thehomer:

When will you religious people learn that simply dropping a list of names isn't an argument in support of your position?

huh? From the same atheists whose singular "evidence" for their quirky beliefs is that a larger percentage of scientists (name drop here) agree with them? Hypocrisy indeed is thy name.

frosbel: Famous Scientists Who Believed in God

Belief in God
Is belief in the existence of God irrational? These days, many famous scientists are also strong proponents of atheism. However, in the past, and even today, many scientists believe that God exists and is responsible for what we see in nature. This is a small sampling of scientists who contributed to the development of modern science while believing in God. Although many people believe in a "God of the gaps", these scientists, and still others alive today, believe because of the evidence.


Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)
Copernicus was the Polish astronomer who put forward the first mathematically based system of planets going around the sun. He attended various European universities, and became a Canon in the Catholic church in 1497. His new system was actually first presented in the Vatican gardens in 1533 before Pope Clement VII who approved, and urged Copernicus to publish it around this time. Copernicus was never under any threat of religious persecution - and was urged to publish both by Catholic Bishop Guise, Cardinal Schonberg, and the Protestant Professor George Rheticus. Copernicus referred sometimes to God in his works, and did not see his system as in conflict with the Bible.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1627)
Bacon was a philosopher who is known for establishing the scientific method of inquiry based on experimentation and inductive reasoning. In De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium, Bacon established his goals as being the discovery of truth, service to his country, and service to the church. Although his work was based upon experimentation and reasoning, he rejected atheism as being the result of insufficient depth of philosophy, stating, "It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity." (Of Atheism)


Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Kepler was a brilliant mathematician and astronomer. He did early work on light, and established the laws of planetary motion about the sun. He also came close to reaching the Newtonian concept of universal gravity - well before Newton was born! His introduction of the idea of force in astronomy changed it radically in a modern direction. Kepler was an extremely sincere and pious Lutheran, whose works on astronomy contain writings about how space and the heavenly bodies represent the Trinity. Kepler suffered no persecution for his open avowal of the sun-centered system, and, indeed, was allowed as a Protestant to stay in Catholic Graz as a Professor (1595-1600) when other Protestants had been expelled!

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Galileo is often remembered for his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. His controversial work on the solar system was published in 1633. It had no proofs of a sun-centered system (Galileo's telescope discoveries did not indicate a moving earth) and his one "proof" based upon the tides was invalid. It ignored the correct elliptical orbits of planets published twenty five years earlier by Kepler. Since his work finished by putting the Pope's favorite argument in the mouth of the simpleton in the dialogue, the Pope (an old friend of Galileo's) was very offended. After the "trial" and being forbidden to teach the sun-centered system, Galileo did his most useful theoretical work, which was on dynamics. Galileo expressly said that the Bible cannot err, and saw his system as an alternate interpretation of the biblical texts.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Descartes was a French mathematician, scientist and philosopher who has been called the father of modern philosophy. His school studies made him dissatisfied with previous philosophy: He had a deep religious faith as a Roman Catholic, which he retained to his dying day, along with a resolute, passionate desire to discover the truth. At the age of 24 he had a dream, and felt the vocational call to seek to bring knowledge together in one system of thought. His system began by asking what could be known if all else were doubted - suggesting the famous "I think therefore I am". Actually, it is often forgotten that the next step for Descartes was to establish the near certainty of the existence of God - for only if God both exists and would not want us to be deceived by our experiences - can we trust our senses and logical thought processes. God is, therefore, central to his whole philosophy. What he really wanted to see was that his philosophy be adopted as standard Roman Catholic teaching. Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon (1561-1626) are generally regarded as the key figures in the development of scientific methodology. Both had systems in which God was important, and both seem more devout than the average for their era.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and theologian. In mathematics, he published a treatise on the subject of projective geometry and established the foundation for probability theory. Pascal invented a mechanical calculator, and established the principles of vacuums and the pressure of air. He was raised a Roman Catholic, but in 1654 had a religious vision of God, which turned the direction of his study from science to theology. Pascal began publishing a theological work, Lettres provinciales, in 1656. His most influential theological work, the Pensées ("Thoughts", was a defense of Christianity, which was published after his death. The most famous concept from Pensées was Pascal's Wager. Pascal's last words were, "May God never abandon me."
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
In optics, mechanics, and mathematics, Newton was a figure of undisputed genius and innovation. In all his science (including chemistry) he saw mathematics and numbers as central. What is less well known is that he was devoutly religious and saw numbers as involved in understanding God's plan for history from the Bible. He did a considerable work on biblical numerology, and, though aspects of his beliefs were not orthodox, he thought theology was very important. In his system of physics, God was essential to the nature and absoluteness of space. In Principia he stated, "The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being."

Robert Boyle (1791-1867)
One of the founders and key early members of the Royal Society, Boyle gave his name to "Boyle's Law" for gases, and also wrote an important work on chemistry. Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: "By his will he endowed a series of Boyle lectures, or sermons, which still continue, 'for proving the Christian religion against notorious infidels...' As a devout Protestant, Boyle took a special interest in promoting the Christian religion abroad, giving money to translate and publish the New Testament into Irish and Turkish. In 1690 he developed his theological views in The Christian Virtuoso, which he wrote to show that the study of nature was a central religious duty." Boyle wrote against atheists in his day (the notion that atheism is a modern invention is a myth), and was clearly much more devoutly Christian than the average in his era.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday was the son of a blacksmith who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His work on electricity and magnetism not only revolutionized physics, but led to much of our lifestyles today, which depends on them (including computers and telephone lines and, so, web sites). Faraday was a devoutly Christian member of the Sandemanians, which significantly influenced him and strongly affected the way in which he approached and interpreted nature. Originating from Presbyterians, the Sandemanians rejected the idea of state churches, and tried to go back to a New Testament type of Christianity.

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Mendel was the first to lay the mathematical foundations of genetics, in what came to be called "Mendelianism". He began his research in 1856 (three years before Darwin published his Origin of Species) in the garden of the Monastery in which he was a monk. Mendel was elected Abbot of his Monastery in 1868. His work remained comparatively unknown until the turn of the century, when a new generation of botanists began finding similar results and "rediscovered" him (though their ideas were not identical to his). An interesting point is that the 1860's was notable for formation of the X-Club, which was dedicated to lessening religious influences and propagating an image of "conflict" between science and religion. One sympathizer was Darwin's cousin Francis Galton, whose scientific interest was in genetics (a proponent of eugenics - selective breeding among humans to "improve" the stock). He was writing how the "priestly mind" was not conducive to science while, at around the same time, an Austrian monk was making the breakthrough in genetics. The rediscovery of the work of Mendel came too late to affect Galton's contribution.

William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907)
Kelvin was foremost among the small group of British scientists who helped to lay the foundations of modern physics. His work covered many areas of physics, and he was said to have more letters after his name than anyone else in the Commonwealth, since he received numerous honorary degrees from European Universities, which recognized the value of his work. He was a very committed Christian, who was certainly more religious than the average for his era. Interestingly, his fellow physicists George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) were also men of deep Christian commitment, in an era when many were nominal, apathetic, or anti-Christian. The Encyclopedia Britannica says "Maxwell is regarded by most modern physicists as the scientist of the 19th century who had the greatest influence on 20th century physics; he is ranked with Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein for the fundamental nature of his contributions." Lord Kelvin was an Old Earth creationist, who estimated the Earth's age to be somewhere between 20 million and 100 million years, with an upper limit at 500 million years based on cooling rates (a low estimate due to his lack of knowledge about radiogenic heating).

Max Planck (1858-1947)
Planck made many contributions to physics, but is best known for quantum theory, which revolutionized our understanding of the atomic and sub-atomic worlds. In his 1937 lecture "Religion and Naturwissenschaft," Planck expressed the view that God is everywhere present, and held that "the holiness of the unintelligible Godhead is conveyed by the holiness of symbols." Atheists, he thought, attach too much importance to what are merely symbols. Planck was a churchwarden from 1920 until his death, and believed in an almighty, all-knowing, beneficent God (though not necessarily a personal one). Both science and religion wage a "tireless battle against skepticism and dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition" with the goal "toward God!"

If you want to play by names, what would you say about this?

[b]List of atheists in science and technology that have changed the way we see the world
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This list includes natural scientists and Social scientists
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheists_in_science_and_technology

Zhores Alferov (1930–): Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics. He is an inventor of the heterotransistor and the winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.[1][2]
Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995): Swedish electrical engineer and plasma physicist. He received the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). He is best known for describing the class of MHD waves now known as Alfvén waves.[3][4][5]
Jim Al-Khalili (1962–): Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey.[6]
Philip W. Anderson (1923-): American physicist. He was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977. Anderson has made contributions to the theories of localization, antiferromagnetism and high-temperature superconductivity.[7]
François Arago (1786–1853): French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician.[8]
Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927): Swedish physicist and chemist. He is considered to be one of the founders of physical chemistry. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903.[9]
Peter Atkins (1940–): English chemist, Professor of chemistry at Lincoln College, Oxford in England.[10]
Julius Axelrod (1912–2004): American Nobel Prize winning biochemist, noted for his work on the release and reuptake of catecholamine neurotransmitters and major contributions to the understanding of the pineal gland and how it is regulated during the sleep-wake cycle.[11]
Sir Edward Battersby Bailey FRS (1881–1965): British geologist, director of the British Geological Survey.[12]
Sir Patrick Bateson FRS (1938–): English biologist and science writer, Emeritus Professor of ethology at Cambridge University and president of the Zoological Society of London.[13]
William Bateson (1861–1926): British geneticist, a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he eventually became Master. He was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity and biological inheritance, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscovery.[14]
George Wells Beadle (1903–1989): American geneticist. Along with Edward Lawrie Tatum, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 for discovering the role of genes in regulating biochemical events within cells.[15][16]
John Stewart Bell (1928–1990): Irish physicist. Best known for his discovery of Bell's theorem.[17]
Charles H. Bennett (1943–): American physicist, information theorist and IBM Fellow at IBM Research. He is best known for his work in quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and is one of the founding fathers of modern quantum information theory.[18]
John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971): British biophysicist. Best known for pioneering X-ray crystallography in molecular biology.[19]
Paul Bert (1833–1886): French zoologist, physiologist and politician. Known for his research on oxygen toxicity.[20]
Claude Louis Berthollet (1748–1822): French chemist.[21]
Norman Bethune (1890–1939): Canadian physician and medical innovator.[22]
Patrick Blackett OM, CH, FRS (1897–1974): Nobel Prize winning English experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism.[23]
Susan Blackmore (1951–): English psychologist and memeticist, best known for her book The Meme Machine.[24]
Niels Bohr (1885-1962): Danish physicist. Best known for his foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.[25][26][27][28]
Sir Hermann Bondi KCB, FRS (1919–2005): Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist, best known for co-developing the steady-state theory of the universe and important contributions to the theory of general relativity.[29][30]
Paul D. Boyer (1918–): American biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1997.[31]
Calvin Bridges (1889–1938): American geneticist, known especially for his work on fruit fly genetics.[32]
Percy Williams Bridgman (1882–1961): American physicist who won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures.[33][34]
Paul Broca (1824–1880): French physician, surgeon, anatomist, and anthropologist. Broca's work also contributed to the development of physical anthropology, advancing the science of anthropometry.[35]
Sheldon Brown (1944–2008): Bicycle mechanic and technical authority on almost every aspect of bicycles.[36]
Ruth Mack Brunswick (1897–1946): American psychologist, a close confidant of and collaborator with Sigmund Freud.[37]
Robert Cailliau (1947–): Belgian informatics engineer and computer scientist who, together with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, developed the World Wide Web.[38]
John D. Carmack (1970–): American game programmer and the co-founder of id Software. Carmack was the lead programmer of the id computer games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Rage and their sequels.[39]
Sean M. Carroll (1966–): American cosmologist specializing in dark energy and general relativity.[40]
James Chadwick (1891–1974): English physicist. He won the 1935 Nobel prize in physics for his discovery of the neutron.[41]
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995): Indian American astrophysicist known for his theoretical work on the structure and evolution of stars. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.[42]
William Kingdon Clifford FRS (1845–1879): English mathematician and philosopher, co-introducer of geometric algebra, the first to suggest that gravitation might be a manifestation of an underlying geometry, and coiner of the expression "mind-stuff".[43]
Frank Close OBE (1945–): British particle physicist, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience, for which he was awarded the Institute of Physics's Kelvin Medal and Prize.[44]
John Horton Conway (1937–): British mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He is best known for the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.[45]
Brian Cox OBE (1968–): English particle physicist, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Professor at the University of Manchester. Best known as a presenter of a number of science programmes for the BBC. He also had some fame in the 1990s as the keyboard player for the pop band D:Ream.[46][47]
Jerry Coyne (1949–): American professor of biology, known for his books on evolution and commentary on the intelligent design debate.[48]
Francis Crick (1916–2004): English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist; noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.[49][50][51][52][53][54][55]
James F. Crow (1916–2012): American geneticist.[56]
Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783): French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie.[57]
Sir Howard Dalton FRS (1944–2008): British microbiologist, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from March 2002 to September 2007.[58]
Richard Dawkins (1941–): British zoologist, biologist, creator of the concepts of the selfish gene and the meme; outspoken atheist and popularizer of science, author of The God Delusion and founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.[59]
Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871): British mathematician and logician. He formulated De Morgan's laws and introduced the term mathematical induction, making its idea rigorous.[60][61][62]
Arnaud Denjoy (1884–1974): French mathematician, noted for his contributions to harmonic analysis and differential equations.[63]
David Deutsch (1953–): Israeli-British physicist at the University of Oxford. He pioneered the field of quantum computation by being the first person to formulate a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer.[64]
Jared Diamond (1937–): American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is best known for his award-winning popular science books The Third Chimpanzee, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.[65]
Paul Dirac (1902–1984): British theoretical physicist, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, predicted the existence of antimatter, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.[66][67]
Thomas Edison: American inventor, one of the best inventors of all time. During his career Edison patented more than 1,000 inventions, including the electric light, the phonograph, and the motion-picture camera.[68][69]
Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933): Austrian-Dutch physicist. Made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics.[70][71]
Thomas Eisner (1929–2011): German-American entomologist and ecologist, known as the "father of chemical ecology".[72]
Albert Ellis (1913–2007): American psychologist who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.[73]
Paul Erdős (1913–1996), Hungarian mathematician. He published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory.[74][75]
Richard R. Ernst (1933–): Swiss physical chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991.[76]
Hugh Everett III (1930–1982): American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he termed his "relative state" formulation.[77]
Sandra Faber (1944–): American University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, also working at the Lick Observatory, who headed the team that discovered 'The Great Attractor.[78]
Gustav Fechner (1801–1887): German experimental psychologist. An early pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics.[79]
Leon Festinger (1919–1989): American social psychologist famous for his Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.[80]
Richard Feynman (1918–1988): American theoretical physicist, best known for his work in renormalizing Quantum electrodynamics (QED) and his path integral formulation of quantum mechanics . He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.[81][82]
James Franck (1882–1964): German physicist. Won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925.[83]
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Father of psychoanalysis.[84]
Erich Fromm (1900–1980): renowned Jewish-German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.[85]
Christer Fuglesang (1957–): Swedish astronaut and physicist.[86]
George Gamow (1904–1968): Russian-born theoretical physicist and cosmologist. An early advocate and developer of Lemaître's Big slam theory.[87]
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1772–1850): French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for two laws related to gases.[88]
Vitaly Ginzburg (1916–2009): Russian theoretical physicist and astrophysicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003. He was also awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1994/95.[89]
Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, CBE (1950–): British scientist, writer and broadcaster, specialising in the physiology of the brain, who has worked to research and bring attention to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.[90]
Herb Grosch (1918–2010): Canadian-American computer scientist, perhaps best known for Grosch's law, which he formulated in 1950.[91]
Alan Guth (1947–): American theoretical physicist and cosmologist.[92]
Jacques Hadamard (1865–1963): French mathematician. He made major contributions in number theory, complex function theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations.[93]
Jonathan Haidt (c.1964–): Associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, focusing on the psychological bases of morality across different cultures, and author of The Happiness Hypothesis.[94]
E. T. 'Teddy' Hall (1924–2001): English archaeological scientist, famous for exposing the Piltdown Man fraud and dating the Turin Shroud as a medieval fake.[95]
Sir James Hall (1761–1832): Scottish geologist and chemist, President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.[96]
Edmond Halley (1656-1742): English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist and physicist. Best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet.[97]
Beverly Halstead (1933–1991): British paleontologist and populariser of science.[98]
W. D. Hamilton (1936–2000): British evolutionary biologist, widely recognised as one of the greatest evolutionary theorists of the 20th century.[99]
G. H. Hardy (1877–1947): a prominent English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis.[100][101]
Herbert A. Hauptman (1917–2011), American mathematician. Along with Jerome Karle, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985.[102]
Stephen Hawking (1942–): arguably the world's pre-eminent scientist advocates atheism in The Grand Design[103]
Peter Higgs (1929–): British theoretical physicist, recipient of the Dirac Medal and Prize, known for his prediction of the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God particle".[104]
Roald Hoffmann (1937–): American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[105]
Lancelot Hogben (1895–1975): English experimental zoologist and medical statistician, now best known for his popularising books on science, mathematics and language.[106]
Nicholas Humphrey (1943–): British psychologist, working on consciousness and belief in the supernatural from a Darwinian perspective, and primatological research into Machiavellian intelligence theory.[107]
Sir Julian Huxley FRS (1887–1975): English evolutionary biologist, a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund.[108]
Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958): French physicist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1935.[109][110]
Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956): French scientist. She is the daughter of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. She along with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935.[111]
Steve Jones (1944–): British geneticist, Professor of genetics and head of the biology department at University College London, and television presenter and a prize-winning author on biology, especially evolution; one of the best known contemporary popular writers on evolution.[112][113]
Stuart Kauffman (1939-): American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life on Earth. He is best known for arguing that the complexity of biological systems and organisms might result as much from self-organization and far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian natural selection, as well as for applying models of Boolean networks to simplified genetic circuits.[114]
Samuel Karlin (1924–2007): American mathematician. He did extensive work in mathematical population genetics.[115]
Ancel Keys (1904–2004): American scientist who studied the influence of diet on health. He examined the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and was responsible for two famous diets: K-rations and the Mediterranean diet.[116]
Lawrence Krauss (1954-): Professor of physics at Arizona State University and popularizer of science. Krauss speaks regularly at atheist conferences, like Beyond Belief and Atheist Alliance International.[117]
Herbert Kroemer (1928–): German-American professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2000, he along with Zhores I. Alferov, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics".[118]
Harold Kroto (1939–): 1996 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.[119]
Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956): American biologist, sexologist and professor of entomology and zoology.[120]
Ray Kurzweil (1948–): American author, scientist, inventor and futurist. He is the author of several books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism.[121]
Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736–1813): mathematician and astronomer.[122]
Jérôme Lalande (1732–1807): French astronomer and writer.[123]
Lev Landau (1908-1968): Soviet physicist. He received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity.[124][125]
Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749 –1827): French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics, and anticipated the discovery of galaxies other than the Milky Way and the existence of black holes.[126][127][128]
Richard Leakey (1944–): Kenyan paleontologist, archaeologist and conservationist.[129]
Jean-Marie Lehn (1939–): French chemist. He received the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen.[130]
Sir John Leslie (1766–1832): Scottish mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat; he was the first person to artificially produce ice, and gave the first modern account of capillary action.[131]
Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792–1856): Russian mathematician. Known for his works on hyperbolic geometry.[132]
H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins FRS (1923–2004): English theoretical chemist and a cognitive scientist.[133]
Paul MacCready (1925–2007): American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the Kremer prize.[134]
Ernst Mach (1838-1916): Austrian physicist and philosopher. Known for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves.[135]
Andrey Markov (1856–1922): Russian mathematician. He is best known for his work on stochastic processes.[136][137]
Samarendra Maulik (1881–1950): Indian entomologist specialising in the Coleoptera, who worked at the British Museum (Natural History) and a Professor of Zoology at the University of Calcutta.[138]
John Maynard Smith (1920–2004): British evolutionary biologist and geneticist, instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution, and noted theorizer on the evolution of sex and signalling theory.[139]
Ernst Mayr (1904–2005): a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist. He was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists.[140]
John McCarthy (1927–2011): American computer scientist and cognitive scientist who received the Turing Award in 1971 for his major contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He was responsible for the coining of the term "Artificial Intelligence" in his 1955 proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Conference and was the inventor of the Lisp programming language.[141]
Sir Peter Medawar (1915–1987): Nobel Prize-winning British scientist best known for his work on how the immune system rejects or accepts tissue transplants.[142]
Jeff Medkeff (1968–2008): American astronomer, prominent science writer and educator, and designer of robotic telescopes.[143]
Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916): Russian biologist, zoologist and protozoologist. He is best known for his research into the immune system. Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908, shared with Paul Ehrlich.[144]
Jonathan Miller CBE (1934–): British physician, actor, theatre and opera director, and television presenter. Wrote and presented the 2004 television series, Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief, exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world.[145][146]
Marvin Minsky (1927–): American cognitive scientist and computer scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in MIT.[147]
Peter D. Mitchell (1920–1992): 1978-Nobel-laureate British biochemist. His mother was an atheist and he himself became an atheist at the age of 15.[148]
Jacob Moleschott (1822–1893): Dutch physiologist and writer on dietetics.[149]
Gaspard Monge (1746–1818): French mathematician. Monge is the inventor of descriptive geometry.[150][151]
Jacques Monod (1910–76): French biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965 for discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis.[152]
Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866–1945): American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries relating the role the chromosome plays in heredity.[153]
Desmond Morris (1928–): English zoologist and ethologist, famous for describing human behaviour from a zoological perspective in his books The Unclad Ape and The Human Zoo.[154][155]
Fritz Müller (1821–1897): German biologist who emigrated to Brazil, where he studied the natural history of the Amazon rainforest and was an early advocate of evolutionary theory.[156]
Hermann Joseph Muller (1890–1967): American geneticist and educator, best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation (X-ray mutagenesis). He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946.[157]
PZ Myers (1957–): American biology professor at the University of Minnesota and a blogger via his blog, Pharyngula.[158]
John Forbes Nash, Jr. (1928–): American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. He shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.[159]
Yuval Ne'eman (1925–2006): Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician. One of his greatest achievements in physics was his 1961 discovery of the classification of hadrons through the SU(3) flavour symmetry, now named the Eightfold Way, which was also proposed independently by Murray Gell-Mann.[160]
Alfred Nobel (1833–1896): Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes.[161]
Paul Nurse (1949–): 2001 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.[162]
Mark Oliphant (1901–2000): Australian physicist and humanitarian. He played a fundamental role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and also the development of the atomic bomb.[163]
Alexander Oparin (1894-1980): Soviet biochemist.[164]
J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967): American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project.[165][166]
Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932): Baltic German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities. He, along with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and Svante Arrhenius, are usually credited with being the modern founders of the field of physical chemistry.[167]
Robert L. Park (born 1931): scientist, University of Maryland professor of physics, and author of Voodoo Science and Superstition.[168]
Linus Pauling (1901–1994): American chemist, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962)[67][169]
John Allen Paulos (1945–): Professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia and writer, author of Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up (2007)[170]
Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936): Nobel Prize winning Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician, widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning.[171]
Sir Roger Penrose (1931–): English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. He is renowned for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He is also a recreational mathematician and philosopher[172] and refers to himself as an atheist.[173]
Francis Perrin (1901–1992): French physicist, co-establisher of the possibility of nuclear chain reactions and nuclear energy production.[174]
Jean Baptiste Perrin (1870–1942): French physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926.[175]
Max Perutz (1914–2002): Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins.[176]
Massimo Pigliucci (1964–): Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the Stony Brook University who known as an outspoken critic of creationism and advocate of science education.[177]
Steven Pinker (1954–): Canadian-born American psychologist.[178]
Norman Pirie FRS (1907–1997): British biochemist and virologist co-discoverer in 1936 of viral crystallization, an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.[179]
Ronald Plasterk (1957–): Dutch prize-winning molecular geneticist and columnist, and Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the fourth Balkenende cabinet for the Labour Party.[180]
Derek J. de Solla Price (1922–1983): British-American historian of science.[181]
Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930): British mathematician who also made significant contributions in philosophy and economics.[182]
Marcus J. Ranum (1962–): American computer and network security researcher and industry leader. He is credited with a number of innovations in firewalls.[183]
Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow (1942–): British cosmologist and astrophysicist.[184]
Richard J. Roberts (1943–): British biochemist and molecular biologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1993 for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.[185][186][187]
Steven Rose (1938–): Professor of Biology and Neurobiology at the Open University and University of London, and author of several popular science books.[188]
Marshall Rosenbluth (1927–2003) American physicist, nicknamed "the Pope of Plasma Physics". He created the Metropolis algorithm in statistical mechanics, derived the Rosenbluth formula in high-energy physics, and laid the foundations for instability theory in plasma physics.[189]
Oliver Sacks (1933–): United States-based British neurologist, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings.[190]
Carl Sagan (1934–1996): American astronomer and astrochemist, a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences, and pioneer of exobiology and promoter of the SETI. Although Sagan has been identified as an atheist according to some definitions,[191][192][193] he rejected the label, stating "An atheist has to know a lot more than I know."[191] He was an agnostic who,[194] while maintaining that the idea of a creator of the universe was difficult to disprove,[195] nevertheless disbelieved in God's existence, pending sufficient evidence.[196]
Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989): Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist.[197]
Robert Sapolsky (1957–): Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University.[198]
Marcus du Sautoy (1965–): mathematician and holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science.[199]
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961): Austrian-Irish physicist and theoretical biologist. A pioneer of quantum mechanics and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics.[200][201][202]
Amartya Kumar Sen (1933–): 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics.[203][204][205][206]
Claude Shannon (1916–2001): American electrical engineer and mathematician, has been called "the father of information theory", and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory.[207]
Edwin Shneidman (1918–2009): American suicidologist and thanatologist.[208]
Michael Smith (1932–2000): British-born Canadian biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1993.[209]
Lee Smolin (1955–): American theoretical physicist, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo.[210]
Alan Sokal (1955–): American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor of physics at New York University. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism, resulting in the Sokal affair in 1996.[211]
Richard Stallman (1953–): American software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer.[212]
Hugo Steinhaus (1887–1972): Polish mathematician and educator.[213]
Victor J. Stenger (1935–): American physicist, emeritus professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawaii and adjunct professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado. Author of the book God: The Failed Hypothesis.[214]
Jack Suchet (1908–2001): South African born obstetrician, gynaecologist and venereologist, who carried out research on the use of penicillin in the treatment of venereal disease with Sir Alexander Fleming.[215]
Eleazar Sukenik (1889–1953): Israeli archaeologist and professor of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, undertaking excavations in Jerusalem, and recognising the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Israel.[216]
John Sulston (1942–): British biologist. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[217]
Leonard Susskind (1940–): American theoretical physicist; a founding father of superstring theory and professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University.[218]
Raymond Tallis (1946–): Leading British gerontologist, philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic.[219]
Arthur Tansley (1871–1955): English botanist who was a pioneer in the science of ecology.[220]
Alfred Tarski (1901-1983): Polish logician and mathematician. A prolific author best known for his work on model theory, metamathematics, and algebraic logic.[221]
Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988): Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals.[222]
Gherman Titov (1935–2000): Soviet cosmonaut and the second human to orbit the Earth.[223]
Linus Torvalds (1969–): Finnish software engineer, creator of the Linux kernel.[224]
Alan Turing (1912–1954): English mathematician, logician, and cryptographer; often considered to be the father of modern computer science. The Turing Award, often recognized as the "Nobel Prize of computing", is named after him.[225][226]
Matthew Turner (died ca. 1789): chemist, surgeon, teacher and radical theologian, author of the first published work of avowed atheism in Britain (1782).[227][228]
Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943): Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted his life to the study and improvement of wheat, corn, and other cereal crops that sustain the global population.[229]
J. Craig Venter (1946–): American biologist and entrepreneur, one of the first researchers to sequence the human genome, and in 2010 the first to create a cell with a synthetic genome.[230]
Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945): Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism.[231]
W. Grey Walter (1910–1977): American neurophysiologist famous for his work on brain waves, and robotician.[232]
James D. Watson (1928–): 1962-Nobel-laureate and co-discover of the structure of DNA.[233][234]
Joseph Weber (1919–2000): American physicist, who gave the earliest public lecture on the principles behind the laser and the maser, and developed the first gravitational wave detectors (Weber bars).[235]
Steven Weinberg (1933–): American theoretical physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for the unification of electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force.[236][237][238]
Ian Wilmut (1944-): English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly.[239]
David Sloan Wilson (1949–): American evolutionary biologist, son of Sloan Wilson, proponent of multilevel selection theory and author of several popular books on evolution.[240]
Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS FRSL (1929–): developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster.[241]
Steve Wozniak (1950–): co-founder of Apple Computer and inventor of the Apple I and Apple II.[242]
Elizur Wright (1804–1885): American mathematician and abolitionist, sometimes described as the "father of life insurance" for his pioneering work on actuarial tables.[243]
Will Wright (1960–): American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis.[244]
Victor Weisskopf (1908–2002): Austrian-American theoretical physicist, co-founder and board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.[245]
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920): German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor. He is regarded as the "father of experimental psychology".[246][247]
Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): Swiss astronomer and astrophysicist.[248][/b]

davidylan:

huh? From the same atheists whose singular "evidence" for their quirky beliefs is that a larger percentage of scientists (name drop here) agree with them? Hypocrisy indeed is thy name.

Again, you're making yet another mistake. When people cite references, it isn't the name of the scientist that makes the work credible but the work that they actually did.
The fact that most of the relevant experts accept a certain idea especially when the reasons are laid bare, is not a fallacious line of reasoning.

This is contrasted to religious people who simply cite a book with lots of anonymous authors while refusing to defend the claims made in the book. Yet at the same time expecting others to simply swallow it whole.

thehomer:

Again, you're making yet another mistake. When people cite references, it isn't the name of the scientist that makes the work credible but the work that they actually did.
The fact that most of the relevant experts accept a certain idea especially when the reasons are laid bare, is not a fallacious line of reasoning.

This is contrasted to religious people who simply cite a book with lots of anonymous authors while refusing to defend the claims made in the book. Yet at the same time expecting others to simply swallow it whole.

Actually the atheists here dont cite references, infact i have just had to question a thread from ghostofsparta on the same issue.
What i worry about mostly is atheists who name drop, have no idea what scientific theories they defend so long as it is supported by a "big name scientist" while expecting us to swallow it whole just because x% of scientists have come out in "support". The idea being... if x eminent scientists agree... how DARE YOU disagree. I can post many many posts here from the likes of Mazaje and even you attacking me on this same issue... i remember once mazaje asking me to write a paper to justify why i disagree with "eminent" scientists even when he had no idea what their logic was.

davidylan:

Actually the atheists here dont cite references, infact i have just had to question a thread from ghostofsparta on the same issue.
What i worry about mostly is atheists who name drop, have no idea what scientific theories they defend so long as it is supported by a "big name scientist" while expecting us to swallow it whole just because x% of scientists have come out in "support". The idea being... if x eminent scientists agree... how DARE YOU disagree. I can post many many posts here from the likes of Mazaje and even you attacking me on this same issue... i remember once mazaje asking me to write a paper to justify why i disagree with "eminent" scientists even when he had no idea what their logic was.

You're talking to me not some other random atheists so I see no reason to drag in anyone else here who may not be free to defend themselves.

Can you show me where I presented a theory that I attempted to support by naming a "big name scientist"?
I would like to see the top five posts where you think I did this and attacked you on this issue. Will you be able to present these posts?

thehomer:

You're talking to me not some other random atheists so I see no reason to drag in anyone else here who may not be free to defend themselves.

Can you show me where I presented a theory that I attempted to support by naming a "big name scientist"?
I would like to see the top five posts where you think I did this and attacked you on this issue. Will you be able to present these posts?

Biko pls, you are not that important.

davidylan:

Biko pls, you are not that important.

Again, this isn't about me but it is about your own integrity. You keep making unsupported claims. And when asked for some supporting evidence, you don't present any support because they're simply false.

You really should learn to stick to making claims you can support.

thehomer:

Again, this isn't about me but it is about your own integrity. You keep making unsupported claims. And when asked for some supporting evidence, you don't present any support because they're simply false.

You really should learn to stick to making claims you can support.

my integrity is not tied to thehomer's approval.

Wow! Is this what NL has now reduced to? My people are more popular than your people??!

davidylan:

my integrity is not tied to thehomer's approval.

Again, this isn't about me, but about you supporting your own claims. I didn't put the claims in your mouth I'm only asking you to support them.

thehomer:

Again, this isn't about me, but about you supporting your own claims. I didn't put the claims in your mouth I'm only asking you to support them.

I supported my claims. Its ok if you disagree. I dont have to satisfy you.

davidylan:

I supported my claims. Its ok if you disagree. I dont have to satisfy you.

Where did you support them?

Mr_Anony: Wow! Is this what NL has now reduced to? My people are more popular than your people??!

before nko?

In the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson
"And so that’s why I can’t claim myself, I can’t agree to the claims by atheists that I’m one of that community. I don’t have the time, energy, interest of conducting myself that way. I’m perfectly happy going to see the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. I have Handel’s Messiah on my iPhone along with Bach’s B Minor Mass. Some of my favorite bits of music. This is what I do and I’m perfectly fine with that. I’m perfectly fine with having religious people live all around me. I’m not trying to convert people. I don’t care. We are a religiously pluralistic society, most of what accounts for the immigration waves into this nation were people fleeing religious persecution in their hometown. And no one will deny the richness of this country is a product of the immigration that unfolded. I’m ok with that. Just keep it out of the science classroom."

The good thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not. NO MAN has ever claimed a scientific breakthrough by sitting in a church or mosque. One thing common to all discoverers/scientists was that they had great minds. God or not, your brain has to function.

musKeeto: The good thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not. NO MAN has ever claimed a scientific breakthrough by sitting in a church or mosque. One thing common to all discoverers/scientists was that they had great minds. God or not, your brain has to function.

How ironic !

frosbel:

How ironic !

Only to you and your fellow turn-logic-on-its-head religionists.

Avicenna:
Only to you and your fellow turn-logic-on-its-head religionists.

Oh Yeah !!!

frosbel:

How ironic !

And ur point is? Keep searching online for a riposte...

musKeeto:
And ur point is? Keep searching online for a riposte...

Nope, have no time for games with atheists, trust me.

frosbel:

Nope, have no time for games with atheists, trust me.

Trust u?

There are atheists, in nigeria.. Well, I live in a village, maybe why I've never noticed. Pick a god people, be it yah'weh?, thor, pikiwokki, the intangible/invisible pink unicorn,flying spaghetti; pick anyone.
Back to the discussion at hand, I lol'd when I saw 'topic', for like a minute. I admit I've not read the whole thread, time, concentration and lazyness, I'm sure you understand. I did notice a list of theists, mostly of people who lived in a diffrent world, frankly. You should feel bad for even bringing most of them up (pascal's wager is one of the most disingenous things I've ever heard, brilliant man though), and you missed some I'd consider better (maxwell, goddel, heisenberg showed up in church, dyson, others I can't remember). Being deist back in the day probably equated to being agnostic/atheist, but that's another argument. I'm reminded of a thread I saw elsewhere where some ppl where wondering if fundamentalists were going to abandon google because it has now taken a very public pro-gay stance, even in countries where such views aren't popular. Maybe bimg will profit? Finally microsoft making money from its notoriously unprofitable web business? Well, no, microsoft has been supporting gay rights for a very long time. Ok then, apple! Despite not being known for being exactly charitable (ostensibly) since jobs' return tim cook is apparently gay.. A dilemma it seems... Even the man generally regarded as being the father of computing, alan turing, was gay. Some of the engineers responsible for creating critical bits of the internet, gay. What to do? Did you even look at the list of atheist nobel prize winners. Let me point that this is not an argument against the op. The op (statement, not you bro) is so silly I cannot express just how wrong it is without impairing brain fuction. I'm not eloquent enough either. This is 'just sayin...'. Kind regards

musKeeto: The good thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not. NO MAN has ever claimed a scientific breakthrough by sitting in a church or mosque. One thing common to all discoverers/scientists was that they had great minds. God or not, your brain has to function.

Really? Like the thousands of scientific publications that get recalled for fraud every year? My guy have you ever practiced science in your life?

davidylan:

Really? Like the thousands of scientific publications that get recalled for fraud every year? My guy have you ever practiced science in your life?

wow, so that means 100% of your articles were fraudulent! I told you not to get a Phd from University of Flat-Earthers, USA!


[img]http://howimetyourotaku.files./2011/08/troll-face.png[/img]

MacDaddy is right though.

No one "invented" electricity. we just learnt how to harness it in different ways.

Michael Faraday on the other hand contributed to the conversion of electric power to mechanical power in the form of a motor.

Cant believe no one mentioned Sir Humphry Davy.


If anyone person can be given the title "father of electricity" We need to think along the lines of Nikola Tesla or even Benjamin Franklin(the president)

wiegraf: There are atheists, in nigeria.. Well, I live in a village, maybe why I've never noticed. Pick a god people, be it yah'weh?, thor, pikiwokki, the intangible/invisible pink unicorn,flying spaghetti; pick anyone.

The flying spaghetti catches my eye, appears that's what our nairaland atheists believe in

Back to the discussion at hand, I lol'd when I saw 'topic', for like a minute. I admit I've not read the whole thread, time, concentration and lazyness, I'm sure you understand. I did notice a list of theists, mostly of people who lived in a diffrent world, frankly. You should feel bad for even bringing most of them up (pascal's wager is one of the most disingenous things I've ever heard, brilliant man though), and you missed some I'd consider better (maxwell, goddel, heisenberg showed up in church, dyson, others I can't remember).

Hmmm, Okay , splendid observation !!

Being deist back in the day probably equated to being agnostic/atheist, but that's another argument.

Wrong !!

I wish atheists on Nairaland will perform more research, then I remembered the word you mentioned, Laziness


Question: "What is deism? What do deists believe?"

Answer: Deism is essentially the view that God exists, but that He is not directly involved in the world. Deism pictures God as the great “clockmaker” who created the clock, wound it up, and let it go. A deist believes that God exists and created the world, but does not interfere with His creation.

Source

I'm reminded of a thread I saw elsewhere where some ppl where wondering if fundamentalists were going to abandon google because it has now taken a very public pro-gay stance, even in countries where such views aren't popular. Maybe bimg will profit? Finally microsoft making money from its notoriously unprofitable web business? Well, no, microsoft has been supporting gay rights for a very long time. Ok then, apple! Despite not being known for being exactly charitable (ostensibly) since jobs' return tim cook is apparently gay.. A dilemma it seems...

No dilemma at all.


Microsoft provides applications and tools which can be used for either good or bad, what Microsoft as an organisation does in supporting gay rights etc is besides the point.

Even the man generally regarded as being the father of computing, alan turing, was gay. Some of the engineers responsible for creating critical bits of the internet, gay. What to do? Did you even look at the list of atheist nobel prize winners. Let me point that this is not an argument against the op. The op (statement, not you bro) is so silly I cannot express just how wrong it is without impairing brain fuction. I'm not eloquent enough either. This is 'just sayin...'. Kind regards

Alan turning's recognition as the father of computing is subject to controversy, in fact Charles Babbage is more likely accorded with the respect and honour for this invention , he is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs , and guess what , he was not only a theist he was a Christian .

That Babbage identified that Designer as the God of the Bible is clear, because he fully accepted the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ. Tiner says that “While a student at Cambridge, Charles Babbage met with others who were Christians. They resolved to dedicate their lives to God.”

Source


On a more serious note , the title of my article was intentionally sarcastic , because of a recent 'brain dead' topic on why Christians use Facebook ,since it's founder is atheist.

Again facebook is a tool which can be used for good or bad, depends on the workman.


Me thinks ,just like you do, that people can choose perverse life styles and at the same time provide inventions that are of benefit to man , materially speaking.

No vex oga, I don't know how to use this forum-thingie yet. And aforementioned laziness gets in the way

frosbel:


The flying spaghetti catches my eye, appears that's what our nairaland atheists believe in

Don't you dare make fun of his noodlines... Well, actually you can. Pastaferians are rather chill.. For those who haven't seen the light: http://www.venganza.org/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster. How to embed links?

frosbel:

Hmmm, Okay , splendid observation !!


Wrong !!

I wish atheists on Nairaland will perform more research, then I remembered the word you mentioned, Laziness


Question: "What is deism? What do deists believe?"

Answer: Deism is essentially the view that God exists, but that He is not directly involved in the world. Deism pictures God as the great “clockmaker” who created the clock, wound it up, and let it go. A deist believes that God exists and created the world, but does not interfere with His creation.

Source

Why do you think the first bit, about missing out on some popular theists, was splendid? Is it because they are from a more recent era? I ask because that is why I mention them, though my meaning may not have been clear. My point being that most of the people in the theist list, save for maybe Max Planck, come from an era that was relatively ignorant of how the world works. Not to mention rather hostile towards atheists. There were atheists around of course, but unless you were really good at what you did odds are you would be massively ostracized, persecuted against, discriminated etc, etc. Not to mention considering family and friends, eg Chomsky, who says (allegedly, can't seem to find the source at the moment, so this is debatable. I remember reading this clearly though) that he didn't come out publicly with his atheism until after his parents death out of consideration to them. And Chomsky is still alive, so imagine what it would have been like 200-300 years. Actually just go outside, tell random people you are an atheist (if they even know what it means) and watch their reactions. So generally, I would give more weight to atheist from more modern epochs as they would have a lot less trouble with being openly atheist but still choose to be theists. They would probably have received less indoctrination than their for-bearers, but have thought this out (for themselves, by themselves) and still chose to stick with religion for whatever reasons, which is cool.

So, onto deism, and where we are at. Consider Jefferson, a deist more or else. Rewrote the bible, removing references to miracles (and lighning striking ppl.. ok, maybe thats not in the bible, just 9ja villages, but the bible has its fair share of jazz, resurrections, water into wine (awesome), Moses etc etc). Publicly supporting atheism, and not making it more palatable to the random person, was comparable to attempting suicide. This guy is a great example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine .

So basically, when I say "Being deist back in the day probably equated to being agnostic/atheist, but that's another argument.", this is what I mean; it was much more acceptable socially to be a deist than an atheist, so if you had doubts it would be prudent to use the term deist. They had families to feed, loved ones to take care and it's difficult to support them when you are being heavily persecuted. I also state that this is another argument though, not to pertinent to the issue (non-issue?) at hand. Not to mention they aren't alive at the moment to objectively justify my claims, but maybe you can see what I'm getting at.

Why would you think I didn't know what deism meant?

frosbel:
No dilemma at all.

Not for you, but for some christian groups, it is

http://i.imgur.com/b5uCn.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYEOCBOMnc8&feature=youtu.be

And many more examples of patent hypocrisy by fundamentalists (moderates, keep these people in check for the love of $deity/s). Like the recent call to boycott the hobbit because Jackson is an atheist. Also, apparently rings' movie trilogy altered the themes of the novels to make it less religious. I couldn't make this up. Let's not even go into some of their more serious, life affecting demands they make on anyone who doesn't believe in their version of petty tyrant/s in the sky. Blatant human rights abuses, but once labeled religion, it gets a pass. Without any proof. They are called faith based for a reason /rant

frosbel:
Microsoft provides applications and tools which can be used for either good or bad, what Microsoft as an organisation does in supporting gay rights etc is besides the point.



Alan turning's recognition as the father of computing is subject to controversy, in fact Charles Babbage is more likely accorded with the respect and honour for this invention , he is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs , and guess what , he was not only a theist he was a Christian .

That Babbage identified that Designer as the God of the Bible is clear, because he fully accepted the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ. Tiner says that “While a student at Cambridge, Charles Babbage met with others who were Christians. They resolved to dedicate their lives to God.”

Source

If you think Babbage is afforded more respect (very debatable, especially "modern" computing, I'm no computer scientist but I understand a lot of seminal work in the mathematical framework for computing was put together by turing) that's fine, but this "Microsoft provides applications and tools which can be used for either good or bad, what Microsoft as an organization does in supporting gay rights etc is besides the point", renders that point useless (like you point out later, actually). So there was no real reason to bring it up. They could rape babies as a favorite hobby, so long as their work offers the best value (objectively) it should be used. Of course not everyone agrees, it may depend on the situation etc.

frosbel:
On a more serious note , the title of my article was intentionally sarcastic , because of a recent 'brain dead' topic on why Christians use Facebook ,since it's founder is atheist.

Again facebook is a tool which can be used for good or bad, depends on the workman.


Me thinks ,just like you do, that people can choose perverse life styles and at the same time provide inventions that are of benefit to man , materially speaking.

Do ho ho. What in the hell in the logic?! But I suppose he was thinking in the context of idiot groups like the one I listed above. We agree on the SCIENCE bit.

I really should get to my real work atm..Nice meeting you btw

EDIT: grammar, a few links, rant... still don't think it's very readable

frosbel:
On a more serious note , the title of my article was intentionally sarcastic , because of a recent 'brain dead' topic on why Christians use Facebook ,since it's founder is atheist.

Again facebook is a tool which can be used for good or bad, depends on the workman.

Me thinks ,just like you do, that people can choose perverse life styles and at the same time provide inventions that are of benefit to man , materially speaking.

Oh the irony....

musKeeto: The good thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not. NO MAN has ever claimed a scientific breakthrough by sitting in a church or mosque. One thing common to all discoverers/scientists was that they had great minds. God or not, your brain has to function.

frosbel:

Me thinks ,just like you do, that people can choose perverse life styles and at the same time provide inventions that are of benefit to man , materially speaking.

One might claim that Christianity offers a way to live a completely immoral life with the assurance that asking for forgiveness absolves and wipes the slate clean (and repeat as necessary). In other words, eating your cake and having it.

jayriginal:
One might claim that Christianity offers a way to live a completely immoral life with the assurance that asking for forgiveness absolves and wipes the slate clean (and repeat as necessary). In other words, eating your cake and having it.

If that one so much as read the bible, he/she may have seen that the above is completely untrue.

davidylan:

If that one so much as read the bible, he/she may have seen that the above is completely untrue.

I've read the Bible and have come to similar conclusions. e.g is salvation by faith and grace or by performing good acts?