People you were surprised to find to be atheists?

This can be from a personal level or from a general scope. I was surprised to find that U.S. soldier Pat Tillman wasn't religious. Not an atheistic per se, but not religious either. I was also surprised to learn that Lance Armstrong was an atheist. Also, a friend of mine I found out was an existentialist atheist. That was surprising, given that he doesn't seem to fit the mold of what a stereotyped atheist is, but then again, I'm finding out more and more that the perception of many atheists held by some theists are blown out of proportion.

What about everyone else?

I suppose the most surprised person I didn't expect to be Atheist, was C.S. Lewis. Considering all the things hes written on christianity and all. Does that still count even though he converted back?123625

Whaaaaat???

Was this before, during or after he wrote all of his material?

[QUOTE="123625"]I suppose the most surprised person I didn't expect to be Atheist, was C.S. Lewis. Considering all the things hes written on christianity and all. Does that still count even though he converted back?domatron23

Whaaaaat???

Was this before, during or after he wrote all of his material?

Before, wikipedia is great isn't it?

Well, if you want to factor in people who were at least partially atheistic towards their lifetime, then I nominate Mother Theresa, who, for the last fifty years of her life according to her writings, felt no presence of God.

The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever.TIME

I suppose the most surprised person I didn't expect to be Atheist, was C.S. Lewis. Considering all the things hes written on christianity and all. Does that still count even though he converted back?123625

I thought C.S. Lewis was quite pro-Christian. The Narnia books have a obvious Christian theme to them.

Here is a site that shows famous atheists and agnostics:

http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

I was quite surprised at Lincoln having atheist thoughts.

I thought C.S. Lewis was quite pro-Christian. The Narnia books have a obvious Christian theme to them.

Here is a site that shows famous atheists and agnostics:

http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

I was quite surprised at Lincoln having atheist thoughts.

felixlynch777

He was an atheist then converted back to christianity about 18 years after being atheist. Tolkein and a few other people pretty much convinced him of it, and I like this qoute from one of his works.

"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

Theres another one with him saying he came into christianit ykicking and screaming but I can't find the exact qoute anywhere.

Not really to people I've known most or all my life. I've always been one to question everything and try to figure out why people think certain ways. Now people who haven't known me for long, they are quite shocked.

Well, if you want to factor in people who were at least partially atheistic towards their lifetime, then I nominate Mother Theresa, who, for the last fifty years of her life according to her writings, felt no presence of God.

[quote="TIME"]The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever.Genetic_Code

o.k. that one is quite suprising

Well, if you want to factor in people who were at least partially atheistic towards their lifetime, then I nominate Mother Theresa, who, for the last fifty years of her life according to her writings, felt no presence of God.

[quote="TIME"]The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever.Genetic_Code

I read that issue of TIME actually. She also said that she thought she might be possesed by a demon as well.