List of agnostics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Listed here are persons who have identified themselves as agnostics. Also included are those who have expressed the view that it is unknown or inherently unknowable whether God or other deities exist.

Contents 1 A-K 2 L-Z 3 See also 4 External links 5 Notes and references

[edit] A-K

• Sir David Attenborough (1926-) - English natural history presenter and anthropologist. ^[1]
• Michelle Bachelet (b. 1951), President of Chile. ^[2]
• Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentine writer. ^[3]
• Warren Buffet (1930-), an American investor, considered to be the world's second richest man, identified himself as "Agnostic" in response to Warren Allen Smith, who had asked him whether he believed in God.^[4]
• Helen Clark, New Zealand Prime Minister. ^[5]
• Francis Crick (1916-2004), Nobel-laureate co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, who described himself as a skeptic and an agnostic with "a strong inclination towards atheism."^[6]
• 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." ^[7]

• 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. ^[8]
• 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. ^[9]
• Heinz Fischer, incumbent Austrian President ^[10]
• Milton Friedman, American economist, writer and public intellectual, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics.^[11]
• Frederick James Furnivall, (1825-1910), Second editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. ^[12]
• Carlos Gaviria Díaz, (b. 1937), Colombian politician, said "I am an agnostic, like him [Bertrand Russell]." ^[13]
• Matt Groening, (b. 1954), creator of animated TV series The Simpsons, Futurama, and the comic Life in Hell. ^[14]

• Thomas Henry Huxley, (1825-1895), coiner of the term agnosticism
• Robert G. 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." ^[15]

[edit] L-Z

• Ricardo Lagos, (b. 1938) the first declared agnostic to be elected president of Chile. ^[16]
• Bill Maher, (b. 1956) American comedian and political commentator. ^[17]
• Paul Nurse (b. 1949), 2001 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, called himself an atheist, but specified that "sceptical agnostic" was a more "philosophically correct" term.^[18]
• Karl R. Popper, philosopher of science, who described his philosophy as critical rationalism, and promoted falsifiability as a necessary criterion of empirical statements in science.^[19]
• Protagoras, (d.420 BCE), Greek Sophist and first major Humanist, who wrote that the existence of the gods was unknowable. ^[20]
• George Lincoln Rockwell, (1918-1967), Founder of the American Nazi Party, who wrote in his autobiography "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.'" ^[21]
• Andy Rooney, (b. 1919), broadcast personality, who had specified that he was an agnostic and not an atheist ^[22], but has also called himself an atheist. ^{[23] [24]}
• Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush. In their book The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power, authors James Moore and Wayne Slater write that Rove is an agnostic.^[25] In an interview on NPR's program Fresh Air, Slater said "Karl Rove is... an agnostic... He told a friend in high school that he grew up in a largely areligious [sic] household. He told a friend at the University of Texas... that he would like to be a believer, but he's an agnostic, and couldn't be otherwise."^[26]
• 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." ^[27]
• Carl Sagan, (1934-1996), astronomer and skeptic ^[28]
• Matt Stone (b. 1971), co-creator of the cartoon South Park, said "...I'm Jewish simply because... my mom is Jewish... but... I grew up completely secular and completely agnostic... I am the worst Jew in the world. I know nothing about the religion. I'm completely agnostic (my poor mother)." ^[29] However, once when asked if there was a God, Stone answered "No."^[30]

• Charles Templeton, (1915-2001) former evangelist, author of A Farewell to God ^[31]
• Mark Twain has received many labels including agnostic ^{[32] [33]} and deist^[34]. 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. ^[35]
• Robert Anton Wilson. (1932-2007), author, futurologist, cryptocracy historian^[36]

[edit] See also

• List of atheists
• List of humanists
• List of people by belief

[edit] External links

• Agnostics in The Celebrity Atheist List
• Famous black freethinkers
• Famous Dead Nontheists

[edit] Notes and references