The 50 Most Brilliant Atheists of All Time

[laconicsax]

http://brainz.org/50-most-brilliant-atheists-all-time/

I wouldn't say that I agree with the ranking or even some of the people on it, but it's neat.

(For the purposes of this list, "atheist" means atheist or agnostic.)

[cosmik debris]

1. Broken Link?

I can't find brainz.org at all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. I can get there OK; it's a highly subjective list

at times it's a rock-fan's list - hence the appearance of Dave Gilmour, Mick Jagger and Brian Eno ("Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno" - :D ) on it. It's nowhere near a "brilliance at expounding atheism" list - just people who have declared themselves atheists.

[cosmik debris]

3. It's working now, I guess my tubes got clogged n/t

[laconicsax]

5. They define "brilliant" as "brilliant at their craft."

Still subjective, still dumb at times, but interesting.

[Iggo]

4. Oh dear.

If I ever feel like I'm not getting old, I only have to look at this picture.



(Back in the old days, he and I had the same hairstyle. And nowadays, we still do...lol.)

[Goblinmonger]

6. Ayn Rand

:puke:

[laconicsax]

9. Yeah.

[jmm]

7. Only 3 of the 50 are women?

It's an interesting read but I've got to believe they could've found more, and more "brilliant," women than Ayn Rand, Katherine Hepburn, and Jodie Foster.

Edited to add the list may have referred to brilliance in terms of their profession there is an emphasis on politics and science for men but when it comes to women there's one writer and two actresses.

[onager]

8. Emma Goldman, for a start.

Who also called herself a "feminist" long before it was fashionable. Hell, long before most people had even heard the word.

Goldman always seems to get slighted historically. Maybe because she was a Double Bad A--atheist and anarchist.

Also Pearl S. Buck--the daughter of missionaries, no less. She might not have declared as an Official Atheist, but is on record as saying she believed in trying to create Heaven here on earth, and she was not expecting it after death.

One that fascinates me was an anonymous Italian (?) woman. IIRC, I read this in "1000 Years of Disbelief" or one of those Commie books. This woman's ideas are only on record because she was hauled before the Inquisition, after making some unseemly remarks to the neighbors. She didn't use the word "atheist"--I think she was even illiterate--but said she felt no need of a god, or saints, or angels, or anything otherworldly. The real world was enough for her, and she didn't bother her head with the afterlife or any other supernatural rick-rack. She was burned at the stake for heresy.

[PassingFair]

10. Glorious Gloria Steinem, for another.

Not to mention Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

I think Alice Walker is one of us, too.

Women atheists don't get much attention,
women don't get much written ABOUT them
in history, period.

Men don't find them THAT interesting,
unless they're not wearing pants.

[charlie]

13. Marie Curie

Pretty spectacular omission for a list devoted to "brilliance."

[DavidDvorkin]

16. I didn't know Marie Curie was an atheist

I knew she was brilliant, of course.

Cute, too. Did you see her in Young Einstein? :)

[funflower]

19. The degree to which women are marginalized by the "rational" community is distressing

Susan B. Anthony


Emily Dickinson - duh! who could create a "most brilliant" list without including this iconic genius?

George Eliot/Marian Evans

Virginia Woolf

Emilie du Chatelet - French mathematician and translator of Newton's /i/Principia/i/ and lover of Voltaire (and others - take that, Sir Mick!)

Mary Wollstonecraft

[PassingFair]

11. What? No Bill and Melinda Gates?

WTF?

Thanks for the list, though...some
interesting stuff in there.

[laconicsax]

12. I would bet that we on this board could make a much better 'top-50' list

[sarcasmo]

14. Thanks for this list.

[ihavenobias]

15. Cool, thanks for the link. n/t

[dcsmart]

17. I would think Karl Marx would be on the list.

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

18. thanks, pretty good list

Of course it's subjective. I would like to see an expanded list, maybe a "top 100" or the like.

[mtf80123]

20. Does the Buddha count..?

Just curious.