Famous Atheists: 40 Godless Minds Who Shaped History

In the grand tapestry of human history, atheism, often seen as a modern phenomenon, has roots that run deep. Throughout the centuries, several notable figures have challenged the religious status quo, paving the way for a more secular understanding of the world. Let's embark on a journey through time to meet 40 influential atheists who've shaped our understanding of atheism and left an indelible mark on history.

This started as a top ten. It kept growing, because once you start counting the people who looked at religion and said “no thanks, I’ll think for myself,” it turns out you’re counting a lot of history’s most interesting humans. Here are forty of them: philosophers, scientists, activists, writers and troublemakers, organized by era, each with the book I’d hand you to meet them properly. And before anyone asks: yes, the women were always here, history just kept forgetting to write them down.

Jump to: The Ancients · Enlightenment and the 1800s · The 20th Century · Still Among Us

The Ancients

1. Epicurus (341–270 BCE)

Starting our list is none other than the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. While not an atheist in the modern sense, his ideas laid the groundwork for secular thought. He proposed that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil and famously suggested that the gods, if they existed, were indifferent to humans. Epicurus' philosophy taught that the purpose of life was to attain tranquility and freedom from fear through knowledge.

Read them: The Art of Happiness.

2. Lucretius (c. 99–55 BCE)

Epicurus had the ideas; Lucretius turned them into poetry so good it survived two thousand years of people trying very hard to lose it. His On the Nature of Things explained atoms, natural causes and why death is nothing to fear, all without a single god doing the heavy lifting. His line “so potent was religion in persuading to evil deeds” was written before Christianity even existed, which tells you he was working from a pattern, not a grudge. Read him: On the Nature of Things.

3. Al-Ma’arri (973–1057)

A blind Syrian poet who looked at the religions around him a thousand years ago and declined all of them, in verse, with his whole chest. “The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains.” He was also vegan, roughly nine centuries before it was cool. Proof that doubt is not a Western invention and definitely not a modern one. Read him: The Epistle of Forgiveness.

4. Diagoras of Melos (5th century BCE)

Known in his own time as “Diagoras the Atheist,” which takes a certain commitment when the punishment is a bounty on your head. Shown a wall of votive offerings from sailors whose prayers supposedly saved them from shipwreck, he asked where the offerings were from the sailors who prayed and drowned anyway. Twenty-five hundred years later, that is still the whole argument against miracle testimonials. Athens exiled him for it. Read about him: Battling the Gods.

Enlightenment and the 1800s

5. Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)

The Dutch philosopher, excommunicated from his Jewish community, was a pivotal figure in the Enlightenment. Spinoza argued against the traditional understanding of God and proposed a pantheistic view, where God and Nature were one. His rational approach to theology and his skepticism of religious authorities made him a significant influence on later free-thinking philosophers.

Read them: Ethics.

6. Voltaire (1694–1778)

Voltaire had wit and, with his advocacy for civil liberties, a social conscience. Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer who often criticized the Catholic Church and religious dogma. His philosophical novel, "Candide," is a satirical masterpiece that ridicules the notion of optimistic determinism. Voltaire's advocacy for religious tolerance and separation of church and state significantly impacted Western thought.

Read them: Candide.

7. David Hume (1711–1776)

The Scot who politely dismantled miracles, design arguments and the soul, then went to dinner. “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence” is the entire skeptic toolkit in nine words. His Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion were so dangerous he had them published after his death, which is the Enlightenment version of scheduling a post. When Boswell visited his deathbed hoping to catch a conversion, Hume cheerfully disappointed him. Read him: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

8. Baron d’Holbach (1723–1789)

The Paris salon host who fed Enlightenment philosophers excellent dinners and open atheism, in that order. His System of Nature argued that “ignorance and fear created the gods,” and he published it under a fake name because he enjoyed having a head. While Voltaire hedged with deism, d’Holbach went all the way, a century and a half before it was survivable. Read him: The System of Nature.

9. Charles Darwin (1809–1882)

While Darwin's personal religious views are subject to debate, his impact on atheism is undeniable. His theory of evolution by natural selection, outlined in "On the Origin of Species," challenged the literal interpretations of religious texts regarding the creation of life and provided a scientific explanation for the diversity of life.

Read them: On the Origin of Species.

10. Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872)

The philosopher who flipped the script: we did not come from God, God came from us. The Essence of Christianity argued that every divine attribute is just a human one projected onto the sky, love, power, wisdom, all of it ours, outsourced. Theology, he said, is really anthropology. Half of modern religious criticism is footnotes to this one idea, and a commenter on this very post asked for him by name, so here he is. Read him: The Essence of Christianity.

11. Mary Ann Evans, a.k.a. George Eliot (1819–1880)

She translated Feuerbach into English, lost her faith doing it, and then wrote some of the greatest novels in the language about morality without ever needing heaven to enforce it. Of God, immortality and duty, she said the first was inconceivable, the second unbelievable, and the third absolute anyway. Which is secular ethics in one sentence: no cosmic payout, still do the right thing. Read her: Middlemarch.

12. Ernestine Rose (1810–1892)

A rabbi’s daughter from Poland who argued her way out of an arranged marriage in court at sixteen, then spent decades touring America for abolition, women’s rights and open atheism, in a foreign accent, in the 1850s. “All children are atheists,” she observed, “and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so.” The bravest person on this list and nobody taught you her name. Read about her: The Rabbi’s Atheist Daughter.

13. Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899)

“The Great Agnostic” filled theatres across Victorian America to hear religion taken apart with warmth, jokes and receipts. “Hands that help are better far than lips that pray.” He was the most famous orator in the country and gave up any shot at political office rather than fake a conversion, which is more spine than most of today’s politicians can locate. Read him: The Best of Robert Ingersoll.

14. Karl Marx (1818–1883)

Whatever you think of everything else, the “opium of the people” line is usually quoted wrong and backwards. Marx called religion the sigh of the oppressed creature, a painkiller people reach for because the world hurts, and argued you deal with the hurt, not just the pill. You do not have to be a Marxist to notice that is a far sharper take on why religion persists than the quote’s reputation suggests. Read him: A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.

15. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)

The suffrage pioneer who committed the one unforgivable sin: she went after the source. The Woman’s Bible, her annotated takedown of scripture’s treatment of women, was so scandalous her own suffrage movement formally disavowed her. She called the Bible and the Church the greatest obstacles to women’s emancipation, and the century since has not exactly proven her wrong. Read her: The Woman’s Bible.

16. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

Nietzsche, a German philosopher, famously declared, "God is dead." He argued that the decline of religion in the modern world left a void that needed to be filled by other values. Nietzsche's work profoundly influenced existentialism, a philosophy that explores the meaning of life in an absurd, godless world.

Read them: Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

The 20th Century

17. Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

The anarchist firebrand deported from America for having too many opinions, atheism among them. Her essay The Philosophy of Atheism said it plainly: “I do not believe in God, because I believe in man.” Whatever you make of her politics, she understood that waiting for heaven is a great way to never fix anything down here. Read her: The Philosophy of Atheism.

18. Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)

A preacher’s daughter who grew up inside the church, wrote it better than anyone, and quietly walked out the back. In her memoir she called prayer a cry of weakness and said she preferred to meet the universe as it is. The Harlem Renaissance’s sharpest eye, and proof that Black freethought has roots as deep as the Black church, even when nobody puts that in the documentary. Read her: Dust Tracks on a Road.

19. Bertrand Russell (1872–1970)

A British philosopher and Nobel laureate, Russell was renowned for his work in logic, mathematics, and advocacy for nuclear disarmament. An outspoken atheist, he authored "Why I Am Not a Christian," critiquing religion and advocating for a rational, scientific approach to understanding the universe.

Read them: Why I Am Not a Christian.

20. Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)

Devoutly Catholic girl, atheist by fourteen, and from that wreckage built the book that started modern feminism. The Second Sex runs on a fully godless engine: nobody designed womanhood, it was constructed, and what is constructed can be renovated. She said she could hardly be angry at a God she did not believe in, which remains the correct answer to “so you’re mad at God.” Read her: The Second Sex.

21. Alan Turing (1912–1954)

Lost his faith as a teenager when the boy he loved died, and decided minds were not magic but mechanism, a hunch he followed until it became the computer you are reading this on. Then the country he saved prosecuted him for being gay, and the church that wants credit for Western morality said nothing. Read about him: Alan Turing: The Enigma.

22. A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979)

The labour giant who organized the first major Black union and the 1963 March on Washington, and signed the Humanist Manifesto while he was at it. He kept his atheism quieter than his organizing, because he needed the churches in the coalition, but he never pretended the liberation was coming from anywhere but human hands. Read about him: A. Philip Randolph: A Life in the Vanguard.

23. Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919–1995)

Known as "the most hated woman in America," O'Hair was an American activist who played a pivotal role in the landmark Supreme Court case that banned mandatory prayer in public schools. She founded American Atheists and was a vocal critic of religious institutions.

Read them: Why I Am an Atheist.

24. James Baldwin (1924–1987)

A teenage preacher in Harlem who left the pulpit and spent the rest of his life preaching something better. The Fire Next Time contains the cleanest exit line ever written: “If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of him.” That is the whole test, and most gods fail it. Read him: The Fire Next Time.

25. Carl Sagan (1934–1996)

An astronomer and science communicator, Sagan brought science to the masses through his TV series, "Cosmos." While not explicitly identifying as an atheist, his promotion of scientific skepticism and wonder about the natural world influenced many to question religious explanations of the universe.

Read them: The Demon-Haunted World.

26. Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)

Wrote or edited over five hundred books, served as president of the American Humanist Association, and never hedged: “I am an atheist, out and out.” He also wrote a two-volume guide to the Bible, because he had actually read it, which he gently suggested was more than most believers could say. Read him: Asimov’s Guide to the Bible.

27. Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018)

Raised entirely without religion, which she called a gift, and it shows: her novels build whole worlds where meaning comes from how people treat each other, no deity required. She called herself a consistent unChristian and an inconsistent Taoist, which is the most Le Guin sentence possible. If you want your kid to meet big moral questions without a catechism, start here. Read her: The Dispossessed.

28. Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011)

A journalist and author, Hitchens was known for his scathing critiques of religion. His book "God Is Not Great" argues that organized religion is a source of conflict and moral hypocrisy. Hitchens' eloquence and wit made him a formidable figure in public debates about religion.

Read them: God Is Not Great.

Still Among Us

29. Richard Dawkins (1941–)

An evolutionary biologist and author, Dawkins is a prominent figure in modern atheism. His book "The God Delusion" argues against the existence of a supernatural creator and advocates for atheism as a rational worldview. Dawkins is known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. Dawkins is now in his transphobic era, so after this brief mention, I choose to pretend he's not there.

Read them: The God Delusion.

30. Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969)

Escaped an arranged marriage, renounced Islam, served in the Dutch parliament under death threats, and wrote Infidel, one of the most read deconversion memoirs ever. Honesty requires the update: in 2023 she announced she had become a Christian, citing civilizational and personal reasons. The book still matters, the courage still counts, and the lesson got more interesting, not less: the door out of religion swings both ways, and only honest accounts of both directions are worth your time. Read her: Infidel.

31. Julia Sweeney (born 1959)

The SNL alum whose one-woman show Letting Go of God is the gentlest, funniest deconversion story ever staged: a nice Catholic girl who made the fatal mistake of actually reading the Bible to get closer to God. Half the people I know who left religion quietly credit this show. Read her: Letting Go of God.

32. Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958)

For the record, he calls himself agnostic, not atheist, and gets grumpy when people file him here, so consider this entry filed under “people the search engines insist on.” What he actually does: make godless cosmic wonder feel bigger and warmer than any burning bush, for millions of people, on prime time. We will take it. Read him: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

33. Stephen Fry (born 1957)

Asked on Irish television what he would say to God at the gates, Fry replied with a question of his own: bone cancer in children, what’s that about? The clip went viral, Ireland briefly investigated him for blasphemy, and the blasphemy law was gone two years later. Rarely has one man’s talk-show answer done so much legislative work. Read him: Mythos.

34. Ricky Gervais (born 1961)

Does the math out loud: humanity has worshipped thousands of gods, the believer rejects all but one, he just goes one god further. His other keeper: burn every science book and every holy book, and in a thousand years only the science books come back the same. Crude, effective, endlessly quotable, which is the job. Read the tradition he draws on in: The Portable Atheist.

35. Jennifer Michael Hecht (born 1965)

The poet and historian who wrote the book on doubt, literally: a thousand-year tour proving that every era of every faith had its doubters, usually the most interesting people in the room. If anyone tells you atheism was invented by four angry men in 2006, hand them this. Read her: Doubt: A History.

36. Sarah Haider (born 1991)

Co-founded Ex-Muslims of North America to support people for whom leaving the faith is not an awkward Thanksgiving but a safety plan. She does the hardest version of this work: defending the right to leave Islam while refusing to hand her words to anti-Muslim bigots. Start with the movement’s collected stories in: Leaving Faith Behind.

37. Armin Navabi (born 1983)

Founded Atheist Republic from his bedroom in Vancouver; it became one of the largest godless communities on earth, serving people in countries where this website would be a crime. His little book is the one to slip to the questioning kid with religious parents: thirteen arguments, no padding. Read him: Why There Is No God.

38. Hemant Mehta (born 1983)

The Friendly Atheist, who has spent two decades covering church-state battles, exposing grifters and staying unfailingly polite about it, which somehow makes it sting more. Started by selling his soul on eBay, let churches bid, and wrote up what he found when he attended the winners. Read him: I Sold My Soul on eBay.

39. Anthony Pinn (born 1964)

Ordained a preacher as a teenager, now one of the leading scholars of African American humanism, documenting a tradition of Black nonbelief that runs from the blues to the pulpit’s back door. His memoir title alone earns the spot. Read him: Writing God’s Obituary.

40. Mandisa Thomas (born 1976)

Founded Black Nonbelievers because leaving the church in a community where the church is the community takes more than arguments, it takes somewhere to land. Building that landing pad is harder and more important than winning any debate. Read the collection she contributed to: Women v. Religion.

Questions people actually ask

Who is the most famous atheist?

Alive today, probably Richard Dawkins. Historically, the crown fight is between Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell and Christopher Hitchens, and Hitchens wins the quotability round.

Were there famous atheist women?

Always. Ernestine Rose was touring America for atheism in the 1850s, George Eliot wrote secular morality better than any theologian, and this list has a dozen more. They were there the whole time; history's editors just had a type.

Was Einstein an atheist?

No, and he said so repeatedly. He rejected a personal God but called himself agnostic at most, closer to Spinoza's God-as-nature. Claiming him for the atheist team is sloppy, and the list does not need the padding.

What is the difference between an atheist and an agnostic?

They answer different questions: atheism is about belief, agnosticism is about knowledge. You can be both at once, and most atheists are. We wrote the full explainer here.

These forty individuals, from various backgrounds and eras, have significantly contributed to the dialogue around atheism and secularism. Their ideas and works continue to influence discussions about religion, philosophy, and science. Whether through philosophical argumentation, scientific discovery, or social activism, their impact on how we understand the world without gods is profound and enduring.

As society progresses, the conversation around atheism evolves, influenced by these thought leaders' pioneering visions. Their legacies are a testament to the power of questioning and the importance of seeking truth, regardless of prevailing dogmas. In a world where the debate between faith and reason continues, the contributions of these forty people remain more relevant than ever.

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