I am trying to do something that I think might be a great idea. However, it is in its early stages and has something level of secrecy (I know, tres noir). The first thing I need to do this (it's for the forum) is a list of 20 (more would be great) atheists who changed the world. I need your help here.

They following criteria must apply

1. Must be a self-affirmed atheist. No he was an asshole, thus an atheist shit here.

2. Must have changed the world in some significant way, preferably in a way that is tangible to all of us. It doesn't matter if it was good or bad.

Thanks in advance. I will be in touch with some of you about this and hopefully I can tell you more as I do more.

So far on the list:

Stephen Hawking

Joseph Stalin

Alton Lemon

Carl Sagan

Thomas Edison (I believe he was more agnostic, but further research is needed)

Andrew Carnegie (perhaps)

Ivan Pavlov

Linus Pauling

Francis Crick

Claude Shannon

James D. Watson

Peter Higgs

Richard Leakey

Steve Wozniak

Mark Zuckerberg (Yes, we have to face that facebook has changed the world)

Arthur C. Clarke

Douglas Adams

Bill Gates

Edward Witten

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

David Attenborough

Norman Borlaug

Linus Torvolds

Pierre Boulez

Gene Roddenberry

William Shatner

Denny Crane

Albert Einstein (I'm not sure he was athiest. Have to check this)

Napoleon I

Pope Alexander VI

Abraham Lincoln (honorary agnostic or doubter)

Mark Twain (See Abe)

Alan Turing

Okay, think we have enough now, people. Thank you so much.

Stephen Hawking, duh.

(July 19, 2012 at 8:04 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Stephen Hawking, duh.

Steven King

Joseph Stalin.

Who is Steven King?

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(July 19, 2012 at 8:04 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Stephen Hawking, duh.

Hey, I am not making the list.

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(July 19, 2012 at 8:09 pm)Felasco Wrote: Joseph Stalin.

Fair enough.

my first choice would be a(sa) philip randolph, but he was quite a pistol (read: malcolm x but without religion) and most of his work was civil rights related - so it may not have affected directly, the majority of people. he was also a socialist.

however, alton lemon may qualify in what you're looking for.

source: taken from the freedom from religion foundation (also from the blackatheists of america):

Alton Lemon won the case Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971, which successfully challenged a Pennsylvania law, the first such law in the nation providing public tax funds to religious schools for teaching four secular subjects.
The United States Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the parochial aid. In one of the enduring legacies of the Burger Court, it also codified existing precedent on the Establishment Clause into a test--called the "Lemon Test." The "Lemon Test" has three prongs. If any of the three prongs are violated by an act of government, it is unconstitutional:

· It must have a secular legislative purpose;
· Its principal or primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion;
· It must not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion.

"It has been hated and reviled by the religious right. Three presidents (you can guess which ones) have openly sought to overturn it. Justice Scalia, who's a pretty scary fellow himself, has made an odious comparison of the Lemon Test to 'some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried.' Despite attacks against it and attempts to modify and chip away at it, the Lemon Test endures.

(July 19, 2012 at 8:09 pm)Shell B Wrote: Who is Steven King?

He writes stories.

He does not!

Sagan.

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I also thought this was a good list: http://brainz.org/50-most-brilliant-atheists-all-time/

Thomas Edison