Atheists who changed the world

[cratehorus]

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

1. My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it.

2. All Bibles are man-made.

3. So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake... Religion is all bunk.

4. I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.

5. I do not believe that any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States.

6. To those seaching for truth - not the truth of dogma and darkness but the truth brought by reason, search, examination, and inquiry, discipline is required. For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction - faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.

7. I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul... No, all this talk of an existence beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life - our desire to go on living - our dread of coming to an end.

Quotes from Thomas Edison

[Shell B]

Sources for those quotes, por favor? Also, disapproving of religion, souls and dogma does not mean you are an atheist. What do you think a deist is?

[Jackalope]

I hereby nominate myself. What have I done to change the world, you ask? Why, plenty! I'm just far too modest to toot my own horn. You'll just have to take it on faith.

[cratehorus]

What do you think a deist is?

a freemason...... du'uuuh

source: http://atheism.about.com/library/quotes/...Edison.htm

[Shell B]

An original source? Anyway, freemason =/= deist and you can't determine if a person believes in god by how they feel about souls and religion.

[Minimalist]

What do you think a deist is?

An atheist who is afraid to let go with the other hand.

[cratehorus]

An original source?

sorry I have no other source..... but thomas edison is atheist...one of my favorites actually. You have to understand............ he was an inventor not a philosopher no sense getting his eyes burned out by the pope, like Galileo.... but if you could find any form of a "pro" religous statement from edison I would be totally shocked......... shocked.

Anyway, freemason =/= deist

what does =/= mean???

and you can't determine if a person believes in god by how they feel about souls and religion.

what?

[Shell B]

Okay, I'll start from the top. Him not saying anything about not being religious would mean we have neither proof that he was nor proof that he wasn't. Just because he could have got in trouble does not mean he was an atheist. Now, the pope would have had nothing to do with it. Thomas Edison did not fall under the jurisdiction of the pope. The two are incomparable situations.

=/= means not equal to or not the same. A freemason does not have to be deist and a deist does not have to be freemason.

Lastly, you can believe in god without believing in souls. You can also hate religious and still believe in a deity. I know several people who do, in fact. Therefore, Edison's comments cannot be assumed to mean he was atheists. Nothing short of a statement saying he was an atheist would suffice.

[cratehorus]

Okay, I'll start from the top. Him not saying anything about not being religious would mean we have neither proof that he was nor proof that he wasn't. Just because he could have got in trouble does not mean he was an atheist. Now, the pope would have had nothing to do with it. Thomas Edison did not fall under the jurisdiction of the pope. The two are incomparable situations.

True

=/= means not equal to or not the same. A freemason does not have to be deist and a deist does not have to be freemason.

True

Lastly, you can believe in god without believing in souls. You can also hate religious and still believe in a deity.

True

I know several people who do, in fact. Therefore, Edison's comments cannot be assumed to mean he was atheists. Nothing short of a statement saying he was an atheist would suffice.

True, for fuck's sake, your really making me look this shit up, alright give me a few minutes, unicorn fuckin damn it

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Alright I admit I can't find an exact quote of Edison saying specifically he is an atheist, but that is what I mean, when I say, he had nothing to gain, by speaking out against the church, Many world leaders that were more concerned about politcs... economics.... or merely even inventions..... didn't bother to exclude themselves by saying they were in fact "atheists". The personal feelings of many leaders will be forever lost like those of george washington

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-e.htm

http://www.atheistempire.com/greatminds/...?author=11

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Historian Paul Israel has characterized Edison as a "freethinker". Edison was heavily influenced by Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Edison defended Paine's "scientific deism", saying, "He has been called an atheist, but atheist he was not. Paine believed in a supreme intelligence, as representing the idea which other men often express by the name of deity." In an October 2, 1910, interview in the New York Times Magazine, Edison stated:


Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love — He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us — nature did it all — not the gods of the religions.

Edison was called an atheist for those remarks, and although he did not allow himself to be drawn into the controversy publicly, he clarified himself in a private letter: "You have misunderstood the whole article, because you jumped to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I call Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the article states is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made."

Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for World War I, he specified he would work only on defensive weapons and later noted, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill." Edison's philosophy of nonviolence extended to animals as well, about which he stated: "Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." However, he is also notorious for having electrocuted a number of dogs in 1888, both by direct and alternating current, in an attempt to argue that the former (which he had a vested business interest in promoting) was safer than the latter (favored by his rival George Westinghouse).

Edison's success in promoting direct current as less lethal also led to alternating current being used in the electric chair adopted by New York in 1889 as a supposedly humane execution method. Because Westinghouse was angered by the decision, he funded Eighth Amendment-based appeals for inmates set to die in the electric chair, ultimately resulting in Edison providing the generators which powered early electrocutions and testifying successfully on behalf of the state that electrocution was a painless method of execution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edis...etaphysics

[twocompulsive]

Was not Socrates an atheist? Darwin became one after the death of his daughter. Is that acceptable or do they have to be a life long one? What about Zappa? He was definitely one, though being Italian American, maybe was not born as such. Himmler was an atheist but also a pagan.