Your favourite athiestic intellectual

SamHarris

Hey, just tought it would be interesting to see if people had a favourite intellectual (or famous proponent) of atheism, who you particularly enjoy listening to, or who you find particularly good at conveying your own thoughts.

Perhaps even post a link to a video of them. Im sick and have nothing to do in bed.

Mine is probably Andy Thomson; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMmvu9eMrg&feature=channel Not just his ideas, but his delivery for me is incredible ( I dont need any persuading, so the conent is not as important)

Passenger

Christopher Hitchens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens

Dades

And not just for his awesome fashion.

Beruthiel

Can't decide...

Christopher Hitchens
Richard Dawkins
Carl Sagan

Bottle_of_Smoke

Its not his main thing but I think Eamonn McCann talks a lot of sense about religion.

Zillah

SamHarris wrote: »

Mine is probably Andy Thomson

Er...really?

liamw

Zillah

Genghiz Cohen

Stephen Fry.

KidKeith89

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Stephen Fry.

Agree

robindch

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Stephen Fry.

SamHarris wrote: »

Perhaps even post a link to a video of them. Im sick and have nothing to do in bed.

Here's Fry's splendid philippic contra the Vatican:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL5WVecNdhk

Dades

^^ I have never even heard of the word "philippic", you atheist intellectual, you.

Improbable

I would say Christopher Hitchens is my favourite simply because watching people get hitchslapped is immensely amusing. Completely unapologetic in his hatred of religion which I find much more appealing than some of the nonsensical "religion deserves a special place even if god doesn't exist" stances I've seen from some atheists.

goingpostal

Get well soon. Dan Barker is probably my favourite atheist commentator. His journey from believer to nonbeliever reflects my own, and he answered alot of the questions and objections I had to atheism, in simple terms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3mmH_Hr_EY

This is Barker putting the smack down on a frankly creepy looking priest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3xfaQ9LtbI

This is Stephen Seagal kicking some nuts.

PeterIanStaker

George Carlin
David Attenborough (agnostic but set against creationism)
Stephen Fry
Richard Dawkins

Beruthiel

Carl Sagan, he had a way with words.
Pale Blue Dot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lm6pEhykhs

I love Dawkins comments here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac33dOAgqus

noxqs

Bill Hicks
George Carlin

The two giants above, might not be intellectuals in the conventional sense, but they did say many smart things in a way that makes others think. Sometimes humor is the best tool.

For real academics:

Richard Dawkins
Carl Sagan

Zillah

I'm torn between Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Sam because he has some really interesting things to say, is uncompromising and can really articulate things excellently. He's also dreamy :swoon: (we need more emoticons on this site). Hitchens because he's such a gigantic bastard, but intelligent enough to get away with it.

Turtwig

2 Pages in, and no mention of Mr Feynman...I'm losing faith in you guys.

liamw

Malty_T wrote: »

2 Pages in, and no mention of Mr Feynman...I'm losing faith in you guys.

Feynman isn't really a 'proponent' of atheism though?

simplistic2

Stefan Molyneux

Video: "God is really the fear of others"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVI4kzoZmy0

"God and the state"
http://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot#p/search/4/wylXssulQIQ

"introduction to philosophy :religion"

http://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot#p/search/7/m-KVf444Kyc

nozzferrahhtoo

I am not sure who I would choose but I know I would not choose Hitchens or Dawkins. Do not get me wrong, I think they are both brilliant, but neither of them has ever said anything I have not said myself on the subject.

True they say it more eloquently, using language as sweet as honey that goes far beyond anything I could say or write, and they do it with accents much cooler than mine, but not a single word on the subject from either of them has ever added to what I did not say myself already.

They are massively important media success stories for Atheism and I could not do without either of them but I simply would not rank them on the top.

Who I would is another question, but people like Harris and Dennett are at least working on things related to Atheism that are personally new to me. Harris is measuring what it actually means to “believe” at the level of the brain and Dennett is pushing the boundaries of Evolutionary thought on the causes of Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.

So who would I pick? I do not know, but it would be someone on the front lines of pushing new thought, rather than simply but incredibly effectively repackaging and re-presenting existing thought.

magicbastarder

liamw wrote: »

Feynman isn't really a 'proponent' of atheism though?

the OP does not specifically require that they be a proponent, though.

GO_Bear

Hitchens
Feynman
Sagan
Fry
Dawkins
Harris
Dennet
Last but not least I find Ricky Gervais funny

GO_Bear

GO_Bear wrote: »

Last but not least I find Ricky Gervais funny

You may leave now. :pac:

I'd say Dawkins because he's the one intellectual who really made me think about my agnosticism until it dawned on me that it was unreasonable. However, Matt Dillahunty's (of The Atheist Experience) style of argument just astounds me; I think he's great too.

GO_Bear

Deleted User wrote: »

You may leave now. :pac:

:O fair enough he is not a intellectual, but all the athiest comedians ... Dylan Moran, Dara O Brien etc , are opening the lay mans eyes faster than any intellectual jargon !

magicbastarder

david attenborough by a country mile, btw.

sensibleken

Buddha

Max Power1

Has to be richard dawkins imo.

GO_Bear

GO_Bear wrote: »

:O fair enough he is not a intellectual, but all the athiest comedians ... Dylan Moran, Dara O Brien etc , are opening the lay mans eyes faster than any intellectual jargon !

Ah g'wan ourra dat, it's just that Ricky Gervais isn't funny.

Improbable

Aside from watching Richard Dawkins school people on how they completely misunderstand evolution, I think this is one of his best moments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mmskXXetcg

Tim Robbins

Bertrand Russell.

GO_Bear

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah g'wan ourra dat, it's just that Ricky Gervais isn't funny.

Arra now , he really is ! Have you seen an Idiot abroad ?

Stercus Accidit

Improbable wrote: »

I would say Christopher Hitchens is my favourite simply because watching people get hitchslapped is immensely amusing. Completely unapologetic in his hatred of religion which I find much more appealing than some of the nonsensical "religion deserves a special place even if god doesn't exist" stances I've seen from some atheists.

Hitchslapped! Brilliant

Improbable

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

Hitchslapped! Brilliant

Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the phrase.

liah

Fry, because the rest have a habit of being massively egotistical **** and giving the religious fodder to start all these "atheists are arrogant pricks" threads all over boards.

Fry's well-spoken, genuine, and gets his point across beautifully without resorting to trying to undermine the other side or offend anyone. Polite and compassionate, but realistic. I also agree with a lot of what else he has to say, so it only makes sense.

Improbable

liah wrote: »

Fry, because the rest have a habit of being massively egotistical **** and giving the religious fodder to start all these "atheists are arrogant pricks" threads all over boards.

Fry's well-spoken, genuine, and gets his point across beautifully without resorting to trying to undermine the other side or offend anyone. Polite and compassionate, but realistic. I also agree with a lot of what else he has to say, so it only makes sense.

I love Fry as well but I don't really see your point with regards to the first bit. So what if they're egotistical? It doesn't detract from their arguments. Personally, I don't care if a religious person finds me or any other atheist arrogant. I'm not the one assuming that the entirety of the universe was created for us as god's chosen children or some such nonsense. Any arrogance that an atheist might have is completely occluded by the hypocrisy of a religious individual calling us arrogant.

housetypeb

I always thought that Montys pythons Life of Brian did its bit for the cause too, As it used humour to show how silly religion is and got people talking about it.
Maybe its not high brow but it got its point across(follow the shoe)
Mind you, It was banned in this country for quite a while.

liah

Improbable wrote: »

I love Fry as well but I don't really see your point with regards to the first bit. So what if they're egotistical? It doesn't detract from their arguments. Personally, I don't care if a religious person finds me or any other atheist arrogant. I'm not the one assuming that the entirety of the universe was created for us as god's chosen children or some such nonsense. Any arrogance that an atheist might have is completely occluded by the hypocrisy of a religious individual calling us arrogant.

I don't care how right or wrong anyone is, it doesn't give them license to act like a dick. It does detract from their arguments. These people are celebrities and they're very much in the public eye, you're far more likely to catch flies with honey over vinegar. Fry is honey, Hitchens is vinegar.

If the point is to educate people and make them more aware, bullying them into it isn't going to work. Far more people who aren't already atheists will listen to Fry over Hitch. He can make his point without resorting to a dick and that means the media would have a harder time tarring him as evil (though the Daily Mail tried to insinuate his intelligence2 debate was an "atheist hate campaign" :rolleyes:).

I mean, whatever about being a dick on public forums, I do it all the time myself, but when you're inadvertently representing a growing population of atheists, it's not a good idea to be the spokesperson if you're going to be a dick.

Bit counter-intuitive, now people are getting the impression all atheists are arrogant pricks, and no one listens to arrogant pricks.

Improbable

liah wrote: »

I don't care how right or wrong anyone is, it doesn't give them license to act like a dick. It does detract from their arguments. These people are celebrities and they're very much in the public eye, you're far more likely to catch flies with honey over vinegar. Fry is honey, Hitchens is vinegar.

If the point is to educate people and make them more aware, bullying them into it isn't going to work. Far more people who aren't already atheists will listen to Fry over Hitch. He can make his point without resorting to a dick and that means the media would have a harder time tarring him as evil (though the Daily Mail tried to insinuate his intelligence2 debate was an "atheist hate campaign" :rolleyes:).

I mean, whatever about being a dick on public forums, I do it all the time myself, but when you're inadvertently representing a growing population of atheists, it's not a good idea to be the spokesperson if you're going to be a dick.

Bit counter-intuitive, now people are getting the impression all atheists are arrogant pricks, and no one listens to arrogant pricks.

He's acerbic and doesn't wear kiddie gloves when he talks about religion. I don't see how that makes him a dick. That's what I like most about him. He doesn't feel that religion has any more right to some special "hurt feelings" protection than anything else. Moreover, he doesn't bully anyone. They're all free to stop talking to him any time they want. He doesn't go door to door and try to preach to people in their homes. The only "bullying" I see from Hitchens is that he doesn't accept any religious bovine excrement and he makes it known.

As for the last bit, you may not listen to arrogant pricks but I make my decisions based on people's arguments and not their demeanour.

liamw

GO_Bear wrote: »

Arra now , he really is ! Have you seen an Idiot abroad ?

Best clip ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prEBuV-0Ljs

Otacon

I agree with liah here. How you say something is almost as important as what you say, if you want people to actually listen to you. You may have a great argument but if no-one is listening, you are just a guy talking.

GO_Bear

People will only not listen when they really don't want to hear

ChocolateSauce

robindch wrote: »

Here's Fry's splendid philippic contra the Vatican:

I've always liked Fry, but until I first saw that debate I'd never been aware of his stance on religion. I watched that for Hitchens, whom I expected to be the star, but Fry really stole the show!


Anyway, my favourite intellectual is Carl Sagan. Although when it comes to atheism specifically I prefer Dawkins, Sagan is a lot more rounded, and I think even more eloquent. Another way of looking at it is that Dawkins always manages to say exactly what I'm thinking, except better, but Sagan managed to bring my mind to new heights and show me ideas and perspectives I hadn't imagined.

That's fairly recent, certainly a year ago I would have said Dawkins hands down, but I've since watched Cosmos twice and started reading The Demon Haunted World.

Improbable wrote:

He's acerbic and doesn't wear kiddie gloves when he talks about religion. I don't see how that makes him a dick.

It doesn't make him a dick. The problem is it makes some people incorrectly think he is, and that's as bad as actually being one. I've always loved Hitchens because he is so unapologetic, but if the goal of a debate is to convince the other side, as opposed to winning the debate, I'd put my money on someone else, someone like Harris or Fry.

nozzferrahhtoo

In the end the strength of any movement comes from having many different voices within it. If all the voices were the same monotone polite presentation it would not nearly be as effective.

The range of voices from the unassuming Dennetts and Randis, to the straight to the point clarity of Harris, through the Dawkins out to the more corrosive Hitchens and Myers give us an array of voices that I think makes the movement against religion more powerful not less. Where one voice will not capture the imagination of someone, another will.

I could not pick a single voice out of the more well known names in the movement and claim to want them to be any different than they already are.

Ecocrexis

Improbable wrote: »

As for the last bit, you may not listen to arrogant pricks but I make my decisions based on people's arguments and not their demeanour.

Yes you make rational decisions ignoring a persons good points and bad points. I imagine the rest of this forum does the same (or at least tries to).
However we are not your average person and to the average person an arrogant prick is an arrogant prick no matter how sensible his argument is or how stupid the opposition is.

I prefer Fry over Hitch just because he is able to connect to a wider audience and is listened to by more people

Carl Sagan

Dades wrote: »

And not just for his awesome fashion.

This one

OpenYourEyes

Hitchens
Dawkins
Stephen Fry


Bill Maher and Seth McFarlane are both good at conveying their atheism in their own ways. (possibly not considered "intellectuals", but they do what they do well)

Greg Graffin too, the lead singer of Bad Religion and a Zoology professor in California. Alot of thier songs challenge god and religion, and then just teaching evolution is obviously a great way of making people think and maybe/probably leads to atheism, without ever having to mention god directly!

aidan24326

GO_Bear wrote: »

:O fair enough he is not a intellectual, but all the athiest comedians ... Dylan Moran, Dara O Brien etc , are opening the lay mans eyes faster than any intellectual jargon !

And not forgetting the great Dave Allen!

Dawkins and Sam Harris for me. Hitchens can go a little too far, even though I agree with him most of the time. Stuff like calling Mother Teresa Hell's Angel is going a bit OTT though.

Special mention for Carl Sagan too, I'm not surprised to see him get alot of votes. The Demon Haunted World should be prescribed reading in every school.

Dave!

Sam Harris!!!

Funglegunk

Carl Sagan hands down. Bonus awful, awful portrait of the man himself.

GO_Bear

Dave! wrote: »

Sam Harris!!!

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE :pac::pac::pac::pac: