 1996, Pg. 8.
^ "Once, filming in Italy with the American director John Huston and a US army crew, Ambler and his colleagues were shelled so fiercely that his unconscious 'played a nasty trick on him' (Ambler, Here Lies, 208). A confirmed atheist, he heard himself saying, 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' " Michael Barber: 'Ambler, Eric Clifford (1909–1998)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition, January 2007 [2] (accessed April 29, 2008).
^ "I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it... I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time." Isaac Asimov in "Free Inquiry", Spring 1982, vol.2 no.2, p. 9 (See Wikiquote.)
^ "Last week, looking through a book about 15th-century painting in Italy, I began to wonder why I loved these paintings so much. Almost all of them are illustrations of religious subjects, and I have been an atheist almost since the day I was confirmed in the Christian faith by the Bishop of Norwich in 1931. To describe the atheism first: it originated in a certainty that I was going to start breaking the rules as laid down by the god I'd been taught about, followed by a suspicion that if his rules were so easy to break he couldn't be all that he was cracked up to be. Then came its firmer base: the observation that many of the most hideous things done to each other by human beings have been done in his name. It can be argued that this is our fault, not God's. But the god we Europeans are supposed to believe in a) created us as well as everything else that is; b) is omnipotent; c) is Love. In which case, one must assume from the evidence rammed down our throats for century after century that he is liable to fits of serious derangement during which he is Not Himself." Diana Athill, 'I'm a believer - but only in a good story', The Guardian, January 21, 2004, Features Pages, Pg. 5.
^ "I'm an evangelical atheist so I'm not into supernatural effects - I hated The Exorcist - but John Carpenter's remake of The Thing is different." 'I was a brain-eating zombie... As the scary season descends [...] famous horror experts choose their most terrifying screen experiences', Daily Telegraph, October 30, 2004, Arts Pg. 04.
^ "Berton's book, The Comfortable Pew, in which as a lifelong atheist he attacked status quo religiosity, outraged churchgoers. But the wider public came to expect to be challenged by Berton's views." Cathryn Atkinson, 'Obituary: Pierre Berton', The Guardian, December 7, 2004, Pg. 27.
^ "Wilfred Scawen Blunt was notorious as an atheist, a libertine, an adventurer and a poet. Somehow he also found time to be a diplomat - one of the earliest in this country to make a real attempt to understand Islam - and an anti-imperialist, becoming the first British-born person to go to jail for Irish independence." Phil Daoust, The Guardian, March 11, 2008, G2: Radio: Pick of the day, Pg. 32.
^ " "What song would you like played at your funeral?" "We'll Meet Again. I'd like the congregation to join in. As a devout atheist, I should make it clear there are no religious connotations." " Rosanna Greenstreet, 'Q&A: William Boyd', The Guardian, February 3, 2007, Weekend Pages, Pg. 8.
^ "Passionate and enthusiastic, Lily was converted to atheism, pacifism, and feminism by Georg von Gizycki, whom she married in 1893." 'Braun, Lily', Encyclopædia Britannica Online (accessed August 1, 2008).
^ Reviewing a production of The Romans in Britain, Charles Spencer wrote: "It strikes me as an exceptionally powerful study of the human need for belief in a higher power, notwithstanding the fact that Brenton himself is an atheist. And the dramatist examines the nature of Paul's faith with both sympathy and insight." 'A powerful and thrilling act of heresy', Daily Telegraph, November 10, 2005, Reviews, Pg. 30.
^ "He has a keen sense for interesting ideas, but also for the ways in which they fit into society. For instance, he would never call himself an atheist, he says, in America: "I mean I don't believe: I'm sure there's no God. I'm sure there's no afterlife. But don't call me an atheist. It's like a losers' club. When I hear the word atheist, I think of some crummy motel where they're having a function and these people have nowhere else to go. That's what it means in America. In the UK it's very different." " Andrew Brown, John Brockman profile, The Guardian, April 30, 2005, pp 20-22 (accessed June 9, 2008).
^ "It [her non-fiction book Black Ship to Hell (1962)] endeavoured to formulate a morality based on reason rather than religion—Brophy described herself as 'a natural, logical and happy atheist' (King of a Rainy Country, afterword, 276)." Peter Parker: 'Brophy, Brigid Antonia [married name Brigid Antonia Levey, Lady Levey] (1929–1995)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition, May 2006 [3] (accessed April 29, 2008).
^ Reviewing Brownjohn's Collected Poems, Anthony Thwaite wrote: "Brownjohn is 75 at the moment of publication. He has been on the literary scene - publishing, reviewing, judging, chairing, tutoring, giving readings - since the 1950s. He has also been a London borough councillor, a Labour parliamentary candidate (Richmond, Surrey, 1964), very much what I think of as decent, persistent, dogged "Old Labour" - sensitive but solid, inclining towards the puritan (though a self-confessed atheist in matters of religion) - and a strenuous campaigner for serious radio and television, anti-muzak, anti-destruction of libraries, for the proper traditional cultural concerns of the British Council, et al." 'Poetry: The vodka in the verse', The Guardian, October 7, 2006, Review Pages, Pg. 18
^ Bush describes himself as "an atheist who has nevertheless worked intimately in Jewish religious institutions as a writer and editor for much of my adult life." The rabbi and the atheist, New Jersey Jewish News, September 20, 2007 (accessed 21 April 2008).
^ "By this time she had become an atheist and socialist." Nathalie Blondel: 'Butts , Mary Franeis (1890–1937)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [4] (accessed April 30, 2008).
^ "Though an atheist, Cabral had a deep, atavistic fear of the devil. When his wife died in 1986, he placed an emblem of Our Lady of Carmen around her neck, saying, in his mocking way, that this would make sure that she went directly to heaven, without being stopped at customs." 'Joao Cabral: His poetry voiced the sufferings of Brazil's poor', The Guardian, October 18, 1999, Leader Pages; Pg. 18.
^ "All the mythic versions of women, from the myth of the redeeming purity of the virgin to that of the healing, reconciling mother, are consolatory nonsenses; and consolatory nonsense seems to me a fair definition of myth, anyway. Mother goddesses are just as silly a notion as father gods. If a revival of the myths of these cults gives women emotional satisfaction, it does so at the price of obscuring the real conditions of life. This is why they were invented in the first place." Angela Carter, The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography (1978) p. 5
^ "Italian judge Gaetano Mautone has, with that special blend of flamboyance and arrogance you really only see in the continental judiciary, ordered a priest to appear in court to prove that Jesus exists. Or at least existed. Luigi Cascioli, a militant atheist and author of The Fable of Christ, has brought a case against Father Enrico Righi after the priest lambasted the writer for questioning Christ's historical origins." Lucy Mangan, 'Proving Christ existed, and other resolution', The Guardian, January 4, 2006, Pg. 36.
^ "…Stanley [Kubrick] is a Jew and I'm an atheist". Clarke quoted in Jeromy Agel (Ed.) (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001: p.306
^ "We can only guess what Clodd would have thought of having an evangelical preacher owning his old house: he was a noted atheist, who rejected his parents' ambition for him to become a Baptist minister in favour of becoming chairman of the Rationalist Press Association. His contribution to literature was in popularising the work of Charles Darwin and other evolutionary scientists in the face of opposition from the church. "The story of creation," wrote Clodd, " is the story of gas into genius"." Rose Gibbs, 'A religious conversion', Sunday Telegraph, August 14, 2005, Section: House & Home, Pg. 004.
^ "For one whose life had been so full of ironies, it was fitting that five priests celebrated a requiem mass for him in Youghal, although he had been a committed atheist." Richard Ingrams: 'Cockburn, (Francis) Claud (1904–1981), rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2006 [5] (accessed April 30, 2008).
^ "Or you can ask: was that you in The Rotters' Club, the schoolboy so crazed with fear of being seen naked that you prayed to God for deliverance and He was moved to fling a wet pair of bathers into your orbit. Yes and no. There was no such epiphanous moment, he says, and besides, he's an atheist." Sally Vincent interviewing Coe, 'A Bit of a Rotter', The Guardian, February 24, 2001, Pg. 36.
^ "An unlikely friendship developed between Reckitt and G. D. H. Cole. Although an unapproachable cold atheist, and at root an anarchist, Cole joined forces with Reckitt, the clubbable, romantic medievalist, archetypal bourgeois, and unswerving Anglican with a dogmatic faith, to found the National Guilds League in 1915." J. S. Peart-Binns, 'Reckitt, Maurice Benington (1888–1980)', rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed May 2, 2008).
^ "Like Margaret Jourdain, and most of her characters who are not fools or knaves, Ivy Compton-Burnett was a firm atheist, dismissing religion because ‘No good can come of it’ (Spurling, Ivy when Young, 77)." Patrick Lyons: 'Burnett, Dame Ivy Compton- (1884–1969)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [6] (accessed April 30, 2008).
^ " 'Don't stand any nonsense from the Astors,' Sitwell concluded: prophetic advice, for within a short time of his arrival, Lord Astor was writing to the new literary editor to say that reviewers must combine 'ability and character and high ideals': he was especially worried in case A.L. Rowse proved a 'militant atheist', for 'I am convinced that our great influence in the world is due to the fact that this country has given a definite place to religion and to free religion, ie Protestantism at that.' Undaunted, Connolly made it plain in his reply that he would not put up with such nonsense: he himself was an atheist, and discerned no difference in behaviour between an English Protestant and an English atheist." Jeremy Lewis, 'Wine, Women, £800 a Year: Nice One, Cyril', The Observer, April 13, 1997, The Observer Review Pages, Pg. 1.
^ "I'm an atheist. God is an abstract noun, he's not a Father Christmas up there in Heaven, he's an abstract bloody noun who has been exploited by men in order to exploit other men, through the centuries." Edmund Cooper, We must love one another or die: an interview with Edmund Cooper (pdf), c.1973.
^ 'Cooper' was the pen name of Harry Hoff. "As a militant atheist he was especially on his guard in churches, and at the wedding of a much younger friend had to be restrained from heckling the bride's clerical uncle, who was delivering an address." D. J. Taylor, 'Hoff, Harry Summerfield (1910–2002)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2006 (accessed May 1, 2008).
^ "The impulse of this book came when I was writing Quarantine. At the end of writing that book, I was no less of an atheist than I was before, yet it did make me think about my atheism. Thinking about the bleakness of my own atheism, and the inadequacy of the old fashioned kind of atheism when the big events of life-- especially death--came along, made me want to see whether I could come up with a narrative of comfort, a false narrative of comfort, but one that could match the narratives of comfort religions come up with to get you through death and bereavement." Jim Crace, Beatrice Interview: Jim Crace, c. 1999 (accessed April 28, 2008).
^ Criticising the 'New Atheists' (Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins, Onfray, Grayling and co.), Dalrymple wrote: "Yet with the possible exception of Dennett's [book Breaking the Spell], they advance no argument that I, the village atheist, could not have made by the age of 14 (Saint Anselm's ontological argument for God's existence gave me the greatest difficulty, but I had taken Hume to heart on the weakness of the argument from design)." What the New Atheists Don't See, City Journal, Autumn 2007 (accessed April 24, 2008).
^ "As a boy he attended a nonconformist chapel, and later an Anglican church, but in later life was to declare himself an atheist." Meic Stephens: 'Davies, Rhys (1901–1978)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [7] (accessed April 30, 2008).
^ "Davison died on May 24, 1970 at Greensborough, Melbourne; a lifelong atheist, he was cremated after a secular funeral." Robert Darby, 'Davison, Frank Dalby (1893 - 1970)', Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition (accessed July 16, 2008).
^ "Status Anxiety is divided into two parts: an analysis of the problem, followed by 'solutions', which are, in fact, less solutions than consolations (they include philosophy, art, politics, bohemia, a certain kind of opting out, and Christianity, for which, as an atheist with no Christian background, he says he is able to have a 'weird sympathy')." Geraldine Bedell interviewing de Botton, The Observer, February 29, 2004, Observer Review Pages, Pg. 15.
^ "De Sade overcame his boredom and anger in prison by writing sexually graphic novels and plays. In July 1782 he finished his Dialogue entre un prêtre et un moribond (Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man), in which he declared himself an atheist." 'Sade, Marquis de.' Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online (accessed August 1, 2008).
^ "He rejected his father's ambition to make him a rabbi. Instead he became an atheist and, following in the footsteps of Marx, Trotsky, and his countrywoman Rosa Luxemburg, a lifelong 'non-Jewish Jew' (Non-Jewish Jew, ed. Deutscher)." John McIlroy: 'Deutscher, Isaac (1907–1967)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [8] (accessed April 30, 2008).
^ "Friends said Disch had been despondent over ill health and Naylor's death in 2005. Yet he seemed in good humor for a brief Publishers Weekly interview last spring about his most recent book, "The Word of God." An outspoken atheist, Disch adopted the deity's perspective to score points on the absurdity of hell and similar numinous postulates. "One of the wonderful things about being God is you can say such nonsense and it's all true," he said." Stephen Miller, 'Thomas M. Disch, 68, Eclectic Writer of Science Fiction', The New York Sun, July 8, 2008, Obituaries, Pg. 6.
^ "He does appreciate the new and confident pluralism that has loosened the grip of the Roman Catholic hierarchy on education. His three children attend secular state schools, and he welcomes the widening "rift between Church and state. It has happened, it is happening, and for me that's a great thing. As an atheist, I feel very comfortable in Ireland now." " Boyd Tonkin interviewing Doyle, The Independent (London), September 17, 2004, Features, Pg. 20-21.
^ "Tariq likes permanent revolution, whereas I am a libertarian conservative. True, we are both atheists, but Tariq is evangelical while I am benign about religion and think the Throne should be occupied by a member of the Church of England." Ruth Dudley-Edwards, 'Will half of Ireland really back Cameroon? How will a win affect public sentiment? Or a defeat?', Daily Telegraph, June 1, 2002, Pg. 24.
^ "But the 21st century has done nothing to prevent two others from the Manchester area from reshaping and modernising the Christmas story -the poet Carol Ann Duffy and the composer Sasha Johnson Manning, who have written 16 new carols. Duffy, brought up a Catholic, pronounces herself an atheist; Johnson Manning is a committed Christian." Geoff Brown, 'O great big town of Manchester', The Times, December 7, 2007, Times2; Pg. 15.
^ "Turan Dursun, a former imam and an atheist writer..." A dark shadow over Turkey, Turkish Daily News, January 20, 2007 (Accessed April 15, 2008)
^ "It was also a sign that, though Eagleton is now an atheist, he has not entirely shaken off his religious upbringing. "I attacked Dawkins's book on God because I think he is theologically illiterate. I value my Catholic background very much. It taught me not to be afraid of rigorous thought, for one thing." But it is also because, he insists, Marxism offers the blueprint for a moral society." Paul Vallely, 'Class warrior; The Saturday Profile: Terry Eagleton', The Independent (London), October 13, 2007, Pg. 42.
^ "I was raised as a Christian, and I still retain a lot of the values of Christianity. The trouble with basing values on religions, though, is that the premises of most of them are pure wishful thinking; you either have to refuse to scrutinise those premises - take them on faith, declare that they "transcend logic" - or reject them. As Paul Davies has said, most Christian theologians have retreated from all the things that their religion supposedly asserts; they take a much more "modern" view than the average believer. But by the time you've "modernised" something like Christianity - starting off with "Genesis was all just poetry" and ending up with "Well, of course there's no such thing as a personal God" - there's not much point pretending that there's anything religious left. You might as well come clean and admit that you're an atheist with certain values, which are historical, cultural, biological, and personal in origin, and have nothing to do with anything called God." Greg Egan, An Interview With Greg Egan, Eidolon 11, pp. 18-30, January 1993 (accessed April 28, 2008)
^ "When I discussed my own atheism and Peter his own belief, he wrote that he needed God as a "friend of loneliness, who does not speak, does not laugh, does not cry"." Greg Egan, Letters from the forgotten, The Age (Australia), February 17, 2005 (accessed April 28, 2008)
^ Q: "Are you a religious man?" Eggers: "Most of my siblings and I stopped believing when we were around 14. I'm somewhere between an atheist and an agnostic - I'd be an atheist if I could muster the energy." 'You Ask The Questions: Dave Eggers', The Independent (London), September 30, 2004, Features, Pg. 5.
^ "Saturday, my last night at the [Motel] 6, and I refuse to spend it crushed in my room. But what is a person of limited means and no taste for "carousing" to do? Several times during the week, I have driven past the "Deliverance" church downtown, and the name alone exerts a scary attraction... The marquee in front of the church is advertising a Saturday night "tent revival," which sounds like the perfect entertainment for an atheist out on her own." Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich, Henry Holt and Company, 2001, (p. 66-67) ISBN 0-8050-6389-7
^ Reprinted in Hitchens, Christopher (2007). The Portable Atheist. ISBN 978-0-306-81608-6.
^ "Look, I'm an atheist. People say to me, do you believe in God? No, I don't believe in God." Harlan Ellison in clue book for the computer version of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream([9].)
^ "He died of prostate cancer in Trinity Hospice, in Clapham, south London, on October 23, 1995. He was a declared atheist and a member of the Humanist Society and he was cremated on October 30 at Putney Vale crematorium, south London." Paul Vaughan: 'Ewart, Gavin Buchanan (1916–1995)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 [10] (accessed April 30, 2008).
^ "I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. It's that simple! There must be some human truth here that is beyond religion." Prophet of Decline: An interview with Oriana Fallaci, Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2005 (accessed April 10, 2008).
^ American Atheists article on Fisher [11].
^ "I've been doing media appearances as a secular humanist activist for fifteen years now. I perennially underwent this exchange: REPORTER/HOST: Are you an atheist? ME: I call myself a secular humanist. Secular humanists disbelieve in the supernatural and prefer to use reason, compassion, and the methods of science to build the good life in this life. REPORTER/HOST: But you're an atheist, aren't you? I couldn't sidestep the "A" word. When I tried, it was all I'd get to talk about. Today, I handle this question differently: REPORTER/HOST: Are you an atheist? ME: Yes, but that's only the beginning." Tom Flynn, Why The "A" Word Won't Go Away, Council for Secular Humanism op-ed article (accessed April 30, 2008).
^ "Follett, who is 58, was born in Cardiff, the son of a tax inspector. His family belonged to the puritanical Plymouth Brethren, so he was barred from watching films and television and even visiting other churches. Sounds like a strict upbringing. Perhaps too strict, given that he is now an atheist. 'Yeah, as soon as I reached the age of reason - about 16 - I stopped going to church. But I also have a sybaritic streak and could never have been happy in any puritanical religion. Self-denial is not my thing." Nigel Farndale, 'Damn Right I Got The Talent', Sunday Telegraph, October 7, 2007, Section 7 (Books), Pg.22.
^ "Some time in his middle teens, he had announced that he had become an atheist, and this had led to a violent flurry in the family, various clerical friends being called in, in vain, to shepherd him back to orthodoxy. [...] Despite his churchy friends, Forster was very ready to be parted from his faith, which did not go very deep. [...] Within a short time, under Meredith's ministrations, he had lost his faith completely." Extract from P. N. Furbank's E. M. Forster: A Life, the Growth of the Novelist 1879-1914, "which E. M. Forster invited P. N. Furbank to write", 'Saturday Review: Forster at Kings', The Times, July 23, 1977; pg. 7; Issue 60063; col A.
^ "In 1989 a stroke slightly impaired his memory. But the death of Elizabeth, who had been in all his novels, was an incomparably worse blow. "As an atheist, it made me very angry with someone - He, She or It - who doesn't exist," he said. It was the paradox his books had been written to solve." John Ezard, 'Obituary: John Fowles', The Guardian, November 8, 2005, Pg. 36.
^ "Hijuelos has a way of making even the most uninspiring life unique, the ugliest scene beautiful. This devout atheist was moved and at moments even transported." Maureen Freely, reviewing Mr Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos, The Guardian (London), December 17, 1995, The Observer Review Page, Pg. 15
^ "Frederick Furnivall was a man of diverse causes, all based on passionately held beliefs: vegetarianism, sculling, spelling reform, atheism (in his later years), socialism, egalitarianism, teetotalism, and above all the supreme importance of editing historic and literary texts that could shed light on the cultural and social life of England's past." William S. Peterson, 'Furnivall, Frederick James (1825–1910)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition, May 2007 (accessed May 2, 2008).
^ In his introduction to the Sunshine screenplay (Faber and Faber 2007), Garland writes: "Aside from being a love letter to its antecedents, I wrote Sunshine as a film about atheism. A crew is en route to a God-like entity: the Sun. The Sun is larger and more powerful than we can imagine. The Sun gave us life, and can take it away. It is nurturing, in that it provides the means of our survival, but also terrifying and hostile [...] Ultimately, even the most rational crew member is overwhelmed by his sense of wonder and, as he falls into the star, he believes he is touching the face of God. But he isn't. The Sun is God-like, but not God. Not a conscious being. Not a divine architect. And the crew member is only doing what man has always done: making an awestruck category error when confronted with our small place within the vast and neutral scheme of things. The director, Danny Boyle, who is not atheistic in the way that I am, felt differently. He believed that the crew actually were meeting God. I didn't see this as a major problem, because the difference in our approach wasn't in conflict with the way in which the story would be told."
^ "Constance became a lifelong sceptic and atheist." Patrick Waddington: 'Garnett, Constance Clara (1861–1946)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition, May 2007 [12] (accessed May 1, 2008).
^ "I am an atheist who married in a register office, but I can sympathise with those who don't want the clerkish atmosphere of the civic ceremony, the threadbare, legalistic words." Nicci Gerrard, 'Beyond belief', The Observer, January 2, 2000, Observer Review Pages; Pg. 1.
^ "Golding learned from his father, a science master at Marlborough grammar school, to be a rationialist, a sceptic and an atheist. But it may be that his mother's influence was the more profound in filling his mental landscape with anti-rational horrors." John Walsh, 'William Golding: 1911-1993 part Hornblower, part Lear', The Independent (London), June 20, 1993, Pg 3.
^ From an interview with Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein by Steve Paulson for Salon magazine: "Spinoza certainly dismissed the religion he'd been exposed to. Do both of you consider yourselves atheists? [pause] GOLDSTEIN: Yes. PINKER: Yes. GOLDSTEIN: Proud atheists. PINKER: There, we said it. [Laughs.] [Paulson:] So you have to hesitate for a moment before you use that dirty word? PINKER: Atheists are the most reviled minority in the United States, so it's no small matter to come out and say it." 'Proud Atheists', Salon.com, October 15, 2007 (a