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(詳細はWP:BLPCAT. Please make sure that you have read the criteria for posting on the list and that the person you are adding conforms to those standards. Also ensure that you are posting in the same format as the other entries (including date of birth and, where applicable, date of death). Do not delete properly sourced entries without justification. Discuss it on the Talk page first, unless the entry is clearly nonsense or vandalism. When adding nationalities, please disambiguate links where necessary. E.g., use English rather than just English, since English is a disambiguation page. --> This is a list of atheists in science and technology. Living persons in this list are people whose atheism is relevant to their notable activities or public life, and who have publicly identified themselves as atheists. ==Science and technology== * Zhores Alferov (1930–): Belarusian, Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics. He is an inventor of the heterotransistor and the winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nndb.com/people/039/000027955/ )〕 *Jim Al-Khalili OBE (1962–): Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey〔"I find it more comfortable to say I'm an atheist, and for that I probably have someone like Dawkins to thank." - Jim Al-Khalili, (BBC - Radio 4 - Science Explorer: Jim Al-Khalili featured in The Life Scientific ), ''BBC.co.uk.com''.〕 *Philip W. Anderson (1923–): American physicist. He was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977. Anderson has made contributions to the theories of localization, antiferromagnetism and high-temperature superconductivity. *François Arago (1786–1853): French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician.〔"The same Arago who spent his time criticizing unfounded myths now peddled them. Arago the atheist now spoke of souls." Theresa Levitt, ''The shadow of enlightenment: optical and political transparency in France, 1789-1848'', page 105.〕 *Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927): Swedish scientist and the first Swedish Nobel Prize winner. * Peter Atkins (1940–): English chemist, Professor of chemistry at Lincoln College, Oxford in England.〔When asked by Rod Liddle in the documentary The Trouble with Atheism "Give me your views on the existence, or otherwise, of God", Peter Atkins replied "Well it's fairly straightforward: there isn't one. And there's no evidence for one, no reason to believe that there is one, and so I don't believe that there is one. And I think that it is rather foolish that people do think that there is one."〕 * Sir Edward Battersby Bailey FRS (1881–1965): British geologist, director of the British Geological Survey.〔"In religious matters he was an atheist." A.G. MacGregor: "Bailey, Edward Battersby", ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' Vol. 1 p. 393. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.〕 * John Stewart Bell (1928–1990): Irish physicist. Best known for his discovery of Bell's theorem. * Sir Patrick Bateson FRS (1938–): English biologist and science writer, Emeritus Professor of ethology at Cambridge University and president of the Zoological Society of London.〔"A confirmed agnostic, he () was converted to atheism after attending a dinner where he tried to converse with a woman who was a creationist. "For many years what had been good enough for Darwin was good enough for me. Not long after that dreadful dinner, Richard Dawkins wrote to me to ask whether I would publicly affirm my atheism. I could see no reason why not." " Lewis Smith, 'Science has second thoughts about life', ''The Times'' (London), January 1, 2008, Pg. 24.〕 * William Bateson (1861–1926): British geneticist, a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he eventually became Master. He was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity and biological inheritance, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscovery.〔"William Bateson was a very militant atheist and a very bitter man, I fancy. Knowing that I was interested in biology, they invited me when I was still a school girl to go down and see the experimental garden. I remarked to him what I thought then, and still think, that doing research must be the most wonderful thing in the world and he snapped at me that it wasn’t wonderful at all, it was tedious, disheartening, annoying and anyhow you didn’t need an experimental garden to do research." (Interview with Dr. Cecilia Gaposchkin ) by Owen Gingerich, March 5, 1968.〕 * Charles H. Bennett (1943–): American physicist, information theorist and IBM Fellow at IBM Research. He is best known for his work in quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and is one of the founding fathers of modern quantum information theory.〔"I am so sorry to hear of Asher's passing. I will miss his scientific insight and advice, but even more his humor and stuborn integrity. I remember when one of his colleagues complained about Asher's always rejecting his manuscript when they were sent to him to referee. Asher said in effect, "You should thank me. I am only trying to protect your reputation." He often pretended to consult me, a fellow atheist, on matters of religious protocol. As we waited in line to eat the hors d'oeuvres at a conference in Evanston, he said, "There is a prayer Jews traditionally say when they do something new that they have never done before. I am about to eat a new kind of non-Kosher food. Do you think I should say the prayer?" My wife and grown children, who are visiting us this new year, and remember Asher from when we all lived in Cambridge 20 years ago, join me in sending you our condolences for this sudden loss of an irrepressible and irreplaceable person. Please convey our feelings especially to your mother at this difficult time. " Charles H. Bennett's letter written to the family of Israeli physicist, Asher Peres, (A selection of the many letters of condolence sent to the Peres family during January 2005 ).〕 *John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971): British biophysicist. Best known for pioneering X-ray crystallography in molecular biology.〔"The Bernals were originally Sephardic Jews who came to Ireland in 1840 from Spain via Amsterdam and London. They converted to Catholicism and John was Jesuit-educated. John enthusiastically supported the Easter Rising and, as a boy, he organised a Society for Perpetual Adoration. He moved away from religion as an adult, becoming an atheist." William Reville, (John Desmond Bernal – The Sage ).〕 *Paul Bert (1833–1886): French zoologist, physiologist and politician. Known for his research on oxygen toxicity.〔"Dr. Paul Bert, the atheist Minister of Public Instruction, in M. Gambetta's Cabinet, made the next greatest sensation of the Congress." ''The Phrenological journal and science of health: incorporated with the Phrenological magazine, Volume 76'', page 42.〕 * Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907): French chemist and politician noted for the Thomsen-Berthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substances and disproved the theory of vitalism. * Claude Louis Berthollet (1748–1822): French chemist.〔"Napoleon replies: "How comes it, then, that Laplace was an atheist? At the Institute neither he nor Monge, nor Berthollet, nor Lagrange believed in God. But they did not like to say so." Baron Gaspard Gourgaud, ''Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena with General Baron Gourgaud'' (1904), page 274.〕 * Hans Bethe (1906–2005): German-American nuclear physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.〔Horgan, J. (1992) ''Profile: Hans A. Bethe – Illuminator of the Stars'', Scientific American 267(4), 32-40.〕 A versatile theoretical physicist, Bethe also made important contributions to quantum electrodynamics, nuclear physics, solid-state physics and astrophysics. During World War II, he was head of the Theoretical Division at the secret Los Alamos laboratory which developed the first atomic bombs. There he played a key role in calculating the critical mass of the weapons, and did theoretical work on the implosion method used in both the Trinity test and the "Fat Man" weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. * Norman Bethune (1890–1939): Canadian physician and medical innovator. * Patrick Blackett OM, CH, FRS (1897–1974): Nobel Prize–winning English experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism.〔"The grandson of a vicar on his father’s side, Blackett respected religious observances that were established social customs, but described himself as agnostic or atheist." Mary Jo Nye: "Blackett, Patrick Maynard Stuart." ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', Vol. 19 p. 293. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.〕 * Susan Blackmore (1951–): English psychologist and memeticist, best known for her book ''The Meme Machine''.〔In a Point of Inquiry podcast interview, Blackmore described religion as a collection of "really pernicious memes", "I think religious memeplexes are really amongst the nastiest viruses we have on the planet". Blackmore also practices Zen Buddhist meditation; later, when she was asked: "And you find this practice of Zen, the meditative practice, completely compatible with your lack of theism, your atheism...?" she replied: "Oh yes, I mean, there is no god in Buddhism...". (Susan Blackmore - In Search of the Light ), Point of Inquiry, December 15, 2006 (accessed April 1, 2008).〕 *Niels Bohr (1885-1962): Danish physicist. Best known for his foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. * Sir Hermann Bondi KCB, FRS (1919–2005): Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist, best known for co-developing the steady-state theory of the universe and important contributions to the theory of general relativity.〔"Since his childhood in Vienna Bondi had been an atheist, developing from an early age a view on religion that associated it with repression and intolerance. This view, which he shared with Hoyle, never left him. On several occasions he spoke out on behalf of freethinking, so-called, and became early on active in British atheist or "humanist" circles. From 1982 to 1999, he was president of the British Humanist Association, and he also served as president of the Rationalist Press Association of United Kingdom." Helge Kragh: "Bondi, Hermann", ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' Vol. 19 p. 343. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. Accessed via (Gale Virtual Reference Library ) April 29, 2008.〕〔In a letter to the ''Guardian'', Jane Wynne Willson, Vice-President of the British Humanist Association, added to his obituary: "Also president of the Rationalist Press Association from 1982 until his death, and with a particular interest in Indian rationalism, Hermann was a strong supporter of the Atheist Centre in Andhra Pradesh. He and his wife Christine visited the centre a number of times, and the hall in the science museum there bears his name. When presented with a prestigious international award, he divided a large sum of money between the Atheist Centre and women's health projects in Mumbai." (Obituary letter: Hermann Bondi ), ''Guardian'', September 23, 2005 (accessed April 29, 2008).〕 * Paul D. Boyer (1918–): American biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1997.〔Boyer, Paul. "(A Path to Atheism )". Freedom From Religion Foundation. Retrieved February 3, 2007.〕 * Calvin Bridges (1889–1938): American geneticist, known especially for his work on fruit fly genetics.〔"...he always remained true to his own concepts and ideals and did not dissimulate. His open designation of himself as "atheist" in "Who's Who in America" and his opposition to the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Allies..." H J Muller, 'Dr. Calvin B. Bridges', ''Nature'' 143, 191-192 (04 Feb 1939).〕 *Percy Williams Bridgman (1882–1961): American physicist who won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures. *Rodney Brooks (1954-): Australian-American computer scientist and roboticist. * Ruth Mack Brunswick (1897–1946): American psychologist, a close confidant of and collaborator with Sigmund Freud.〔"Although in her youth she had shared her father's Zionist sympathies, she was not otherwise involved in Jewish affairs and was by conviction an atheist." 'BRUNSWICK, Ruth Jane Mack (Feb. 17, 1897-Jan. 24, 1946)' in ''Notable American Women: 1607-1950.'' Retrieved August 01, 2008, from (Credo Reference )〕 * Sean M. Carroll (1966–): American cosmologist specializing in dark energy and general relativity. * James Chadwick (1891–1974): English physicist. He won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron. * Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995): Indian American astrophysicist known for his theoretical work on the structure and evolution of stars. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.〔''S. Chandrasekhar: the man behind the legend,'' Kameshwar C. Wali. Imperial College Press (January 1, 1997) ISBN 978-1860940385 "I should like to preface my remarks with a personal statement in order that my later remarks will not be misunderstood. I consider myself an atheist."〕 * William Kingdon Clifford FRS (1845–1879): English mathematician and philosopher, co-introducer of geometric algebra, the first to suggest that gravitation might be a manifestation of an underlying geometry, and coiner of the expression "mind-stuff". * Frank Close OBE (1945–): British particle physicist, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience, for which he was awarded the Institute of Physics's Kelvin Medal and Prize.〔When describing a total solar eclipse, Close wrote: "It was simultaneously ghastly, beautiful, supernatural. Even for a 21st century atheist, the vision was such that I thought, "If there is a heaven, this is what its entrance is like." The heavenly vision demanded music by Mozart; instead we had the crickets." Frank Close, 'Dark side of the moon', ''The Guardian'', August 9, 2001, Guardian Online Pages, Pg. 8.〕 * Samuel T. Cohen (1921-2010): American physicist who invented the W70 warhead and is generally credited as the father of the neutron bomb. *John Horton Conway (1937–): British mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He is best known for the invention of the cellular automaton called Conway's Game of Life.〔"Conway propped up the pillow behind his head and grinned. "I like showing off. When I make a new discovery, and I really like telling people about it. I guess I'm not so much a mathematician as a teacher. In America, kids aren't supposed to like mathematics. It's so sad.' Conway sat up suddenly. 'Most people think that mathematics is cold. But it's not at all! For me, the whole damn thing is sensual and exciting. I like what it looks like, and I get a hell of a lot more pleasure out of math than most people do out of art!' He relaxed slightly, and he lowered his voice. 'I feel like an artist. I like beautiful things - they're there already; man doesn't have to create it. I don't believe in God, but I believe that nature is unbelievably subtle and clever. In physics, for instance, the real answer to a problem is usually so subtle and surprising that it wasn't even considered in the first place. That the speed of light is a constant - impossible! Nobody even thought about it. And quantum mechanics is even worse, but it's so beautiful, and it works!"", John Horton Conway in an interview with Charles Seife, ''The Sciences'' (1994).〕 * Brian Cox OBE (1968–): English particle physicist, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Professor at the University of Manchester. Best known as a presenter of a number of science programmes for the BBC. He also had some fame in the 1990s as the keyboard player for the pop band D:Ream. * Jerry Coyne (1949–): American professor of biology, known for his books on evolution and commentary on the intelligent design debate.〔"Yet they (NCSE ) can afford to ignore us because, in the end, where else can we atheists go for support against creationists? () Am I grousing because, as an atheist and a non-accommodationist, my views are simply ignored by the NAS and NCSE? Not at all. I don't want these organizations to espouse or include my viewpoint. I want religion and atheism left completely out of all the official discourse of scientific societies and organizations that promote evolution." Jerry Coyne, '(Truckling to the Faithful: A Spoonful of Jesus Helps Darwin Go Down )', April 22, 2009 (accessed 23 April 2009).〕 * Francis Crick (1916–2004): English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist; noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.〔Francis Crick, ''What Mad Pursuit: a Personal View of Scientific Discovery'', Basic Books reprint edition, 1990, ISBN 0-465-09138-5, p. 145.〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=How I Got Inclined Towards Atheism )〕〔Mark Steyn identify Crick as an atheist. See:(The Twentieth-Century Darwin ) by Mark Steyn, published in The Atlantic Monthly, October 2004.〕〔"Francis Crick was an evangelical atheist."(Francis Crick's Legacy for Neuroscience: Between the α and the Ω )〕〔"Instead, it is interlaced with descriptions of Crick’s vacations, parties and assertions of atheism — occasionally colorful stuff that drains the intellectual drama from the codebreaking."(Genome Human )〕〔"There is Crick the mentor, Crick the atheist, Crick the free-thinker, and Crick the playful."(Entertaining Dr Crick )〕〔Crick, 86, said: "The god hypothesis is rather discredited." (Do our genes reveal the hand of God? )〕 * George Washington Crile (1864–1943): American surgeon. Crile is now formally recognized as the first surgeon to have succeeded in a direct blood transfusion. * Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900-1958): French physicist who, jointly with his wife, won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of artificial radioactivity.〔"Raised in a completely nonreligious family, Joliot never attended any church and was a thoroughgoing atheist all his life." Perrin, Francis: "Joliot, Frédéric", ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' Vol. 7 p. 151. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.〕 * Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956): French scientist, the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. .〔"It was to her grandfather, a convinced freethinker, that Irène owed her atheism, later politically expressed as anticlericalism." (Joliot-Curie, Irène. ) Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Mar. 2012.〕 * Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783): French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the ''Encyclopédie''. * Richard Dawkins (1941–): British zoologist, biologist, creator of the concept of the meme; outspoken atheist and popularizer of science, author of ''The God Delusion'' and founder of the (Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science ).〔Dawkins identifies himself as an atheist in his article "A Challenge to Atheists: Come Out of the Closet," ''Free Inquiry'', Summer 2002. Excerpt reprinted at (Positiveatheism.org )〕 * Jean Baptiste Delambre (1749–1822): French mathematician and astronomer. * Arnaud Denjoy (1884–1974): French mathematician, noted for his contributions to harmonic analysis and differential equations.〔"Denjoy was an atheist, but tolerant of others' religious views; he was very interested in philosophical, psychological, and social issues." "Denjoy, Arnaud", ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' Vol. 17, p.219. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008.〕 * Paul Dirac (1902–1984): British theoretical physicist, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, predicted the existence of antimatter, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.〔Werner Heisenberg recollects a friendly conversation among young participants at the 1927 Solvay Conference about Einstein's and Planck's views on religion. Wolfgang Pauli, Heisenberg and Dirac took part in it. Among other things, Dirac said: "I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest — and as scientists honesty is our precise duty — we cannot help but admit that any religion is a pack of false statements, deprived of any real foundation. The very idea of God is a product of human imagination.() I do not recognize any religious myth, at least because they contradict one another.()" Pauli jokingly said: "Well, I'd say that also our friend Dirac has got a religion and the first commandment of this religion is: God does not exist and Paul Dirac is his prophet." 〕〔"... I () am not, however, militant in my atheism. The great English theoretical physicist Paul Dirac is a militant atheist. I suppose he is interested in arguing about the existence of God. I am not. It was once quipped that there is no God and Dirac is his prophet." 〕 * Christian de Duve (1917-2013): Belgian cytologist and biochemist. He made serendipitous discoveries of two cell organelles, peroxisome and lysosome, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Albert Claude and George E. Palade ("for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell"). In addition to peroxisome and lysosome, he invented the scientific names such as autophagy, endocytosis, and exocytosis in a single occasion. . * Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896): German physician and physiologist, the discoverer of nerve action potential, and the father of experimental electrophysiology. * Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933): Austrian and Dutch theoretical physicist, who made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem. *Thomas Eisner (1929–2011): German-American entomologist and ecologist, known as the "father of chemical ecology". * Albert Ellis (1913–2007): American psychologist who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.〔Nielsen, Stevan Lars & Ellis, Albert. (1994). "A discussion with Albert Ellis: Reason, emotion and religion", ''Journal of Psychology and Christianity'', ''13''(4), Win 1994. pp. 327-341〕 *Paul Erdős (1913–1996), Hungarian mathematician. He published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory. * Richard R. Ernst (1933–): Swiss physical chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s47ArcQL-XQ )〕 * Hugh Everett III (1930–1982): American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he termed his "relative state" formulation.〔"Everett was a life-long atheist, but he did not let that stand in his way as St. John's was well-regarded academically and socially." Peter Byrne, ''The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family'' (2010), page 29.〕 * Hans Eysenck (1916-1997): German psychologist and author who is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas. He was the founding editor of the journal Personality and Individual Differences, and authored about 80 books and more than 1600 journal articles. * Sandra Faber (1944–): American University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, also working at the Lick Observatory, who headed the team that discovered 'The Great Attractor.〔" An atheist, Faber speaks like an evangelist as she weaves quantum physics and astronomy to describe the dawn of time. "I think that the story of the creation of the universe is the most inspiring and exciting story science can tell. I mean, who would have thought I could be telling you about events 10 to the minus 35 seconds after the big bang?" she said, seated in her cluttered, sunny UC Santa Cruz office amid photos of her two daughters and her husband. "It's just totally inspiring." " Mike Swift interviewing Faber, 'Last outer space repair of Hubble telescope pairs genius of two South Bay women', ''Contra Costa Times'' (California), May 9, 2009.〕 * Gustav Fechner (1801–1887): German experimental psychologist. An early pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics.〔"The study of medicine also contributed to a loss of religious faith and to becoming atheist." Michael Heidelberger, ''Nature from within: Gustav Theodor Fechner and his psychophysical worldview'', page 21.〕 * Leon Festinger (1919–1989): American social psychologist famous for his Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.〔"Festinger, a professed atheist, was an original thinker and a restless, highly motivated individual with (in his words) "little tolerance for boredom". " Franz Samelson: "Festinger, Leon", ''American National Biography Online'', Feb. 2000 (accessed April 28, 2008) ().〕 * Richard Feynman (1918–1988): American theoretical physicist, best known for his work in renormalizing Quantum electrodynamics (QED) and his path integral formulation of quantum mechanics . He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.〔Feynman was of Jewish birth, but described himself as "an avowed atheist" by his early youth in (Freethought of the Day ), Freedom From Religion Foundation, May 11, 2006.〕〔"Having abandoned the tenets of Judaism at 13, he never wavered in his gentle atheism, nor in his determination to stay away from matters about which he had opinions but no expertise." John Morrish reviewing the collection of Feynman's letters ''Don't You Have Time to Think?'', "Particle Physics: The Route to Pop Stardom", ''Independent on Sunday'' (London), July 24, 2005, p. 21.〕 * James Franck (1882–1964): German physicist. Won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925.〔"James Franck was born in Hamburg, the son of a Jewish banker. ...As he said, science was his God and nature his religion. He did not insist that his daughters attend religious instruction classes (Religionsunterricht) in school. But he was very proud of his Jewish heritage..." David Nachmansohn, ''German-Jewish pioneers in science, 1900-1933: highlights in atomic physics, chemistry, and biochemistry'', page 62.〕 * Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Austrian neurologist and known as Father of psychoanalysis.〔"(and Jung ) were close for several years, but Jung's ambition, and his growing commitment to religion and mysticism — most unwelcome to Freud, an aggressive atheist — finally drove them apart." ''(Sigmund Freud )'', by Peter Gay, ''The TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century''.〕 * Erich Fromm (1900–1980): German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory.〔"About the same time he stopped observing Jewish religious rituals and rejected a cause he had once embraced, Zionism. He "just didn't want to participate in any division of the human race, whether religious or political," he explained decades later (Wershba, p. 12), by which time he was a confirmed atheist." Keay Davidson: "Fromm, Erich Pinchas", ''American National Biography Online'', Feb. 2000 (accessed April 28, 2008) ().〕 * Christer Fuglesang (1957–): Swedish astronaut and physicist.〔(''Atlantseglaren från Bromma vill tänja gränsen mot rymden'' ), ''Dagens Nyheter'', December 10, 2006.〕 * George Gamow (1904–1968): Russian-born theoretical physicist and cosmologist. An early advocate and developer of Lemaître's Big Bang theory.〔ANDERSON: "What, uh, one thing I’m fascinated with is, of course, George Gamow left the university in ’59 (), and Edward Teller had left in 1946 () and went to the University of Chicago. But do you have any recollections of maybe some of the, anything between Dr. Marvin and Dr. Gamow, as far as, just before he left and went to Colorado?" NAESER: "Ah, no, I don’t know of any. I know Gamow made no, never did hide the fact that he was an atheist, but whether that came into the picture, I don’t know. But the story around the university was that Gamow and Mrs. Gamow were divorced, but they were in the same social circles some of the time, he thought it was better to get out of Washington. That’s why he went to Ohio State." ''The George Washington University and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia'', (Gamow, George and Edward Teller ), October 23, 1996.〕 * Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1772–1850): French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for two laws related to gases. * Vitaly Ginzburg (1916–2009): Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, Nobel laureate, a member of the Soviet and Russian Academies of Sciences and one of the fathers of Soviet hydrogen bomb.〔"I am an atheist, that is, I think nothing exists except and beyond nature."(Ginzburg's autobiography at Nobelprize.org )〕 * Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, CBE (1950–): British scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords, specialising in the physiology of the brain.〔What I don't like about Richard () is not so much what he knows or doesn't know as the dogmatic way in which he says things. I think that is a poor advertisement for science, because the whole thing about being a scientist is that you shouldn't be prejudiced, you should have an open mind. So, I don't believe in God but that is a belief, not some thing I know. I believe I love my husband, but I couldn't prove it to you one way or the other. How could I? I just know I do. My particular belief is that there is no Deity out there, but I can't prove it and therefore I would not have the temerity to tell other people they're wrong. The coinage of proof is not appropriate for belief and Dawkins thinks it is. But if you keep an open mind, that doesn't mean you swallow anything whole. As someone has said, 'Believing in anything is as bad as believing in nothing.' '(Brain Teaser: Susan Greenfield talks to Peter McCarthy )', ''Third Way'', November 2000.〕 *Herb Grosch (1918–2010): Canadian-American computer scientist, perhaps best known for Grosch's law, which he formulated in 1950. *Alan Guth (1947–): American theoretical physicist and cosmologist.〔 "The question of the origin of the matter in the universe is no longer thought to be beyond the range of science — everything can be created from nothing...it is fair to say that the universe is the ultimate free lunch." Alan Guth, ''The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins'' (1998). q:Atheism〕 *Jacques Hadamard (1865–1963): French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex function theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations. * Jonathan Haidt (c.1964–): Associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, focusing on the psychological bases of morality across different cultures, and author of ''The Happiness Hypothesis''.〔"Religions are technologies that are evolved over millennia to do this and many religions are very effective in doing this. I'm an atheist, I don't believe that gods actually exist, but I part company with the New Atheists because I believe that religion is an adaptation that generally works quite well to suppress selfishness, to create moral communities, to help people work together, trust each other and collaborate towards common ends." Jonathan Haidt, (Interview with Jonathan Haidt ), ''Vox Popoli'' November 19, 2007 (accessed April 14, 2008).〕 * J. B. S. Haldane (1892-1964): British polymath well known for his works in physiology, genetics and evolutionary biology. He was also a mathematician making innovative contributions to statistics and biometry education in India. Haldane was also the first to construct human gene maps for haemophilia and colour blindness on the X chromosome and he was one of the first people to conceive abiogenesis.〔Haldane, J. B. S., ''Fact and Faith''. London: London, Watts & Co., 1934.〕 * E. T. 'Teddy' Hall (1924–2001): English archaeological scientist, famous for exposing the Piltdown Man fraud and claiming that the Shroud of Turin is a medieval fake.〔"The three laboratories unanimously agreed that the cloth dated from between 1260 and 1390, a date consistent with its known history—but which demolished the notion of its being the burial shroud of Christ. Hall, who made no secret of his atheism, had no hesitation in enjoying the public attention that this definitive result attracted." Robert Hedges, , ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, October 2006 (accessed May 1, 2008).〕 * Edmond Halley (1656-1742): English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist and physicist. Best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet.〔"It can hardly have been due to any reluctance on Newton's part to becoming too closely involved with Halley, the well-known atheist." Derek Gjertsen, ''The Newton Handbook'' (1986), page 250.〕 * Beverly Halstead (1933–1991): British paleontologist and populariser of science.〔"He and the Bishop of Oxford staged another version of the great debate between Thomas Henry ('Darwin's bulldog') Huxley and Bishop ('Soapy Sam') Wilberforce that followed the publication of Darwin's ''Origin Of Species''. The present Bishop defended the new Darwinian orthodoxy, but Dr Halstead, an atheist, took the line that the former Bishop of Oxford had been quite right to oppose Darwin's thesis. But that too was entirely characteristic. He told me that he was a member of the Athenaeum only because it had a painting of Darwin in the lobby." Tim Radford, 'A passion for dinosaurs: Obituary of Beverly Halstead', ''The Guardian'' (London), May 2, 1991.〕 * Frances Hamerstrom (1908–1998): American author, naturalist and ornithologist known for her work with the greater prairie chicken in Wisconsin, and for her research on birds of prey. * W. D. Hamilton (1936–2000): British evolutionary biologist, widely recognised as one of the greatest evolutionary theorists of the 20th century.〔()〕 * G. H. Hardy (1877–1947): a prominent English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis.〔"Hardy... was a stringent atheist..." (Hit Play on Ramanujan ), by Lisa Drostova, ''East Bay Express'', April 30, 2003. Retrieved October 7, 2007.〕〔"The first Bombe to be delivered was named ''Agnus'' by Turing: a joke that atheist Hardy might have made..." (Alan Turing — a Cambridge Scientific Mind ), by Andrew Hodges, Cambridge Scientific Minds (Cambridge University Press, 2002) Retrieved July 2, 2007.〕 *Herbert A. Hauptman (1917–2011): American mathematician. Along with Jerome Karle, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985.〔 "Outside the field of scientific research, he was known for his outspoken atheism: belief in God, he once declared, is not only incompatible with good science, but is "damaging to the wellbeing of the human race." " ''The Telegraph''. ()〕 * Stephen Hawking (1942–): British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.〔Boyett, Jason. ("Stephen Hawking says there's no creator God; the twitterverse reacts" ), ''The Washington Post'', September 3, 2010, Retrieved April 25, 2011.〕 * Ewald Hering (1834–1918): German physiologist who did much research into color vision, binocular perception and eye movements. He proposed opponent color theory in 1892. * Peter Higgs (1929–): British theoretical physicist, recipient of the Dirac Medal and Prize, known for his prediction of the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God particle".〔"Officially, the particle is called the Higgs boson, but its elusive nature and fundamental role in the creation of the universe led a prominent scientist to rename it the God particle. The name has stuck, but makes Higgs wince and raises the hackles of other theorists. "I wish he hadn't done it," he says. "I have to explain to people it was a joke. I'm an atheist, but I have an uneasy feeling that playing around with names like that could be unnecessarily offensive to people who are religious." Ian Sample, 'The God of Small Things', ''The Guardian'', November 17, 2007, Weekend pages, Pg. 44.〕 * Roald Hoffmann (1937–): American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.〔Liberato Cardellini: "A final and more personal question: You defined yourself as “an atheist who is moved by religion”. Looking at the tenor of your life and the many goals you have achieved, one wonders where your inner force comes from." Roald Hoffmann: "The atheism and the respect for religion come form the same source. I observe that in every culture on Earth, absolutely every one, human beings have constructed religious systems. There is a need in us to try to understand,to see that there is something that unites us spiritually. So scientists who do not respect religion fail in their most basic task—observation. Human beings need the spiritual. The same observation reveals to me a multitude of religious constructions—gods of nature, spirits, the great monotheistic religions. It seems to me there can’t be a God or gods; there are just manifestations of a human-constructed spirituality." Liberato Cardellini, (Looking for Connections: An Interview with Roald Hoffmann ), page 1634.〕 * Lancelot Hogben (1895–1975): English experimental zoologist and medical statistician, now best known for his popularising books on science, mathematics and language.〔"A reader who has suffered me so far will have realised how much of my mental energy had been hitherto absorbed in a fruitless search for an intellectually compelling rationale to rescue some fragments from the wreckage of my family faith. The mood of liberation I experienced when I finally discarded the last remnant of theism was no less exhilarating than that of Bunyan's Pilgrim when the burden of sin fell from his back. () In retrospect, the final steps seem as sudden as they were painless. () As I looked upward (the night sky ), I realised that the sole prospect was limitless expanse of unthreatening and impersonal emptiness — but for unapproachable galaxies — of a universe without purpose of punishment or reward for a lately arrived animal species, free to make or mar its own destiny without help or hindrance from above." Lancelot Hogben, ''Lancelot Hogben: Scientific Humanist: An Unauthorised Autobiography'', edited by Adrian and Ann Hogben. Merlin Press, 1998.〕 * Fred Hollows (19291993), New Zealand and Australian ophthalmologist. He became known for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of people in Australia and many other countries. * Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): English astronomer noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally coined by him on BBC radio. * Russell Alan Hulse (1950–): American physicist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with his thesis advisor Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.. * Nicholas Humphrey (1943–): British psychologist, working on consciousness and belief in the supernatural from a Darwinian perspective, and primatological research into Machiavellian intelligence theory.〔"He has worked with monkeys in laboratories and in the wild. He has been a media don, a campaigner against nuclear weapons and the holder of a chair in parapsychological research who was dedicated to debunking even the possibility of telepathy or survival after death. He is an atheist, and the man who suggested to Richard Dawkins the analogy of viruses of the mind for religions; yet nowadays he talks as if spirituality were the thing that makes us human." Andrew Brown interviewing Humphrey, 'A life in science: The human factor', ''The Guardian'', July 29, 2006, Review Pages, Pg. 13.〕 * Sir Julian Huxley FRS (1887–1975): English evolutionary biologist, a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund.〔"Despite his atheism Huxley could appreciate Teilhard de Chardin's vision of evolution, and like his grandfather T. H. Huxley he believed progress could be described in biological terms." Robert Olby, ('Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975)' ), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition, May 2007 (accessed May 2, 2008).〕 * François Jacob (1920–): French biologist who, together with Jacques Monod, originated the idea that control of enzyme levels in all cells occurs through feedback on transcription. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Jacques Monod and André Lwoff. * Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958): French physicist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1935.〔 * Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956): French scientist. She is the daughter of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. She along with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935.〔〔 * Steve Jones (1944–): British geneticist, Professor of genetics and head of the biology department at University College London, and television presenter and a prize-winning author on biology, especially evolution; one of the best known contemporary popular writers on evolution.〔"Scientists in Britain, where the film will premiere at next month's London Film Festival, with general release in December, dismissed the intelligent design lobby's expropriation of the film. Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London and an atheist, said: 'I find it sad that people with intrinsically foolish viewpoints don't recognise this as a naturally beautiful film, but have to attach their absurd social agendas to it.' " David Smith, 'How the penguin's life story inspired the US religious right: Antarctic family values', ''The Observer'', September 18, 2005, News Pages, Pg. 3.〕〔On the side of the atheists were Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, () Jones, meanwhile, revealed that he would "love to believe in God", because it would offer some degree of comfort. But he said he stopped believing in God as a child as soon as he discovered that what he was learning in school biology classes conflicted with the kind of things he had been taught in Sunday school - like dinosaurs and humans walking the earth at the same time." (If Darwin has really killed God, when was the funeral? )', ''Guardian Unlimited'', 13 May 2009 (accessed 26 May 2009).〕 * Paul Kammerer (1880–1926): Austrian biologist who studied and advocated the now abandoned Lamarckian theory of inheritance – the notion that organisms may pass to their offspring characteristics they have acquired in their lifetime.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.life-cycles-destiny.com/for/the-law-of-seriality-kammerer.htm )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nndb.com/people/265/000057094/ )〕 * Samuel Karlin (1924–2007): American mathematician. He did extensive work in mathematical population genetics. * Stuart Kauffman (1939-): American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life on Earth. He is best known for arguing that the complexity of biological systems and organisms might result as much from self-organization and far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian natural selection, as well as for applying models of Boolean networks to simplified genetic circuits.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=TSN: Stuart Kauffman )〕 *Ancel Keys (1904–2004): American scientist who studied the influence of diet on health. He examined the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and was responsible for two famous diets: K-rations and the Mediterranean diet. * Alfred Dillwyn Knox (1884–1943): British classics scholar and papyrologist at King's College, Cambridge, and a cryptologist. As a member of the World War I Room 40 codebreaking unit, he helped decrypt the Zimmermann Telegram, which brought the USA into the war. At the end of World War I, he joined the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) and on 25 July 1939, as Chief Cryptographer, participated in the Polish-French-British Warsaw meeting that disclosed Polish achievements, since December 1932, in the continuous breaking of German Enigma ciphers, thus kick-starting the British World War II Ultra operations at Bletchley Park.〔"Dillwyn (son of an Evangelical bishop ) was from his student years an unwavering atheist." Alan Hollinghurst, "The Victory of Penelope Fitzgerald" (a review of Hermione Lee, ''Penelope Fitzgerald'' (niece of Alfred Dillwyn Knox )'': A Life'', Knopf, 488 pp.), ''The New York Review of Books'', vol. LXI, no. 19 (December 4, 2014), p. 8. (The article comprises pp. 8, 10, 12.)〕 * Lawrence Krauss (1954-): Professor of physics at Arizona State University and popularizer of science. Krauss speaks regularly at atheist conferences, like Beyond Belief and Atheist Alliance International.〔"...I had the opportunity to participate in several exciting panel discussions at the World Science Festival in New York City. But the most dramatic encounter took place at the panel strangely titled 'Science, Faith and Religion.'... I ended up being one of two panelists labeled 'atheists.'..." (God and Science Don't Mix: A scientist can be a believer. But professionally, at least, he can't act like one. ), Lawrence M. Krauss, ''The Wall Street Journal'', page A15, 26 June 2009 (retrieved 22 May 2010). On the 21 June 2012 ''Colbert Report'', the author of ''A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing'' told Colbert: "There is no evidence for any deity.... You don't need him.... There's no need for God." The evolutions of the universe occur "without any supernatural shenanigans."〕 * Herbert Kroemer (1928–): German-American professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2000, he along with Zhores I. Alferov, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics". * Harold Kroto (1939–): 1996 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.〔Harold Kroto claims to have four "religions": humanism, atheism, amnesty-internationalism and humourism.()〕 * Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956): American biologist, sexologist and professor of entomology and zoology.〔"Kinsey was also shown to be an atheist who loathed religion and its constraints on sex." ('Kinsey' critics ready ), Cheryl Wetzstein, ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved February 2, 2007.〕 * Ray Kurzweil (1948–): American author, scientist, inventor and futurist. He is the author of several books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism.〔 "In his mythic book The Singularity Is Near, Ray Kurzweil, serial inventor, technology enthusiast, and unabashed atheist, announces: "Evolution moves toward greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, and greater levels of subtle attributes such as love. In every monotheistic tradition God is likewise described as all of these qualities, only without any limitation.... So evolution moves inexorably toward this conception of God, although never quite reaching this ideal."" - Kevin Kelly, ''What Technology Wants'' (2010).〕 * Jérôme Lalande (1732–1807): French astronomer and writer.〔"He studied at the Jesuit College in Lyon and at this stage he nearly decided to join the Jesuit Order. In fact it was his parents who encouraged him to continue his education by going to Paris to study law, which he did. It is somewhat ironical that Lalande, who would later become renowned as an atheist, should have come so close to becoming a Jesuit." J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, (Joseph-Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande ).〕 * Lev Landau (1908-1968): Russian physicist. He received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity.〔"Listed as an atheist in NNDB.com." (Lev Landau ), ''NNDB.com''〕 * Christopher Langton (1948 or 1949-): American computer scientist and one of the founders of the field of artificial life.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nndb.com/people/787/000080547/ )〕 * Richard Leakey (1944–): Kenyan paleontologist, archaeologist and conservationist. * Leon M. Lederman (1922–): American physicist who, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988 for their joint research on neutrinos. * Jean-Marie Lehn (1939–): French chemist. He received the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen.〔"It is a scene I won’t forget in a hurry: Jean-Marie Lehn, French winner of the Nobel prize in chemistry, defending his atheism at a packed public conference at the new Alexandria Library in Egypt." Ehsan Masood, ''ProspectMagazine.co.uk'', (Islam’s reformers ), 22nd July 2006.〕 * Sir John Leslie (1766–1832): Scottish mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat; he was the first person to artificially produce ice, and gave the first modern account of capillary action.〔"In these years Leslie was an unsuccessful candidate for the chairs of natural philosophy at the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow respectively. He failed at the former because he was then an extreme whig and an atheist who deplored the Erastianism of many of the Scottish clergy." Jack Morrell, ('Leslie, Sir John (1766–1832)' ), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed May 2, 2008).〕 * Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792–1856): Russian mathematician. Known for his works on hyperbolic geometry. * H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins FRS (1923–2004): English theoretical chemist and a cognitive scientist.〔"By that time Longuet-Higgins had become a convinced atheist, although he still respected many of the features of the Church of England." John Murrell, ('Higgins, (Hugh) Christopher Longuet- (1923–2004)' ), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online edition, Oxford University Press, January 2008 (accessed May 1, 2008).〕 *Paul MacCready (1925–2007): American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the Kremer prize.〔"Paul MacCready, the inventor, defines it thus: "A secular humanist does not believe in God, and doesn't steal."" Paul Kurtz, (Is Secular Humanism a Religion? ).〕 *Ernst Mach (1838-1916): Austrian physicist and philosopher. Known for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves. *Andrey Markov (1856–1922): Russian mathematician. He is best known for his work on stochastic processes.〔"Of course, Markov, an atheist and eventual excommunicate of the Church quarreled endlessly with his equally outspoken counterpart Nekrasov. The disputes between Markov and Nekrasov were not limited to mathematics and religion, they quarreled over political and philosophical issues as well." Gely P. Basharin, Amy N. Langville, Valeriy A. Naumov, (The Life and Work of A. A. Markov ), page 6.〕 * Samarendra Maulik (1881–1950): Indian entomologist specialising in the Coleoptera, who worked at the British Museum (Natural History) and a Professor of Zoology at the University of Calcutta.〔"He attempted to adopt a scientific attitude in his approach to all problems. His views were liberal, and he was an atheist." Leslie Bairstow, 'Dr. S. Maulik', ''Nature'' 166, 422-423 (09 Sep 1950).〕 * Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759): French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He is often credited with having invented the principle of least action; a version is known as Maupertuis' principle – an integral equation that determines the path followed by a physical system. * Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840-1916): American-born British inventor. He was the inventor of the Maxim Gun, the first portable, fully automatic machine gun and an elaborate mousetrap. * John Maynard Smith (1920–2004): British evolutionary biologist and geneticist, instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution, and noted theorizer on the evolution of sex and signalling theory.〔From a ''Humanist News'' interview in Autumn 2001: Interviewer: What is your attitude to religion now? JMS: Ever since reading (J. B. S. Haldane's book) ''Possible Worlds'' I have been an atheist, and a semi-conscious atheist before that. I think there are two views you can have about religion. You can be tolerant of it and say, I don't believe in this but I don't mind if other people do, or you can say, I not only don't believe in it but I think it is dangerous and damaging for other people to believe in it and they should be persuaded that they are mistaken. I fluctuate between the two. I am tolerant because religious institutions facilitate some very important work that would not get done otherwise, but then I look around and see what an incredible amount of damage religion is doing. ()〕 * Ernst Mayr (1904–2005): a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist. He was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. * John McCarthy (1927–2011): American computer scientist and cognitive scientist who received the Turing Award in 1971 for his major contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He was responsible for the coining of the term "Artificial Intelligence" in his 1955 proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Conference and was the inventor of the Lisp programming language.〔"Responding to Richard Dawkins's pestering his fellow atheists to "come out", I mention that I am indeed an atheist. To count oneself as an atheist one need not claim to have a proof that no gods exist. One need merely think that the evidence on the god question is in about the same state as the evidence on the werewolf question." ()〕 * Sir Peter Medawar (1915–1987): Nobel Prize-winning British scientist best known for his work on how the immune system rejects or accepts tissue transplants.〔"... I believe that a reasonable case can be made for saying, not that we believe in God because He exists but rather that He exists because we believe in Him. () Considered as an element of the world, God has the same degree and kind of objective reality as do other products of mind. () I regret my disbelief in God and religious answers generally, for I believe it would give satisfaction and comfort to many in need of it if it possible to discover and propound good scientific and philosophic reasons to believe in God. () To abdicate from the rule of reason and substitute for it an authentication of belief by the intentness and degree of conviction with which we hold it can be perilous and destructive. () I am a rationalist—something of a period piece nowadays, I admit ()" Peter Medawar, 'The Question of the Existence of God' in his book ''The Limits of Science'' (Harper and Row 1984).〕 * Jeff Medkeff (1968–2008): American astronomer, prominent science writer and educator, and designer of robotic telescopes.〔"I met Jeff at The Amazing Meeting 5.5 in Fort Lauderdale in January. We became friends and I read his blog within hours of each posting. He was a programmer, an astronomer, a pro-bono science educator, a hard-nosed skeptic and an atheist. This random blow against a friendly and generous guy is a typical example of the non-plannedness of things." Martin Rundkvist, (Jeff Medkeff 1968-2008 ), ''Aardvarchaeology'' blog, August 4, 2008 (accessed August 5, 2008).〕 *Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916): Russian biologist, zoologist and protozoologist. He is best known for his research into the immune system. Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908, shared with Paul Ehrlich.〔"There is no clear record that he was professionally restricted in Russia because of his lineage, but he sympathized with the problem his Jewish colleagues suffered owing to Russian anti-Semitism; his personal religious commitment was to atheism, although he received strict Christian religious training at home." Alfred I. Tauber, Leon Chernyak, ''Metchnikoff and the origins of immunology: from metaphor to theory'', page 5.〕 * Jonathan Miller CBE (1934–): British physician, actor, theatre and opera director, and television presenter. Wrote and presented the 2004 television series, ''Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief'', exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world.〔(''A Rough History of Disbelief'' ) Official BBC site describing the series〕〔On the filming of The Atheism Tapes with Jonathan Miller: "We had been friends for a number of years, and had discussed a great many topics, but we had never, except glancingly, ever spoken about religion. We knew about our shared atheism, but the subject didn't seem to warrant much attention; in the Miller-McGinn world it was a non-existent topic. () It is often forgotten that atheism of the kind shared by Jonathan and me (and Dawkins and Hitchens et al.) has an ethical motive." (Atheism Tapes ), Colin McGinn, on his blog. (Accessed April 1, 2008)〕 *Marvin Minsky (1927–): American cognitive scientist and computer scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in MIT.〔"When we reflect on anything for long enough, we're likely to end up with what we sometimes call "basic" questions -- ones we can see no way at all to answer. For we have no perfect way to answer even this question: How can one tell when a question has been properly answered? What caused the universe, and why? What is the purpose of life? How can you tell which beliefs are true? How can you tell what is good? These questions seem different on the surface, but all of them share one quality that makes them impossible to answer: all of them are circular! You can never find a final cause, since you must always ask one question more: "What caused that cause?" You can never find any ultimate goal, since you're always obliged to ask, "Then what purpose does that serve?" Whenever you find out why something is good-or is true-you still have to ask what makes that reason good and true. No matter what you discover, at every step, these kinds of questions will always remain, because you have to challenge every answer with, "Why should I accept that answer?" Such circularities can only waste our time by forcing us to repeat, over and over and over again, "What good is Good?" and, "What god made God?" " Marvin Minsky. ''The Society of Mind''.〕 * Peter D. Mitchell (1920–1992): 1978-Nobel-laureate British biochemist. His mother was an atheist and he himself became an atheist at the age of 15.〔Nobel Biography ().〕 * Jacob Moleschott (1822–1893): Dutch physiologist and writer on dietetics. *Gaspard Monge (1746–1818): French mathematician. Monge is the inventor of descriptive geometry.〔〔"Yet, sailing to Egypt, he had lain on deck, asking his scientists whether the planets were inhabited, how old the Earth was, and whether it would perish by fire or by flood. Many, like his friend Gaspard Monge, the first man to liquefy a gas, were atheists." Vincent Cronin, (The View from Planet Earth: Man looks at the Cosmos ), page 164.〕 * Jacques Monod (1910–76): French biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965 for discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis.〔"In his final chapter de Duve turns to the meaning of life, and considers the ideas of two contrasting Frenchmen: a priest, Teilhard de Chardin, and an existentialist and atheist, Jacques Monod." (Peaks, Dust, & Dappled Spots ), by Richard Lubbock, Books in Canada: The Canadian Review of Books. Retrieved July 2, 2007.〕 * Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012): Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF). * Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (1740-1810): French chemist and paper-manufacturer. In 1783, he made the first ascent in a balloon (inflated with warm air). *Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866–1945): American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries relating the role the chromosome plays in heredity.〔"Morgan's passion for experimentation was symptomatic of his general scepticism and his distaste for speculation. He believed only what could be proven. He was said to be an atheist, and I have always believed that he was. Everything I knew about him—his scepticism, his honesty—was consistent with disbelief in the supernatural." Norman H. Horowitz, (T. H. Morgan at Caltech: A Reminiscence ), Genetics, Vol. 149, 1629-1632, August 1998, Copyright © 1998.〕 * Desmond Morris (1928–): English zoologist and ethologist, famous for describing human behaviour from a zoological perspective in his books The Naked Ape and The Human Zoo.〔"() is not an easy subject to deal with, but as zoologists we must do our best to observe what actually happens rather than listen to what is supposed to be happening. If we do this, we are forced to the conclusion that, in a behavioural sense, religious activities consist of the coming together of large groups of people to perform repeated and prolonged submissive displays to appease a dominant individual. The dominant individual takes many forms in different cultures, but always has the common factor of immense power. () If these submissive actions are successful, the dominant individual is appeased. () The dominant individual is usually, but not always, referred to as a god. Since none of these gods exist in a tangible form, why have they been invented? To find the answer to this we have to go right back to our ancestral origins." Desmond Morris, ''The Naked Ape'', p.178-179, Jonathan Cape, 1967.〕〔"Man's evolution as a neotenous ape has put him in a similar position to the dog's. He becomes sexually mature and yet he still needs a parent — a super-parent, one as impressive to him as a man must be to a dog. The answer was to invent a god — either a female super-parent in the shape of a Mother Goddess, or a male god in the shape of God the Father, or perhaps even a whole family of gods. Like real parents they would both protect, punish and be obeyed. () These — the houses of the gods — the temples, the churches and the cathedrals — are buildings apparently made for giants, and a space visitor would be surprised to find on closer examination that these giants are never at home. Their followers repeatedly visit them and bow down before them, but they themselves are invisible. Only their bell-like cries can be heard across the land. Man is indeed an imaginative species." Desmond Morris, ''The Pocket Guide to Manwatching'', p.234-236 Triad Paperbacks, 1982.〕 * Luboš Motl (1973-): Theoretical physics and string theorist. He said he is a Christian atheist.〔Lubos Motl, http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/09/oriana-fallaci-force-of-reason.html〕 * Fritz Müller (1821–1897): German biologist who emigrated to Brazil, where he studied the natural history of the Amazon rainforest and was an early advocate of evolutionary theory.〔"() was an atheist..." (Review of Müller's biography ), by James Mallet, ''Quarterly Review of Biology'' 79:196 (2004). Retrieved July 2, 2007.〕 * Hermann Joseph Muller (1890–1967): American geneticist and educator, best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation (X-ray mutagenesis). He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946.〔"Muller, who through Unitarianism had become an enthusiastic pantheist, was converted both to atheism and to socialism." (Hermann Joseph Muller. 1890–1967 ), G. Pontecorvo, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 14, Nov., 1968 (Nov., 1968), pp. 348-389 (Quote from p. 353) Retrieved July 14, 2007.〕 * PZ Myers (1957–): American biology professor at the University of Minnesota and a blogger via his blog, ''Pharyngula''.〔"I was brought up a Lutheran, but I became an atheist"—PZ Myers (February 14, 2007), (It's the arrogance, stupid ), ''Pharyngula''. Retrieved February 22, 2007.〕 *John Forbes Nash, Jr. (1928–2015): American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. He shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi. *Yuval Ne'eman (1925–2006): Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician. One of his greatest achievements in physics was his 1961 discovery of the classification of hadrons through the SU(3)flavour symmetry, now named the ''Eightfold Way'', which was also proposed independently by Murray Gell-Mann. * Paul Nurse (1949–): English geneticist, President of the Royal Society and Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Leland Hartwell and Tim Hunt for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells in the cell cycle..〕 *Alexander Oparin (1894-1980): Soviet biochemist. *Frank Oppenheimer (1912–1985): American particle physicist, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, and the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. A younger brother of renowned physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Oppenheimer conducted research on aspects of nuclear physics during the time of the Manhattan Project, and made contributions to uranium enrichment. * Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932): Baltic German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities. He, along with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and Svante Arrhenius, are usually credited with being the modern founders of the field of physical chemistry. *Robert L. Park (born 1931): scientist, University of Maryland professor of physics, and author of ''Voodoo Science'' and ''Superstition''.〔Park, Robert L. ''Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science'', 2008, Princeton University Press, page viii〕 * Linus Pauling (1901–1994): American chemist, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962)〔〔Originally a Lutheran, Pauling declared his atheism in 1992, two years before his death.〕 * John Allen Paulos (1945–): Professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia and writer, author of ''Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up'' (2007)〔(Amazon listing ) of ''Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up''.〕 * Ruby Payne-Scott (1912–1981): Australian pioneer in radiophysics and radio astronomy, and was the first female radio astronomer. * Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936): Nobel Prize–winning Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician, widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning.〔Pavlov's follower E.M. Kreps asked him whether he was religious. Kreps writes that Pavlov smiled and replied: "Listen, good fellow, in regard to (of ) my religiosity, my belief in God, my church attendance, there is no truth in it; it is sheer fantasy. I was a seminarian, and like the majority of seminarians, I became an unbeliever, an atheist in my school years." Quoted in George Windholz, "Pavlov's Religious Orientation", ''Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion'', vol. 25, no. 3 (Sept. 1986), pp. 320–27.〕 * Judea Pearl (1936–): Israeli American computer scientist and philosopher, best known for championing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence and the development of Bayesian networks. He won the Turing Award in 2011. * Sir Roger Penrose (1931–): English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. He is renowned for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He is also a recreational mathematician and philosopher〔 Quoting Penrose's blurb for Harris's book ''Letter to a Christian Nation''. and refers to himself as an atheist.〕 * Francis Perrin (1901–1992): French physicist, co-establisher of the possibility of nuclear chain reactions and nuclear energy production.〔"After retirement, he remained politically active, defending Andrei Sakharov, and was President of the French Atheists' Union." D S Bell, 'Obituary: Francis Perrin', ''The Independent'' (London), July 18, 1992, Pg. 44.〕 * Jean Baptiste Perrin (1870–1942): French physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926. *Max Perutz (1914–2002): Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins.〔"Dr Perutz, said: "It is one thing for scientists to oppose creationism which is demonstrably false but quite another to make pronouncements which offend people's religious faith -- that is a form of tactlessness which merely brings science into disrepute. My view of religion and ethics is simple: even if we do not believe in God, we should try to live as though we did."" Kam Patel, (Perutz rubbishes Popper and Kuhn ), 25 November 1994.〕 * Massimo Pigliucci (1964–): Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the Stony Brook University who known as an outspoken critic of creationism and advocate of science education.〔"...I'm an atheist..." (Enough blasting Dennett and Dawkins, all right? ), from ''Rationally Speaking'', the blog of Massimo Pigliucci, October 30, 2006 (Accessed April 15, 2008)〕 * Steven Pinker (1954–): Canadian-born American psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author.〔"I never outgrew my conversion to atheism at 13, but at various times was a serious cultural Jew." 〕 * Norman Pirie FRS (1907–1997): British biochemist and virologist co-discoverer in 1936 of viral crystallization, an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.〔"During sixty years from 1937 he also wrote over forty articles on the origins, distribution, and nature of life, taking the stance of a 'dogmatic atheist'." David F. Smith, ("There is no connection between altruism and God"), ''De Groene Amsterdammer'', December 22, 2001 (accessed August 6, 2008).〕 * Derek J. de Solla Price (1922–1983): British-American historian of science.〔"...my father () was a British Atheist... from a rather well known Sephardic Jewish family..." 〕 * Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930): British mathematician who also made significant contributions in philosophy and economics.〔"His tolerance and good humour enabled him to disagree strongly without giving or taking offence, for example with his brother Michael Ramsey whose ordination (he went on to become archbishop of Canterbury) Ramsey, as a militant atheist, naturally regretted." D. H. Mellor, ('Ramsey, Frank Plumpton (1903–1930)' ), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2005 (accessed May 2, 2008).〕 *Marcus J. Ranum (1962–): American computer and network security researcher and industry leader. He is credited with a number of innovations in firewalls. *Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow (1942–): British cosmologist and astrophysicist. * Oscar Riddle (1877–1968): American biologist. He is known for his research into the pituitary gland and for isolating the hormone prolactin.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nndb.com/people/133/000172614/ )〕 * Richard J. Roberts (1943–): British biochemist and molecular biologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1993 for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.〔"The Nobel Laureate Dr Richard Roberts will give a public lecture entitled ''A Bright Journey from Science to Atheism''..." (A bright journey to atheism, or a road that ignores all the signs? ), ''The Irish Times'', April 20, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2007.〕〔"...Rich Roberts... delivered a public lecture on his Bright journey from Science to Atheism in April 2006." (Events listing ) on the website of Humani, The Humanist Association of Northern Ireland, Retrieved July 24, 2007.〕〔(Roberts versus God: No Contest ), review of Roberts' talk ''A Bright Journey from Science to Atheism'', written by Les Reid, and published on the (Belfast Humanist Group ) website. Retrieved July 24, 2007.〕 * Jason Rohrer (1977-): American computer programmer, writer, musician, and game designer. * Steven Rose (1938–): British Professor of Biology and Neurobiology at the Open University and University of London, and author of several popular science books.〔"Have you ever broken one of the ten commandments? As an atheist from an early age, I can't readily remember them. But I expect I have." Lifeline: Steven Rose, ''Lancet'' Vol. 355 Issue 9213 p. 1472, April 22, 2000.〕 * Marshall Rosenbluth (1927–2003): American physicist, nicknamed "the Pope of Plasma Physics". He created the Metropolis algorithm in statistical mechanics, derived the Rosenbluth formula in high-energy physics, and laid the foundations for instability theory in plasma physics.〔I was Rosenbluth's last student, and collaborated with him on numerous research projects during and after my graduation. Near the end of his life, we more frequently discussed personal and political issues. On more than one occasion, he freely admitted to me that he was an atheist. Statement by J. Candy, 22 January 2009.〕 * Bertrand Russell (1872-1970): British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic and political activist. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege, colleague G. E. Moore, and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. With A. N. Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a "paradigm of philosophy". His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science (see type theory and type system), and philosophy, especially the philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.〔: "I never know whether I should say "Agnostic" or whether I should say "Atheist"... As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove (sic) that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist..."〕 * Oliver Sacks (1933–2015): United States-based British neurologist, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is ''Awakenings''.〔Charlie Rose, interviewing Oliver Sacks, asked him whether he believed in God. Sacks replied, "I can't imagine what it meant.... No, I guess not." Originally aired on ''Charlie Rose'', 23 Feb. 1995; re-aired, in commemoration of Sacks' death, on 11 Sept. 2015.〕〔"All of which makes the Wingate Prize a matter of bemusement. "Yes, tell me," he says, frowning. "What is it, and why are they giving it to an old Jewish atheist who has unkind things to say about Zionism?" " Oliver Burkeman interviewing Sacks, 'Inside Story: Sacks appeal', ''The Guardian'', May 10, 2002, Features Pages, Pg. 4.〕 *Meghnad Saha (1893-1956): Indian astrophysicist noted for his development in 1920 of the thermal ionization equation, has remained fundamental in all work on Stellar atmospheres. This equation has been widely applied to the interpretation of stellar spectra, which are characteristic of the chemical composition of the light source. The Saha equation links the composition and appearance of the spectrum with the temperature of the light source and can thus be used to determine either the temperature of the star or the relative abundance of the chemical elements investigated. *Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989): Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He gained renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honor. * Robert Sapolsky (1957–): American Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University.〔Dan Barker: "When we invited Robert Sapolsky to speak at one of out national conventions to receive our 'Emperor Has No Clothes Award', Robert wrote to me, 'Sure! Get the local Holiday Inn to put up a sign that says Welcome, Hell-bound Atheists!' () So, welcome you hell-bound atheist to Freethought Radio, Robert." Sapolsky: "Well, delighted to be among my kindred souls." () Annie Laurie Gaylor: So how long have you been a kindred non-soul, what made you an atheist Robert?" Sapolsky: "Oh, I was about fourteen or so... I was brought up very very religiously, orthodox Jewish background and major-league rituals and that sort of thing () and something happened when I was fourteen, and no doubt what it was really about was my gonads or who knows what, but over the course of a couple of weeks there was some sort of introspective whatever, where I suddenly decided this was all gibberish. And, among other things, also deciding there's no free will, but not in a remotely religious context, and deciding all of this was nonsense, and within a two week period all of that belief stuff simply evaporated." (Freethought Radio podcast (mp3) ), February 3, 2007 (accessed April 22, 2008).〕 * Wallace L. W. Sargent (1935–): American astronomer.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nndb.com/people/405/000172886/ )〕 * Mahendralal Sarkar (1833–1904): Indian physician and academic. * Marcus du Sautoy (1965–): mathematician and holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science.〔 〕 *Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961): Austrian-Irish physicist and theoretical biologist. A pioneer of quantum mechanics and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.norskfysikk.no/nfs/old/epsbiografer/SCHROD~1.PDF )〕 * Laurent Schwartz (1915–2002): French mathematician, awarded the Fields medal for his work on distributions. * Claude Shannon (1916–2001): American electrical engineer and mathematician, has been called "the father of information theory", and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory.〔"Shannon described himself as an atheist and was outwardly apolitical." William Poundstone, ''Fortune's Formula'', Hill and Wang: New York (2005), page 18.〕 * Edwin Shneidman (1918–2009): American suicidologist and thanatologist.〔"The other day Vernette said he () was blessed. True enough, he thought, but not quite right, not ''blessed''. On a napkin on the TV tray he scribbled down the Greek prefix, ''eu'', for good, and then through association and sound, fell upon ''doria''... this would be the word for his good fortune. ''Eudoria''... gratitude without an object, no one to credit, no one to thank. No Jesus, no Yahweh, Muhammad, Vishnu or Buddha. Because he believes life isn't contingent upon god or upon prayers. There is no heaven, no hell. Happiness lies in te here and now and the satisfaction of living a good life without religion or myth to guide you." (Waiting for death, alone and unafraid ), Thomas Curwen, ''Los Angeles Times'', 28 February 2009 (Accessed 18 May 2009)〕 * William Shockley (1910–1989): American physicist and inventor. Along with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, Shockley co-invented the transistor, for which all three were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. * William James Sidis (1898–1944): American mathematician, cosmologist, inventor, linguist, historian and child prodigy. * Boris Sidis (1867-1923): Russian American psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of child prodigy William James Sidis.〔 * Herbert A. Simon (1916-2001):American Nobel laureate, was a political scientist, economist, sociologist, psychologist, computer scientist, and Richard King Mellon Professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics, management, philosophy of science, sociology, and political science, unified by studies of decision-making. . * B. F. Skinner (1904-1990): American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. Skinner developed a philosophy of science that he called radical behaviorism, and founded a school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.〔"Within a year I had gone to Miss Graves to tell her that I no longer believed in God. 'I know,' she said, 'I have been through that myself.' But her strategy misfired: I never went through it." B.F. Skinner, pp. 387-413, E.G. Boring and G. Lindzey's ''A History of Psychology in Autobiography'' (Vol. 5), New York: Appleton Century-Crofts, 1967.〕 * Stephen Smale (1930–): American mathematician. * Michael Smith (1932–2000): British-born Canadian biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1993.〔Smith, Michael. (Michael Smith: Autobiography ). Nobel Prize.org. Retrieved February 3, 2007.〕 * John Maynard Smith (1920-2004): British theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory.〔British Humanist Society, "John Maynard Smith talking to Humanist News in Autumn 2001," from the obituary "John Maynard Smith (1920-2004)," Humanism.org.uk (2004). Retrieved July 31, 2011.〕 * Lee Smolin (1955–): American theoretical physicist, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo.〔"Another aspect of this is that a scientific cosmology can contain no residue of the idea that the world was constructed by some being who is not a part of it. As the creatures who makes things, it is our most natural impulse to ask: When we come upon something beautifully or intricately structured, who made it? We must learn to give up this impulse if we are to do scientific cosmology. As there can, by definition, be nothing outside the universe, a scientific cosmology must be based on a conception that the universe made itself." Lee Smolin, (What is the Future of Cosmology? ), ''pbs.org''.〕 * Alan Sokal (1955–): American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor of physics at New York University. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism, resulting in the Sokal affair in 1996.〔"Biblical scholar Jacques Berlinerblau points out, in an interesting recent book, ''The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously'' (2005), that most contemporary atheists and agnostics — myself included, I must confess — are astoundingly ignorant of the details of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Qur'an (not to mention the Bhagavad Gita and the Tripitaka, one could add). ... When all is said and done, I see no reason to amend my judgment that the existence of the Jewish, Christian, Islamic or Hindu gods is about as plausible, given the currently available evidence, as the existence of Zeus or Thor." — Alan Sokal, ''Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture'' (2008).〕 * Richard Stallman (1953–): American software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Stallman's former personal ad )〕 * Jack Steinberger (1921–): German-American-Swiss physicist and Nobel Laureate in 1988, co-discoverer of the muon neutrino. * Hugo Steinhaus (1887–1972): Polish mathematician and educator. * Victor J. Stenger (1935–): American physicist, emeritus professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawaii and adjunct professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado. Author of the book ''God: The Failed Hypothesis''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist (9781591024811): Victor J. Stenger: Books )〕〔()〕 * Jack Suchet (1908–2001): South African born British obstetrician, gynaecologist and venereologist, who carried out research on the use of penicillin in the treatment of venereal disease with Sir Alexander Fleming.〔"Suchet's father Jack, an atheist and eminent surgeon, emigrated from South Africa to England in the 1930s and never spoke about his family's past." '(Suchet traces Russian Jewish roots )', The Press Association, 9 September 2008 (accessed 9 September 2008).〕 * Eleazar Sukenik (1889–1953): Israeli archaeologist and professor of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, undertaking excavations in Jerusalem, and recognising the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Israel.〔"I read a few sentences. It was written in beautiful Biblical Hebrew. The language was like that of the Psalms.' One of these was the Isaiah scroll, which I saw recently in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem: sections of goat-skin parchment, sewn together, 27 feet long. I felt in the presence of something numinous, although I have been a convinced atheist since boyhood. But this document is a testament to the inexplicable persistence of the human mind, in the face of all the evidence, in believing that we are on earth for a divine purpose." Eleazar Sukenik, quoted in Justin Cartwright, 'The indestructible power of belief', ''The Guardian'', May 27, 2000, Saturday Pages, Pg. 3.〕 * John Sulston (1942–): British biologist. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. * Leonard Susskind (1940–): American theoretical physicist; a founding father of superstring theory and professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University.〔In a review of Susskind's book ''The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design'', Michael Duff writes that Susskind is "a card-carrying atheist." (Life in a landscape of possibilities ), December 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2007.〕 * Aaron Swartz (1986–2012): American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist. Swartz was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py and the social news site Reddit, in which he was an equal partner after its merger with his Infogami company. * Raymond Tallis (1946–): Leading British gerontologist, philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic.〔"He is a passionate atheist who hates materialistic interpretations of our minds." Interview: Raymond Tallis, (The ardent atheist ), ''Guardian Review'', April 29, 2006 (accessed April 14, 2008).〕 * Igor Tamm (1895–1971): Soviet physicist who received the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Frank, for their 1934 discovery of Cherenkov radiation. *Arthur Tansley (1871–1955): English botanist who was a pioneer in the science of ecology.〔"They became correspondents and, surprisingly since Tansley was an avowed atheist, friends." - Peter G. Ayres, ''Shaping Ecology: The Life of Arthur Tansley'', page 139.〕 *Alfred Tarski (1901-1983): Polish logician, mathematician and philosopher, a prolific author best known for his work on model theory, metamathematics, and algebraic logic.〔"Most of the Socialist Party members were also in favor of assimilation, and Tarski's political allegiance was socialist at the time. So, along with its being a practical move, becoming more Polish than Jewish was an ideological statement and was approved by many, though not all, of his colleagues. As to why Tarski, a professed atheist, converted, that just came with the territory and was part of the package: if you were going to be Polish then you had to say you were Catholic." Anita Burdman Feferman, Solomon Feferman, ''Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic'' (2004), page 39.〕 *Kip Thorne (1940–): American theoretical physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics and also for the popular science book, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy. *Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988): Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals. * Gherman Titov (1935–2000): Soviet cosmonaut and the second human to orbit the Earth.〔"Some say God is living there (space ). I was looking around very attentively, but I did not see anyone there. I did not detect either angels or gods. ... I don't believe in God. I believe in man-his strength, his possibilities, his reason." Gherman Titov, comments made at World Fair, Seattle, Washington, May 6, 1962, reported in ''The Seattle Daily Times'', May 7, 1962, p. 2.〕 * Linus Torvalds (1969–): Finnish software engineer, creator of the Linux kernel.〔"(am ) completely a-religious—atheist. I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both." (Interview: Linus Torvalds ) in ''Linux Journal'' November 1, 1999. Retrieved January 18, 2007.〕 * Alan Turing (1912–1954): English mathematician, logician, and cryptologist; often considered to be the father of modern computer science. The Turing Award, often recognized as the "Nobel Prize of computing", is named after him.〔"This loss shattered Turing's religious faith and led him into atheism..." (''Time 100'' profile of Alan Turing ), p. 2〕〔"He was an atheist..." (Alan Turing: Father of the computer ), BBC News, April 28, 1999. Retrieved June 11, 2007.〕 * Matthew Turner (died ca. 1789): chemist, surgeon, teacher and radical theologian, author of the first published work of avowed atheism in Britain (1782).〔"In religion he was raised as a theist, but in 1782, in an Answer to Dr. Priestley, on the Existence of God, a response to Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, he described himself as a freethinker (p. 5). This work, first published under the pseudonym William Hammon, was subsequently republished by Richard Carlile in 1826. In the pamphlet Turner declared that he was an atheist, though he did admit that the 'vis naturae', gravity, and matter's elasticity and repulsive powers demonstrated that the universe was permeated by 'a principle of intelligence and design' (ibid., 17). Despite the 'perpetual industry' of nature, he denied that this intelligence entailed that philosophers needed to posit the existence of a deity extraneous to the material world." E. I. Carlyle, ('Turner, Matthew (d. 1789?)' ), rev. Kevin C. Knox, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed May 2, 2008).〕〔Text of (Answer to Dr. Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever ) at Project Guttenberg.〕 * Harold Urey (1893–1981): American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934. He played a significant role in the development of the atom bomb, but may be most prominent for his contribution to theories on the development of organic life from non-living matter.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nndb.com/people/873/000092597/ )〕 * Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943): Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted his life to the study and improvement of wheat, corn, and other cereal crops that sustain the global population. * J. Craig Venter (1946–): American biologist and entrepreneur, one of the first researchers to sequence the human genome, and in 2010 the first to create a cell with a synthetic genome.〔Steve Kroft asked Venter on CBS' ''Sixty Minutes'', 21 November 2010: "Do you believe in God?" Venter replied, "No. The universe is far more wonderful."〕 * Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945): Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism. * W. Grey Walter (1910–1977): American neurophysiologist famous for his work on brain waves, and robotician.〔"A firm atheist, he was interested in, though unconvinced by, the paranormal, and also did research on hypnosis." Ray Cooper, ('Walter, (William) Grey (1910–1977)' ), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2007 (accessed May 2, 2008).〕 * James D. Watson (1928–): 1962-Nobel-laureate and co-discover of the structure of DNA.〔Watson is identified as an atheist by his acquaintance, Rabbi Marc Gellman. ''(Trying to Understand Angry Atheists: Why do nonbelievers seem to be threatened by the idea of God? )'', by Rabbi Marc Gellman, ''Newsweek'', April 28, 2006. Retrieved November 11, 2006.〕〔When asked by a student if he believed in God, Watson replied "Oh, no. Absolutely not... The biggest advantage to believing in God is you don't have to understand anything, no physics, no biology. I wanted to understand." 〕 * Joseph Weber (1919–2000): American physicist, who gave the earliest public lecture on the principles behind the laser and the maser, and developed the first gravitational wave detectors (Weber bars).〔"We typically never squabbled very much. If we disagreed, it was about scientific issues. He didn't believe the observational evidence for the cosmological constant, and I think it's highly probable. He was raised as an Orthodox Jew and we both attended Temple Beth Emet in Anaheim. He was actually an atheist, who wanted to maintain Jewish traditions. It was another thing we didn't have to disagree about. We both agreed that modern cosmology provided a better picture of the early universe than does the book of Genesis." Virginia Trimble, Weber's wife, quoted in ''Physics and Society'', Vol. 30 No. 4, p.24-25.〕 * Steven Weinberg (1933–): American theoretical physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for the unification of electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force.〔Azpurua: "Would it be accurate to say that you are an atheist?" Weinberg: "Yes. I don't believe in God, but I don't make a religion out of not believing in God. I don't organize my life around that." (In Search of the God Particle ), by Ana Elena Azpurua, ''Newsweek'' Web Exclusive, March 24, 2008, p. 3 (Accessed March 25, 2008)〕〔In a review of Susskind's book The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, string theorist Michael Duff identifies Steven Weinberg as an "arch-atheist".()〕〔In the book ''The God Delusion'', Richard Dawkins identifies Steven Weinberg as an atheist.(richarddawkins.net ).〕 * Victor Weisskopf (1908–2002): Austrian-American theoretical physicist, co-founder and board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.〔"...Victor Weisskopf, who describes himself as an atheist Viennese Jew...." Quoting from page 14 of The Prism of Science, by Edna Ullmann-Margalit, Springer, 1986.〕 *Frank Whittle (1907–1996): English aerospace engineer, inventor, aviator and Royal Air Force officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine (some years earlier than Germany's Dr. Hans von Ohain) and is regarded by many as the father of jet propulsion. * Eugene Wigner (1902–1995): Hungarian American theoretical physicist and mathematician. He received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles"; the other half of the award was shared between Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen. Wigner is important for having laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics as well as for his research into the structure of the atomic nucleus. It was Eugene Wigner who first identified Xe-135 "poisoning" in nuclear reactors, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as ''Wigner poisoning''. Wigner is also important for his work in pure mathematics, having authored a number of theorems. *Ian Wilmut (1944-): English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly. * David Sloan Wilson (1949–): American evolutionary biologist, son of Sloan Wilson, proponent of multilevel selection theory and author of several popular books on evolution. * Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS British FRSL (1929–): developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster.〔"I grew up in a Jewish family but I gave it all up at 16 when I prayed to God for something I really wanted and it didn't happen. I have been an atheist ever since. I believe in proof and I know of no evidence for the existence of God, but I am in no way hostile to religion provided it does not interfere in the lives of others or come into conflict with science." (Easter special: I believe... ), ''Independent on Sunday'', April 16, 2006 (accessed April 18, 2008).〕 * Steve Wozniak (1950–): co-founder of Apple Computer and inventor of the Apple I and Apple II. * Elizur Wright (1804–1885): American mathematician and abolitionist, sometimes described as the "father of life insurance" for his pioneering work on actuarial tables.〔In ''Abolitionist, Actuary, Atheist: Elizur Wright and the Reform Impulse'', Wright's biographer Lawrence B. Goodheart describes him as "an evangelical atheist, an impassioned actuary, a liberal who advocated state regulation, an individualist who championed social cooperation, and a very private public crusader" (''op. cit.'', page x)〕 * Will Wright (1960–): American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis.〔"When Wright was nine his father died of leukaemia and he moved with his mother and younger sister to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There he enrolled in the Episcopal High School and duly became an atheist." Ajesh Partalay interviewing Wright, '(Master of the Universe )', ''The Observer'', 14 September 2008 (accessed 15 September 2008).〕 * Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979–): American artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the singularity and an advocate of friendly artificial intelligence. * Oscar Zariski (1899–1986): American mathematician and one of the most influential algebraic geometers of the 20th century. * Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (1914–1987): Soviet physicist born in Belarus. He played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and made important contributions to the fields of adsorption and catalysis, shock waves, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, physical cosmology, and general relativity. * Emile Zuckerkandl (1922-2013): Austrian-born biologist who is considered one of the founders of the field of molecular evolution, who co-introduced the concept of the "molecular clock", which enabled the neutral theory of molecular evolution. * Konrad Zuse (1910–1995): German civil engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world's first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, the Z3, which became operational in May 1941. *Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): Swiss astronomer and astrophysicist. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of atheists in science and technology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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