Famous Atheists and Agnostics Introduction

An introduction to some famous atheists and agnostics, definitions of the terms and a couple of quotes.

"An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support."--John Buchan (1875-1940) Scottish writer and historian

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree,

And only God who makes the tree

Also makes the fools like me.

But only fools like me, you see,

Can make a god, who makes a tree.

--E. Y. Harburg

Atheist--one who "denies" the existence of God.

Agnostic--one who "doubts" the existence of God.

Questioning the existence of a god or gods reaches back to the days of Socrates. The following philosophers, reformers, rationalists, skeptics, and freethinkers spoke out on this complex and highly controversial issue.