List of agnostics
The people in this list have been included because they are or were agnostics, that is, they believe that the truth value of any claim regarding the existence of God, gods, or deities is unknown, inherently unknowable, or incoherent; and they have themselves expressed it openly (on the record), or in their works, personal correspondence, diaries, etc. Presumed agnostics are not included here.
Given the different possible qualifications and uses through time of "agnostic" and other words relating to doubt, unbelief, or uncertainty about the existence of God or gods, labels other than "agnostic" (such as skeptic, atheist or nontheist) might also apply to some of these people, but the list attempts to be inclusive on this matter. The reader should consult the relevant biographical articles for details.
The list includes agnostics who are or were notable defenders of agnosticism, or who advocated views that could accurately be described as "agnostic." In short, these people are or were important for other agnostics, since they contribute(d) to the popularization, understanding, and acceptance of agnosticism in society, either through their works or through their deeds.
The list also includes famous people who just happen/happened to be agnostics, and whose agnosticism is/was relevant in their life, but who do not/did not actively advocate the position.
- There might not be a consensus on whether a given person belongs on this list, since obviously there is no way of listing all famous people who just happen to be agnostics (there is no point, either). Many of these profess their agnosticism as just a peripheral issue in their lives, or simply keep quiet about it, and they will not be listed here.
- Sir David Attenborough (1926-) - English natural history presenter and anthropologist. [1]
- Michelle Bachelet, (b. 1951), President of Chile. [2]
- Helen Clark, New Zealand Prime Minister. [3]
- Clarence Darrow, (1857-1938), American lawyer, who defended John T. Scopes' right to teach Darwin's theory of evolution in the famous Tennessee "Monkey Trial." [4]
- Charles Darwin, (1809-1882), founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection, once described himself as being generally agnostic, though he was a member of the Anglican church and attended Unitarian services. [5]
- Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), French sociologist, who had a Jewish confirmation at thirteen, was briefly interested in Catholicism after a mystical experience, but later became an agnostic. [6]
- Frederick James Furnivall, (1825-1910), Second editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. [7]
- Matt Groening, (b. 1954), creator of animated TV series The Simpsons, Futurama, and the comic Life in Hell.
- Thomas Henry Huxley, (1825-1895), coiner of the term agnosticism
- Robert Ingersoll, (1833 - 1899), American political leader and orator, and known as "The Great Agnostic," said that "It seems to me that the man who knows the limitations of the mind, who gives the proper value to human testimony, is necessarily an Agnostic." [8]
- Ricardo Lagos, (b. 1938) the first declared agnostic to be elected president of Chile. [9]
- Bill Maher, (b. 1956) American comedian and political commentator. [10]
- Protagoras, (d.420 BCE), Greek Sophist and first major Humanist, who wrote that the existence of the gods was unknowable. [11]
- George Lincoln Rockwell, (1918-1967), Founder of the American Nazi Party, who wrote in his autobiograpy "I am an agnostic, which means that to all proposals and explanations of the mysteries of life and eternity, I say, 'I do not know and I don't believe you or any other human does either.'" [12]
- Andy Rooney, (b. 1919), broadcast personality, who had specified that he was an agnostic and not an atheist [13], but has also called himself an atheist. [14] [15]
- Bertrand Russell, (1872-1970), English philosopher and mathematician, who considered himself a philosophical agnostic, but said that the label "atheist" conveyed a more accurate impression to "the ordinary man in the street." [16]
- Carl Sagan, (1934-1996), astronomer and skeptic [17]
- Charles Templeton, (1915-2001) former evangelist, author of A Farewell to God [18]
- Mark Twain has received many labels including agnostic [19] [20] and deist[21]. Many quotations from Twain suggest a sincere belief in a deity, while expressing brutal skepticism and irreverence toward conventional religion's claims to know God's nature. [22]
- Robert Anton Wilson. (b. 1932), author, futurologist, cryptocracy historian[23]
See also
External links
Notes and references
- ^ Interview with Simon Mayo, BBC Radio Five Live, 2 December 2005.
- ^ Bachelet said "I am a woman, socialist, separated and agnostic." See Newsweek article An Unlikely Pioneer.
- ^ Do you believe in him now, Helen?
- ^ Darrow wrote "I am an agnostic as to the question of God." See Why I Am An Agnostic.
- ^ Darwin wrote: "my judgment often fluctuates...In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an Atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, that an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind." The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Ch. VIII, p. 274. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1905. See Charles Darwin's views on religion
- ^ On Durkheim, Larry R. Ridener, referencing a book by Lewis A. Coser, wrote: "Shortly after his traditional Jewish confirmation at the age of thirteen, Durkheim, under the influence of a Catholic woman teacher, had a shortlived mystical experience that led to an interest in Catholicism. But soon afterwards he turned away from all religious involvement, though emphatically not from interest in religious phenomena, and became an agnostic." See Ridener's page on famous dead sociologists. See also Coser's book: Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, 2nd Ed., Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1977: 143-144
- ^ "...Furnivall was a deeply committed socialist and (until his later agnosticism set in), a somewhat enthusiastic Christian..." Simon Winchester (2003), The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860702-4
- ^ Why Am I Agnostic?, Robert Green Ingersoll, 1889. See also Ingersoll's complete works, which includes many speeches and writings on religion and agnosticism.
- ^ Chile Moves On, Mark Falcoff, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, April 1, 2000.
- ^ Maher said "I'm not convinced that God exists. But I do allow the possibility. I'm not an atheist. I'm open... My view on spirituality is I don't know. I never will as long as I'm alive. So why waste time dwelling on something I can never know?" See transcript from Larry King Live, August 11, 2005.
- ^ Only fragments of Protagoras' treatise On the Gods survive, but it opens with the sentence: "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life."
- ^ This Time the World, chapter 3, George Lincoln Rockwell, ISBN 1593640145
- ^ Rooney wrote: "I call myself an agnostic, not an atheist, because in one sense atheists are like Christians or Muslims. They’re sure of themselves. A Christian says with certainty, there is a god; an atheist says with certainty, there is no god. Neither knows" Sincerely, Andy Rooney (2001), Public Affairs ISBN 1586480456
- ^ Rooney said: "Why am I an atheist? I ask you: Why is anybody not an atheist? Everyone starts out being an atheist. No one is born with belief in anything. Infants are atheists until they are indoctrinated. I resent anyone pushing their religion on me. I don't push my atheism on anybody else. Live and let live. Not many people practice that when it comes to religion." Marian Christy, "Conversations: We make our own destiny", Boston Globe, 30 May 1982 (from Newsbank).
- ^ Rooney said: "I am an atheist... I don't understand religion at all. I'm sure I'll offend a lot of people by saying this, but I think it's all nonsense." From a speech at Tufts University, 18 November 2004.
- ^ Russell said: "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 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... None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist, and yet if you were to set to work to give a logical demonstration that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and the rest of them did not exist you would find it an awful job. You could not get such proof. Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line." Am I an Agnostic or an Atheist?, from Last Philosophical Testament 1943-1968, (1997) Routledge ISBN 0415094097. Russell was chosen by |LOOK magazine to speak for agnostics in their well-known series explaining the religions of the U.S., and authored the essay "What Is An Agnostic?" which appeared November 3 1953 in that magazine.
- ^ Regarding Carl Sagan: "Unbeliever's Quest" by Jerry Adler, in Newsweek, March 31 1997.
- ^ CBC News reports that Templeton "eventually abandoned the pulpit and became an agnostic." Journalist, evangelist Charles Templeton dies
- ^ "In one of our walks about Hartford, when he was in the first fine flush of his agnosticism, he declared that Christianity had done nothing to improve morals and conditions..." Dean Howells, My Mark Twain [1].
- ^ "[Dean Howells and Mark Twain] had much in common. They were agnostic but compassionate of the plight of man in an indifferent world..." Darrel Abel (2002), Classic Authors of the Gilded Age, iUniverse, ISBN 0595234976
- ^ "At the most, Mark Twain was a mild agnostic, usually he seems to have been an amused Deist. Yet, at this late date his own daughter has refused to allow his comments on religion to be published." Kenneth Rexroth, "Humor in a Tough Age;" The Nation, March 7 1959. [2]
- ^ E.g. "To trust the God of the Bible is to trust an irascible, vindictive, fierce, and ever fickle and changeful master; to trust the true God is to trust a being who has uttered no promises, but whose beneficent, exact, and changeless ordering of the machinery of His colossal universe is proof that He is at least steadfast to HIs purposes." Mark Twain, a Biography, v. I, p. 412. "[Man] even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea?" Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth,, p. 7. ed. Bernard DeVoto (1962), Harper and Row, Library of Congress catalog #62-14550. Toward the end of his life he expressed anger toward God, describing Man as "an April-fool joke, played by a malicious urchin Creator," and solipsistic nihilism: "There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought." [3]
- ^ Wilson explains that he is agnostic about everything in the preface to his book Cosmic Trigger.