Amazing Atheists and Freethinkers

1. Amazing Atheists and Freethinkers Paducah Secular Society July 21, 2012

2. Does “Any Goodness Comes From God”? “God alone = good. Man = naturally depraved – any goodness comes from God.” Comment from Julia Gwinn in my blog rarebible.wordpress.com. James 1:17  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

3. Science and Technology From Atheists and Freethinkers

4. Definitions For This Presentation Freethinker – Thoughts not bound by dogma Atheist – Does not believe in god(s) Agnostic – Does not know if god(s) exist Deist – God created but is not personal Pantheist – God is nature Theist – Believes in personal god Antitheist – Active opposition to theism

5. Thomas Edison - Antitheist Light bulb Record player Movie projector NY Times, Oct 2, 1910 The Columbian Magazine, Jan 1911

6. Thomas Edison - Antitheist “There is no more reason to believe that any human brain will be immortal than there is to think that one of my phonographic cylinders will be immortal. My photographic cylinders are mere records of sounds which have been impressed upon them… Yet no one thinks of claiming immortality for the cylinders or the phonograph. Then why claim it for the brain mechanism or the power that drives it? Because we don’t know what this power is, shall we call it immortal?... This speculative idea of immortality needs but be analyzed to fall wholly to the ground.” - NYT

7. Thomas Edison - Antitheist “Nature is what we know. We do not know the god’s of the religions. And Nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me… He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do his mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in?” - NYT

8. Thomas Edison – Antitheist “No; nature made us – nature did it all – not the gods of the religions. And nature did it mercilessly; she had no thought for mercy for or against it. - NYT

9. Thomas Edison - Antitheist "Religions? They are nothing but formalities and side-issues…When the churches learn to take this rational view of things, when they become true schools of ethics and stop teaching fables, they will be more effective than they are to-day… I seriously doubt if Christ, the greatest moral teacher of them all, laid claim to actual divinity. “ - Columbian

10. Thomas Edison - Antitheist "The criticisms which have been hurled at me have not worried me. A man cannot control his beliefs. If he is honest in his frank expression of them, that is all that can in justice be required of him.” - Columbian

11. Thomas Edison - Antitheist “Professor Thomson and a thousand others do not in the least agree with me. His criticism of me… charged that because I doubted the soul's immortality, or 'personality,' as he called it, my mind must be abnormal, 'pathological,' in other, words, diseased…What he said about my mind did not disturb me. I try to say exactly what I honestly believe to be the truth, and more than that no man can do. I honestly believe that creedists have built up a mighty structure of inaccuracy…” - Columbian

12. Thomas Edison - Antitheist “I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God…The thing which most impresses me about theology is that it does not seem to be investigating. It seems to be asserting, merely, without actual study.” - Columbian

13. Thomas Edison - Antitheist “The fact that man, for ages, has superstitiously believed in what he calls a God does not prove at all that his theory has been right. There have been many gods - all makeshifts, born of inability to fathom the deep fundamental truth… Not one of all the gods of all the various theologies has ever really been proved.” - Columbian

14. Thomas Edison - Antitheist "But now we are becoming more inquisitive, far more insistent in our search for the Real Things. We do not, now, as easily as our forefathers did, accept things upon faith. And our children will be still more skeptical of mere unproved assertion; their children more than they will be. “ – Columbian

15. Thomas Edison - Antitheist “The days of miracles have passed. I do not believe, of course, that there was ever any day of actual miracles. I cannot understand that there were ever any miracles at all. My guide must be my reason, and at thought of miracles my reason is rebellious. Personally, I do not believe that Christ laid claim to doing miracles, or asserted that he had miraculous power.” - Columbian

16. Thomas Edison - Antitheist “Life goes on endlessly, but no more in human beings than in other animals, or, for that matter, than in vegetables. Life, collectively, must be immortal, human beings, individually, cannot be, as I see it, for they are not the individuals - they are mere aggregates of cells… There is no supernatural” - Columbian

17. Alan Turing - Atheist Father of Comp. Sci. and A.I. First stored computer program War hero – Decoded Nazi Enigma Machine PhD Princeton; Royal Society Turing Machines and Turing Test CAPTCHA is reversed form of Turing Test Guilty of homosexuality, 1952 Chemically castrated to avoid prison Suicide, 1954

18. Bill Gates - Agnostic Microsoft Windows is world’s leading PC operating system Internet Explorer is world’s leading web browser Microsoft Office and other software are used world wide “I’m not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I’m a huge believer in. I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don’t know if there’s a God or not…” – David Frost interview, 1995 [When asked about the divine human soul] "I don't have any evidence on that," answers Gates. "I don't have any evidence of that." He later states, "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." - Time, January 13, 1996 www.billgateswindows.com lists him as agnostic, not atheist

20. Steve Wozniak Atheist Apple Cofounder with Steve Jobs “I am also atheist or agnostic (I don't even know the difference). I've never been to church and prefer to think for myself... Steve Jobs may be an informal fan of Eastern religions but it's never obvious in him and I never heard of him regularly attending a church. That's only a guess.” – Response on his website

21. Steve JobsFreethinkerZen Buddhist Mac computers, iPod, iPhone, iPad At age 13, Jobs asked the Lutheran pastor of his parents' church if God knew about starving children. "Yes, God knows everything," the pastor replied. Jobs never returned to church, refusing to worship a God who allowed such suffering. – USA Today Attended Zen Centers Believed Zen meditation taught him to concentrate, ignore distractions, and trust intuition and curiosity over analysis and preconceptions – USA Today

22. Albert Einstein Deist/Pantheist of Jewish Heritage The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. - letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind

23. Francis Crick - AtheistNobel Prize Winner, Co-discoverer of the structure of DNA A knowledge of the true age of the earth and of the fossil record makes it impossible for any balanced intellect to believe in the literal truth of every part of the Bible in the way that fundamentalists do. - from his autobiography What Mad Pursuit

24. Neil Degrasse Tyson - Agnostic Prefers no labels Self described agnostic on Point Of Inquiry “I simply go with what works. And what works is the healthy skepticism embodied in the scientific method. Believe me, if the Bible had ever been shown to be a rich source of scientific answers and enlightenment, we would be mining it daily for cosmic discovery.” The Sky Is Not the Limit, p. 188 When asked if he believed in a higher power, Tyson responded: "Every account of a higher power that I've seen described, of all religions that I've seen, include many statements with regard to the benevolence of that power. When I look at the universe and all the ways the universe wants to kill us, I find it hard to reconcile that with statements of beneficence." – YouTube video

25. More Atheists in Science • Alfred Nobel – Dynamite and Nobel Prize • Neils Bohr – Atomic structure, Nobel 1922 • Pierre Currie – Radioactivity, Nobel 1903 • Paul Dirac – Quantum Mechanics, Antimatter, Nobel 1933 • Richard Feynman – Quantum Electrodynamics, Nobel 1965 • Francis Crick – DNA, Nobel 1962 • James Watson – DNA, Nobel 1962 • Linus Pauling – Nobel Chemistry 1954, Peace 1962 • Peter Higgs – Physicist predicted Higgs boson particle • Craig Venter – Sequenced human genome; 1st synthetic genome • Many more atheists and agnostics!

26. National Academy of Sciences 93% of the National Academy of Sciences do not believe in a personal god. -Nature, 1998, vol 394, p 313

27. Human RightsFrom Atheists and Freethinkers

28. Robert Ingersoll The Great Agnostic • Famous attorney – his defense helped discredit blasphemy laws • Popular orator in 1800s • Promoted abolition • Promoted women’s suffrage • Promoted agnosticism • Promoted humanism • Influenced religious people to end slavery and support women’s suffrage

29. Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Atheist • Leader of Women’s Suffrage • Seneca Falls Conference, 1848 • Abolitionist • Worked with Susan B. Anthony • National Woman Suffrage Assoc., 1869 • The Woman’s Bible, 1895 • Harsh critic of religion • Written out of history due to strength of her position against religion • Recently receiving credit she is due

30. Susan B. Anthony - Agnostic • Abolitionist, Women’s Suffragette • Met Stanton in Seneca Falls in 1851 • Friends for Life • Arrested for voting, 1872 • Agnostic by the 1880s • Fined $100, never paid • Merged NWSA with moderate AWSA to form NAWSA in 1890. Radicals like Stanton became marginalized • Worked with religious people better than Stanton

31. Susan B. Anthony - Agnostic The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. -from Rufus K Noyes, Views of Religion

32. W. E. B. DuBois - Agnostic • Cofounder of the NAACP, 1910 • Opposed Atlanta Compromise of Booker Washington • The Souls of Black Folk, 1903 • Self described agnostic • Refused to lead prayers • "When I became head of a department at Atlanta, the engagement was held up because again I balked at leading in prayer ... I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed “ - Autobiography

33. W. E. B. DuBois - AgnosticCofounder of the NAACP Half the Christian churches of New York are trying to ruin the free public schools in order to replace them by religious dogma.- “A Vista of Ninety Fruitful Years," from W E B Du Bois Writings

34. W. E. B. DuBois - AgnosticCofounder of the NAACP The kind of sermon which is preached in most colored churches is not today attractive to even fairly intelligent men.- "On Christianity," an essay published posthumously in Against Racism

35. Jane Addams - AgnosticNobel Prizewinning Social Activist and Author The very word woman in the writings of the church fathers stood for the basest of temptations.... As women were lowered in the moral scale because of their identification with her at the very bottom of the pit, so they cannot rise themselves save as they succeed in lifting her with whose sins they are weighed. -"A Challenge to the Contemporary Church"

36. Charles Chilton Moore – Ky Atheist 1837 - 1906 Blue Grass Blade 1884 - 1910 Agnosticism Women’s Suffrage Convicted, Mailing Obscene Literature Trial focused on blasphemy 20-Year sentence, 1899 Commuted by Pres. McKinley after 5 months 2009 – Ky’s Most Hated Man 2011 – Letters From An Atheist Nation www.bluegrassblade.net is active today

37. American HeritageFrom Atheists and Freethinkers

38. Thomas Paine - Deist • Author, Common Sense • Author, The Age Of Reason I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. -The Age of Reason

39. Thomas Jefferson - Deist • Author of Declaration of Independence • Third President Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear. -letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

40. Thomas Jefferson Describes 1st Amendment as Separation of Church and State I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State. -letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802

41. Thomas Jefferson - Deist Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. -letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, Feb 10, 1814

42. Benjamin Franklin - Deist I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies. - Toward the Mystery

43. Benjamin Franklin - Deist He [the Rev Mr. Whitefield] used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard.- Autobiography

44. Ethan Allen - Deist Founding Father War Hero Founder of Vermont Capture of Ft. Ticonderoga Reason: The Only Oracle of Man “I have generally been denominated a Deist, the reality of which I have never disputed, being conscious I am no Christian, except mere infant baptism make me one…”

45. Abraham Lincoln – Vampire Hunter

46. Abraham Lincoln – Deist or Atheist 16th President Freed slaves Never joined any church Never baptized Friends Willie Herndon & Ward Lamon published biographies describing Abe as deist or atheist Numerous friends claim Abe was not a Christian at death (Six Historic Americans, 1906)

47. Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)The 18th US President (1869-77) Grant was never baptized into any church (wife was Methodist). “Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.”- address to the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa, September 25, 1875

48. Artistic ContributionsFrom Atheists and Freethinkers

49. Mark Twain - Atheist In all the ages the Roman Church has owned slaves... Yet now at last, in our immediate day, we hear a Pope saying slave trading is wrong... The texts remain: it is the practice that has changed. Why? Because the world has corrected the Bible. The Church never corrects it; and also never fails to drop in at the tail of the procession -- and take the credit of the correction. - Bible Teaching and Religious Practice

50. Mark Twain - Atheist "Faith is believing what you know ain't so."-- Following the Equator, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)