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The Greatest Atheist thinker

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Greatest atheist thinker?
Friedrich Nietzsche 9%  9%  [ 2 ]
Karl Marx 4%  4%  [ 1 ]
Ayn Rand 13%  13%  [ 3 ]
Epicurus 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Daniel Dennett 17%  17%  [ 4 ]
Richard Dawkins 4%  4%  [ 1 ]
Ludwig Feuerbach 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
George Carlin 9%  9%  [ 2 ]
Christopher Hitchens 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Bertrand Russell 4%  4%  [ 1 ]
J.L. Mackie 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Awesomelyglorious 4%  4%  [ 1 ]
Sigmund Freud 4%  4%  [ 1 ]
Other (mention in thread) 30%  30%  [ 7 ]
Total votes : 23

Awesomelyglorious
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01 Jun 2010, 2:44 pm

Ok, here is a thread allowing people to vote on the greatest atheist thinker. Hopefully I have the atheist thinkers that others would want, but I will have an "other" option as needed.

This is part of the Awesomelyglorious initiative to promote the culture of atheist peoples and to STRIDENTLY show the superiority of atheist thinkers.
(This message has been paid for by the commission to awesomize Awesomelyglorious)



Last edited by Awesomelyglorious on 01 Jun 2010, 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

fidelis
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01 Jun 2010, 2:52 pm

I was at a stand still between Nietzsche and Carlin, but Carlin won in the end.


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iamnotaparakeet
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01 Jun 2010, 2:56 pm

Antony Flew.



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01 Jun 2010, 3:06 pm

Other: Penn & Teller.


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Awesomelyglorious
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01 Jun 2010, 3:07 pm

greenblue wrote:
Other: Penn & Teller.

They are quite good aren't they?



Awesomelyglorious
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01 Jun 2010, 3:08 pm

iamnotaparakeet wrote:
Antony Flew.

That's only because he went senile and allowed Roy Varghese to write a book in his name about his conversion.



greenblue
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01 Jun 2010, 3:14 pm

David Hume and Marquis de Sade may have been good to have been listed I think.


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skafather84
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01 Jun 2010, 3:16 pm

Gotta go with Freddie.


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Awesomelyglorious
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01 Jun 2010, 3:16 pm

greenblue wrote:
David Hume and Marquis de Sade may have been good to have been listed I think.

I think David Hume was a deist still.

Marquis de Sade would have been interesting, and I did consider him, but I opted not to.

Here is an anti-theist play that Sade had though:
http://www.freethoughtfirefighters.org/ ... ng_man.htm



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01 Jun 2010, 4:11 pm

I voted Daniel Dennett because he is the only contemporary atheist on that list who is an atheist for the strongest rational reasons. I would have liked to vote for Nietzsche, but since he lived too long ago, he did not possess knowledge of neuroscience and couldn't have been too strong a reductionist.



ruveyn
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01 Jun 2010, 5:15 pm

MrDiamondMind wrote:
I voted Daniel Dennett because he is the only contemporary atheist on that list who is an atheist for the strongest rational reasons. I would have liked to vote for Nietzsche, but since he lived too long ago, he did not possess knowledge of neuroscience and couldn't have been too strong a reductionist.


Nietzsche was also insane.

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fidelis
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01 Jun 2010, 5:22 pm

ruveyn wrote:
MrDiamondMind wrote:
I voted Daniel Dennett because he is the only contemporary atheist on that list who is an atheist for the strongest rational reasons. I would have liked to vote for Nietzsche, but since he lived too long ago, he did not possess knowledge of neuroscience and couldn't have been too strong a reductionist.


Nietzsche was also insane.

ruveyn


Of course he was insane. The real question is whether or not he was insane enough.- paraphrased from Neils Bohr’


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SamwiseGamgee
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01 Jun 2010, 5:52 pm

fidelis wrote:
I was at a stand still between Nietzsche and Carlin, but Carlin won in the end.

:lol: Same here.


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Hector
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01 Jun 2010, 8:19 pm

Out of that list, easily Bertrand Russell. There are way too many atheists to really choose from, but Russell was a pretty clever fellow so I have no shame in giving him my vote.



Awesomelyglorious
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01 Jun 2010, 8:35 pm

Hector wrote:
Out of that list, easily Bertrand Russell. There are way too many atheists to really choose from, but Russell was a pretty clever fellow so I have no shame in giving him my vote.

It is very true that there are too many. Who would your favorite be and why? I am just curious to make sure I haven't missed out on somebody I really should have listed.

Russell is considered a very smart individual.



you_are_what_you_is
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01 Jun 2010, 8:52 pm

Interpreting your question as 'thinker who is/was an atheist': of that list, definitely Daniel Dennett. Better than him, though: David Kellogg Lewis (I wonder if his ideas might be a good substitute for the religious - you get an even more insane ontology than is provided by the average religion, but this time it's supported by well-considered, mostly consistent, and beautifully eloquent, rational arguments). Neither for what they've said about atheism, but they are / were respectively (sadly) both atheists.

Interpreting your question as something like, say, 'thinker who has made the best contribution to atheism': not sure. Nietzsche was pretty cool, but I'd probably go with Dennett again. I haven't read much that's directly in defense of atheism, largely because I take it as the obviously best position, and I also haven't gotten round to reading much about the psychology and evolution of religion, although that's a topic I'm very interested in.


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