List of atheists (surnames R to S)

Atheists with surnames starting R and S, sortable by the field for which they are mainly known and nationality.

NameDatesKnown as / forWhoReference1944–2007PoliticianCroatian leftist politician who led the Social Democratic Party of Croatia between 1989 up to 2007.see sourcesee religion Ivica Racan1941–2003PhilosopherAmerican philosopher who specialized in ethics.Rachels argued for the nonexistence of God based on the impossibility of a being worthy of worship.In God and Moral Autonomy (1997)1989–ActorBritish (English) actor, most famous for his lead role in the Harry Potter series."I'm an atheist, but I'm very relaxed about it. I don't preach my atheism, but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do. Anything he does on television, I will watch."Singh, Anita. "Daniel Radcliffe: a cool nerd", Daily Telegraph, 4 July 2009, Accessed 21 July 2009.1881–1955Social scientistBritish (English) social anthropologist who developed the theory of Structural functionalism."An atheist from at least his student years, he became an honorary associate of the Rationalist Press Association in 1952. An Oxford student remembered him as 'somewhat assertive in his arguments against religion' (C. Fuller, 'An interview with M. N. Srinivas', Anthropology Today, 15/5, 1999, 5), but the nearest he came to showing it in print was the suggestion that religion is a source of 'fears and anxieties from which [men] would otherwise be free—the fear of black magic or of spirits, fear of God, of the Devil, of Hell' (Radcliffe-Brown, Structure, 149). [...] His restraint may have sprung from an austere conception of science or from the functionalist fear that destroying a people's beliefs will undermine their social system."Kenneth Maddock: Brown, Alfred Reginald Radcliffe- (1881–1955)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 oxforddnb.com (accessed 30 April 2008).1951–2019BloggerAmerican author and the editorial director of Antiwar.com"Although I was raised a Catholic, I am not a believer."Pope John Paul II: Man of the Year December 29, 20031944–AuthorBritish (English) poet and critic, the best-known exponent of Martian poetry.Reviewing Raine's collection In Defence of T. S. Eliot, Charles Osborne and Sally Cousins wrote: "Raine, a fine poet, is also an entertaining and thought-provoking critic, and his subjects range widely from the Bible, which as an atheist he appreciates for its short stories, "some of the greatest ever written", to Bruce Chatwin, whom he sensibly does not take too seriously."Sunday Telegraph, 14 October 2001, Paperbacks, Pg. 14.1903–1930ScientistBritish (English) mathematician who also made significant contributions in philosophy and economics."His tolerance and good humour enabled him to disagree strongly without giving or taking offence, for example with his brother Michael Ramsey whose ordination (he went on to become archbishop of Canterbury) Ramsey, as a militant atheist, naturally regretted."D. H. Mellor, 'Ramsey, Frank Plumpton (1903–1930)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2005 (accessed 2 May 2008).1905–1982Author and philosopherRussian-born American author and founder of Objectivism"I am an intransigent atheist, but not a militant one."Rand quoted in Michael S. Berliner (1995). Letters of Ayn Rand: March 20, 1965 1928–2020Skeptical investigatorAmerican magician, debunker, and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation."...I am a concerned, forthright, declared, atheist."Randi, James. "Our Stance on Atheism", "Swift", JREF, August 5, 2005. (Accessed 1 June 2007)1889–1979ActivistAfrican-American leader during the civil rights movement."Although greatly influenced by his father's political and racial attitudes, Randolph resisted pressure to enter the ministry and later became an atheist."Paula F. Pfeffer: "Randolph, Asa Philip", American National Biography Online February 2000, Accessed 28 April 2008.1885–1957ArtistBritish (English) wood engraving artist who co-founded the Society of Wood Engravers in England."In spite of Gwen's lifelong atheism, during her funeral "there was something appropriate about the choice of Psalm 23 ('He shall feed me in green pastures: and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort')".Yet isn't this the most boringly appropriate bit of music for a funeral there is?" Frank Whitford reviewing Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family & Affections by Frances Spalding, Sunday Times (London), 1 July 2001.1931–1994AuthorBritish (English) writer, credited with being the founder of English noir.[Derek Raymond was the pen name of Robert Cook] "Cook was an atheist, but he described his probes into abjection and despair with almost religious intensity."Phil Baker: 'Cook, Robert William Arthur (1931–1994)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 oxforddnb.com (accessed 30 April 2008).1931–2010JournalistBritish (English) journalist best known for her role for many years as an agony aunt."I tell you something, in case anyone wonders, not a single out-of-body experience, no long corridors of light, I was an atheist when it started and I've remained one. People used to say to me, 'You wait until something really bad happens, you'll start praying', but I didn't and I can't. I don't put this down to any superior being, I put it down to the superb training and skill of the people looking after me. I remain the humanist I always was."Claire Rayner, interviewed by Libby Brooks, The Guardian, September 12, 2003, Features Pages, Pg. 6.1966–JournalistBritish (English) journalist, writer and broadcaster."For however devout an atheist I may be (and, by God, I am), and however little time I have for the rituals of the tribe of which I am a part, there is still something about the taste of a fine piece of salt beef which speaks to a fundamental part of me."Jay Rayner, 'Salt beef of the earth', The Observer, 26 January 2003, Observer Magazine: Life: Restaurants, Observer Magazine Pages, Pg. 75.1958–Activist and journalistAmerican magazine journalist, board member of the politically activistic Creative Coalition, son of former U. S. President Ronald Reagan."I'm an atheist so... I can't be elected to anything, because polls all say that people won't elect an atheist.Ron Reagan Jr. during an interview on Larry King Live, 26 June 2004. See clip .1922–2020ActorAmerican actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian, winner of nine Emmy Awards"I'm not a believer, I call myself an atheist. It was man who invented God. I once wrote that there are 15 things I know about God, and one is that he is allergic to shellfish. There are far too many commandments and you really only need one: Do not hurt anybody."Carl Reiner interviewed by Tom Tugend, 'No Joke: Carl and Rob Reiner Honored by Israeli Film Festival ', San Francisco Sentinel, 17 June 2008 (accessed 17 June 2008).1946–Activist and Holocaust denierCampaigns on behalf of far right Holocaust deniers, including David Irving and Richard Williamson. She has produced a DVD about questioning the Holocaust, Jailing Opinions, and has been working on another DVD, Pious Piracy, questioning the existence of Jesus."An Australia-born socialite who became a believer in Holocaust denial and a major supporter of disgraced historian David Irving, Michele Renouf, an avowed atheist, nevertheless abhors Judaism. In a 2003 interview she said, "People act as though Judaism is just another religion like Christianity or Islam. It's not. It's a creed of domination and racial superiority."1904–2006PhilosopherFrench politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of the Académie française."Despite asserting that he had always loathed the family, both the one he was born into and the ones he had created, in the same year he published Le Moine et le philosophe (1997, "The Monk and the Philosopher", 1998), a book-length dialogue between Revel, the convinced atheist, and his son Mathieu Ricard, who had abandoned a career in molecular biology research to go to live in Asia, to study Buddhism, and who subsequently became a Buddhist monk."David Drake, Obituary: Jean-François Revel, The Independent (London), 10 May 2006, Pg. 44.1953–ComedianBritish (Welsh) comedian, writer, actor and television presenter."I read the whole of the Chronicles of Narnia when I was little and I grew up an atheist. My problem, I realise, was that I just didn't believe in Aslan."Griff Rhys Jones, 'Darling how thoughtful: a voucher for buttock reshaping', Sunday Telegraph, 11 December 2005, Features section, Pg.191942–2006AuthorAmerican poet and artist, Professor of English and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, and husband of writer Anne Rice.Reviewing Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Matt Thorne noted: "In a long author's note, Rice explains how she experienced an old-fashioned, strict Roman Catholic childhood in the 1940s and 1950s, before leaving the Church at 18 due to sexual pressure and her desire to read authors she considered forbidden to her, such as Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Camus. Two years later she married a passionate atheist, the poet and artist Stan Rice, and in 1974, began a literary career that she now retrospectively views as representing her 'quest for meaning in a world without God'."Sunday Telegraph, 18 December 2005, Section 7, Pg. 43.1973–ActivistPresident of the Canadian atheists."Randolf Richardson is the founding President of the Canadian atheists; born and raised in Canada, he has always been an atheist, and has a passion for the freedoms born of our history that defined key constitutionally-fortified principles of Canadian culture that emphatically protect fairness, justice, and equality for everyone. ..."Richardson, Randolf. About Canadian atheists :: Profile :: Who we are August 8, 2015.1932–ArtistGerman artist, considered one of the most important German artists of the post-World War II period."Neither artist is a believer. A German critic, Hubertus Butin, has termed Richter "a professed atheist with a strong leaning toward Catholicism"-a characterization that the artist condoned with a sly smile, when I saw him in Cologne."Peter Schjeldahl, 'Many-colored Glass: Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke do windows', The New Yorker Vol. 84 No. 13, Pg. 124, 12 May 2008.–MusicianBritish musician, alternative rock critic and radio DJ."The Bible made me an atheist." Marc Riley in response to the question "A book that changed me..."'My Secret Life', The Independent (London), 22 May 2004, Features, Pg. 7.1844–1908MusicianRussian Nationalist composer, member of "The Five", best known for the symphonic suite Scheherazade.The Guardian describes as "a devout atheist - Stravinsky later described him rather disapprovingly as having a mind 'closed to any religious or metaphysical idea'"guardian.co.uk1752–1803English antiquaryEnglish writer and antiquary."Superstition is the mother of Ignorance and Barbarity. Priests began by persuading people of the existence of certain invisible beings, which they pretended to be the creators of the world, and the dispensers of good and evil; and of whose wills, in fine, they were the sole interpreters."'Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food', London, 1802, Pg. 102.1886–1957PainterWorld-famous Mexican painter, muralist, and husband of Frida Kahlo."Rivera was of Jewish Converso heritage and Catholic upbringing, but a professed atheist and communist for most, if not all, of his life."Glossary of Modern Painters1943–ScientistBritish (English) 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."The Nobel Laureate Dr Richard Roberts will give a public lecture entitled A Bright Journey from Science to Atheism..."A bright journey to atheism, or a road that ignores all the signs? , The Irish Times, April 20, 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2007.1925–2