and Francis Bacon (1561) "the Father of Empiricism"
Contemporary Humanists have both national and international profiles.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, scientists, activists and artists were active in developing and supporting the Humanist philosophy:
- Albert Einstein Served on the advisory board of the First Humanist Society of New York
- Jean-Paul Sartre, French existentialist and Marxist philosopher, was also playwright, novelist, screenwriter, biographer, activist, and author of Existentialism is a Humanism.
- In 2004, Sir Jonathan Miller wrote and presented a TV series on atheism entitled Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief (more commonly referred to as Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief) for BBC Four, exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world. The original three-part series was slated to air on Public Television in the United States, starting May 4, 2007, cosponsored by the American Ethical Union, American Humanist Association, Center for Inquiry, the HKH Foundation, and the Institute for Humanist Studies.
- In 2006, Richard Dawkins founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS), a non-profit organisation. It has been granted charitable status in the United Kingdom and the United States. RDFRS plans to finance research on the psychology of belief and religion, finance scientific education programs and materials, and publicise and support secular charitable organisations. The foundation also offers humanist, rationalist and scientific materials and information through its website
Here are other modern Humanists of interest:
* Isaac Asimov (Writer - Russia/USA)
* Margaret Atwood (author—Canada)
* Elena Bonner (human rights advocate, widow of A. Sakharov —Russia)
* Mario Bunge (Philosopher, McGill Univ.—Canada)
* June Callwood (Activist, Writer -- Canada)
* Richard Dawkins (Oxford Univ.—UK)
* Simone de Beauvoir (Philosopher, France)
* Marlene Dietrich (actor, German-USA)
* Greg Epstein (Chaplain, Harvard --USA)
* Umberto Eco (Univ. of Bologna—Italy)
* Luc Ferry (Philosopher, Sorbonne—France)
* Stephen Fry (Actor, Writer--UK)
* Bob Geldorf (Musician, humanitarian, Eire)
* Baroness Susan Greenfield (Neuroscientist, -- UK)
* Stephen Jay Gould Biologist (Harvard-USA)
* Murray Gell-Mann (Nobel Laureate, Physicist, Sante Fe Inst.—USA)
* Herbert Hauptman (Nobel Laureate, State Univ. of New York—USA)
* Margherita Hack (astronomer, astrophysicist—Italy)
* Sam Harris (writer- USA)
* Christopher Hitchens (author, lecturer—USA)
* Donald Johanson (Inst. of Human Origins—USA)
* Richard Leakey (paleoanthropologist, conservationist—Kenya)
* John Malcovich (actor USA)
* Butterfly McQueen (actor USA)
* Jonathan Miller (OBE, MD, author—UK)
* Taslima Nasrin (MD, author—Bengali /Bangladesh)
* Elaine Pagels (professor, Princeton Univ.—USA)
* Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964 India)
* Steven Pinker (Harvard Univ.—Canadian/USA)
* Karl Popper (Philosopher, Economist --Austrian-NZ)
* Sir Terry Pratchett (Writer -- UK)
* Vilayanur S. Ramachan (Neuroscientist, Univ Ca.-- Indian-USA)
* Marcel Roche (Inst. de Investigaciones Científicas—Venezuela)
* Salman Rushdie (author, MIT—USA)
* Oliver Sacks (Physician, Author —UK)
* Wole Soyinka (Nobel Laureate, author—Nigeria)
* Thomas S. Szasz (State Univ. of New York—USA)
* Rob Tielman (Univ. of Utrecht—Netherlands)
* Linus Torvalds (Linux - Finnish)
* Neil deGrasse Tyson (scientist, Hayden Planetarium—USA)
* Mario Vargas Llosa (author—Perú)
* Simone Veil (former president, European Parliament—France)
* Gore Vidal (author—USA)
* Kurt Vonnegut (author--US)
* Peter Ustinov (author, actor, UNICEF ambassador - UK)
* Mourad Wahba (Univ. of Ain Shams—Egypt)
* James D. Watson (author, biologist—USA)
* Wendell Watters, (Psychiatrist, sex therapist, Canadian)
* Edward O. Wilson (Biologist, Harvard Univ.—USA)
* Sherwin Wine (Humanist Rabbi -- USA)
Another list here:
http://www.michaelnugent.com/best/famous-atheists/
