List of atheists (surnames E to G) explained

See main article: Lists of atheists.

NameDatesKnown as / forWhoReference
1964 - English stage, film, and television actor, known for his roles in Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, and as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who."I'm an atheist. My mother is very religious, a churchgoer. She would often encourage me to go to church as well, but never forced it upon me, which I thought was quite decent of her. [...] There was no defining moment in which I decided there was no god for me, it was more of a growing process. I do feel that whatever religious beliefs I had as a child were foisted upon me. It's like when you ask where Grandma went when she died, and you'd be told that she went to heaven. I wouldn't necessarily view that as a bad thing, but it was stuff like that which I think hindered my intellectual development. Now that I've grown, I prefer a different interpretation."[1]
1948 - British playwright, noted for his adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Nicholas Nickleby."Earlier this year David Edgar wrote an unforgettable account of the death of his wife, Eve Cook, for a BBC radio talk during Easter week. An avowed atheist, Edgar said that he was trying to express 'that most human need to tell the dead what we would want to say - but know we couldn't say - if they were still alive'."[2]
1923 - 2004Austrian-American moral philosopher and editor of The Encyclopedia of Philosophy"'There is no God, there is no life after death, Jesus was a man, and, perhaps most important, the influence of religion is by and large bad,' he wrote in the current issue of Free Inquiry, a magazine about secular humanism, a school of thought that emphasizes values based on experience rather than religion.".[3]
450 - 515Chinese philosopher"...Fan Zhen, the great atheist..."[4]
1962 - ActressAmerican film actress, director, and producer.[5] [6] [7] [8]
1759 - 1820French statesman and Minister of Police under Napoleon I.Helped established the Cult of Reason. Established the policy of inscribing "Death is an eternal sleep" over the gates to cemeteries.[9]
Sigmund Freud1856 - 1939Austrian neurologist, "father of psychoanalysis""The man who would become an atheist..."[10]
1957 - British author, comedian, television presenter, actor, journalist, film director, broadcaster and political activist"The most important philosophy I think is that even if it isn't true you must absolutely assume there is no afterlife. You cannot for one second I think, abrogate the responsibility of believing that this is it because if you think you’re going to have an eternity in which you can talk to Mozart and Chopin and Schopenhauer on a cloud and learn stuff and you know really get to grips with knowledge and understanding and so you won’t bother now. I think it’s a terrible, a terrible mistake."
1967 - AuthorAmerican author, speaker, engineer, and founder of Wordsmith.org.[11]
1940 - AuthorChinese émigré novelist, dramatist, critic, translator, stage director and painter. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000."Putting aside discussion of the existence or non-existence of God, I would like to say that despite my being an atheist I have always shown reverence for the unknowable."[12]
1957 - 2004Film directorDutch film director, television producer, publicist and actor, murdered following the broadcasting of his film Submission."This book is called "Allah knows best" because it is my dark suspicion we are on the verge of the new Middle Ages of Mecca; and because I feel, as a professional atheist, very unsafe in a climate that is dominated by ambitious mayors who are happily busy "keeping things together". Since 11 September, the knives are sharpened and the fifth column of goatfuckers marches ahead unhindered."[13]
1961 - ActorEnglish comedian, actor, director, producer, musician, writer, and former radio presenter."I'm basically a 'do unto others' type person. I don't have any religious feelings because I'm an atheist, but I live my life like there's a God. And if there was he'd probably love me."[14]
1989 - Canadian actressAnnie Wilson on 90210, Darcy Edwards on .[15]
1918 - 2010Computer scientistGrosch's law[16]
1916 - 1986He is best known for his discovery of the cut-up technique.[17]

Notes and References

  1. Christopher Eccleston, The Heaven and Earth Show, BBC1, Sunday April 3, 2005, 10:30.
  2. Sean French, 'Dust to dustjacket', The Guardian, April 30, 1999, Pg. 18.
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/obituaries/16edwards.html Paul Edwards, Professor and Editor of Philosophy, Dies at 81
  4. Web site: zh:中國盤古之鄉 歷史文化厚重. http://paper.wenweipo.com/2009/02/20/FI0902200057.htm. 2011-01-13. 李, 鴻雲 . 朱, 利 . Wen Wei Po. Hong Kong. Chinese.
  5. News: Jodie Foster: Unbreakable . Entertainment Weekly . https://web.archive.org/web/20080305093325/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20051361_20051365_20054140_3,00.html . dead . March 5, 2008 . 2007-09-07 . 2013-01-18 . EW: Are you religious? JF: No, I'm an atheist. But I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don't believe in God..
  6. News: Jodie Foster: Unbreakable . Entertainment Weekly . August 30, 2007 . Karen . Valby.
  7. The Georgia Straight, Interview with Jodie Foster by Dan McLeod, July 10–17, 1997; page 43.
  8. Interview with Charles Gibson, Good Morning America, July 7, 1997.
  9. David Andress, The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005)
  10. Web site: The Question of God . Two Different Lives . The Life of Sigmund Freud PBS. www.pbs.org. 2015-12-28.
  11. News: 330 million gods, and you can't find one to suit you?. vimeo . 2011-03-26 . 2013-02-20.
  12. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2000/gao-lecture-e.html Nobel Lecture by Gao Xingjian
  13. Theo van Gogh, 'What they have said about Islam', in 'Netherlands braced for Muslim anger as politician releases 'anti-Islam' film', The Independent (London), 25 January 2008, Pg. 32.
  14. "I'm basically a 'do unto others' type person. I don't have any religious feelings because I'm an atheist, but I live my life like there's a God. And if there was he'd probably love me." http://www.rickygervais.com/mirror.php
  15. Web site: '90210's' Shenae Grimes sometimes begs for spare change on the street - Zap2it . Blog.zap2it.com . 2011-04-02 . 2013-06-16 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130706040157/http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2011/04/90210s-shenae-grimes-sometimes-begs-for-spare-change-on-the-street.html . 2013-07-06 .
  16. Web site: Grosch. Herbert. Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 - Interview with Herbert R. Grosch. 12 April 2012. July 15, 1970. I made them quit essentially. When I was nine years old I decided that I was an atheist. So I told them, "Well you shouldn't go to church anymore, it's silly." Well, apparently they'd been going to church primarily for my benefit. So after I refused to go, they quit going too..
  17. Book: Nothing Is True-Everything is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin. 2005. Red Wheel/Weiser. 9781609258719. 5. John Geiger. Brion's view of Creating soon changed. By age fifteen he was an avowed atheist attending St. Joseph's Catholic High School..