Great Atheist Authors

Max "the Ghost Toaster" Stirner

My boy Schopenhauer

Is it me or is secular humanism retarded? It seems like a circle jerk of atheists cherry picking Christianity without the God part

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this

No great authors, proponents of important thoughts maybe, but that's about it

>we

George Eliot, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Christopher Marlowe were all hard atheists, but the question you're asking isn't a very good one. Very few writers in history ever felt an urge to announce that they didn't believe in God, but there were many writers and thinkers who had spiritual beliefs whilst being explicitly un-Christian, from Goethe to Rabelais. Don't let Christians on this board trick anyone into thinking that creative genius belongs to Christian thinkers, most of the time the Churches of Europe inhibited the most interesting works of their time anyway e.g. the Catholic Church banned Kant, Spinoza, Descartes, Hume, Browne, Pascal, and Montaigne's works (even though Montaigne was a catholic), the Orthodox Church excommunicated Tolstoy etc.

>Calvino
>Ungaretti
>Lucretius
>Beckett
>Joyce
>Saramago
>Epicurus
>Nietzsche
>Schopenhauer
>Leopardi (not a real atheist but his conception of God is unique a deserves a mention)

I forgot Heidegger and Jaspers

These. Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Bertand Russell.

That's nice sweetie, off to bed now

No, that's christian atheism. Secular humanism is doing that and being in denial about their cultural influence.
>Goethe
>un-christian
You mean non-christian.
>Joyce
Agnostic if and only if you think Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is autobiographic. Otherwise no evidence in general.
>Nietzsche
Dude was such a misleading cunt that even if he'd explicitly said "I am an atheist" I would have been in doubt. Wouldn't include him in any list at all.
>Saramago
Already said.
>Russell
Agnostic.
>Heidegger
Christian burial.
>Jaspers
Not a christian, but no.

This is a stupid response to a really stupid thread. Firstly, agnosticism is a useless non-term, either you live your life in light of theist doctrines/beliefs or you don't - there is no real distinction between agnosticism and atheism apart from what you call yourself during "deep conversations" at parties, so stop trying to switch around labels as if it matters. Secondly, as said: almost no writers/artists/thinkers would ever bother to declare an un-belief in God, and may have even just carried on being nominal Christians without actually believing, for example Beethoven was technically a baptised Catholic yet he never attended church - what would our conclusion about him be? Also judging someone by the religious nature of their burial is not even close to evidence of their beliefs.
>Goethe
>un-christian
You mean non-christian
Actually Goethe's Faust is extremely un-Christian in its ideas and portrayals of aspiration.

OP should never have asked this question because it can't be answered in any serious way. What you really should be wondering is which works of literature are explicitly Christian in their perspective and I think the answer is actually very few.

user, OP asked what he asked for.
Also, your critique on the difference between atheism and agnosticism only makes superficial pseudo-practical sense and doesn't apply to serious philosophy.

>Agnostic if and only if you think Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is autobiographic. Otherwise no evidence in general.
Wrong
>Dude was such a misleading cunt that even if he'd explicitly said "I am an atheist" I would have been in doubt. Wouldn't include him in any list at all.
Rofl

You basically can't create any type of art as an atheist, it's impossible. The closest thing you will get is some guy smoking a lot of opium and following some spritual stuff he made up himself. Atheism is a dead-end culturally.

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>user, OP asked what he asked for.
Thank you for pointing this out, but I was saying his question was faulty and therefore the attempts to answer it were also largely pointless, it wasn't about whether or not I wanted to answer a different question.
>your pic related
The point I was making was that Goethe, regardless of what he personally identified as, was a writer with un-Christian themes and ideas running throughout his work. His personal beliefs, just like with any other writer, are always to some extent a guessing game which is why I disagreed with the entire question of this thread.
>difference between atheism and agnosticism only makes superficial pseudo-practical sense
Not when we're discussing authors and their works, though.

good grief
this fucking thread

You must be joking. I might say it is the other way around but it's obviously not. Most of the great contemporary philosophers are atheists. On the other hand, religion is "ban on thinking" yet, there are some great thinkers, and very religious people such as Marshall McLuhan or Rene Girard.

>Not when we're discussing authors and their works, though.

what a fucknut
no atheist thinks "creation is perfect"

But to be atheist also requires "faith" or "belief" as theist believes in God. that God created universe and everything happened because of the God, and Atheists believe that the Universe was created just like that, no interference with this process. It is also form of religious belief...

Show me the great gulf between an atheist and an agnostic novel

>Epicurus
That's not correct, sweetie.
Believing the gods don't have a significant influence over us -- or that it's futile to bother them, because we can't influence the gods -- isn't the same as non-belief. Closer to agnosticism and fatalism I guess.

>I've been actually praising God all this time
The demiurge is truly an asshole

>Atheists believe that the Universe was created just like that
We literally don't. What was before the Big Bang is only a matter of speculation, there are, as far as I know, only theories and speculations about it.
>no interference with this process.
As opposed to having interference by an entity that also just got created for some unknown reason.
>It is also form of religious belief...
I thought we were above facebook-tier religious "arguments" and this sort of lazy relativization.

You are believing in something right now without even realising it, are you really proud of your ignorance? Start with the Greeks. (Again)

>Dude was such a misleading cunt that even if he'd explicitly said "I am an atheist" I would have been in doubt. Wouldn't include him in any list at all.

I know what you mean.

Not sure if great but Cortázar and Bolaño were atheists.

I don't believe you.

I know I believe in some things you stupid relativistic nigger. That doesn't prove your sky daddy exists.

Chekhov