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IMPORTANT: New entries must included a reference confirming that the added person is or was an agnostic. Entries without references will be deleted.
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[[File:Susan B Anthony c1855.png|thumb|right|100px|[[Susan B. Anthony|Anthony]]]]
[[File:Jorge Luis Borges 1951, by Grete Stern.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Jorge Luis Borges|Borges]]]]
[[File:Albert Camus, gagnant de prix Nobel, portrait en buste, posé au bureau, faisant face à gauche, cigarette de tabagisme.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Albert Camus|Camus]]]]
[[File:WEB DuBois 1918.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[W. E. B. Du Bois|DuBois]]]]
[[File:Hedayat113.jpeg|thumb|right|100px|[[Sadegh Hedayat|Hedayat]]]]
[[File:Aldous Huxley.gif|thumb|right|100px|[[Aldous Huxley|Huxley]]]]
[[File:033-Earth-could-not-answer-nor-the-Seas-that-mourn-q75-829x1159.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Omar Khayyám|Khayyám]]]]
[[File:Janusz Korczak.PNG|thumb|right|100px|[[Janusz Korczak|Korczak]]]]
[[File:A.S.Pushkin.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Alexander Pushkin|Pushkin]]]]
[[File:Edward Snowden-2.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Edward Snowden|Snowden]]]]
[[File:Elie Wiesel (1987) by Erling Mandelmann - 2.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Elie Wiesel|Wiesel]]]]
[[File:Henry Dunant-young.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Henry Dunant|Dunant]]]]
[[File:Hideaki Anno.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Hideaki Anno|Anno]]]]
[[File:Ingmar Bergman Smultronstallet.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Ingmar Bergman|Bergman]]]]
[[File:JohannesBrahms.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]]]


[[File:Salvador Dalí 1939.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Salvador Dalí|Dalí]]]]
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[[File:Henry fonda promo photo.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Henry Fonda|Fonda]]]]
[[File:Gaiman-headshot.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Neil Gaiman|Gaiman]]]]
[[File:Stantheman.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Stan Lee|Lee]]]]
[[File:Photo of Gustav Mahler by Moritz Nähr 01.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]]]]
[[File:Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder 1875.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Franz Schubert|Schubert]]]]
 
Listed here are persons who have identified themselves as theologically [[agnosticism|agnostic]]. Also included are individuals who have expressed the view that the [[Truth|veracity]] of a [[god]]'s existence is [[weak agnosticism|unknown]] or inherently [[strong agnosticism|unknowable]].
 
==List==
[[File:Noam chomsky cropped.jpg|thumb|100px|[[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky]]]]
[[File:Confucius Tang Dynasty.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Confucius]]]]
[[File:Democritus2.jpg|right|thumb|100 px|[[Democritus]]]]
[[File:Epicurus bust2.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Epicurus]]]]
[[File:Immanuel Kant (painted portrait).jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]]]
[[File:DaodeTianzun.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Laozi]]]]
[[File:Karl Popper.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Karl Popper|Popper]]]]
[[File:Honourable Bertrand Russell.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Bertrand Russell|Russell]]]]
[[File:Ludwig Wittgenstein 1910.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]]]]
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[[File:Norman Angell 01.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Norman Angell|Angell]]]]
[[File:Clarence Darrow.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Clarence Darrow|Darrow]]]]
[[File:RobertGIngersoll.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Robert G. Ingersoll|Ingersoll]]]]
 
[[File:Bardeen.jpg|thumb|100px|[[John Bardeen|Bardeen]]]]
[[File:Alexander Graham Bell.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Alexander Graham Bell|Bell]]]]
[[File:George Boole.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[George Boole|Boole]]]]
[[File:J.C.Bose.JPG|thumb|right|100px|[[Jagadish Chandra Bose|Bose]]]]
[[File:Cavendish Henry signature.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Henry Cavendish|Cavendish]]]]
[[File:Mariecurie.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Marie Curie|Curie]]]]
[[File:Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]]]
[[File:Dirac 4.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Paul Dirac|Dirac]]]]
[[File:Albert Einstein photo 1921.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]]]
[[File:Enrico Fermi 1943-49.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Enrico Fermi|Fermi]]]]
[[File:Howard Walter Florey 1945.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Howard Florey|Florey]]]]
[[File:Hermann von Helmholtz.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Hermann von Helmholtz|Helmholtz]]]]
[[File:Hilbert.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[David Hilbert|Hilbert]]]]
[[File:Edwin-hubble.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Edwin Hubble|Hubble]]]]
[[File:Thomas Henry Huxley.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Thomas Henry Huxley|Thomas Huxley]], coiner of the term ''agnostic''.]]
[[File:Langrange portrait.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Joseph Louis Lagrange|Lagrange]]]]
[[File:Pierre-Simon-Laplace (1749-1827).jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Pierre-Simon Laplace|Laplace]]]]
[[File:Albert Abraham Michelson2.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Albert Abraham Michelson|Michelson]]]]
[[File:Noyce1.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Robert Noyce|Noyce]]]]
[[File:Cecilia Helena Payne Gaposchkin (1900-1979) (2).jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin|Payne-Gaposchkin]]]]
[[File:Simeon Poisson.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Siméon Denis Poisson|Poisson]]]]
[[File:Sir CV Raman.JPG|thumb|right|100px|[[C. V. Raman|Raman]]]]
[[File:John William Strutt.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Lord Rayleigh|Rayleigh]]]]
[[File:Josef Rotblat ID badge.png|thumb|right|100px|[[Joseph Rotblat|Rotblat]]]]
[[File:Carl Sagan Planetary Society.JPG|thumb|right|100px|[[Carl Sagan|Sagan]]]]
[[File:Frederick Sanger2.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Frederick Sanger|Sanger]]]]
[[File:Leo Szilard.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Leo Szilárd|Szilárd]]]]
[[File:Edward Teller (boy).jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Edward Teller|Teller]]]]
[[File:John Tyndall portrait mid career.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[John Tyndall|Tyndall]]]]
[[File:Neil deGrasse Tyson.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Neil deGrasse Tyson|Tyson]]]]
[[File:Stanislaw Ulam ID badge.png|thumb|right|100px|[[Stanislaw Ulam|Ulam]]]]
[[File:JohnvonNeumann-LosAlamos.gif|thumb|right|100px|[[John von Neumann|von Neumann]]]]
[[File:Weil.jpg|thumb|100px|[[André Weil|Weil]]]]
[[File:Norbert wiener.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Norbert Wiener|Wiener]]]]
[[File:CNYang.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Chen Ning Yang|Yang]]]]
 
===Activists and authors===
*[[Saul Alinsky]] (1909–1972): American community organizer and writer. He is often noted for his book ''[[Rules for Radicals]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Radical: A Portrait of Saul Alinsky|year=2010|publisher=Nation Books|isbn=9781568586250|pages=108–109|author=Nicholas Von Hoffman|accessdate=4 August 2012|quote=He passed the word in the Back of the Yards that this Jewish agnostic was okay, which at least ensured that he would not be kicked out the door.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Social Mission of the U.S. Catholic Church: A Theological Perspective|year=2011|publisher=Georgetown University Press|isbn=9781589017436|author=Charles E. Curran|accessdate=4 August 2012|page=32|quote=Saul D. Alinsky, an agnostic Jew, organized the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago in the late 1930s and started the Industrial Areas Foundation in 1940 to promote community organizations and to train community organizers.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Understanding Maritain: Philosopher and Friend|year=1987|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=9780865542792|author=Deal Wyatt Hudson|editor=Deal Wyatt Hudson, Matthew J. Mancini|accessdate=4 August 2012|page=40|quote=Saul Alinsky was an agnostic Jew for whom religion of any kind held very little importance and just as little relation to the focus of his life's work: the struggle for economic and social justice, for human dignity and human rights, and for the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor and downtrodden.}}</ref>
*[[Piers Anthony]] (born 1934): English-American writer in the [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy]] genres.<ref>{{cite web|title=Piers Anthony Interview|url=http://www.roeszler.org/piersthread/piersinterview.htm#q10|accessdate=13 May 2012|author=Piers Anthony|quote=I am agnostic because I feel each person should make up his own mind about his religion.}}</ref>
*[[Susan B. Anthony]] (1820–1906): [[United States|American]] [[civil rights]] leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century [[women's rights]] movement to introduce [[History of women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage into the United States]].  She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] as President.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eNUYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA59 |page=59 |title=Our famous women: An authorized record of the lives and deeds of distinguished American women of our times |chapter=Susan B. Anthony |last=Stanton |first=Elizabeth Cady Stanton |authorlink=Elizabeth Cady Stanton |publisher=A.D. Worthington |year=1885}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Parenting Beyond Belief- Abridged Ebook Edition: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids without Religion|year=2011|publisher=AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn|isbn=9780814474266|author=Dale McGowan|authorlink=Feminist Reformers|accessdate=10 September 2012|page=138|quote=“Serene agnostic”Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was the first woman, in 1848, to call for woman suffrage, launching the women's movement. She was joined by sister agnostic Susan B. Anthony(1820–1906).}}</ref>
*[[Hannah Arendt]] (1906–1975): German American writer and political theorist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Social Sciences|year=2010|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=9780804756501|author=Peter Baehr|accessdate=29 May 2012|page=66|quote=Both Hannah Arendt and Aron were assimilated, agnostic Jews (so were Mannheim and Riesman), who became politically radicalized only with the rise of the Nazi movement;...}}</ref>
*[[Samuel Beckett]] (1906–1989): Irish [[Avant-garde#Examples|avant-garde]] novelist, [[playwright]], [[theatre director]], and [[poet]]. Beckett was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1969.<ref>"They were both agnostics, though both set a high associative value on the language in which the traditional religions of their forebears had been expressed, and in conversation and writing were not averse to ironic reference to certain metaphysical concepts." Anthony Cronin, ''Samuel Beckett: the last modernist'' (1999), page 90.</ref>
*[[Ambrose Bierce]] (1842-1913?): American [[editorialist]], [[journalist]], [[short story]] writer, [[fabulist]] and [[satirist]]. Today, he is probably best known for his short story "[[An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]]" and his satirical lexicon ''[[The Devil's Dictionary]]''.<ref>
"Contrary to McWilliams's claim, however, in the public arena Bierce was not merely an agnostic but a staunch unbeliever regarding the question of Jesus' divinity." Donald T. Blume, ''Ambrose Bierce's Civilians and soldiers in context: a critical study'', page 323.</ref>
*[[Jorge Luis Borges]] (1899–1986): [[Argentina|Argentine]] writer who stated that:<ref>{{cite news|author=I. Shenker |date=6 April 1971 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/31/reviews/borges-insight.html |title=Borges, a Blind Writer With Insight | publisher=New York Times}}</ref>
: "Being an agnostic means all things are possible, even God, even the Holy Trinity. This world is so strange that anything may happen, or may not happen. Being an agnostic makes me live in a larger, a more fantastic kind of world, almost uncanny. It makes me more tolerant."
*[[Henry Cadbury]] (1883–1974): a biblical scholar and [[Quaker]] who contributed to the [[New Revised Standard Version]] of the [[Bible]], stated in a 1936 lecture to [[Harvard Divinity School]] students:<ref>Henry Cadbury, [http://www.universalistfriends.org/UF035.html#Cadbury "My Personal Religion"], republished on the Quaker Universalist Fellowship website.</ref>
: "Most students ... wish to know whether I believe in the existence of God or in immortality, and if so why. They regard it impossible to leave these matters unsettled &ndash; or at least extremely detrimental to religion not to have the basis of such conviction. Now for my part I do not find it impossible to leave them open.... I can describe myself as no ardent theist or atheist."
* [[Albert Camus]] (1913&ndash;1960): French [[Philosophy|philosopher]] and novelist who has been considered a [[wikt:luminary|luminary]] of [[existentialism]]. He won the [[Nobel Prize]] in [[Literature]] in 1957.<ref>David Simpson writes that Camus affirmed "a defiantly atheistic creed." [http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/camus.htm Albert Camus (1913&ndash;1960)], The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2006, (Retrieved 14 June 2007).</ref><ref name="Haught">{{cite book | last = Haught | first = James A. | title = 2,000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt | year = 1996 | publisher = Prometheus Books | isbn = 1-57392-067-3 | pages = 261–262}}</ref>
*[[Thomas Carlyle]] (1795–1881): Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.<ref>"I have recently argued that this linguistic indeterminacy, or as J. Hillis Miller terms it, ''undecidability,'' places Carlyle as a perhaps unwilling and yet important contributor to the upsurge of an anti- religious agnosticism that would set in motion the demise of orthodox belief both prophesied and dreaded by Nietzsche."  Paul E. Kerry, Marylu Hill, ''Thomas Carlyle Resartus: Reappraising Carlye's Contribution to the Philosophy of History, Political Theory, and Cultural Criticism'' (2010), page 69.</ref>
*[[Ariel Dorfman]] (born 1942): Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and [[human rights]] activist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ariel Dorfman: An Aesthetics of Hope|year=2009|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4604-3|author=Sophia A. McClennen|accessdate=22 April 2012|page=94|quote=Dorfman is a confirmed agnostic and it would be a mistake to ascribe too close an affinity between him and Jeremiah.}}</ref>
*[[Arthur Conan Doyle]] (1859–1930): Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective [[Sherlock Holmes]], generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of [[Professor Challenger]]. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Life and Times of Arthur Conan Doyle|year=2011|publisher=BookCaps Study Guides|isbn=9781621070276|author=Golgotha Pres|accessdate=18 July 2012|quote=In time, he would reject the Catholic religion and become an agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[W.E.B. Du Bois]] (1868–1963): American [[sociology|sociologist]], historian, [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] activist, [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-Africanist]], author and editor. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) in 1909.<ref>
"To be clear, in all the annals of American and African American history, one will probably not find another agnostic as preoccupied with and as familiar with so much biblical, religious, and spiritual rhetoric as WEB Du Bois." Brian Johnson, ''W.E.B. Du Bois: Toward Agnosticism, 1868-1934'', page 3.</ref>
*[[H. P. Lovecraft]] (1890–1937), Writer of strange fiction and [[Horror fiction|horror]].
*[[Bart D. Ehrman]]: [[New Testament]] scholar and "a happy agnostic".<ref>{{cite news |title=Q&A: Bart Ehrman: Misquoting Jesus |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6301707.html |accessdate=31 May 2007 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070613055841/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6301707.html |archivedate= 2007-06-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=V.Bernet |title=Agnostic's questions have biblical answers |publisher=Kansas City Star |date=23 April 2008 |quote=In the church of his youth in Lawrence, Kansas, with nearly every pew at capacity last week, Bart D. Ehrman, chairman of the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, announced that he was an agnostic. He joked that atheists think agnostics are wimpy atheists and that agnostics think atheists are arrogant agnostics.}}</ref>
*[[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward FitzGerald]] (1809–1883): English poet and writer, best known as the poet of the first and most famous English translation of [[The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Allegories Of One's Own Mind: Melancholy In Victorian Poetry|year=2005|publisher=Ohio State University Press|isbn=978-0-8142-1008-6|author=David G. Riede|accessdate=9 May 2012|page=188|quote=Unlike Tennyson and the Brownings, however, Fitzgerald was an agnostic, and consequently he lacked the strong sense of conscience and duty that might have disciplined and given shape to his anomic imagination.}}</ref>
*[[Betty Friedan]] (1921–2006): American writer, [[Activism|activist]] and [[Feminism|feminist]]. A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book, [[The Feminine Mystique]], is often credited with sparking the [[Second-wave feminism|"second wave" of American feminism]] in the 20th century.<ref>
"To be sure, when she wrote her groundbreaking book, Friedan considered herself an "agnostic" Jew, unaffiliated with any religious branch or institution." Kirsten Fermaglich, ''American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares: Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal America, 1957-1965'' (2007), page 59.</ref>
*[[Frederick James Furnivall]] (1825–1910), second editor of the [[Oxford English Dictionary]].<ref>{{cite book |author=S.Winchester | authorlink=Simon Winchester |title=[[The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary]] |year=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-860702-4 |quote=[...] Furnivall was a deeply committed socialist and (until his later agnosticism set in), a somewhat enthusiastic Christian [...]}}</ref>
*[[John Galsworthy]] (1867–1933): English novelist and playwright. Notable works include [[The Forsyte Saga]] (1906–1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1932.<ref>{{cite book|title=Academic Dictionary Of Philosophy|year=2005|publisher=Gyan Books|isbn=9788182052246|author=Ramesh Chopra|accessdate=26 May 2012|page=142|quote=His agnosticism is best seen in his 'Moods, Songs, and Doggerels'.}}</ref>
*[[Maxim Gorky]] (1868–1936): Russian and Soviet author who founded [[Socialist Realism]] and political activist.<ref>
"...Gorky - a religious agnostic praised as a social realist by the communist regime during the demise of imperial Russia..." James Redmond, ''Drama and Philosophy'', page 161.</ref><ref>
"Gorky had long rejected all organized religions. Yet he was not a materialist, and thus he could not be satisfied with Marx's ideas on religion. When asked to express his views about religion in a questionnaire sent by the French journal Mercure de France on April 15, 1907, Gorky replied that he was opposed to the existing religions of Moses, Christ, and Mohammed. He defined religious feeling as an awareness of a harmonious link that joins man to the universe and as an aspiration for synthesis, inherent in every individual." Tova Yedlin, ''Maxim Gorky: A Political Biography'', page 86.</ref>
*[[Thomas Hardy]] (1840–1928): English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Complete Critical Guide to Thomas Hardy|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415234917|author=Geoffrey Harvey|accessdate=26 May 2012|page=23|quote=Although Hardy's agnosticism was less forceful than Stephen's, significantly it was Hardy whom he chose to witness his renunciation of Holy Orders on 23 March 1875.}}</ref>
*[[Sadegh Hedayat]] (1903–1951): Iranian author and writer.<ref>{{cite book|title=Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy|year=2006|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=9780791467992|pages=166–167|author=Seyyed Hossein Nasr|accessdate=4 September 2012|quote=Also Iran's most famous modern writer, Sadegh Hedayat, who was an agnostic and antireligious activist, did much to introduce the new skeptical view of Khayyam among modernized Persians to the extent that some by mistake think of him as the founder of Khayyam studies in Iran.}}</ref>
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] (1907–1988): American science fiction writer.<ref>{{cite book|title=Robert Heinlein Interview: And Other Heinleiniana|year=1999|publisher=Pulpless.Com|isbn=9781584450153|page=62|author=J. Neil Schulman|accessdate=23 June 2013|chapter=Job: A Comedy of Justice Reviewed by J. Neil Schulman|quote=Lewis converted me from atheism to Christianity — Rand converted me back to atheism, with Heinlein standing on the sidelines rooting for agnosticism.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith|year=2010|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=9780754693604|page=57|author=Carole M. Cusack|accessdate=23 June 2013|quote=Heinlein, like Robert Anton Wilson, was a lifelong agnostic, believing that to affirm that there is no God was as silly and unsupported as to affirm that there was a God.}}</ref>
*[[Joseph Heller]] (1923–1999): American satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His best known work is [[Catch-22]], a novel about US servicemen during [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Conversations With Joseph Heller|year=1993|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=9780878056354|coauthors=Joseph Heller, Adam J. Sorkin|editor=Adam J. Sorkin|accessdate=8 June 2012|page=75|quote=Mandel: You are expressing an agnostic attitude toward reality and I am glad to see you so healthy. Heller: I realize that even if I received convincing physical evidence that there is a God and a heaven and hell, it wouldn't affect me one bit. I think the experience of life is more important than the experience of eternity. Life is short. Eternity never runs out.}}</ref>
*[[Alexander Herzen]] (1812–1870): Russian writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism" and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Herzen Reader|year=2012|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=9780810128477|page=367|coauthors=Alexander Herzen, Kathleen Parthé, Robert Neil Harris|accessdate=17 May 2013|quote=Zernov writes: “Herzen was the only leader of the intelligentsia who was more an agnostic than a dogmatic atheist and for this reason he remained on the fringe of the movement."}}</ref>
* [[Aldous Huxley]] (1894–1963): English writer best known for novels, such as [[Brave New World]], and [[essay]]s on a wide range of topics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Aldous Huxley|year=2003|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-7910-7040-6|editor=Harold Bloom|accessdate=14 April 2012|page=27|quote=As late as 1962 he wrote to Reid Gardner, “I remain an agnostic who aspires to be a gnostic” (Letters 935).}}</ref>
*[[A.J. Jacobs]] (born 1968): American author.<ref>During an interview on his book ''The Year of Living Biblically'' with George Stroumboulopoulos on the CBC Program 'The Hour' Jacobs states "I'm still an agnostic, I don't know whether there's a god."[http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1770]</ref>
*[[James Joyce]] (1882–1941): Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the [[modernist]] avant-garde [[Art movement|movement]] of the early 20th century. Joyce is best known for his novel, [[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]].<ref>"Neither Joyce's agnosticism nor his sexual libertinism were known to his mentors at Belvedere and he remained to the end a Prefect of the Sodality of Mary." Bruce Stewart, ''James Joyce'' (2007), page 14.</ref>
*[[Franz Kafka]] (1883–1924): Jewish Czech-born writer.<ref>
"Kafka did not look at writing as a “gift” in the traditional sense. If anything, he considered both his talent for writing and what he produced as a writer curses for some unknown sin. Since Kafka was agnostic or even an atheist, it is best to assume his sense of sin and curse were metaphors." [http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/kafka.shtml Franz Kafka - The Absurdity of Everything], Tameri.com.</ref><ref>
"Kafka was also alienated from his own heritage by his parent's perfunctory religious practice and minimal social formality in the Jewish community, though his style and influence is sometimes attributed to Jewish folk lore. Kafka eventually declared himself a socialist atheist, Spinoza, Darwin and Nietzsche some of his influences." C.D. Merriman, [http://www.online-literature.com/franz-kafka/ Franz Kafka].</ref>
* [[Nikos Kazantzakis]] (1883–1957): [[Greeks|Greek]] writer and philosopher, celebrated for his novel ''[[Zorba the Greek]]'', considered his magnum opus. He became known globally after the 1964 release of the [[Michael Cacoyannis]] film ''[[Zorba the Greek (film)|Zorba the Greek]]'', based on the novel. He gained renewed fame with the 1988 Martin Scorsese adaptation of his book [[The Last Temptation of Christ]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Kazantzakis: the politics of salvation|year=1979|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9780817370022|author=James F. Lea|accessdate=15 September 2012|page=180|quote=H. Kazantzakis, Nikos Kazantzakis, p. 433, relates how their marriage ceremony was moving "even for atheists like ourselves."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Creative Destruction: Nikos Kazantzakis and the Literature of Responsibility|year=2003|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=9780865548039|author=Lewis Owens|accessdate=15 September 2012|page=22|quote=Middleton claims that Kazantzakis is not an "atheist" but an "antitheist," rejecting the theistic God who is attributed with eternity, necessity,}}</ref>
*[[John Keats]] (1795–1821): English [[Romanticism|Romantic]] poet.<ref>"Keats shared Hunt's dislike of institutionalized Christianity, parsons, and the Christian belief in man's innate corruption, but, as an unassertive agnostic, held well short of Shelley's avowed atheism." John Barnard, ''John Keats'', pages 38-39.</ref>
*[[Omar Khayyám]] (1048–1131): [[Persian people|Persian]] [[polymath]]: [[Persian literature|poet]], [[philosopher]], [[mathematician]] and [[astronomer]]. He also wrote treatises on [[mechanics]], [[geography and cartography in medieval Islam|geography]], [[mineralogy]], [[music]], [[climatology]] and [[Islamic theology]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Mary Magdalene|publisher=Edfu Books Ltd|isbn=9781905815197|author=Ralph Ellis|accessdate=17 July 2012|page=223|quote=Omar Khayyam, for instance, the great Muslim mathematician and poet, was actually a Sufi Agnostic: From his youth to his death Khayyam remained a materialist, a pessimist, and an Agnostic. Khayyam looked at all religions questions with a skeptical eye, and hated the fanaticism, narrow-mindedness, and the spirit of vengeance of the mullahs. And Khayyam himself once said: "We are the victims of an age when men of science are discredited, and only a few remain who are capable of engaging in scientific research. Our philosophers spend all their time in mixing true with false and are interested in nothing but outward show; such little learning as they have they extend on material ends. When they see a man sincere and unremitting in his search for the truth, one who will have nothing to do with falsehood and pretence, they mock and despise him."}}</ref>
*[[Janusz Korczak]] (1878 or 1879?–1942): Polish-Jewish educator, children's author and [[Pediatrics|pediatrician]]. After spending many years working as director of an orphanage in Warsaw, Korczak refused freedom and remained with the orphans as they were sent to [[Treblinka extermination camp]] during the [[Grossaktion Warsaw]] of 1942.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ghetto diary|year=1978|publisher=Holocaust Library|author=Janusz Korczak|accessdate=20 April 2012|quote=You know I am an agnostic, but I understood: Pedagogy, tolerance, and all that.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Korczak's Children: Flawed Faces in a Warsaw Ghetto|url=http://newspapers.bc.edu/cgi-bin/bostonsh?a=d&d=bcheights19830307.2.63|accessdate=25 August 2013|newspaper=The Heights|date=March 7, 1983|author=Chris Mullen|page=24|quote=An assimilated Jew, he changed his name from Henryk Goldschmidt and was an agnostic who did not believe in forcing religion on children.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Month, Volume 39|year=1968|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, and Company|accessdate=20 April 2012|page=350|quote=When Dr. Janusz Korczak, a Jewish philanthropist and agnostic, voluntarily chooses to follow the Jewish orphans under his care to the Nazi extermination camp in Treblinka...}}</ref>
*[[Lucretius]] (99 BC–55 BC): Roman poet and philosopher.<ref>
"Lucretius did not deny the existence of gods either, but he felt that human ideas about gods combined with the fear of death to make human beings unhappy. He followed the same materialist lines as Epicurus, and by denying that the gods had any way of influencing our world he said that humankind had no need to fear the supernatural." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml Ancient Atheists]. ''BBC.co.uk''.</ref>
*[[Bernard Malamud]] (1914–1986): American author of novels and short stories. Along with [[Saul Bellow]] and [[Philip Roth]], he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|title=American Immigration Aesthetics: Bernard Malamud and Bharati Mukherjee As Immigrants|year=2011|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4567-8243-6|author=Markose Abraham|accessdate=21 April 2012|page=146|quote=An agnostic humanist, Malamud has unflinching faith in man's ability to choose and make “his own world” from the “usable past”.}}</ref>
*[[H. L. Mencken]] (1880–1956): journalist, satirist, social critic, [[cynicism (contemporary)|cynic]] and [[Freethought|freethinker]], known as the "Sage of Baltimore".<ref>"When asked what he would do if on his death he found himself facing the twelve apostles, the agnostic Mencken answered, "I would simply say, 'Gentlemen, I was mistaken.'"" [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytrial/peopleevents/e_jazzage.html American Experience; Monkey Trial; People & Events: The Jazz Age], PBS Online, 1999-2001. Retrieved 28 July 2007.</ref>
*[[Thomas Mann]] (1875–1955): German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 [[Nobel Prize laureate]], known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual.<ref>{{cite book|title=The early reception of Thomas Mann's "Doktor Faustus": history and main problems|year=1966|publisher=Indiana University|author=Catherine Patricia Riesenman|accessdate=1 October 2012|page=158|quote=Mann's "agnostic humanism" admits the existence of God as an incontestable fact but refuses a dogmatic definition of the nature of God (p. 77).}}</ref>
*[[Vladimir Nabokov]] (1899–1977): Russian novelist, poet and short story writer. Best known for his novel, ''[[Lolita]]''.<ref>
"Nabokov is a self-affirmed agnostic in matters religious, political, and philosophical." Donald E. Morton, ''Vladimir Nabokov'' (1974), page 8.</ref>
*[[Eugene O'Neill]] (1888–1953), American playwright. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1936.<ref>
"O'Neill, an agnostic and an anarchist, maintained little hope in religion or politics and saw institutions not serving to preserve liberty but standing in the way of the birth of true freedom." John P. Diggins, ''Eugene O'Neill's America: desire under democracy'' (2007), page 130.</ref>
*[[Larry Niven]] (1938–): American [[science fiction]] author. His best-known work is ''[[Ringworld]]'' (1970).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/people/pn/Larry_Niven.html |title=The religion of Larry Niven, science fiction author |publisher=Adherents.com |date=28 July 2005 |accessdate=27 September 2011}}</ref>
* [[Fernando Pessoa]] (1888&ndash;1935): Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa|year=2002|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=9780802139146|coauthors=Fernando Pessoa, Richard Zenith|accessdate=31 May 2012|quote=Whether or not they exist, we're slaves to the gods.}}</ref>
* [[Marcel Proust]] (1871&ndash;1922): French novelist, critic and essayist, best known for his work, ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]''.<ref>"Marcel Proust was the son of a Christian father and a Jewish mother. He himself was baptized (on 5 August 1871, at the church of Saint-Louis d'Antin) and later confirmed as a Catholic, but he never practiced that faith and as an adult could best be described as a mystical atheist, someone imbued with spirituality who nonetheless did not believe in a personal God, much less in a savior." Edmund White, ''Marcel Proust: A Life'' (2009).</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Finch|first=Alison|title=The Oxford Companion to French Literature: Marcel Proust|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-866104-7|quote=Proust's mother was Jewish; he and his younger brother were brought up as Catholics. He no doubt grew up with an awareness of the diversity of religious and cultural traditions; this awareness is part of what gives A la recherche du temps perdu its breadth. The adult Proust seems to have been an atheist or agnostic (albeit one with a keen sense of awe and mystery); certainly his mature work shows, in religious and other areas, a scepticism by turns quizzical or delighted or anguished. Such scepticism has been part of the French literary tradition for centuries, but Proust was to foreground it in a particularly modern mode.}}</ref>
*[[Alexander Pushkin]] (1799–1837): Russian author of the Romantic era, considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern [[Russian literature]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Realizing Metaphors: Alexander Pushkin and the Life of the Poet|year=1998|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-15974-0|author=David M. Bethea|accessdate=11 April 2012|page=12|quote=For Pushkin himself was agnostic, in the sense that, exquisitely perched between paganism and Orthodoxy, violence and civilization, east and west, he would have loved to believe, but he felt too attached to this world, too fascinated by it, to come to rest in any stance other than the simultaneously exhilarating and wearying stand-in-relation-to.}}</ref>
* [[Edward Said]] (1935–2003): [[Palestinian-American]] literary [[Literary theory|theorist]] and advocate for [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] rights. He was [[University Professor]] of English and Comparative Literature at [[Columbia University]], and a founding figure in [[postcolonialism]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation|year=2010|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24546-4|coauthors=Adel Iskander, Hakem Rustom|accessdate=26 April 2012|quote=Said was of Christian background, a confirmed agnostic, perhaps even an atheist, yet he had a rage for justice and a moral sensibility lacking in most believers. Said retained his ethical compass without God and persevered in an exile once forced and now chosen, affected by neither malice nor fear.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Newman's Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint|year=2010|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=9781441150844|author=John Cornwell|accessdate=3 November 2012|page=128|quote=A hundred and fifty years on, Edward Said, an agnostic of Palestinian origins, who strove to correct false Western impressions of 'Orientalism', would declare Newman's university discourses both true and 'incomparably eloquent'...}}</ref>
* [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.]] (1917-2007): American historian and [[Pulitzer Prize]] winning writer. Schlesinger was also a close friend and associate of President [[John F. Kennedy]] and Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Do You Believe?|year=2007|publisher=Vintage|author=Antonio Monda|pages=141, 146|quote=I am an agnostic...I began not to believe in the existence of God when I was in high school.}}</ref>
* [[Mary Shelley]] (1797–1851): English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel [[Frankenstein]] (1818).<ref>{{cite book|title=Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley: Writing Lives|year=2001|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|isbn=9780889209435|coauthors=Helen M. Buss, D. L. Macdonald, Anne McWhir|accessdate=26 May 2012|page=141|quote=Its implicit antagonist-reader and protagonist-editor are his Roman Catholic wife Mary Jane, and his troubled agnostic daughter, Mary Shelley:...}}</ref>
* [[Edward Snowden]] (1983-): American computer specialist, privacy activist and former CIA employee and NSA contractor who disclosed classified details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs.<ref>{{cite news |title=For Snowden, a Life of Ambition, Despite the Drifting |url= http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/us/for-snowden-a-life-of-ambition-despite-the-drifting.html?pagewanted=all |accessdate=June 15, 2013 |work=The New York Times |first1=John M. |last1=Broder |first2=Scott |last2=Shane |date=June 15, 2013 |quote=Toward the end of 2003, Mr. Snowden wrote that he was joining the Army, listing Buddhism as his religion (“agnostic is strangely absent,” he noted parenthetically about the military recruitment form). He tried to define a still-evolving belief system. “I feel that religion, adopted purely, is ultimately representative of blindly making someone else’s beliefs your own.”}}</ref>
*[[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] (1815–1902): American [[social activism|social activist]], abolitionist, and leading figure of the early [[women's rights movement|woman's movement]].  <!-- in her time the movement was referred to in the singular form. Please don't change it's not a typo --> Her [[Declaration of Sentiments]], presented at the [[Seneca Falls Convention]] held in 1848 in [[Seneca Falls (village), New York|Seneca Falls]], [[New York]], is often credited with initiating the first organized woman's rights and [[woman's suffrage]] movements in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|title=Parenting Beyond Belief- Abridged Ebook Edition: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids without Religion|year=2011|publisher=AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn|isbn=9780814474266|author=Dale McGowan|authorlink=Feminist Reformers|accessdate=10 September 2012|page=138|quote=“Serene agnostic” Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was the first woman, in 1848, to call for woman suffrage, launching the women's movement. She was joined by sister agnostic Susan B. Anthony(1820–1906).}}</ref> Late in life she led the effort to write the ''[[Woman's Bible]]'' to correct the injustices she perceived against women in the Bible.
*[[Olaf Stapledon]] (1886–1950): British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.<ref>{{cite book|title=Olaf Stapledon|year=1982|publisher=Twayne|isbn=9780805768268|author=Patrick A. McCarthy|accessdate=13 May 2012|quote=There may be a God or universal spirit apart from man, as Victor admits; but he maintains Stapledon's consistently agnostic position that we should "be true to our own little insect intelligence...}}</ref>
*[[John Steinbeck]] (1902–1968): American writer best known for novels such as [[The Grapes of Wrath]] and [[East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden]]. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1962.<ref>{{cite book|title=The true adventures of John Steinbeck, writer: a biography|year=1984|publisher=Viking Press|isbn=9780670166855|page=248|author=Jackson J. Benson|accessdate=9 April 2013|quote=Ricketts did not convert his friend to a religious point of view — Steinbeck remained an agnostic and, essentially, a materialist — but Ricketts's religious acceptance did tend to work on his friend,...}}</ref>
*[[Stendhal]] (1783–1842) ([[Pseudonym|aka]] Marie-Henri Beyle): a 19th-century French writer.<ref>"It must be extremely consoling, he admitted, to have faith in religion, yet even for an agnostic, like himself, life held many beautiful realities - the art of Raphael or Titian, the prose of Voltaire and the poetry of Byron in ''Don Juan''." F. C. Green, ''Stendhal'' (2011), page 200.</ref>
* [[Boris Strugatsky]] (1925–2012): Soviet-Russian science fiction author who collaborated with his brother, Arkady Strugatsky, on various works. The brothers' famous novel ''Piknik na obochine'' has been translated into [[English language|English]] as ''[[Roadside Picnic]]'' in 1977 and was filmed by [[Andrei Tarkovsky]] under the title ''[[Stalker (1979 film)|Stalker]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Boris Strugatsky: "The seeds of culture do not die even in the soil, which seems to be frozen to the bottom,"|url=http://www.sovsekretno.ru/magazines/article/3215|publisher=Cobepwehho Cekpetho|accessdate=14 December 2012|author=Boris Strugatsky|authorlink=Yuri Pankov|quote=I was an atheist, or as it is now for some reason, say, an agnostic. I (unfortunately or fortunately) I can not bring myself to believe in the existence of a conscious self Omnipotence that controls my life and the life of humanity.}}</ref>
* [[Charles Templeton]] (1915–2001): former [[Evangelism|evangelist]] and author of ''A Farewell to God''.<ref>CBC News reports that Templeton "eventually abandoned the pulpit and became an agnostic." ''[http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?category=Canada&story=/news/2001/06/07/templeton_010607 Journalist, evangelist Charles Templeton dies]''</ref>
* [[Thucydides]] (c. 460–c. 395): Greek historian and author from [[Alimos]]. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history", because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.<ref>{{cite book|title=Thucydides|year=1925|publisher=Taylor & Francis|accessdate=11 July 2012|page=16|chapter=The Modern Spirit|quote=Thucydides' own attitude towards the gods is that of a well-poised agnostic : If there be any, they do not concern themselves with human affairs.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Mythistory: The Making of a Modern Historiography|year=2003|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226502625|author=Joseph Mali|accessdate=11 July 2012|page=19|chapter=1|quote=For Thucydides held to an agnostic conception of history: he did not believe in any supernatural or merely natural forces in it; rather, he conceived history— in overtly dramatic terms—to be a test of character, an ongoing attempt of men to  assert themselves in, and over against, reality that they could not fully understand nor really change.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Ethics in Thucydides: The Ancient Simplicity|year=1998|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=9780761810568|author=Mary Frances Williams|accessdate=11 July 2012|page=6|quote=As scholars came to accept, around the turn of the century, arguments that proclaimed Thucydides' agnosticism or atheism, religion was considered to be either of no interest to the author or to be actively despised by him, and this likewise influenced the treatment of ethics in the 'History'.}}</ref>
* [[Ivan Turgenev]] (1818–1883): Russian novelist, short story writer and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled ''[[A Sportsman's Sketches]]'', is a milestone of Russian [[Literary realism|realism]], and his novel ''[[Fathers and Sons (novel)|Fathers and Sons]]'' is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction.<ref>"For example, Leonard Schapiro, Turgenev, His Life and Times (New York: Random, 1978) 214, writes about Turgenev's agnosticism as follows: "Turgenev was not a determined atheist; there is ample evidence which shows that he was an agnostic who would have been happy to embrace the consolations of religion, but was, except perhaps on some rare occasions, unable to do so"; and Edgar Lehrman, ''Turgenev's Letters'' (New York: Knopf, 1961) xi, presents still another interpretation for Turgenev's lack of religion, suggesting literature as a possible substitution: "Sometimes Turgenev's attitude toward literature makes us wonder whether, for him, literature was not a surrogate religion - something in which he could believe unhesitatingly, unreservedly, and enthusiastically, something that somehow would make man in general and Turgenev in particular a little happier."" Harold Bloom, ''Ivan Turgenev'', pages 95-96.</ref>
*[[Mark Twain]]: American [[List of humorists|humorist]], satirist, lecturer and writer, most noted for his novels ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' and ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer''.<ref>"In one of our walks about Hartford, when he was in the first fine flush of his agnosticism, he declared that Christianity had done nothing to improve morals and conditions..." [[William Dean Howells]], ''My Mark Twain'' [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3390/3390.txt].</ref><ref>"[[William Dean Howells]] and [[Mark Twain]] had much in common. They were agnostic but compassionate of the plight of man in an indifferent world..." Darrel Abel (2002), ''Classic Authors of the Gilded Age'', iUniverse, ISBN 0-595-23497-6</ref> Twain has also been identified a [[deist]].<ref>"At the most, Mark Twain was a mild agnostic, usually he seems to have been an amused Deist. Yet, at this late date his own daughter has refused to allow his comments on religion to be published." Kenneth Rexroth, "Humor in a Tough Age;" The Nation, 7 March 1959. [http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/essays/twain.htm]</ref>
* [[Adam Bruno Ulam]] (1922-2000): Polish and American [[historian]] and [[political scientist]] at [[Harvard University]]. Ulam was one of the world's foremost authorities on [[Russia]] and the [[Soviet Union]], and the author of twenty books and many articles.<ref>{{cite book|title=Understanding the Cold War: A Historian's Personal Reflections|year=2002|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=9781412840651|page=24|author=Adam Bruno Ulam|edition=2|accessdate=15 July 2013|quote=While very religious when very young, by sixteen I had turned agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Ibn Warraq]], known for his books critical of Islam.<ref>"Warraq, 60, describes himself now as an agnostic..." [http://web.archive.org/web/20070808075246/http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13052 Dissident voices], World Magazine, 16 June 2007, Vol. 22, No. 22.</ref>
*[[Hale White]] (1831–1913): British writer and civil servant.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Facts on File Companion to the British Novel: Beginnings through the 19th century|year=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9780816051335|coauthors=Mary Virginia Brackett, Victoria Gaydosik|accessdate=30 June 2012|page=479|quote=...White experienced an enormous spiritual change, moving from Unitarianism through theism, then becoming an agnostic, and finally finding more peace in a resignation and acceptance of life without a deity.}}</ref>
*[[Elie Wiesel]] (born 1928): [[Romanians|Romanian]]-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist and [[List of Holocaust survivors|Holocaust survivor]]. He is the author of 57 books, including ''[[Night]]'', a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the [[Auschwitz]], Buna and Buchenwald [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]. Wiesel was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1986.<ref>{{cite book|title=And the Sea Is Never Full: Memoirs, 1969-|first=Elie|last=Wiesel|year=2000|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|quote=Some of the questions: God? “I'm an agnostic.” A strange agnostic, fascinated by mysticism.|isbn=978-0-8052-1029-3}}</ref>
*[[Robert Anton Wilson]] (1932–2007): author, [[futurology|futurologist]], [[Shadow government (conspiracy)|cryptocracy]] historian.<ref>Wilson explains that he is agnostic about ''everything'' in [http://www.rawilson.com/trigger1.shtml the preface to his book Cosmic Trigger].</ref>
*[[Mary Wollstonecraft]] (1759–1797): British writer, philosopher, and advocate of [[women's rights]]. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a [[travel literature|travel narrative]], a history of the [[French Revolution]], a [[conduct book]], and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]'' (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.<ref>{{cite book|title=Parenting Beyond Belief- Abridged Ebook Edition: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids without Religion|year=2011|publisher=AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn|isbn=9780814474266|author=Dale McGowan|authorlink=Feminist Reformers|accessdate=10 September 2012|page=138|quote=The first influential feminist book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was written by deist-turned-agnostic Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) in 1792, urging that women be treated as “rational creatures”.}}</ref>
*[[David Yallop]]: (born 27 January 1937)<ref>{{cite web|title=biography of David Yallop|url=http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/biography_of_david_yallop|work=True Knowledge BETA - The Internet Answer Engine|publisher=True Knowledge|accessdate=5 May 2012|year=2012}}</ref> British [[true crime]] author.<ref>The Herald, "Why did this "saint" fail to act on sinners within his flock?", Anne Simpson, 26 May 2007</ref>
*[[Émile Zola]] (1840–1902): French writer who was a prominent figure in the literary [[naturalism (literature)|school of naturalism]] and an important contributor to the development of [[Naturalism (theatre)|theatrical naturalism]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Evenhuis|first=Anthony|title=Messiah Or Antichrist?: A Study of the Messianic Myth in the Work of Zola|year=1998|publisher=University of Delaware Press|isbn=978-0-87413-634-0|quote=Given Émile Zola's reputation as an agnostic and a radical thinker, he has often been avoided by scholars with a religious background.}}</ref>
 
===Business===
*[[Leslie Alexander (businessman)|Leslie Alexander]] (born 1943), an American sports owner, owner of the [[Houston Rockets]].<ref>{{cite news|title=The 400 Richest Americans: #322 Leslie Alexander|url=http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_Leslie-Alexander_7XL9.html|publisher=Forbes.com|accessdate=March 30, 2011|date=21 September 2006}}</ref> 
*[[Warren Buffett]] (born 1930), an American investor, identified himself as agnostic in response to [[Warren Allen Smith]], who had asked him whether he believed in God.<ref>''Faces of the New Atheism: The Scribe'', by Nicholas Thompson, Wired Magazine, Issue 14.11, November 2006 (Retrieved 30 November 2006).</ref>
*[[Henry Dunant]] (1828—1910), Swiss businessman and social activist. He is best known as the founder of [[International Committee of the Red Cross]]. In 1901 he received the first [[Nobel Peace Prize]] together with [[Frédéric Passy]].<ref>"The first Nobel Peace Prize went, in 1901, to Henri Dunant. Dunant was the founder of the Red Cross, but he could not become its first elective head-so it is widely believed- because of his agnostic views." Oscar Riddle, ''The Unleashing of Evolutionary Thought'' (2007), page 343.</ref><ref>"Devoutly Calvinist for most of his life, but became bitter and disdainful toward religion in his latter years." ''NNDB.com'', [http://www.nndb.com/people/848/000091575/#FN1 Henry Dunant].</ref>
*[[Bill Gates]] (born 1955), co-founder of Microsoft.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/435/000022369/ |title=Bill Gates |publisher=Nndb.com |accessdate=11 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=649 |title=Warren Buffett "Agnostic," Bill Gates Rejects Sermon On The Mount, Not "Huge Believer" In "Specific Elements" Of Christianity |publisher=Archive.theamericanview.com |date=13 January 1996 |accessdate=24 October 2011}}</ref>
*[[Elon Musk]] (born 1971), [[South African American|South African-American]] inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for founding [[SpaceX]] and for co-founding [[Tesla Motors]] and [[PayPal]] (originally X.com).<ref>{{cite web|title=Going to Mars with Elon Musk|url=http://www.oninnovation.com/videos/detail.aspx?title=Going+to+Mars&video=1549|publisher=The Henry Ford.|accessdate=14 July 2013|author=Elon Musk|quote=Well, I do. Do I think that there's some sort of master intelligence architecting all of this stuff? I think probably not because then you have to say: "Where does the master intelligence come from?" So it sort of begs the question. So I think really you can explain this with the fundamental laws of physics.  You know its complex phenomenon from simple elements.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Elon Musk and Rainn Wilson discuss colonizing Mars, global warming, and the fear of failure|url=http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/19/4122624/elon-musk-mars-colony-terraforming-spacex-video-rainn-wilson-metaphysical-milkshake|accessdate=14 July 2013|quote=Wilson: "What do you worship?" Musk: "Well, I don’t really worship anything, but I do devote myself to the advancement of humanity, uh, using technology." Wilson: "Can science and religion coexist?" Musk: "Probably not." Wilson: "Do you pray?" Musk: "I didn't even pray when I almost died of Malaria."}}</ref>
*[[George Soros]] (born 1930), billionaire investor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgesoros.com/faqs/entry/georgesorosviewsonreligion/ |title=George Soros |publisher=georgesoros.com |accessdate=8 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Ted Tuner]], founder of [[Turner Broadcasting System]], now part of Time Warner.<ref>http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/19/leadership/ted-turner-interview.pr.fortune/</ref>
 
===Media, arts===
*[[Hideaki Anno]] (born 1960), Japanese animation and film director. Anno is best known for his work on the popular anime series, ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''.<ref>
On his religious beliefs:
ANNO: "I don't belong to any kind of organized religion, so I guess I could be considered agnostic. Japanese spiritualism holds that there is kami (spirit) in everything, and that's closer to my own beliefs." [http://web.archive.org/web/20020606012703/http://masterwork.animemedia.com/Evangelion/anno.html Anno's Roundtable Discussion].</ref>
* [[Simon Baker]] (born 1969), Australian television and movie actor.<ref>
"I was religious when I was younger. I was Catholic, raised Catholic. I had certain issues about that. I consciously lapsed. I made a conscious decision to avoid it. I'm agnostic. I'm not saying I don't have faith; I absolutely have faith but don't necessarily have faith in God. I have faith in humanity."  ''Guardian's' Simon Baker refocuses anger of youth into busy career '' by Luane Lee, ''Scripps Howard News Service'', 2 January 2003.</ref>
*[[Jay Baruchel]] (born 1982), Canadian actor.<ref>
"The oh-so-Jewy-looking Baruchel is a quarter Jewish, at least half Catholic, exposed to both religions, but now agnostic." ''JewOrNotJew.com'', 7 February 2011. [http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=991]</ref>
* [[David Bazan]] (born 1976), American singer, songwriter, musician and former frontman of [[Pedro The Lion]], an indie rock outfit associated with [[Christian rock]] that was controversial among Christians for their language and off-kilter views about religion.  Bazan's solo career has been focused around his newfound agnosticism.
* [[Monica Bellucci]] (born 1964), Italian actress and fashion model.<ref>{{cite web|title=Monica-Bellucci.net|url=http://www.monica-bellucci.net/quotes.php|publisher=Monica Bellucci|accessdate=12 June 2012|author=Monica Bellucci|quote=I am an agnostic, even though I respect and am interested in all religions. If there's something I believe in, it's a mysterious energy; the one that fills the oceans during tides, the one that unites nature and beings.}}</ref>
* [[Neil Patrick Harris]] (born 1973), is an American actor, producer, singer, and director. He is best known for the title role in ''[[Doogie Howser, M.D.]]'' and the womanizing Barney Stinson in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. In his childhood he grew up to belong to an Episcopal Church with his family, where he sang in choir, but has designated himself as an agnostic on his Myspace.
* [[Tom Bergeron]] (born 1955), American television personality and [[game show host]], best known to the public as the host of ''[[America's Funniest Home Videos]]'', ''[[Hollywood Squares]]'' and ''[[Dancing with the Stars]]''.<ref name="Tom Bergeron">[http://www.pennfans.net/view/Audio_Archive/PennRadio/Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2006.10.30/ Interview with Penn Jillette] in which he mentions his agnosticism.</ref>
*[[Ingmar Bergman]] (1918–2007), Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ingmar Bergman: Interviews|year=2007|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-218-8|author=Raphael Shargel|accessdate=22 April 2012|page=174|quote=A religious reconciliation, for example, appears unlikely for Mr. Bergman, an agnostic. "I hope I never get so old I get religious," he said.}}</ref>
*[[Irving Berlin]] (1888–1989), American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered{{by whom|date=January 2014}} one of the greatest songwriters in American history.<ref>"'God Bless America,' a favorite song of believers, was written by Irving Berlin. It now turns out that Berlin was an agnostic. In Freethought Today (Madison, Wisconsin, Freedom From Religion Foundation, May 2004) Dan Barker documents that Berlin, the son of a Jewish cantor, was an agnostic, that 'patriotism was his religion.'" Warren Allen Smith, ''Gossip from Across the Pond: Articles Published in the United Kingdom's Gay and Lesbian Humanist, 1996-2005'', page 106.</ref>
*[[Gael García Bernal]] (born 1978), Mexican actor and director, claims to be "culturally [[Catholic Church|Catholic]]" and "spiritually [[agnostic]]".<ref>[http://www2.indiewire.com/people/int_Bernal_Gael_021112.html INTERVIEW: Padre, Padre: Mexico's Native Son Gael Garcia Bernal Stars in the Controversial "The Crime of Father Amaro"<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
*[[Lewis Black]] (born 1948), American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Quotable Atheist|year=2008|publisher=Nation Books|isbn=9781568584195|author=Jack Huberman|accessdate=12 June 2012|quote=Introduced as an “angry agnostic” on Comedy Central's Bar Mitzvah Bash.}}</ref>
* [[Johannes Brahms]] (1833–1897): German composer and pianist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Johannes Brahms: A Biography|year=2012|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=9780307809896|page=620|author=Jan Swafford|accessdate=2 May 2013|quote=George Henschel came to Brahms's apartment in the afternoon of April 3, to find the rooms already overflowing with a display of funeral pomp ironic for an agnostic who had lived plainly: silver crosses on black velvet, a huge brass candelabrum with candles blazing, flowers piled higher than the coffin.}}</ref>
* [[Georges Brassens]] (1921–1981): French singer-songwriter and poet.<ref>{{cite book|title=Georges Brassens And Jacques Brel: Personal And Social Narratives In Post-war Chanson|year=2005|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=9780853237686|page=37|author=Chris Tinker|accessdate=14 May 2013|quote=Brassens, agnostic, could never be certain about the existence of God, one way or the other.}}</ref>
*[[Benjamin Britten]] (1913–1976), English composer, conductor, and pianist. He is one of the central figures of 20th century [[British classical music]].<ref>"His life partner, Peter Pears, would describe Britten as “an agnostic with a great love for Jesus Christ." [http://www.sfchoral.org/pnotes/britten_requiem_ct.pdf Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976)]</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Illegal Harmonies: Music in the Modern Age|year=2011|publisher=Black Inc.|isbn=9781921870217|page=77|author=Andrew Ford|edition=3|accessdate=17 April 2013|quote=In place of the Frenchman's unquestioning faith, for example, there was Britten's agnosticism; and in contrast to the uxorious Messiaen, Britten was a homosexual: this, at a time when homosexual practices were still illegal in the United Kingdom.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Resonant witness: conversations between music and theology|year=2011|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=9780802862778|pages=192–193|editor=Jeremy Begbie, Steven R. Guthrie|accessdate=17 April 2013|quote=I have already cited British composers whom one might describe as “mystical agnostics,”yet it is striking that these (with the arguable exceptions of Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten), are scarcely to be counted among the major innovators in twentieth-century music.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Britten: War Requiem|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521446334|page=16|author=Mervyn Cooke|accessdate=31 May 2013|quote=From the Tribunal's subsequent report we learn (intriguingly) that Britten also declared 'I do not believe in the Divinity of Christ, but I think his teaching is sound and his example should be followed.'}}</ref>
* [[Gavin Bryars]] (born 1943), English composer and double bassist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Billboard|page=40|author=Bradley Bambarger|accessdate=28 May 2013|chapter=Classical - Keeping Score|date=23 Jan 1999|quote="Although an agnostic myself," says English composer Gavin Bryars, "I find that the conventions of religion — the rituals — can be very consoling. If you have ever been to a secular funeral, you know that they tend to be chaotic things."}}</ref>
* [[Rose Byrne]] (born 1979), Australian actress.<ref>"Actress Rose Byrne on ‘Knowing’ Religion & the End of the World" in BBook.com: [http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/actress-rose-byrne-on-knowing-religion-and-the-end-of-the-world/6808] "Yeah, I'd say I'm agnostic".</ref>
* [[Dick Cavett]] (born 1936), American television talk show host<ref>{{cite news|title=Ghost Stories|url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/ghost-stories/?_r=0#more-9|publisher=The New York Times Company|accessdate=30 June 2013|author=Dick Cavett|date=February 7, 2007|quote=I’m not an atheist exactly, but remain what you might call “suggestible.” (Is there a category of almost-atheist? A person who does not have the courage of his nonconvictions? I guess Woody Allen has, as so often, had the ultimate comic word on the subject. “You cannot prove the nonexistence of God; you just have to take it on faith.”)}}</ref>
*[[Charlie Chaplin]] (1889–1977), English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work in the United States during the silent film era.<ref>{{cite book|title=My Father, Charlie Chaplin|pages=239–240|author=Charles Chaplin, Jr.|accessdate=28 October 2012|quote="I'm not an atheist," I can remember him saying on more than one occasion. "I'm definitely an agnostic. Some scientists say that if the world were to stop revolving we'd all disintegrate. But the world keeps on going. Something must be holding us all in place--some Supreme Force. But what it is I couldn't tell you.}}</ref>
*[[Aaron Copland]] (1900–1990), American composer.<ref>{{cite book|title=Aaron Copland:: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man|year=1999|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252069000|page=28|author=Howard Pollack|accessdate=30 April 2013|quote=Arnold Dobrin similarly reported, "Aaron Copland has not followed the religion of his parents. He is an agnostic but one who is deeply aware of the grandeur and mystery of the universe."}}</ref>
*[[Salvador Dalí]] (1904–1989), Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Spain. Dalí, a skilled draftsman, became best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed{{by whom|date=January 2014}} to the influence of Renaissance masters. His arguably best-known work, ''[[The Persistence of Memory]]'', was completed in 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. He allegedly claimed to be both an agnostic and a Roman Catholic.<ref>{{cite book|title=Salvador Dalí, 1904-1989|year=1994|publisher=Benedikt Taschen|isbn=9783822802984|coauthors=Robert Descharnes, Gilles Néret|accessdate=11 August 2012|page=166|quote=Dalí, dualist as ever in his approach, was now claiming to be both an agnostic and a Roman Catholic.}}</ref>
*[[Philip DeFranco]] (born 1985), American internet personality. DeFranco was one of the pioneers of YouTube, having joined in its early days and is best known for creating ''The Philip DeFranco Show'' and ''[[SourceFed]]''. DeFranco claimed that he was agnostic in July 2012.<ref>{{cite web|author=Philip DeFranco|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjfybfbmvO8&feature=g-all-u|title=WORST BUG BITE EVER?!|publisher=YouTube|work=The Philip DeFranco Show}}</ref>
* [[Ronnie James Dio]] (1942&ndash;2010): American heavy metal singer ([[Elf (band)|Elf]], [[Rainbow (rock band)|Rainbow]], [[Black Sabbath]], [[Dio (band)|Dio]], [[Heaven & Hell (band)|Heaven & Hell]])<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLuUDrrP44k</ref>
*[[Richard Dreyfuss]] (born 1947), American actor.<ref>{{cite web|title=Actor Richard Dreyfuss: ‘If There’s a God,’ Politically Uncivil ‘Guys Are in Trouble’|url=http://cnsnews.com/news/article/actor-richard-dreyfuss-if-there-s-god-politically-uncivil-guys-are-trouble|accessdate=28 April 2012|author=Nicholas Ballasy|date=27 January 2011|quote=“But I’m an agnostic,” Dreyfuss added. “I’m willing to be surprised, but I’m an agnostic. But if there’s a God and he’s morally involved in our affairs, those guys are in trouble.”}}</ref>
*[[Thomas Eakins]] (1844–1916), American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history.<ref>{{cite book|title=Thomas Eakins and the Uses of History|year=2010|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=9780812241983|author=Akela Reason|accessdate=31 May 2012|page=119|quote=Eakins's selection of this subject has puzzled some art historians who, unable to reconcile what appears to be an anomalous religious image by a reputedly agnostic artist, have related it solely to Eakins's desire for realism, thus divesting the painting of its religious content. Lloyd Goodrich, for example, considered this illustration of Christ's suffering completely devoid of “religious sentiment” and suggested that Eakins intended it simply as a realist study of the male nude body. As a result, art historians have frequently associated 'Crucifixion' (like Swimming) with Eakins's strong interest in anatomy and the nude.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Thomas Eakins: Art, Medicine, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia|year=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300116557|author=Amy Beth Werbel|accessdate=31 May 2012|page=37|quote=Given Eakins' outspoken agnosticism, his motivation to paint a crucifixion scene is frankly curious.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts|year=1997|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300061741|coauthors=Kathleen A. Foster, Mark Bockrath|accessdate=31 May 2012|page=233|quote=Samuel Murray, himself a Catholic, "believed that Eakins never was a Christian"; Bregler described TE as an agnostic.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Revenge of Thomas Eakins|year=2006|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300108552|author=Sidney Kirkpatrick|accessdate=31 May 2012|page=55|quote=Further, Eakins' agnosticism and his views on such topics as science and technology, evident in his youth and carried on throughout his career, more directly coincided with the accepted doctrine and practices of Jefferson faculty members than perhaps with any other fraternity of like-minded professionals in the city.}}</ref>
*[[Zac Efron]] (born 1987), actor, star of movies such as [[High School Musical]] and [[17 Again (film)|17 Again]].<ref>[http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=16&num=15140 Zac Efron & Nikki Blonsky's Secret Off Screen Romance?] By Tina Sims, ''The National Ledger'', 1 August 2007 (Retrieved 25 March 2008)</ref> Efron was raised [[Agnosticism|agnostic]].<ref>"I was raised agnostic, so we never practiced religion..." "Zac Efron - the new American hearthrob", Strauss, Neil  ''Rolling Stone'', 23 August 2007, p. 43.</ref> (his paternal grandfather was Jewish)
*[[Carrie Fisher]], American actress, [[screenwriter]] and novelist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Warren Allen |authorlink=Warren Allen Smith |title=Who's Who in Hell |date=25 October 2000 |publisher=Barricade Books |isbn=1-56980-158-4 |quote=I would describe myself as an enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God.}}</ref>
*[[Gabriel Fauré]] (1845-1924), French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gabriel Fauré|year=1969|publisher=Chilton Book Co.|page=74|coauthors=Émile Vuillermoz, Steven Smolian|accessdate=12 May 2013|quote=We have just said that Faure was not a religious man. He was incapable of intolerance or sectarianism, but his agnosticism was complete.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=French music since Berlioz|year=2006|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=9780754602828|page=174|editor=Richard L. Smith, Caroline Potter|accessdate=12 May 2013|quote=The resolutely agnostic Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was certainly one of its greatest alumni.}}</ref>
*[[Henry Fonda]] (1905–1982), American film and stage actor.<ref>
"Henry Fonda claims to be an agnostic. Not an atheist but a doubter." Howard Teichmann, ''Fonda: My Life'', page 303.</ref>
*[[Emilia Fox]] (born 1974), Award-winning English actress.<ref>In response to the question "Do you believe in God?", Fox said "I would love to, but I wonder sometimes what he believes in. Religion seems to have been created by man to help and guide humankind. I've no idea, really."{{cite web|url= http://www.iconocast.com/00006/R0/News7.htm| title= Analyse this: Inside the mind of actress Emilia Fox|publisher= iconocast.com}}</ref>
*[[Neil Gaiman]] (born 1960), English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, [[graphic novel]]s, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series ''[[The Sandman (Vertigo)|The Sandman]]'' and novels ''[[Stardust (novel)|Stardust]]'', ''[[American Gods]]'', ''[[Coraline]]'', and ''[[The Graveyard Book]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Neil Gaiman interviewed by Steve Whitaker|publisher=FA #109|pages=24–29|author=Neil Gaiman|accessdate=14 April 2012|date=January 1989|quote=I think we can say that God exists in the DC Universe. I would not stand up and beat the drum for the existence of God in this universe. I don't know, I think there's probably a 50/50 chance. It doesn't really matter to me.}}</ref>
*[[Gilberto Gil]] (born 1942), Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical innovation and political commitment.<ref name=astor>{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Astor |title=Brazilian pop star Gil tours U.S. |url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2007-03-16-2248300129_x.htm |work=[[Associated Press]] via [[USA Today]] |publisher=[[Gannett Company]] |location=[[Rio de Janeiro]], [[Brazil]] |date=16 March 2007 |accessdate=17 May 2008 }}</ref>
*[[Jean-Luc Godard]] (born 1930), French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and [[film criticism|film critic]]. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement ''La Nouvelle Vague'', or "[[French New Wave|New Wave]]".<ref>{{cite book|title=Derek Jarman and Lyric Film: The Mirror and the Sea|year=2004|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=9780292702240|author=Steven Dillon|accessdate=24 September 2012|page=20|quote=Le Fanu characterizes Tarkovsky as a metaphysical opposite of Godard: a spiritual creator contrasted with an ironic one, a believer in the creative power of the word compared to an agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Matt Groening]] (born 1954), creator of animated TV series ''[[The Simpsons]]'', ''[[Futurama]]'', and the comic ''[[Life in Hell]]''.<ref>See [http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=sidelines_19_3 "Sidelines" section of ''Free Inquiry magazine'', Volume 19, Number 3], which references a quote from ''New York Times Magazine'', 12-27-98.</ref>
*[[Gustav Holst]] (1874–1934), English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed a large number of works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gustav Holst|url=http://www.classical-music.com/topic/gustav-holst|publisher=Classical-Music.com|accessdate=12 May 2013|author=Bayan Northcott|quote=For Holst, the function of the composer was not so much to express his or her personality as to serve as a kind of supra-personal receptor to potentially musical impulses from all around, and, not least – though Holst himself seems to have remained essentially agnostic – from above.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=About Holst|year=2012|publisher=Barnes Music Festival|url=http://barnesmusicfestival.com/about-holst/|accessdate=12 May 2013|quote=Both musicians were agnostic and flirted with atheism.}}</ref>
* [[John Humphrys]] (born 1943), British radio and television presenter who hosted a series of programmes interviewing religious leaders, ''Humphrys in Search of God''.<ref>"He [Humphrys] went looking for God and ended up an angry agnostic – unable to believe but enraged by the arrogance of militant atheists." [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2367028.ece In God we doubt], John Humphrys ''The Sunday Times'', 2 September 2007 (Retrieved 1 April 2008)</ref>
*[[Leoš Janáček]] (1854–1928), Czech composer.<ref>http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=GHanbI1YeDMC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=janacek+agnostic&source=bl&ots=3jIiGOYX8t&sig=16e10xATad0O2DdJzhI7C6HDHIw&hl=es&sa=X&ei=np_2Tp6cE4eEsgKgybHhAQ&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=janacek%20agnostic&f=false</ref>
*[[Gene Kelly]] (1912–1996), American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer.<ref>Yudkoff, Alvin ''Gene Kelly: A Life of Dance and Dreams'', Watson-Guptill Publications: New York, NY (1999) pages 58–59</ref>
*[[Larry King]] (born 1933), host of ''[[Larry King Live]]''.<ref name="Larry King">"When we got married, I said, 'Look, since I'm agnostic, I have no right to tell you not to teach them what you believe.  But give them an opening.' So if they ever ask me, I'd tell them the same thing I'm telling you: 'I don't buy that God, I don't know if there's an afterlife.' {{cite book | title=Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish| url=http://www.webcitation.org/5OlTv7URo| last=Pogrebin| first=Abigail| year=2005| pages=318–322| publisher=Broadway| location=New York| isbn=978-0-7679-1612-7}}</ref>
*[[Annie Lennox]] (born 1954), [[Scotland|Scottish]] recording artist<ref>{{cite news|author=Lennox, Annie|title=Annie Lennox on the Secret History of Christmas Songs|url=http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/18/annie-lennox-on-how-to-write-a-christmas-carol/|date=18 December 2010|publisher=Dow Jones|work=The Wall Street Journal|accessdate=24 December 2010}}</ref>
*[[Janez Lapajne]] (born 1967), [[Slovenia]]n [[Film director|director]].<ref>{{cite news|author=I. Harb and M. Košir |date=20 November 2009 |url=http://www.delo.si/tiskano/html/zadnji/Vikend |title=Slovenci niso pobijali tjulnjev, ampak sami sebe (Slovenians Didn't Kill Seals, They Killed Each Other - interview with Janez Lapajne) | publisher=Delo - priloga Vikend - Lapajne said: "First of all, I do not want to belong to any ideological group, which is probably understandable for an agnostic." ("Najprej, ne želim pripadati nobeni ideološki skupini, kar je za agnostika verjetno razumljivo.")}}</ref>
*[[Cloris Leachman]] (1926–): actress.<ref>[http://www.grandparents.com/gp/content/expert-advice/celebrity/article/cloris-leachman-loves-her-grandkids.html "Does faith play a big role in your life?" Cloris Leachman: Not in a God, no. I am an atheist. I'm not even atheist. I don't think any of us has the answer. I'm an agnostic."]</ref>
*[[Stan Lee]] (1922-), American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of [[Marvel Comics]].<ref>
The Onion: "Is there a God?"
Stan Lee: "Well, let me put it this way... [Pauses.] No, I'm not going to try to be clever. I really don't know. I just don't know." [http://www.avclub.com/articles/is-there-a-god,1413/ Is There A God], ''The A.V. Club'', 9 October 2002.</ref>
* [[Lemmy]] (1945&ndash;): English rock [[singer]] and [[bass guitar]]ist, most famous for founding the [[Rock music|rock]] band [[Motörhead]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Green|first=Thomas|title=Q&A: Musician Lemmy Kilmister|url=http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/theartsdesk-qa-musician-lemmy-kilmister|publisher=The Art Desk|accessdate=7 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Emcee Lynx]] (born 1980), [[Anarchism|anarchist]] [[hip hop music]]ian who identifies as potentially [[Pantheism|pantheist]], agnostic or atheist.<ref>"The closest word I’ve found to describe [my] belief system is Pantheism, but I could also call myself an agnostic (because I don’t claim to know if my own conception of divinity is ultimately true) or an atheist (because I believe that religions based around personified deities are definitely not true)." &mdash; [http://blog.circlealpha.com/?p=42 The Universe According to Lynx] (30 June 2007), ''Soundtrack for Insurrection'', circlealpha.com. Retrieved 21 October 2007.</ref>
* [[René Magritte]] (1898-1967) - Belgian surrealist artist.<ref>{{cite book|title=René Magritte, 1898-1967|year=1994|publisher=Benedikt Taschen|isbn=9783822805466|page=70|author=Jacques Meuris|accessdate=27 June 2013|quote=We shall not at this juncture risk analyzing an agnostic Magritte haunted perhaps by thoughts of ultimate destiny. "We behave as if there were no God" (Marien 1947).}}</ref>
*[[Bill Maher]] (born 1956), American comedian and political commentator. Maher self identifies as an [[apatheist]].<ref>Maher said "I'm not convinced that God exists. But I do allow the possibility. I'm not an atheist. I'm open... My view on spirituality is I don't know. I never will as long as I'm alive. So why waste time dwelling on something I can never know?" See [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/11/lkl.01.html Transcript from Larry King Live] - 11 August 2005.</ref>
*[[Gustav Mahler]] (1860–1911), Late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation.<ref>
"It is particularly poor salesmanship for Ms. Raabe to cite Mahler's supposed ''conversion'' from Judaism to Catholicism. In both law and common understanding, a choice made under duress is discounted as lacking in free will. Mahler converted as a mere formality under compulsion of a bigoted law that barred Jews from directorship of the Vienna Hofoper. Mahler himself joked about the conversion with his Jewish friends, and, no doubt, would view with bitter amusement the obtuseness of Ms. Raabe's understanding of the cruel choice forced on him: either convert to Christianity or forfeit the professional post for which you are supremely destined. When Mahler was asked why he never composed a Mass, he answered bluntly that he could never, with any degree of artistic or spiritual integrity, voice the Credo. He was a confirmed agnostic, a doubter and seeker, never a soul at rest or at peace." Joel Martel, [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/22/arts/l-mahler-and-religion-forced-to-be-christian-136425.html MAHLER AND RELIGION; Forced to Be Christian], ''New York Times''.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Gustav Mahler: A Life in Crisis|year=2004|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300103403|pages=63–64|author=Stuart Feder|accessdate=17 August 2012|chapter=Mahler at Midnight|quote=Mahler had followed the common path of assimilationist Jews, particularly those who were German-speaking and university-educated: toward a dignified job, a position in the community, and a respectable income. Besides the fact that anti-Semitism was rife in Vienna, the post Mahler sought was a government position and normally open only to those who declared themselves to belong to the state religion, Catholicism. Mahler's  superior, the intendant of the opera, reported directly to the emperor. Like the  many Jews who were candidates for lesser government jobs, Mahler was officially baptized on 23 February 1897. His appointment arrived soon after.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Why Mahler?: How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed Our World|year=2010|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=9780375423819|author=Norman Lebrecht|accessdate=17 August 2012|page=84|quote=In January 1897 Mahler is told that "under present circumstances it is impossible to engage a Jew for Vienna." "Everywhere", he bemoans, "the fact that I am a Jew has at the last moment proved an insurmountable obstacle." But he does not despair, having made arrangements to remedy his deficiency. On February 23, 1897, at Hamburgs Little Michael Church, Gustav Mahler is baptized into the Roman Catholic faith. He is the most reluctant, the most resentful, of converts. “I had to go through it,” he tells Walter. “This action,” he informs Karpath, “which I took out of self-preservation, and which I was fully prepared to take, cost me a great deal.” He tells a Hamburg writer: “I've changed my coat.” There is no false piety here, no pretense. Mahler is letting it be known for the record that he is a forced convert, one whose Jewish pride is undiminished, his essence unchanged. “An artist who is a Jew,” he tells a critic, "has to achieve twice as much as one who is not, just as a swimmer with short arms has to make double efforts." After the act of conversion he never attends Mass, never goes to confession, never crosses himself. The only time he ever enters a church for a religious purpose is to get married.}}</ref><ref>"He was born a Jew but has been described as a life-long agnostic. At one point he converted to Catholicism, purely for the purpose of obtaining a job that he coveted -- director of the Court Opera of Vienna. It was unthinkable for a Jew to hold such a prestigious position, hence the utilitarian conversion to the state religion." Warren Allen Smith, ''Celebrities in Hell'', pages 76-77.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=On Ecstasy|year=2008|publisher=Melbourne Univ. Publishing|isbn=9780522855340|page=39|author=Barrie Kosky|accessdate=25 May 2013|quote=Mahler's ambivalent Jewish-Christian Nietzschean agnostic personality found a living, breathing, sweating counterpart in Bernstein's muscles, bones and flesh.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Klemperer on Music: Shavings from a Musician's Workbench|year=1986|publisher=Toccata Press|location=London|pages=133–147|author=Otto Klemperer|editor=Martin J. Anderson|accessdate=25 May 2013|quote=Mahler was a thoroughgoing child of the nineteenth century, an adherent of Nietzsche, and typically irreligious. For all that, he was – as all his compositions testify – devout in the highest sense, though his piety was not to be found in any church prayer-book.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mahler, Gustav|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Gustav_Mahler.aspx#2|work=Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying|publisher=Encyclopedia.com|accessdate=29 June 2013|author=Kenneth Lafave|year=2002|quote=From the beginning, Mahler declared that his music was not for his own time but for the future. An agnostic, he apparently saw long-term success as a real-world equivalent of immortality. "Mahler was a thoroughgoing child of the nineteenth century, an adherent of Nietzsche, and typically irreligious," the conductor Otto Klemperer recalled in his memoirs, adding that, in his music, Mahler evinced a "piety . . . not to be found in any church prayer-book." This appraisal is confirmed by the story of Mahler's conversion to Catholicism in 1897. Although his family was Jewish, Mahler was not observant, and when conversion was required in order to qualify as music director of the Vienna Court Opera—the most prestigious post in Europe—he swiftly acquiesced to baptism and confirmation, though he never again attended mass. Once on the podium, however, Mahler brought a renewed spirituality to many works, including Beethoven's Fidelio, which he almost single-handedly rescued from a reputation for tawdriness.}}</ref>
*[[Jhonen Vasquez]] (born 1974) American [[comic book writer]], and [[cartoonist]]; famous for the animated series [[Invader Zim]].
*[[Dave Matthews]] (born 1967), American musician and actor.<ref>"'It would be safe to say that I'm agnostic,' Matthews says. 'However, I do feel as though we owe a faith to the world and to ourselves. We owe a grace and gratitude to things that have brought us here. But I think it's very ignorant to say, 'Well, for everything, God has a plan.' That's like an excuse. ... Maybe the real faithful act is to commit to something, to take action, as opposed to saying, 'Well, everything is in the hand of God.'" See [http://www.celebatheists.com/?title=Dave_Matthews Boston Globe Article 'Dave Matthews Gets Serious - and Playful' by Steve Morse] (4 March 2001)</ref>
*[[Brian May]] (born 1947), English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer of the rock band [[Queen (band)|Queen]].<ref>"If you say ‘there is no God,’ where is evidence there is no God? You can say ‘I don’t know.’ Being an agnostic to me is a scientific point of view, which is supportable. In my experience, I felt at times that there is a God of some kind. I don’t subscribe to any organized religion – that’s a different matter. But if there is a God, we have very little idea of what that God may be. That’s inherent in what we are,” he said." - Brian May, [http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/end-life-god-view/ RT.com], 26 July 2011.</ref>
*[[David Mitchell (comedian)|David Mitchell]] (born 1974), British actor, comedian and writer.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mitchell|first=David|title=Back Story: A Memoir|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|year=2012|pages=157–158|isbn=978-0007351725}}</ref>
*[[Edvard Munch]] (1863–1944), Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, [[The Scream]], is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.<ref>{{cite book|title=Edvard Munch: symbols & images, Volume 1978, Part 2|year=1978|publisher=National Gallery of Art|coauthors=Edvard Munch, Arne Eggum|accessdate=27 April 2012|page=237|quote=But Munch was not completely averse to every form of religion; one might rather say that throughout his life he remained a thoughtful agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Ernest Newman]] (1868–1959), English music critic and musicologist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Edward Elgar: A Creative Life|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198163664|page=423|author=Jerrold Northrop Moore|accessdate=12 May 2013|quote=Newman was an agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Conor Oberst]] (born 1980), American singer-songwriter who fronts the band, [[Bright Eyes (band)|Bright Eyes]].<ref>Oberst said: "If I’m forced to categorize myself I guess I’d say I was an agnostic." [http://harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=5535 Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes: Bright Ideas], by A. D. Amorosi, ''Harp'' magazine, May 2007. (Retrieved 15 October 2007)</ref>
*[[Hubert Parry]] (1848–1918): English composer, teacher and historian of music.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Rough Guide to Classical Music|year=2010|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781405383219|author=Joe Staines|edition=5|accessdate=4 September 2012|page=398|quote=Parry was an avowed agnostic yet he produced some of Britain's finest sacred choral music.}}</ref>
*[[Neil Peart]] (born 1952), drummer and lyricist for Canadian progressive rock band Rush. Many Rush song lyrics criticize religion and theism.<ref>"I'm a linear thinking agnostic, but not an atheist folks." {{cite book | title=The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa| last=Peart| first=Neil| year=1996| isbn=1-55022-667-3}}</ref>
*[[Sean Penn]] (born 1960), American actor, won Oscars for Mystic River and Milk.
*[[Brendan Perry]] (born 1959), British singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the male half of the duo [[Dead Can Dance]] with [[Lisa Gerrard]].<ref>When asked whether he believed in God, he replied: "I generally am wary of the black and white veering more towards the grey with regard to these matters but am closer to atheism when push comes to shove in terms of not believing the extravagant claims of theology. After all "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - Carl Sagan
If the following definition of an atheist is correct then I would certainly [[Nailing the colours|nail my flag to that mast!]] :o) "An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support." - John Buchan" [http://forum.brendan-perry.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=674&page=1 Brendan believe in God or something??].</ref>
*[[Brad Pitt]] (born 1963), American actor, stated that he did not believe in God, and that he was mostly agnostic.<ref>"'''BILD: Do you believe in God? Brad Pitt (smiling):''' 'No, no, no!' '''BILD: Is your soul spiritual? Brad Pitt:''' 'No, no, no! I’m probably 20 per cent atheist and 80 per cent agnostic. I don’t think anyone really knows. You'll either find out or not when you get there, until then there's no point thinking about it.'" [http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/celebrity-gossip/2009/07/22/brad-pitt-interview/inglourious-basterd-star-on-angelina-jolie-and-six-kids.html Brad Pitt interview: "With six kids each morning it is about surviving!"] By Norbert Körzdörfer, Bild.com, 23 July 2009</ref>
*[[Sidney Poitier]] (born 1927), Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.<ref>{{cite book|title=Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter|year=2009|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-149620-2|author=Sidney Poitier|accessdate=4 April 2013|page=84|quote=The question of God, the existence or nonexistence, is a perennial question, because we don't know. Is the universe the result of God, or was the universe always there?}}</ref> His views are also closer to deism.<ref>{{cite book|title=Life Beyond Measure|year=2009|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=9780061737251|pages=85–86|author=Sidney Poitier|accessdate=4 April 2013|quote=I don't see a God who is concerned with the daily operation of the universe. In fact, the universe may be no more than a grain of sand compared with all the other universes. ...It is not a God for one culture, or one religion, or one planet.}}</ref>
*[[Hugo Riemann]] (1949–1919), German music theorist and composer.<ref>{{cite book|title=Harmonic Function in Chromatic Music: A Renewed Dualist Theory and an Account of Its Precedents|year=1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226318080|author=Daniel Harrison|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=256|quote=On the matter of undertones, then, we may fairly conclude that Hugo Riemann was a churchgoing agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Joe Rogan]] (born 1967), American comedian, podcaster, social critic and [[Ultimate Fighting Championship|UFC]] color commentator.
*[[Andy Rooney]] (1919–2011), broadcast personality, who had specified that he was an agnostic and ''not'' an atheist,<ref>Rooney wrote: "I call myself an agnostic, not an atheist, because in one sense atheists are like Christians or Muslims. They’re sure of themselves. A Christian says with certainty, there is a god; an atheist says with certainty, there is no god. Neither knows" ''Sincerely, Andy Rooney'' (2001), Public Affairs ISBN 1-58648-045-6</ref> but has also called himself an atheist.<ref>Rooney said: "Why am I an atheist? I ask you: Why is anybody not an atheist? Everyone starts out being an atheist. No one is born with belief in anything. Infants are atheists until they are indoctrinated. I resent anyone pushing their religion on me. I don't push my atheism on anybody else. Live and let live. Not many people practice that when it comes to religion." Marian Christy, "Conversations: We make our own destiny", Boston Globe, 30 May 1982 (from Newsbank).</ref><ref>Rooney said: "I am an atheist... I don't understand religion at all. I'm sure I'll offend a lot of people by saying this, but I think it's all nonsense." From a [http://www.tuftsdaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/19/419d9928aafe0 speech at Tufts University, 18 November 2004].</ref>
* [[Larry Sanger]], co-founder of [[Wikipedia]]<ref>[http://larrysanger.org/2011/01/nope-i-am-not-a-jew-nttawwt/]</ref>
* [[Franz Schubert]] (1797–1828), Austrian composer.<ref>{{cite book|title=Franz Schubert: a biography|year=1996|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-816523-1|author=Elizabeth Norman McKay|accessdate=20 April 2012|page=308|quote=...quite what he expected: no doubt on account of both his agnosticism and his lack of money or sure prospects...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Church Music in the Nineteenth Century|year=1967|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|isbn=0837196957|page=166|author=Arthur Hutchings|accessdate=12 May 2013|quote=The unctuous style we hear every Christmas is found in church music by Schubert and the Chevalier Neukomm, both known in private letters to be agnostic.}}</ref>
* [[Robert Schumann]] (1810-1856), German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded{{by whom|date=January 2014}} as one of the greatest composers of the [[Romantic era]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Robert Schumann: Herald of a "New Poetic Age"|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199839315|page=471|author=John Daverio|accessdate=12 May 2013|quote=Yet Schumann's religiosity was devoid of dogmatism. In a self-characterization written in 1830, he described himself as “religious, but without religion”; according to Wasielewski, this description held into the 1850s.}}</ref>
* [[Ridley Scott]] (born 1937),  English film director and producer. Following his commercial breakthrough with ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]'' (1979), his best-known works are sci-fi classic ''[[Blade Runner]]'' (1982), ''[[Thelma & Louise]]'' (1991), best picture Oscar-winner ''[[Gladiator (2000 film)|Gladiator]]'' (2000), ''[[Black Hawk Down (film)|Black Hawk Down]]'' (2001), ''[[Matchstick Men (film)|Matchstick Men]]'' (2003), ''[[Kingdom of Heaven (film)|Kingdom of Heaven]]'' (2005), ''[[American Gangster (film)|American Gangster]]'' (2007), ''[[Robin Hood (2010 film)|Robin Hood]]'' (2010), and ''[[Prometheus (2012 film)|Prometheus]]'' (2012).<ref>{{cite web|title=Ridley Scott interview|url=http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/2674/ridley-scott-interview|publisher=TimeOut London|accessdate=1 October 2012|author=Cath Clarke|quote=God occupies the director’s thoughts more than He used to, says Scott, who’s an agnostic, converted from atheism. ‘You could have ten scientists in this room. You could ask them all: who’s religious? About three to four will put their hands up. I’ve asked these guys from Nasa. And they say: When you get to the end of your theories, you come to a wall… you come to a question. Who thought up this shit?’ Scott was turned off religion by his Church of England upbringing (‘altar boy… terrible burgundy wine… all that stuff’). Now? ‘Now my feeling goes with “could be”.’}}</ref>
*[[Adrienne Shelly]] (1966–2006), American actor, screenwriter and [[Film director|director]].<ref>Adrienne Shelly said: "I'm an optimistic agnostic. I'd like to believe." Rhys, Tim (August 1996), [http://www.moviemaker.com/magazine/editorial.php?id=285 Suddenly Adrienne Shelly], ''[[MovieMaker Magazine]]''. Retrieved 12 February 2007.</ref>
*[[Howard Stern]] (1954-), American radio personality, television host, author, actor, and photographer.<ref>
"I know intellectually there is no god. But in case there is, I don’t want to piss him off by saying it." Howard Stern, [http://macgregorhill.wordpress.com/religion/atheism/famous-skeptics/ Interview w/ Steppin’ Out], 21 May 2004.</ref>
*[[Sting (musician)|Sting]] (born 1951): English musician and lead singer of [[The Police]].<ref>"I am an agnostic and I was interested in reading the pre-Christian idea that winter is more about regeneration than salvation. I stayed away from that triumphal, 'God is in his heaven, isn't everything wonderful?' kind of thing."[http://www.sting.com/news/news.php?uid=6341]</ref>
*[[Matt Stone]] (born 1971), co-creator of the cartoon [[South Park]], considers himself an agnostic Jew (his mother is Jewish),<ref>Stone said "...I'm Jewish simply because... my mom is Jewish... but... I grew up completely secular and completely agnostic... I am the worst Jew in the world. I know nothing about the religion. I'm completely agnostic (my poor mother)." [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4109371 'South Park' Creator Matt Stone on Fighting Terrorism] on NPR's program ''Fresh Air'', 14 October 2004, (quote begins at 15:05, ends at 16:00)</ref> though he has also denied the existence of God.<ref>When asked if there was a God, Stone answered "No." [http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24569 Is there a God?], by Stephen Thompson, The Onion A.V. Club, 9 October 2002</ref>
*[[Richard Strauss]] (1864–1949), German composer.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Life of Richard Strauss|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57895-0|author=Bryan Randolph Gilliam|accessdate=7 May 2012|page=25|quote=Strauss was agnostic by his mid-teens and he remained so until the end of his life.}}</ref>
*[[Osamu Tezuka]] (1928–1989), Japanese [[cartoonist]], [[Mangaka|manga artist]], [[animator]], [[movie producer|producer]], [[activist]] and [[medical doctor]]. He is best known as the creator of ''[[Astro Boy (1960s)|Astro Boy]]'', ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' and ''[[Black Jack (manga)|Black Jack]]''. He is often credited as the "Godfather of [[Anime]]", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to [[Walt Disney]], who served as a major inspiration during his formative years.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution|year=2007|publisher=Stone Bridge Press, Inc.|isbn=9781933330549|page=141|author=Frederik L. Schodt|accessdate=15 March 2013|quote=His family was associated with a Zen Buddhist sect, and Tezuka is buried in a Tokyo Buddhist cemetery, but his views on religion were actually quite agnostic and as flexible as his views on politics.}}</ref>
*[[Giuseppe Verdi]] (1813&ndash;1901): Italian composer, one of the most influential of the 19th century.<ref>''Dan Barker, ''The Good Atheist - Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God'', p.93</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Verdi|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521635356|page=13|editor=Scott L. Balthazar|accessdate=2 May 2013|quote=Verdi sustained his artistic reputation and his personal image in the last years of his life. He never relinquished his anticlerical stance, and his religious belief verged on atheism. Strepponi described him as not much of a believer and complained that he mocked her religious faith. Yet he summoned the creative strength to write the Messa da Requiem ( 1874) to honor Manzoni, his "secular saint," and conduct its world premiere.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The letters of Arturo Toscanini|year=2002|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=9780375404054|page=262|author=Arturo Toscanini|editor=Harvey Sachs|accessdate=2 May 2013|quote=I've asked you whether you're religious, whether you believe! I do—I believe—I'm not an atheist like Verdi, but I don't have time to go into the subject.}}</ref>
*[[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] (1872&ndash;1958), British composer. Despite the variety of his works with religious connections, Vaughan Williams was decidedly not a believer. According to his classmate Bertrand Russell, Williams was an atheist while attending Cambridge. According to his widow, he later became an agnostic.<ref>"Here we have a man who, while at Cambridge, was 'a most determined atheist'--those were the words of his fellow-undergraduate Bertrand Russell--and who was dismissed at the age of 25 from his post as organist in a church at South Lambeth because he refused to take Communion. Later, according to his widow, he 'drifted into a cheerful agnosticism'." [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4452%281972%2F1973%292%3A99%3C31%3ATUVW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P The Unknown Vaughan Williams], [[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]], ''Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association'', Vol. 99. (1972&ndash;1973), pp. 31-41.</ref>
*[[Stanley Kubrick]] (1928–1999), A famous director well known for movies like [[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)]], [[A Clockwork Orange (film)]], [[Dr. Strangelove]], [[Full Metal Jacket]] and [[The Shining (film)]]
* [[Bob Guccione]] (1930–2010), founder and publisher of ''[[Penthouse (magazine)|Penthouse]]'' magazine.<ref>[http://www.getreligion.org/2010/10/mr-penthouse-seminarian "Mr. Penthouse,seminarian?"]</ref>[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-07-28/news/8902210064_1_bob-guccione-penthouse-magazine-israelis]
 
===Philosophy===
 
====Idealistic agnostics====
* [[Confucius]] (551 BC&ndash;479 BC): Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a Chinese religious system known as [[Confucianism]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought|year=1986|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9780415002288|author=Wolfram Eberhard|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=82|quote=Confucius was an agnostic, but he did not deny the existence of supernatural beings.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The call|year=1986|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=9780140086959|author=John Hersey|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=208|quote=The second, Confucius, was a humanist, an agnostic, and a supreme realist.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Confucius & Confucianism: The Essentials|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781405188418|author=Lee Dian Rainey|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=62|quote=Others have read what Confucius said about ritual and the supernatural and concluded that Confucius was an agnostic and not at all interested in the religious side of life.}}</ref>
*[[Immanuel Kant]] (1724–1804), German philosopher. Best known for his work, [[Critique of Pure Reason]].<ref>"While this sounds skeptical, Kant is only agnostic about our knowledge of metaphysical objects such as God. And, as noted above, Kant's agnosticism leads to the conclusion that we can neither affirm nor deny claims made by traditional metaphysics." Andrew Fiala, J. M. D. Meiklejohn, ''Critique of Pure Reason'' - Introduction, page xi.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics: Surveying the Evidence for the Truth of Christianity|year=2008|publisher=Harvest House Publishers|isbn=9780736920841|coauthors=Ed Hindson, Ergun Caner|editor=Ed Hindson, Ergun Caner, Edward J. Verstraete|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=82|quote=It is in this sense that modern atheism rests heavily upon the skepticism of David Hume and the agnosticism of Immanuel Kant.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Immanuel Kant|url=http://theologicalstudies.org/resource-library/philosophy-dictionary/134-immanuel-kant|publisher=Theological Studies|accessdate=17 August 2012|author=Michael Vlach|quote=Kant’s philosophy was even more skeptical in regard to metaphysical issues like God, the soul, and freedom. According to Kant, these types of issues are beyond the limits of reason. Thus, the human mind cannot obtain any rational knowledge of anything beyond the physical world. Kant’s theory would have an important influence on philosophy of religion since he asserted that concepts like God and the soul could not be known through reason. His theories have led some to claim that he is the father of agnosticism. Interestingly, Kant did believe in God and originated a form of the moral argument for God’s existence.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Light of Truth and Fire of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit|year=1997|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=9780802842886|author=Gary D. Badcock|accessdate=16 August 2012|page=113|quote=Kant has no interest in prayer or worship, and is in fact agnostic when it comes to such classical theological questions as the doctrine of God or of the Holy Spirit.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe|year=2006|publisher=Baker Books|isbn=9780801067129|editor=Norman L. Geisler, Paul K. Hoffman|accessdate=16 August 2012|page=45|chapter=The Agnosticism of Immanuel Kant}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Catholicism|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9780816075652|author=Frank K. Flinn|accessdate=16 August 2012|page=10|quote=Following Locke, the classic agnostic claims not to accept more propositions than are warranted by empirical evidence. In this sense an agnostic appeals to Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who claims in his Critique of Pure Reason that since God, freedom, immortality, and the soul can be both proved and disproved by theoretical reason, we ought to suspend judgement about them.}}</ref>
*[[Laozi]] (604 BC?-???), Chinese religious philosopher. Best known as the author of the ''Tao Te Ching''. His association with the ''Tao Te Ching'' has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of philosophical religion [[Taoism]].<ref>"It is ridiculous to describe that Laozi had started the Dao religion. In fact Laozi is much more sympathetic to atheism than even Greek philosophers in general. To the most, like Buddha and philosophers of Enlightenment, Laoism is agnostic about God." Chen Lee Sun, ''Laozi's Daodejing-From the Chinese Hermeneutical and the Western Philosophical Perspectives: The English and Chinese Translations Based on Laozi's Original Daoism'' (2011), page 119.</ref>
* [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889—1951), [[Austria]]n-[[United Kingdom|British]] philosopher who worked primarily in [[logic]], the [[philosophy of mathematics]], the [[philosophy of mind]], and the [[philosophy of language]]. He was professor in philosophy at the [[University of Cambridge]] from 1939 until 1947. In his lifetime, he published just one book review, one article, a children's dictionary, and the 75-page ''[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]]'' (1921). In 1999, his posthumously published ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]'' (1953) was ranked as the most important book of 20th-century philosophy.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199247592|pages=59–60|coauthors=Norman Malcolm, G. H. Von Wright|accessdate=6 July 2012|quote=I believe that Wittgenstein was prepared by his own character and experience to comprehend the idea of a judging and redeeming God. But any cosmological conception of a Deity, derived from the notions of cause or of infinity, would be repugnant to him. He was impatient with 'proofs' of the existence of God, and with attempts to give religion a rational foundation. ...I do not wish to give the impression that Wittgenstein accepted any religious faith — he certainly did not — or that he was a religious person. But I think that there was in him, in some sense, the possibility of religion. I believe that he looked on religion as a 'form of life' (to use an expression from the Investigations) in which he did not participate, but with which he was sympathetic and which greatly interested him. Those who did participate he respected — although here as elsewhere he had contempt for insincerity. I suspect that he regarded religious belief as based on qualities of character and will that he himself did not possess. Of Smythies and Anscombe, both of whom had become Roman Catholics, he once said to me: 'I could not possibly bring myself to believe all the things that they believe.' I think that in this remark he was not disparaging their belief. It was rather an observation about his own capacity.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Wittgenstein|year=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781136731372|author=William Child|accessdate=6 July 2012|page=218|quote="Was Wittgenstein religious? If we call him an agnostic, this must not be understood in the sense of the familiar polemical agnosticism that concentrates, and prides itself, on the argument that man could never know about these matters. The idea of a God in the sense of the Bible, the image of God as the creator of the world, hardly ever engaged Wittgenstein's attention . . ., but the notion of a last judgement was of profound concern to him." - (Engelmann)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Wittgenstein's Religious Point of View|year=2006|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=9780826490278|author=Tim Labron|accessdate=6 July 2012|page=47|quote=Wittgenstein has no goal to either support or reject religion; his only interest is to keep discussions, whether religious or not, clear.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Ludwig Wittgenstein|year=2007|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=9781861893208|pages=145–146|author=Edward Kanterian|accessdate=4 August 2012}}</ref> Wittgenstein wrote in his book [[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]] that ethics, esthetics and even logic are transcendental, so he is considered an idealist.
 
====Unclassified philosophers-agnostics====
* [[Isaiah Berlin]] (1909–1997), British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, thought by many to be the dominant scholar of his generation.<ref>{{cite book|title=Isaiah Berlin: A Value Pluralist and Humanist View of Human Nature and the Meaning of Life|year=2006|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-420-1929-4|author=Connie Aarsbergen-Ligtvoet|accessdate=22 April 2012|page=133|quote=The traditional religious strategies of grounding morality are blocked for Berlin. Being an agnostic, brought up in the empiricist tradition, he cannot refer to a holy book. With his Jewish background, he could have referred to the book of Genesis, to the Seven Laws of Noah as applying to the whole of humankind. As an agnostic, however, he needs a secular justification.}}</ref>
* [[Noam Chomsky]] (1928&ndash;): American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author, and lecturer, Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar.<ref>"Like everyone participating I'm what's called here a "secular atheist," except that I can't even call myself an "atheist" because it is not at all clear what I'm being asked to deny." Noam Chomsky, ''Edge'' Discussion of [http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#chomsky Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival], November 2006 (Retrieved 21 April 2008).</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Chomsky|first=Noam|title=Remarks on Religion|url=http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1990----.htm|accessdate=7 April 2012|quote=Do I believe in God? Can't answer, I'm afraid.}}</ref>
*[[Democritus]] (460 BC–370 BC), Ancient Greek philosopher. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of [[Leucippus]], who formulated an atomic theory for the [[cosmos]].<ref>"Most histories of atheism choose the Greek and Roman philosophers Epicurus, Democritus, and Lucretius as the first atheist writers. While these writers certainly changed the idea of God, they didn't entirely deny that gods could exist." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml Ancient Atheists], ''BBC.co.uk''.</ref>
*[[John Dewey]] (1859–1952), American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer. His ideas have been influential in education and social reform.<ref>"Dewey started his career as a Christian but over his long lifetime moved towards agnosticism. His philosphical writings start out apologetic; over his life he gradually lost interest in formal religion and focused more on democratic ideals. Moreover, he became very devoted to applying the scientific method of inquiry to both democracy and education."  Shawn Olson, [http://johndewey.shawnolson.net/ John Dewey - American Pragmatic Philosopher], 2005.</ref>
*[[Epicurus]] (341 BCE–270 BCE), Ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called [[Epicureanism]].<ref>"Epicurus taught that the soul is also made of material objects, and so when the body dies the soul dies with it. There is no afterlife. Epicurus thought that gods might exist, but if they did, they did not have anything to do with human beings." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml Ancient Atheists], ''BBC.co.uk''.</ref>
* [[Fred Edwords]] (born 1948), longtime Humanist activist, currently national director of the United Coalition of Reason.<ref>"Frederick Edwords, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, who labels himself an agnostic..." [http://www.banned-books.com/truth-seeker/1994archive/121_2/ts212n.html Atheism 101],  by William B. Lindley, ''Truth Seeker'' Volume 121 (1994) No. 2, (Retrieved 14 April 2008)</ref>
* [[James Hall (philosopher)|James Hall]] (born 1933) describes himself as an agnostic [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|episcopalian]]. He says that he finds great beauty in the religious tradition, but is reluctant to "sign the dotted line" and agreeing with all theological doctrines.<ref>{{cite video |people=James Hall |title=Philosophy of Religion: Lecture 3 |medium=DVD |publisher=[[The Teaching Company]]}}</ref>
*[[Sidney Hook]] (1902–1989), American philosopher of the [[Pragmaticism|Pragmatist]] school known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics.<ref>"This faith in rationality emerged early in Hook's life. Even before he was a teenager he proclaimed himself to be an agnostic." Edward S. Shapiro, ''Letters of Sidney Hook: Democracy, Communism, and the Cold War'', 1995, page 2.</ref>
*[[David Hume]] (1711–1776), Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical [[empiricism]] and [[philosophical skepticism|scepticism]]. He was one of the most important figures in the history of [[Western philosophy]] and the [[Scottish Enlightenment]]. Hume is often grouped with [[John Locke]], [[George Berkeley]], and a handful of others as a [[British Empiricism|British Empiricist]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy|year=2009|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=9780495603825|author=Douglas J. Soccio|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=291|quote=James Boswell was troubled that the agnostic Hume, whom many erroneously believed to be an atheist, could be so cheerful in the face of death.}}</ref>
* [[Edmund Husserl]] (1859–1938), German philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology.<ref>{{cite book|title=Altruistic Behavior: An Inquiry Into Motivation|year=1995|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=9789051838923|author=Paul S. Penner|accessdate=10 August 2012|page=5|quote=You can be a realist, an idealist, an agnostic such as Edmund Husserl in his bracketing of the subject, or a synthesizer such as the Buddha in his concept of codependent origination.}}</ref>
* [[Harold Innis]] (1894–1952), Canadian political philosopher and professor of political economy at the [[University of Toronto]] and the author of seminal works on media, [[communication theory]] and Canadian economic history.<ref>{{cite book|title=Harold Innis|year=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-2484-2|author=Paul Heyer|accessdate=22 April 2012|page=39|quote=As an agnostic who favorably cites Marx and questions the role of religion in modernity, Innis would certainly have raised eyebrows at the University of Toronto or virtually any other academic institution in Canada at this time.}}</ref>
*[[William James]] (1842–1910), American psychologist and philosopher. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of [[pragmatism]].<ref>"The views of William James on agnostic attitudes and arguments regarding theistic belief were uncharacteristically harsh and wide of the mark." Creighton Peden, Larry E. Axel, ''God, values, and empiricism: issues in philosophical theology'' (1989), page 239.</ref>
* [[Anthony Kenny]] (born 1931), president of [[Royal Institute of Philosophy]], wrote in his essay ''Why I'm not an atheist'' after justifying his agnostic position that "a claim to knowledge needs to be substantiated; ignorance need only be confessed."<ref>{{cite book|last=Kenny|first=Anthony|title=What I Believe|publisher=Continuum|year=2006|chapter=Why I'm not an atheist|isbn=0-8264-8971-0}}</ref>
*[[Thomas Kuhn]] (1922–1996), American historian and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book [[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]] was deeply influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term "[[paradigm shift]]," which has since become an English-language staple.<ref>{{cite book|title=Creativity: Ethics and Excellence in Science|year=2007|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9780739120538|author=Mike W. Martin|accessdate=17 July 2012|page=13|quote=A softer skepticism, one more sympathetic to the aspirations of science, does not renounce the possibility of objective truth, but instead is agnostic about that possibility. Thomas Kuhn is such a skeptic.}}</ref>
* [[James Mill]] (1773–1836), [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[historian]], [[economist]], [[political theorist]], and [[philosopher]]. He was a founder of [[classical economics]], together with [[David Ricardo]], and the father of influential philosopher of [[classical liberalism]], [[John Stuart Mill]].<ref>{{cite web|title=James Mill|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/148/000030058/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[G. E. Moore]] (1873–1958), English philosopher. He was, with [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], and (before them) [[Gottlob Frege]], one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Apostles, 1820-1914: Liberalism, Imagination, and Friendship in British Intellectual and Professional Life|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57213-2|author=William C. Lubenow|accessdate=22 April 2012|page=405|quote=G.E. Moore was another agnostic Apostle. After an intense religious phase as a boy, Moore came to call himself an infidel...}}</ref>
*[[Karl R. Popper]], philosopher of science, who promoted [[falsifiability]] as a necessary criterion of empirical statements in science.<ref>"Referring to himself as an agnostic and an advocate of critical realism, Popper gained an early reputation as the chief exponent of the principle of falsification rather than verification." ''[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_n4_v56/ai_18501025 Karl Popper: philosopher of critical realism]'', by Joe Barnhart, ''The Humanist'' magazine,  July–August 1996. (Retrieved 13 October 2006)</ref>
*[[Protagoras]], (died 420 BCE), Greek [[Sophist]] and first major [[Humanism|Humanist]], who wrote that the existence of the gods was unknowable.<ref>Only fragments of Protagoras' treatise ''On the Gods'' survive, but it opens with the sentence: "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life."</ref>
* [[Pyrrho]] (360 BC–ca. 270 BC): Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher and the inspiration for the school known as [[Pyrrhonism]], founded by [[Aenesidemus]] in the 1st century BC.<ref>{{cite book|title=Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism|year=2008|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9780739125069|pages=41–42|author=Adrian Kuzminski|accessdate=10 July 2012|quote=In particular, Flintoff notes the similarity between Pyrrho's agnosticism and suspension of judgment and the Buddha's refusal to countenance beliefs about the nature of things, including his insistence that such beliefs were to be neither affirmed nor denied.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Introduction to Ancient Philosophy|year=1998|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=9780765602169|author=Don E. Marietta|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=162|quote=Pyrrho advocated agnosticism and suspension of judgment about the nature of the world. His Skepticism also applied to matters of ethics; he held that nothing is just or honorable by its nature.}}</ref>
*[[Bertrand Russell]] (1872–1970), English philosopher and mathematician, who considered himself a philosophical agnostic, but said that the label "atheist" conveyed a more accurate impression to "the ordinary man in the street".<ref>Russell said: "As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist... None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist, and yet if you were to set to work to give a logical demonstration that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and the rest of them did not exist you would find it an awful job. You could not get such proof. Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line." [http://www.luminary.us/russell/atheist_agnostic.html Am I an Agnostic or an Atheist?], from ''Last Philosophical Testament 1943&ndash;1968'', (1997) Routledge ISBN 0-415-09409-7.  Russell was chosen by ''[[Look (American magazine)|LOOK]]'' magazine to speak for agnostics in their well-known series explaining the religions of the U.S., and authored the essay "What Is An Agnostic?" which appeared 3 November 1953 in that magazine.</ref>
* [[Michael Schmidt-Salomon]] (born 1967), German philosopher, author and former editor of ''MIZ'' (''Contemporary Materials and Information: Political magazine for atheists and the irreligious'').<ref>MIZ title in German: ''Materialien und Informationen zur Zeit (MIZ) (Untertitel: Politisches Magazin für Konfessionslose und AtheistInnen)''</ref> Schmidt-Salomon has specified that he is not a "''pure'' atheist, but actually an ''agnostic''."<ref>"Like many other so-called "Atheists" I am also not a ''pure'' atheist, but actually an ''agnostic''..." [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.schmidt-salomon.de/salomon2.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2BVertreter%2Bdes%2BAtheismus%2BMichael%2BSchmidt-Salomon%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7TSHB Life without God: A decision for the people] (Automatic Google translation of the [http://www.schmidt-salomon.de/salomon2.htm original], hosted at Schmidt-Salomon's website), by Michael Schmidt-Salomon 19 November 1996, first published in: ''Education and Criticism: Journal of Humanistic Philosophy and Free Thinking'' January 1997 (Retrieved 1 April 2008)</ref>
* [[Herbert Spencer]] (1820–1903), English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality|year=1996|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226710204|page=54|author=Julie A. Reuben|accessdate=8 April 2013|quote=Herbert Spencer, the agnostic whose ideas were best known in the United States, did not deny the existence of God.}}</ref>
* [[Theophrastus]] (c. 371 BC – 287 BC): Greek philosopher. He was a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to [[Aristotle]] in the Peripatetic school.<ref>{{cite book|title=Environmental Literacy in Science and Society: From Knowledge to Decisions|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521183338|author=Roland W. Scholz|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=62|quote=Contrary to his teacher Aristotle, Theophrast was an agnostic naturalist who “denied the existence of a dominant intelligence outside the universe” (Nordenskiöld, 1928, p.45).}}</ref>
*[[Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar]] (1820—1891), Indian Bengali [[polymath]] and a key figure of the [[Bengal Renaissance]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and his Elusive Milestones|year=1977|publisher=Riddhi-India|author=Asok Sen|page=157|quote=Vidyasagar did not explicitly deny the existence of God. His position was that of an agnostic who refused to be distracted from the ethical and practical tasks of society, by abstract ideals of divine perfection.}}</ref>
 
===Politics and law===
*[[Norman Angell]] (1872–1967), English lecturer, journalist, author, and politician. He was member of parliament for the Labour Party in England. He was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1933.<ref>"However, by the time he composed his memoirs Angell had come to realize how inappropriate it had been for 'an agnostic, a heretic, a revolutionary' like himself 'to preach his heretical and revolutionary doctrines' to a readership that was not only 'bourgeois' but 'churchy'." Martin Ceadel, ''Living the great illusion: Sir Norman Angell, 1872-1967'' (2009), page 38.</ref>
*[[Clement Attlee]] (1883–1967), [[United Kingdom|British]] politician, [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 1945 to 1951.<ref>Jerry H. Brookshire: Clement Attlee. Manchester University Press, 1995. p. 10; 15; 35.</ref>
*[[Michelle Bachelet]]  (born 1951), [[Chile]]an politician, [[President of Chile]] from 2006 to 2010.<ref>Bachelet said "I am a woman, socialist, separated and agnostic." See Newsweek article ''[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10510029/site/newsweek/ An Unlikely Pioneer]''.</ref>
*[[Vincent Bugliosi]] (born 1934), Former [[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles County]] Deputy [[District Attorney]]
*[[Helen Clark]] (born 1950), [[New Zealander]] politician, [[Prime Minister of New Zealand]] from 1999 to 2008.<ref>[http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3430410a6220,00.html ''Do you believe in him now, Helen?'']</ref>
*[[Carlos Gaviria Díaz]] (born 1937), [[Colombia]]n politician said "I am an agnostic, like him [[Bertrand Russell]]."<ref>''[http://www.polodemocratico.net/article.php3?id_article=1103 The scream is not a vehicle of ideas]'' (In Spanish. See also: [http://www.online-translator.com/url/tran_url.asp?lang=en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polodemocratico.net%2Farticle.php3%3Fid_article%3D1103&direction=se&template=General&cp1=NO&cp2=NO&autotranslate=on&psubmit2.x=75&psubmit2.y=9 English translation] by PROMT Online Translator. Retrieved 13 October 2006.)</ref>
*[[Clarence Darrow]] (1857–1938), American lawyer, who defended John T. Scopes' right to teach Darwin's [[theory of evolution]] in the famous Tennessee "Monkey Trial".<ref>Darrow wrote "I am an agnostic as to the question of God." See [http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/clarence_darrow/why_i_am_an_agnostic.html Why I Am An Agnostic].</ref>
*[[Alan Dershowitz]] (born 1938), American lawyer, jurist and political commentator, author of ''Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law'' (2013).<ref>In a [[C-SPAN2]] [[BookTV]] interview recorded on 11 November 2013 and aired on 22 December 2013, [[Alan Dershowitz]] said, "I'm an agnostic."</ref>
*[[Willem Drees]] (1886–1988), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician, [[Prime Minister of the Netherlands]] from 1948 until 1958.<ref>{{nl icon}} [http://archief.nrc.nl/index.,php/2004/Juni/3/Overig/8/Agnosticisme+of+athe%EFsme+1 Agnosticisme of atheïsme]</ref>
*[[Heinz Fischer]] (born 1938), Austrian politician, [[President of Austria]] since 2004.<ref>[http://www.wienerzeitung.at/linkmap/personen/fischer.htm Wiener Zeitung], published 8 July 2004 (German). "The agnostic Fischer is married for 35 years with Margit." (Translation by [http://www.online-translator.com/translator.asp?lang=en PROMT Online Translator]).</ref>
*[[Eamon Gilmore]] (born 1955), [[Irish people|Irish]] politician, [[Tánaiste]] (Deputy Prime Minister) of the [[Republic of Ireland]].<ref name=hotpress>{{cite web|url=http://www.hotpress.com/archive/4154654.html?new_layout=1&page_no=12&show_comments=1|work=Hot Press|title=Take me to your leader|date=15 October 2007|first=Jason|last=O'Toole|accessdate=15 April 2012}}</ref>
*[[Boris van der Ham]] (born 1973), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician.<ref>http://www.150volksvertegenwoordigers.nl/?do=profile&mid=64</ref>
*[[Mariëtte Hamer]] (born 1958), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician.<ref>http://www.150volksvertegenwoordigers.nl/?do=profile&mid=65</ref>
*[[Bob Hawke]] (born 1929), 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (from 1983 to 1991).<ref>Blanche d'Alpuget, ''Robert J. Hawke'', 87</ref>
*[[François Hollande]] (born 1954), 24th [[President of France]] (since 2012).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.directmatin.fr/article/27399|title=Prince et chanoine : les nouveaux métiers de Hollande|publisher=Direct Matin |accessdate=18 June 2012}}</ref>
*[[Robert G. Ingersoll]] (1833–1899), American political leader and orator, and known as "The Great Agnostic".<ref>Ingersoll said that "It seems to me that the man who knows the limitations of the mind, who gives the proper value to human testimony, is necessarily an Agnostic."  [http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/why_am_i_agnostic.html Why Am I Agnostic?], Robert Green Ingersoll, 1889. See also [http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/ Ingersoll's complete works], which includes many speeches and writings on religion and agnosticism.</ref>
*[[Ivo Josipović]]  (born 1957), [[Croatia]]n politician and composer, third [[President of Croatia]] from 2010 .<ref>Josipović said "Yes, it is true, I am declared agnostic." See Slobodna Dalmacija article in Croatian language''[http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Hrvatska/tabid/66/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/70100/Default.aspx]''.</ref>
*[[Wim Kok]] (born 1938), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician, [[Prime Minister of the Netherlands]] from 1994 until 2002.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_44_37/ai_79965470/ Holland: Tolerance fuels social experiment the Dutch way - Cover Story - Statistical Data Included]</ref>
*[[Bruno Kreisky]] (1911–1990), [[Austria]]n Federal Chancellor from 1970 to 1983.<ref>Rolf Steininger, Günther Bischof, Michael Gehler: Austria in the Twentieth Century. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 2002; p. 270</ref>
*[[Aleksander Kwaśniewski]], President of Poland from 1995 to 2005.
*[[Ricardo Lagos]] (born 1938), the first declared agnostic to be elected president of [[Chile]].<ref>[http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.11413/pub_detail.asp Chile Moves On], Mark Falcoff, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1 April 2000.</ref>
*[[John Key]] (born 1961), [[New Zealander]] politician, [[Prime Minister of New Zealand]] since 2008.<ref>[http://www.agendatv.co.nz/Site/agenda/transcripts/2006/2006-04-29 ''Agenda'']</ref>
*[[Esther Ouwehand]] (born 1976), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician.<ref>http://www.150volksvertegenwoordigers.nl/?do=profile&mid=106</ref>
*[[Jan Marijnissen]] (born 1952), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician.<ref>http://www.150vv.nl/?do=profile&mid=98</ref>
*[[Jayaprakash Narayan (Lok Satta)]], politician, thinker and a social reformer.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article943497.ece?service=mobile | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu}}</ref>
*[[Jawaharlal Nehru]] (1889–1964), Indian freedom-fighter and the country's first Prime Minister from 1947-1964.<ref>http://news.google.co.in/newspapers?id=LZotAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jp4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=7168,1579610</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/LEADER-ARTICLEBRInter-faith-Harmony-Where-Nehru-and-Gandhi-Meet/articleshow/196028.cms | work=The Times Of India | first1=Ramachandra | last1=Guha | title=LEADER ARTICLE Inter-faith Harmony: Where Nehru and Gandhi Meet | date=23 September 2003}}</ref>
*[[Robert Owen]] (1771–1858), Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of [[utopian socialism]] and the [[cooperative movement]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Ideology of Work|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415264631|author=P. D. Anthony|accessdate=1 August 2012|page=75|quote=Even an agnostic employer like Robert Owen, unwilling to rest upon the final authority of God, demanded obedience and exercised responsibility for employees whom he regarded as dependent and requiring the moulding influence of a benevolent owner.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Flight of the Wasps: The Europrotestants: Their Roots and Culture, from the Earliest Times to the End of the 20th Century|year=2007|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=9781425971717|author=W. Devereux Jones|accessdate=1 August 2012|page=273|quote=The earliest major reformer to take an interest in the British workers was not a churchman, but an agnostic named Robert Owen (d.1858).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Wayward Saints: THE GODBEITES AND BRIGHAM YOUNG|year=1998|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252067051|pages=74–75|author=Ronald W. Walker|accessdate=1 August 2012|quote=Robert Owen, the New Lanark industrialist, social reformer, and religious agnostic, urged factory managers to be more mindful of the men, women, and children they employed; advocated parliamentary regulation of the mills; argued for the organization of workers into unions; and had taken steps to build an American utopian Zion at New Harmony, Indiana.}}</ref>
*[[George Lincoln Rockwell]] (1918–1967), Founder of the American Nazi Party.<ref>Rockwell wrote in his autobiography "I am an agnostic, which means that to all proposals and explanations of the mysteries of life and eternity, I say, 'I do not know and I don't believe you or any other human does either.'" ''This Time the World'', chapter 3, George Lincoln Rockwell, ISBN 1-59364-014-5</ref>
*[[Siddaramaiah]] (born 1948), Former [[Government of Karnataka|Karnataka]] [[Deputy chief minister|Deputy CM]]<ref>flashnewstoday.com/.../siddaramiah-claims-cm-suffering-from-political-depression/</ref>
*[[Joop den Uyl]] (1919–1987), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician, [[Prime Minister of the Netherlands]] from 1973 until 1977.<ref>http://www.amsterdam.pvda.nl/nieuwsbericht/5187</ref>
*[[Gerdi Verbeet]] (born 1951), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician, [[List of Presidents of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands|President of the House of Representatives]] since 2006.
*[[Gough Whitlam]] (born 1916), [[Prime Minister of Australia]], 1972&ndash;1975.
*[[Lee Kwan Yew]] (born 1923), [[Employment law]]yer, Prime Minister and Founding Father of [[Singapore]]
*[[Gerrit Zalm]] (born 1952), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician, [[Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands]] from 2003 until 2007.<ref>http://www.netwerk.tv/node/4505</ref>
*[[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero]] (born 1960), [[Prime Minister of Spain]].<ref>"The country's Left-leaning Prime Minister, a self-declared agnostic, became a bête noire of the Catholic Church during his first term in office by legalising same-sex marriage, introducing fast-track divorce and allowing embryonic stem-cell research." [http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=world_news&month=july2008&file=world_news2008071314441.xml]</ref>
 
===Science, technology===
*[[Haroon Ahmed]], British Pakistani scientist in the fields of [[Microelectronics]] and [[electrical engineering]].<ref name="JPararajasingham">{{cite web|title=Another 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_125833&feature=iv&src_vid=s47ArcQL-XQ&v=6Gt4WSK_NlQ|accessdate=11 May 2012|author=JPararajasingham}}</ref>
*[[Ralph Asher Alpher|Ralph Alpher]] (1921–2007): American cosmologist. He is famous for the seminal paper on [[Big Bang nucleosynthesis]] called the [[Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper]].<ref>{{cite web|title=COSMOLOGY AND HUMANISM|url=http://www.humanismtoday.org/vol3/alpher.pdf|publisher=Humanism Today|accessdate=17 January 2013|author=Ralph A. Alpher|page=15|quote=This leads inevitably to my identifying philosophically as an agnostic and a humanist, and explains my temerity in sharing my views with you.}}</ref>
*[[David Attenborough|Sir David Attenborough]] (born 1926), English natural history [[television presenter|presenter]] and [[anthropologist]].<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/listen/audioarchive.shtml Interview] with [[Simon Mayo]], [[BBC Radio Five Live]], 2 December 2005.</ref>
*[[Hertha Marks Ayrton]] (1854–1923): English engineer, mathematician and inventor.<ref>{{cite book|title=Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present: A-C|year=2001|publisher=Gale Group|isbn=978-0-7876-1752-3|editor=Brigham Narins|accessdate=27 April 2012|page=91|quote=When she became a teenager, Sarah changed her name to Hertha as an expression of her independence, and, although she remained proud of her Jewish heritage, also regarded herself as an agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[John Logie Baird]] (1888–1946): Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated [[television]] system, and also the world's first fully electronic [[colour television]] tube.<ref>{{cite book|title=John Logie Baird, Television Pioneer|year=2000|publisher=IET|isbn=9780852967973|author=R. W. Burns|accessdate=31 May 2012|page=10|quote=Even Baird's conversion to agnosticism while living at home does not appear to have stimulated a rebuke from the Reverend John Baird. Moreover, Baird was freely allowed to try to persuade others—including visiting clergy—to his beliefs.}}</ref>
* [[Robert Bárány]] (1876–1936), Austro-Hungarian otologist. For his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus of the ear, he received the 1914 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Robert Bárány and the controversy surrounding his discovery of the caloric reaction|url=http://www.neurology.org/content/58/7/1094.abstract|publisher=Neurology.org|accessdate=14 May 2012|author=Robert W. Baloh|quote=Although anti-Semitism was again on the rise in Austria, it is unlikely that anti-Semitism was a factor in the hostility toward Bárány because he was an agnostic who did not believe in Zionism.}}</ref>
* [[John Bardeen]] (1908–1991), American [[physicist]] and [[electrical engineer]], the only person to have won the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] twice: first in 1956 with [[William Shockley]] and [[Walter Houser Brattain|Walter Brattain]] for the invention of the [[transistor]]; and again in 1972 with [[Leon Cooper|Leon N Cooper]] and [[John Robert Schrieffer]] for a fundamental theory of conventional [[superconductivity]] known as the [[BCS theory]].<ref>{{cite book|title=True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen|year=2002|publisher=Joseph Henry Press|isbn=9780309169547|coauthors=Lillian Hoddeson, Vicki Daitch|accessdate=24 February 2013|quote=John's mother, Althea, had been reared in the Quaker tradition, and his stepmother, Ruth, was Catholic, but John was resolutely secular throughout his life. He was once “taken by surprise” when an interviewer asked him a question about religion. “I am not a religious person,” he said, “and so do not think about it very much." He went on in a rare elaboration of his personal beliefs. "I feel that science cannot provide an answer to the ultimate questions about the meaning and purpose of life. With religion, one can get answers on faith. Most scientists leave them open and perhaps unanswerable, but do abide by a code of moral values. For civilized society to succeed, there must be a common consensus on moral values and moral behaviour, with due regard to the welfare of our fellow man. There are likely many sets of moral values compatible with successful civilized society. It is when they conflict that difficulties arise."}}</ref>
* [[Alexander Graham Bell]] (1847–1922), Eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude|year=1973|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801496912|page=490|author=Bruce, Robert V|accessdate=30 April 2013|chapter=After the Telephone|quote=He had remained steadfast in agnosticism and therefore, as Mabel took comfort in remarking, "he never denied God." Neither did he affirm God. He and Mabel occasionally attended Presbyterian services and sometimes Episcopalian, at which Mabel could follow the prayer book. Since otherwise she depended on Alec's interpreting, their church goings were rare; but their children attended Presbyterian services regularly. In 1901 Bell came across a Unitarian pamphlet and found its theology congenially undogmatic. "I have always considered myself as an Agnostic," he wrote Mabel, "but I have now discovered that I am a Unitarian Agnostic."}}</ref>
*[[Richard E. Bellman]] (1920–1984), American [[applied mathematics|applied mathematician]], celebrated for his invention of [[dynamic programming]] in 1953, and important contributions in other fields of mathematics.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Bellman Continuum: A Collection of the Works of Richard E. Bellman|year=1986|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=9789971500900|editor=Robert S. Roth|accessdate=24 September 2012|page=4|quote=He was raised by his father to be a religious skeptic. He was taken to a different church every week to observe different ceremonies. He was struck by the contrast between the ideals of various religions and the history of cruelty and hypocrisy done in God's name. He was well aware of the intellectual giants who believed in God, but if asked, he would say that each person had to make their own choice. Statements such as "By the State of New York and God ..." struck him as ludicrous. From his childhood he recalled a particularly unpleasant scene between his parents just before they sent him to the store. He ran down the street saying over and over again, "I wish there was a God, I wish there was a God."}}</ref>
*[[Emile Berliner]] (1851—1929), German-born American inventor. He is best known for developing the disc record [[gramophone record|gramophone]] (phonograph in American English).<ref>"Concerning Emile Berliner, The Jew TO BE a Jew may mean one of several identities. For example, the Jew, Emile Berliner, the late inventor, called himself agnostic." B'nai B'rith, ''The National Jewish monthly: Volume 43; Volume 43''.</ref><ref>"In 1899, Berliner wrote a book, Conclusions, that speaks of his agnostic ideas on religion and philosophy." Seymour Brody, ''Jewish heroes & heroines of America: 151 true stories of Jewish American heroism'' (2003), page 119.</ref>
*[[Claude Bernard]] (1813–1878), French [[physiologist]]. He was the first to define the term ''[[milieu intérieur]]'' (now known as [[homeostasis]], a term coined by [[Walter Bradford Cannon]]).<ref>{{cite book|title=Doctors and Discoveries: Lives That Created Today's Medicine|year=2002|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-618-15276-6|author=John G. Simmons|accessdate=26 April 2012|page=17|quote=Upon his death on February 10, 1878, Bernard received a state funeral - the first French scientist to be so honored. The procession ended at Pere Lachaise cemetery, and Gustave Flaubert described it later with a touch of irony as "religious and very beautiful." Bernard was an agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[J. Michael Bishop]] (1930–), American immunologist and microbiologist who shared the 1989 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] with [[Harold E. Varmus]] and was co-winner of 1984 [[Alfred P. Sloan Prize]].<ref>{{cite web|title=J. Michael Bishop|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/187/000132788/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Nicolaas Bloembergen]] (born 1920), Dutch-American physicist. Bloembergen shared the 1981 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] with [[Arthur Leonard Schawlow|Arthur Schawlow]] and [[Kai Manne Boerje Siegbahn|Kai Siegbahn]] for their work in [[laser]] [[spectroscopy]].<ref name="youtube.com">{{cite web|title=50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s47ArcQL-XQ|publisher=JPararajasingham|accessdate=12 May 2012}}</ref>
*[[David Bohm]] (1917–1992), American-born British quantum physicist who contributed to theoretical physics, philosophy of mind, neuropsychology.<ref>"By the time he reached his late teens, he had become firmly agnostic."  F. David Peat, ''Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm'' (1997), page 21.</ref>
*[[George Boole]] (1815–1864), English mathematician and logician. Best known for developing [[Boolean algebra]]. He has also been labeled a [[deist]] as well.<ref>{{cite book|title=Semiotica, Volume 105|year=1995|publisher=Mouton|page=56|coauthors=International Association for Semiotic Studies, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, International Social Science Council|accessdate=31 March 2013|chapter=A tale of two amateurs|quote=MacHale's biography calls George Boole 'an agnostic deist'. Both Booles' classification of 'religious philosophies' as monistic, dualistic, and trinitarian left little doubt about their preference for 'the unity religion', whether Judaic or Unitarian.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Semiotica, Volume 105|year=1996|publisher=Mouton|page=17|coauthors=International Association for Semiotic Studies, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, International Social Science Council|accessdate=31 March 2013|quote=MacHale does not repress this or other evidence of the Boole's nineteenth-century beliefs and practices in the paranormal and in religious mysticism. He even concedes that George Boole's many distinguished contributions to logic and mathematics may have been motivated by his distinctive religious beliefs as an 'agnostic deist' and by an unusual personal sensitivity to the sufferings of other people.}}</ref>
*[[Robert Bosch]] (1861–1942), German industrialist, engineer and inventor, founder of [[Robert Bosch GmbH]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Siemon-Netto|first=Uwe|title=The Legacy of a Philanthropist|url=http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=952|accessdate=9 April 2012|newspaper=The Atlantic Times|date=July 2007|quote=Bosch was an agnostic who funneled large sums of money to the Lutheran Church of Württemberg led by Bishop Theophil Wurm, a leader in the anti-Nazi Confessing Church movement.}}</ref>
*[[Jagadish Chandra Bose]] (1858–1937), Indian polymath: a [[physicist]], biologist, botanist, archaeologist, as well as an early writer of science fiction. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. IEEE named him one of the fathers of radio science. He is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first person from the Indian subcontinent to receive a US patent, in 1904. He also invented the crescograph.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lessons of Scientific Temper from Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:3yorEI7YF-kJ:wb.gov.in/BanglarMukh/Download%3FFilePath%3D/alfresco/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/b1dc9cc0-46f7-4cdf-86b1-dd14c250361f/Dec_08_23.pdf+Jagadish+Chandra+Bose+atheist&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiGdPtuBMtK_x7cPbVtMA671NwB4K-lKrO6tED6oci7DKjJxaeZJRjVYFJsHwuUvytkGFA67doIOlCYL3pRUs5-0jhu2i-JCnRs0AUhB-xbiakVgxS42nAWfY0s2hn2bFbxl9fV&sig=AHIEtbSBEQ1ED0EA3v5NbAY3PzDb_HjDFQ|accessdate=10 July 2012|author=BHABANI PRASAD SAHOO|pages=25–26|date=December 2008|quote=Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose had consciously broken this idea of a religious temple. He upheld the other meanings of ‘mandir’ (temple), according to the dictionary, which also originally means a house or even ocean. His ‘Basu Bijnan Mandir’ was actually the house or ocean of knowledge, scientific knowledge, which does not base on mere belief but on scientific methods to iradicate ignorance. He also explained the basics of this scientific methods. While discussing the
similarities and dissimilarities between a poet and a scientist, he clearly said: “The path, a scientist has to follow, is quite uneven and he had to control himself in this not-soeasy path of observation and experiment.” (ibid) Not mere imagination and belief, but ‘observation and experiment’ are the ultimate way of gaining scientific knowledge or reaching the goal of acquiring truth. The idealistic mentality of the blind believers of supernatural power or god and of the socalled
religious people, propagates the idea that man cannot completely know ‘Him’, the ultimate power or God. ...Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose might not be an atheist in the strictest sense of the term as it is used today. In several of his speeches and writings he had casually mentioned of God; for example: “I had never been deprived of blessings of God” (Asha O Biswas), or “if God has directed for any special pilgrimage for science“ (Bijnan Prachare Bharater Daan) etc. But if we carefully consider him in totality, it will be obvious that these are the outcome of the general mode of literal expression, as is done colloquially in day-to-day life and not the manifestation of his blind belief in god or religionism. Actually he might not be an uncompromising and militant (so impractical) fighter against the concept of God, but Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose was well against various superstitious notions and practices.}}</ref>
*[[James Henry Breasted]] (1865–1935), American archaeologist and historian.<ref>{{cite web|title=James Henry Breasted|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/190/000164695/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Jacob Bronowski]] (1908–1974), Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, [[The Ascent of Man]], and the accompanying book.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound|year=2006|publisher=Nation Books|isbn=9781560259695|author=Jack Huberman|accessdate=25 May 2012|page=52|quote=There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy.}}</ref>
*[[Frank Macfarlane Burnet]] (1899–1985), Australian [[virologist]]. He is best known for his contributions to [[immunology]]. He received the 1960 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for demonstrating acquired immune tolerance and developing the theory of clonal selection.<ref>"As an agnostic scientist and a Fabian socialist in politics, I had the normal contempt for the Establishment, but I cherished the feeling that I could look anyone on earth in the eye and feel certain he would approve of what I was doing." Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, ''Endurance of Life: The Implications of Genetics for Human Life'' (1980), page 198.</ref>
*[[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]] (1852–1934), Spanish [[pathologist]], [[histologist]], [[neuroscientist]]. He is considered by many to be the father of modern [[neuroscience]]. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1996.<ref>{{cite book|title=Educating the Whole Child for the Whole World: The Ross School Model and Education for the Global Era|year=2010|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814741405|author=Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj|editor=Marcelo Suarez-Orozco|accessdate=12 August 2012|page=165|quote=In that sense, it was interesting to learn that Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the great pioneer of modern neuroanatomy, was agnostic but still used the term soul without any shame.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Origins of Modern Spain|year=1965|publisher=Russell & Russell|author=John Brande Trend|accessdate=12 August 2012|page=82|quote=Cajal was a liberal in politics, an evolutionist in philosophy, an agnostic in religion...}}</ref>
*[[Anton Julius Carlson]] (1875–1956), Swedish American physiologist.<ref>{{cite web|title=Anton J. Carlson|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/951/000168447/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Wallace Carothers]] (1896–1937), American chemist and inventor. He is credited with the invention of nylon.<ref>{{cite book|title=Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World|year=2002|publisher=Sharon Bertsch McGrayne|isbn=978-0-07-140795-3|author=Sharon Bertsch McGrayne|page=139|quote=Carothers, the agnostic, joked with friends that he was praying daily for his idea to pan out.}}</ref>
*[[Henry Cavendish]] (1731–1810), British scientist. Noted for his discovery of [[hydrogen]] or what he called "inflammable air". He is also known for the [[Cavendish experiment]], his measurement of the Earth's density, and early research into electricity.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God|year=2011|publisher=Ulysses Press|isbn=9781569758465|author=Dan Barker|accessdate=15 June 2012|page=170|quote=He did not attend church and was considered an agnostic. “As to Cavendish's religion, he was nothing at all,” writes his biographer Dr. G. Wilson.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish: including abstracts of his more important scientific papers, and a critical inquiry into the claims of all the alleged discoverers of the composition of water|year=1851|publisher=Printed for the Cavendish Society|pages=181–185|author=George Wilson|accessdate=15 June 2012|quote=A Fellow of the Royal Society, who had good means of judging, states that, "As to Cavendish's religion, he was nothing at all. The only subjects in which he appeared to take any interest, were scientific. ..." ...From what has been stated, it will appear that is would be vain to assert that we know with any certainty what doctrine Cavendish held concerning Spiritual things; but we may with some confidence affirm, that the World to come did not engross his thoughts; that he gave no outward demonstration of interest in religion, and did join his fellow men in worshipping God. ...He died and have no sign, rejecting human sympathy, and leaving us no means of determining whether he anticipated annihilation, or looked forward to an endless life. ...He did not love; he did not hate; he did not hope; he did not fear; he did not worship as others do. He separated himself from his fellow men, and apparently from God.}}</ref>
*[[Owen Chamberlain]] (1920–2006), [[United States|American]] [[physicist]], and Nobel laureate in [[Nobel Prize in Physics|physics]] for his discovery, with collaborator [[Emilio Segrè]], of [[antiproton]]s, a [[sub atomic particle|sub-atomic]] [[antiparticle]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Owen Chamberlain|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/819/000099522/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Francis Crick]] (1916–2004), [[Nobel Laureate|Nobel-laureate]] co-discoverer of the structure of [[DNA]], who described himself as a skeptic and an agnostic with "a strong inclination towards atheism".<ref>Francis Crick, ''What Mad Pursuit: a Personal View of Scientific Discovery'', Basic Books reprint edition, 1990, ISBN 0-465-09138-5, p. 145.</ref>
* [[Marie Curie]] (1867&ndash;1934), [[Poland|Polish]] [[physicist]] and [[chemist]]. She was a pioneer in the field of [[radioactivity]] and she became the first Nobel laureate to win two Nobel Prize in two different sciences. She won the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1903 and the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1911.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reid |first=Robert William |title=Marie Curie |year=1974 |location=London |publisher=Collins |pages=19 |isbn=0-00-211539-5 |quote=Unusually at such an early age, she became what T. H. Huxley had just invented a word for: agnostic.}}
</ref>
* [[Heber Doust Curtis]] (1872&ndash;1942), American astronomer. He is best known for his participation in the [[Great Debate (astronomy)|Great Debate]] with [[Harlow Shapley]] on the nature of nebulae and galaxies, and the size of the universe.<ref>{{cite book|title=[[Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers]]|year=2007|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780387310220|editor=Virginia Trimble, Thomas Williams, Katherine Bracher, Richard Jarrell, Jordan D. Marché, F. Jamil Ragep|accessdate=6 August 2012|page=265|quote=Although remaining a theist, Curtis declared himself an agnostic on some of the “great unanswered questions” that “may be forever beyond us.”}}</ref>
*[[Charles Darwin]] (1809–1882), founder of the theory of [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]], once described himself as being generally agnostic, though he was a member of the [[Anglican Church]] and attended [[General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches|Unitarian]] services.<ref>Darwin wrote: "my judgment often fluctuates... In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an Atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, that an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind." [http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin/texts/letters/letters1_08.html The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin], Ch. VIII, p. 274.  New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1905. See [[Charles Darwin's views on religion]]</ref>
* [[Max Delbrück]] (1906–1981), German-American biophysicist. He, along with [[Alfred D. Hershey]] and [[Salvador E. Luria]], won the 1969 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses.<ref>{{cite web|title=Max Delbrück|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/348/000129958/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=14 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Max Delbrück and the New Perception of Biology, 1906-1981: A Centenary Celebration, University of Salamanca, October 9–10, 2006|year=2007|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=9781434314352|author=Walter Shropshire|accessdate=14 May 2012|page=155|quote=As far as I know, he never identified himself as a member of any formal church or religious faith, but neither did he reject religion. He had a deeply felt respect for all faiths, believing that regardless of the details, they all fill basically the same human aspirations.}}</ref>
* [[David Deutsch]] (born 1953), [[United Kingdom|British]] [[physicist]] at the [[University of Oxford]]. He is a non-stipendiary Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the [[Centre for Quantum Computation]] (CQC) in the [[Clarendon Laboratory]] of the University of Oxford. He pioneered the field of [[quantum computation]] by  formulating a description for a [[quantum Turing machine]], as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer.<ref>{{cite book|title=Open Questions: Diverse Thinkers Discuss God, Religion, and Faith|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313386442|author=Luís F. Rodrigues|accessdate=21 March 2013|chapter=David Deutsch|quote=He is also agnostic.}}</ref>
* [[Paul Dirac]] (1902–1984): British [[theoretical physicist]], one of the founders of [[quantum mechanics]], predicted the existence of [[antimatter]], and won the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1933.<ref>[[Werner Heisenberg]] recollects a friendly conversation among young participants at the 1927 [[Solvay Conference]] about Einstein's and [[Max Planck|Planck]]'s views on religion. Wolfgang Pauli, Heisenberg and Dirac took part in it. Among other things, Dirac said: "I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest — and as scientists honesty is our precise duty — we cannot help but admit that any religion is a pack of false statements, deprived of any real foundation. The very idea of God is a product of human imagination.[...] I do not recognize any religious myth, at least because they contradict one another.[...]" Pauli jokingly said: "Well, I'd say that also our friend Dirac has got a religion and the first commandment of this religion is: God does not exist and Paul Dirac is his prophet." {{cite book | authorlink = | title = Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations | publisher = Harper & Row | location = New York | isbn=0-06-131622-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Voice Of Genius: Conversations With Nobel Scientists And Other Luminaries|year=2001|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=9780738204475|editor=Denis Brian|accessdate=8 June 2012|page=69|quote=Mrs.Dirac: "My husband wasn't an atheist. In Italy, once, he said, "If there is a God, he's a great mathematician."" Interviewer: "Ah, if there is a God. He did say if."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Voice Of Genius: Conversations With Nobel Scientists And Other Luminaries|year=2001|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=9780738204475|editor=Denis Brian|accessdate=8 June 2012|pages=28–29|quote=Interviewer: "Did you know Dirac was religious? His wife told me he believed in Jesus Christ." Pauling: "In what respect? Some say there was never any such person in existence." Interviewer: "I presume she meant as God." Pauling: "I don't think she's reliable, any more than Eugene Wigner is. He is emotional about nuclear weapons and questions about the Soviet Union, in the same way that Teller is. ...In each case I felt that the person, Hungarian, with that sort of experience involving the Soviet Union was governed to such an extent by his emotional feelings and convictions that he was no longer rational when it came to discussing problems of that sort. Rational enough on scientific matters, of course. Both Wigner and Teller are very able scientists. ...But when it came to political matters the emotional factor overcame them. In the same way, Mrs. Dirac might be speaking from an emotional basis when she said he had believed in Christ, by saying something she would like to believe about Dirac. Interviewer: "She also said she believed in telepathy — when she was thinking of her daughter, the daughter phoned, that sort of thing." Pauling: "I'm not surprised."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Dirac: A Scientific Biography|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521380898|pages=256–257|author=Helge Kragh|accessdate=15 March 2013|quote=It could be that it is extremely difficult to start life. It might be that it is so difficult to start life that it has happened only once among all the planets. ...Let us consider, just as a conjecture, that the chance life starting when we have got suitable physical conditions is 10^-100. I don't have any logical reason for proposing this figure, I just want you to consider it as a possibility. Under those conditions...it is almost certain that life would not have started. And I feel that under those conditions it will be necessary to assume the existence of a god to start off life. I would like, therefore, to set up this connexion between the existence of a god and the physical laws: if physical laws are such that to start off life involves an excessively small chance, so that it will not be reasonable to suppose that life would have started just by blind chance, then there must be a god, and such a god would probably be showing his influence in the quantum jumps which are taking place later on. On the other hand, if life can start very easily and does not need any divine influence, then I will say that there is no god.}}</ref>
* [[John William Draper]] (1811–1882): [[United States|American]] ([[England|English]]-born) [[scientist]], [[philosopher]], [[physician]], [[chemist]], [[historian]] and [[photographer]]. He is credited with producing the first clear photograph of a female face (1839–40) and the first detailed photograph of the [[Moon]] (1840).<ref>{{cite web|title=John William Draper|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/733/000167232/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Eugène Dubois]] (1858–1940), Dutch [[paleoanthropologist]] and [[geologist]]. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of [[Pithecanthropus erectus]] (later redesignated Homo erectus), or 'Java Man'.<ref>"As far as I know Dubois never expressed any atheistic ideas, but he did sometimes show evidence of fiercely anti-Catholic sentiments. His attitude towards religious belief as such can best be characterised as agnostic." Bert Theunissen, ''Eugène Dubois and the ape-man from Java: the history of the first missing link and its discoverer'' (1989), page 24.</ref>
*[[Émile Durkheim]] (1858–1917), [[French people|French]] [[sociology|sociologist]], who had a Jewish Bar Mitzvah at thirteen, was briefly interested in Catholicism after a mystical experience, but later became an agnostic.<ref>On Durkheim, Larry R. Ridener, referencing a book by [[Lewis A. Coser]], wrote: "Shortly after his traditional Jewish confirmation at the age of thirteen, Durkheim, under the influence of a Catholic woman teacher, had a shortlived mystical experience that led to an interest in Catholicism. But soon afterwards he turned away from all religious involvement, though emphatically not from interest in religious phenomena, and became an agnostic." See [http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Durkheim/DURKPER.HTML Ridener's page on famous dead sociologists]. See also Coser's book: Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, 2nd Ed., Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1977: 143-144</ref>
*[[Freeman Dyson]] (1923–), British-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in [[quantum electrodynamics]], [[solid-state physics]], [[astronomy]] and [[nuclear engineering]].<ref>"First, the same award was given to an agnostic Mathematician Freeman Dyson,..." Moses Gbenu, ''Back to Hell'' (2003), page 110.</ref><ref>"Officially, he calls himself an agnostic, but his writings make it clear that his agnosticism is tinged with something akin to deism." Karl Giberson, Donald A. Yerxa, ''Species of origins: America's search for a creation story'' (2002), page 141.</ref><ref>"A theologically more modest version is offered by physicist Freeman Dyson (2000), who describes himself as "a practicing Christian but not a believing Christian"" Garrett G. Fagan, ''Archaeological fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public'' (2006), page 360.</ref>
*[[Albert Einstein]] (1879–1955), Jewish born [[theoretical physics|theoretical physicist]], best known for his [[theory of relativity]] and the [[mass-energy equivalence]], <math>E = m c^2</math>.<ref>"My position concerning God is that of an agnostic."
Albert Einstein in a letter to M. Berkowitz, 25 October 1950; Einstein Archive 59-215; from Alice Calaprice, ed., ''The Expanded Quotable Einstein'', Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 216. As quoted at [http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html stephenjaygould.org] (Retrieved 20 June 2007)</ref>
*[[John Ericsson]] (1803-1889), Swedish-American inventor and mechanical engineer.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll|year=2009|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=9781605208886|page=319|author=Robert G. Ingersoll|accessdate=20 May 2013|quote="...Infidels have contributed their share, but never one of them has reached the grandeur of originality." This, I think, so far as invention is concerned, can be answered with one name — John Ericsson, one of the profoundest agnostics I ever met.}}</ref>
*[[Enrico Fermi]] (1901–1954), Italian-American physicist. Best known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, [[Chicago Pile-1]], and for his contributions to the development of [[Old quantum theory|quantum theory]], nuclear and [[particle physics]], and [[statistical mechanics]]. He was awarded the 1938 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for his work on induced [[radioactivity]].<ref>"Enrico Fermi's attitude to the church eventually became one of indifference, and he remained an agnostic all his adult life." Emilio Segre, ''Enrico Fermi: Physicist'' (1995), page 5.</ref>
*[[Edmond H. Fischer]] (born 1920), [[Swiss American]] biochemist. He and his collaborator [[Edwin G. Krebs]] were awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1992 for describing how reversible [[phosphorylation]] works as a switch to activate [[protein]]s and regulate various cellular processes.
*[[Val Logsdon Fitch]] (1923–), [[United States|American]] [[nuclear physics|nuclear physicist]]. He and co-researcher [[James Watson Cronin]] were awarded the 1980 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for a 1964 experiment using the [[Alternating Gradient Synchrotron]] at [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]] that proved that certain subatomic reactions do not adhere to fundamental symmetry principles. Specifically, they proved, by examining the decay of [[K-meson]]s, that a reaction run in reverse does not merely retrace the path of the original reaction, which showed that the reactions of subatomic particles are not indifferent to time. Thus the phenomenon of [[CP violation]] was discovered.<ref>{{cite web|title=Val Fitch|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/838/000099541/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Howard Florey]] (1898–1968), Australian pharmacologist and pathologist. He shared the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1945 with Sir [[Ernst Boris Chain]] and Sir [[Alexander Fleming]] for his role in the making of [[penicillin]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Howard Florey, Penicillin and After|year=1984|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-858173-4|author=Trevor Illtyd Williams|page=363|quote=As an agnostic, the chapel services meant nothing to Florey but, unlike some contemporary scientists, he was not aggressive in his disbelief.}}</ref>
*[[Lee De Forest]] (1863–1961), American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the [[Audion]], a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. He is considered to be one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use of electronics. He is also credited with one of the principal inventions that brought sound to motion pictures.<ref>{{cite book|title=Lee De Forest and the Fatherhood of Radio|year=1992|publisher=Lehigh University Press|isbn=978-0-934223-23-2|author=James A. Hijiya|quote=In 1957, four years after urging Americans to go to church, he described himself as an agnostic.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film|year=2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4614-0417-0|author=Mike Adams|page=31|quote=This was more than a gradual change, and it would cause de Forest to adopt of life of agnosticism, determinism, and Darwinism. He began to believe that he is the master of his destiny, that science can explain all, rather than a god or an unseen divine force. It was said about his philosophy that,“His position shifted gradually from the faith of his father to a rationalistic, scientific one.”}}</ref>
*[[Edward Frankland]] (1825–1899), British chemist. He was an expert in water quality and analysis, and originated the concept of combining power, or [[valence (chemistry)]], in chemistry.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rocke|first=Alan|title=The Quiet Revolution: Hermann Kolbe and the science of organic chemistry|year=1993|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-08110-9|page=39|quote=However, if we consider that Frankland was a "born- again" Christian during much of this period (before he began to fall into agnosticism himself), that the term agnostic did not even exist at that time...}}</ref>
*[[Rosalind Franklin]] (1920–1958), [[British citizenship|British]] [[biophysicist]] and [[X-ray crystallography|X-ray crystallographer]] who made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of [[DNA]], [[RNA]], [[viruses]], [[coal]] and [[graphite]].<ref>"This flat declaration prompted Ellis Franklin to accuse his strong-willed daughter of making science her religion. He was right. Rosalind sent him a four-page declaration, eloquent for a young woman just over 20 let alone a scientist of any age. ..."It has just occurred to me that you may raise the question of a creator. A creator of what? […] I see no reason to believe that a creator of protoplasm or primeval matter, if such there be, has any reason to be interested in our insignificant race in a tiny corner of the universe, and still less in us, as still more insignificant individuals. Again, I see no reason why the belief that we are insignificant or fortuitous should lessen our faith - as I have defined it."" Brenda Maddox, [http://newhumanist.org.uk/532/mother-of-dna Mother of DNA], ''NewHumanist.org.uk'' - Volume 117 Issue 3 Autumn 2002.</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on ''NNDB.com''. [http://www.nndb.com/people/559/000160079/ Rosalind Franklin], ''NNDB.com''.</ref>
*[[Jerome I. Friedman]] (1930–), American [[physicist]]. In 1968-1969, commuting between MIT and California, he conducted experiments with [[Henry W. Kendall]] and [[Richard E. Taylor]] at the [[Stanford Linear Accelerator Center]] which gave the first experimental evidence that [[proton]]s had an internal structure, later known to be [[quark]]s. For this, Friedman, Kendall and Taylor shared the 1990 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]]. He is an [[Institute Professor]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. He is a member of the Board of Sponsors of The [[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome I. Friedman|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/034/000099734/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Milton Friedman]] (1912–2006), American economist, writer and public intellectual, winner of  [[Nobel Prize in Economics]].<ref>In correspondence with conservative Christian commentator John Lofton, Milton Friedman wrote: "I am an agnostic. I do not ‘believe in’ God, but I am not an atheist, because I believe the statement, ‘There is a god’ does not admit of being either confirmed or rejected." ''An Exchange: My Correspondence With Milton Friedman About God, Economics, Evolution And "Values"'', by John Lofton, [http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=736 The American View], October–December 2006, (Retrieved 12 January 2007)</ref>
*[[William Froude]] (1810–1879), English engineer, hydrodynamicist and naval architect. He was the first to formulate reliable laws for the resistance that water offers to ships (such as the hull speed equation) and for predicting their stability.<ref>{{cite book|title=John Henry Newman: A View Of Catholic Faith For The New Millennium|year=2005|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780742532229|author=John R. Connolly|accessdate=25 May 2012|page=32|quote=Part of Newman's inspiration for writing the Grammar of Assent came from his correspondence with William Froude. Froude, a friend of Newman's, was a scientist and an agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Dennis Gabor]] (1900–1979), Hungarian-British electrical engineer and inventor. Known for his invention of holography and received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present: D-H|year=2001|publisher=Gale Group|isbn=9780787617530|author=Brigham Narins|accessdate=30 May 2012|page=797|quote=Although Gabor's family became Lutherans in 1918, religion appeared to play a minor role in his life. He maintained his church affiliation through his adult years but characterized himself as a "benevolent agnostic".}}</ref><ref>"The family adopted the Lutheran faith in 1918, and although Gabor nominally remained true to it, religion appears to have had little influence in his life. He later acknowledged the role played by an antireligious humanist education in the development of his ideas and stated his position as being that of a “benevolent agnostic.”" "Gabor, Dennis." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (30 January 2012). [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830905124.html]</ref>
*[[Francis Galton]] (1822–1911), English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician. He is also a cousin of Charles Darwin.<ref>
"The publication of Darwin’s ‘‘Origin of Species’’ totally transformed his intellectual life, giving him a sense of evolutionary process without which much of his later work would have been unimaginable. Galton became a ‘‘religious agnostic’’, recognising the social value of religion but not its transcendental basis." Robert Peel, [http://www.galtoninstitute.org.uk/Newsletters/GINL9112/Sir_Francis_Galton.htm Sir Francis Galton FRS (1822-1911) - The Legacy of His Ideas -].</ref>
*[[Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin]] (1900–1979), English-American astronomer who in 1925 was first to show that the [[Sun]] is mainly composed of [[hydrogen]], contradicting accepted wisdom at the time.<ref>{{cite book|title=Energy and the Unexpected|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198525165|author=Keith James Laidler|accessdate=30 June 2012|page=109|quote=Much of our understanding of the composition of the Sun came originally from the work of Cecilia Paync-Gaposchkin ( 1900-1979). ... Since she actually got better marks in the prayerless group she became, and remained, a devout agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Roy J. Glauber]] (born 1925), American theoretical physicist. He was awarded one half of the 2005 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] "for his contribution to the quantum theory of [[Coherence (physics)|optical coherence]]", with the other half shared by [[John L. Hall]] and [[Theodor W. Hänsch]].<ref name="JPararajasingham"/>
*[[Camillo Golgi]] (1843–1926), Italian physician, pathologist, scientist. He, along with [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]], won the 1906 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for their studies of the structure of the nervous system.<ref>{{cite book|title=The hidden structure: a scientific biography of Camillo Golgi|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198524441|coauthors=Paolo Mazzarello, Henry A. Buchtel, Aldo Badiani|accessdate=14 May 2012|page=34|quote=It was probably during this period that Golgi became agnostic (or even frankly atheistic), remaining for the rest of his life completely alien to the religious experience.}}</ref>
*[[David Gross]] (born 1941), American particle physicist and string theorist. Along with [[Frank Wilczek]] and [[David Politzer]], he was awarded the 2004 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for their discovery of [[asymptotic freedom]].<ref name="JPararajasingham"/>
*[[John Gurdon]] (born 1933), British developmental biologist. He is best known for his pioneering research in [[Somatic cell nuclear transfer|nuclear transplantation]] and [[cloning]].<ref name="JPararajasingham"/>
*[[Murray Gell-Mann]] (born 1929), American physicist and linguist who received the 1969 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for his work on the theory of [[elementary particles]].<ref>"Feynman, Gell-Man, Weinberg, and their peers accept Newton's incomparable stature and shrug off his piety, on the kindly thought that the old man got into the game too early. ...As for Gell-Mann, he seems to see nothing to discuss in this entire God business, and in the index to ''The Quark and the Jaguar'' God goes unmentioned. Life he called a "complex adaptive system" which produces interesting phenomena such as the jaguar and Murray Gell-Mann, who discovered the quark. Gell-Mann is a Nobel-class tackler of problems, but for him the existence of God is not one of them." Herman Wouk, ''The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion'' (2010).</ref><ref>"So we don’t have to assume these principles as separate metaphysical postulates. They follow from the fundamental theory. They are what we call emergent properties. You don’t need something more to get something more. That’s what emergence means. Life can emerge from physics and chemistry, plus a lot of accidents. The human mind can arise from neurobiology, and a lot of accidents. The way the chemical bond arises from physics and certain accidents. Doesn’t diminish the importance of these subjects, to know that they follow from more fundamental things, plus accidents. That’s a general rule, and it’s critically important to realize that. You don’t need something more in order to get something more. People keep asking that when they read my book, The Quark and the Jaguar, and they say ‘isn’t there something more beyond what you have there?’ Presumably they mean something supernatural. Anyway, there isn’t. (laughs) You don’t need something more to explain something more." Murray Gell-Mann, [http://blog.ted.com/2007/12/06/murray_gellmann/ Beauty and truth in physics: Murray Gell-Mann on TED.com] (2007), ''Ted.com''.</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on ''NNDB.com''. [http://www.nndb.com/people/310/000023241/ Murray Gell-Mann], ''NNDB.com''.</ref>
*[[Stephen Jay Gould]] (1941–2002), American [[Paleontology|paleontologist]], [[Evolution|evolutionary biologist]], [[History of science|science historian]] and [[popular science|popularizer]]. Gould called himself a "Jewish agnostic".<ref>"...I certainly felt bemused by the anomaly of my role as a Jewish agnostic, trying to reassure a group of Catholic priests that evolution remained both true and entirely consistent with religious belief." [http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_noma.html Nonoverlapping Magisteria], by Stephen Jay Gould, ''Natural History'' 106 (March 1997): 16-22; Reprinted from ''[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0609601415/ Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms]'', New York: Harmony Books, 1998, pp. 269-283.</ref>
*[[Hans Hahn (mathematician)|Hans Hahn]] (1879–1934), Austrian mathematician who made contributions to [[functional analysis]], [[topology]], [[set theory]], the calculus of variations, real analysis, and [[order theory]]. His most famous student was [[Kurt Gödel]], whose Ph.D. thesis was completed in 1929.<ref>{{cite book|title=Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory: From Chess to Social Science, 1900-1960|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521562669|pages=122–123|author=Robert Leonard|accessdate=23 October 2012}}</ref>
*[[Alan Hale (astronomer)|Alan Hale]] (born 1958), American astronomer, known for his co-discovery of the [[Comet Hale-Bopp]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God|year=2011|publisher=Ulysses Press|isbn=9781569758465|pages=175–176|coauthors=Alan Hale, Dan Barker|accessdate=15 June 2012|quote=Oh, I have plenty of biases, all right. I'm quite biased toward depending upon what my senses and my intellect tell me about the world around me, and I'm quite biased against invoking mysterious mythical beings that other people want to claim exist but which they can offer no evidence for.  By telling students that the beliefs of a superstitious tribe thousands of years ago should be treated on an equal basis with the evidence collected with our most advanced equipment today is to completely undermine the entire process of scientific inquiry.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Internet Infidels Honorary Board|url=http://www.infidels.org/infidels/honorary.html|accessdate=15 June 2012|quote=He is a member of the Honorary Board of the online group, ''Internet Infidels''.}}</ref>
*[[William Stewart Halsted]] (1852–1922), American surgeon who emphasized strict [[aseptic technique]] during surgical procedures, was an early champion of newly discovered [[anesthetics]], and introduced several new operations, including the [[radical mastectomy]] for [[breast cancer]].<ref>{{cite web|title=William Stewart Halsted|url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448951/|publisher=Annals of Surgery|accessdate=31 May 2012|author=J Scott Rankin|date=March 2006|quote=He was a heavy smoker of cigarettes, but rarely imbibed more than an occasional glass of wine. As noted earlier, in matters of religion, he was agnostic. A letter to Professor Adolf Meyer in 1918 thanked Dr. Meyer for a gift of the 13 volume set of the Golden Bough by Frazer, which Halsted then described as: “Such a stupendous and bloodcurdling work.” Halsted also stated:  “What a fearful thing is ignorance. Its disciples, from the Khonds to Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and modern clergymen, all seem to have the same genes. Walking encyclopedias may still live in the dark ages. By the time I have absorbed the 13 volumes, I shall probably release my pew in the church, and break loose from the pious bloodthirsty cruel soul savers.”}}</ref>
*[[Theodor W. Hänsch]] (born 1941), [[Germany|German]] [[physics|physicist]]. He received one fourth of the 2005 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for "contributions to the development of [[laser]]-based precision [[spectroscopy]], including the optical [[frequency comb]] technique", sharing the prize with [[John L. Hall]] and [[Roy J. Glauber]].<ref name="youtube.com"/>
*[[Friedrich Hayek]] (1899–1992), Austrian economist and philosopher. Best known for his defense of [[classical liberalism]] and [[free-market capitalism]]. Along with [[Gunnar Myrdal]], Hayek shared the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] in 1974."<ref>"Though Hayek was a self-professed agnostic, we show that his treatment of individual liberty was more consistent with a Judeo-Christian worldview than with that of his naturalist peers and postmodernist successors." Kenneth G. Elzinga, Matthew R. Givens,[http://www.gordon.edu/ace/pdf/F&ESpr09ElzingaandGivens.pdf Christianity and Hayek] (2009), page 53.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Hayek's journey: the mind of Friedrich Hayek|year=2003|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan Limited|isbn=9781403960382|page=224|author=Alan O. Ebenstein|accessdate=5 May 2013|quote=He apparently composed the conclusion of the work on page 140, Hayek's "final word." Emphasis on Hayek's agnostic religious views was not as prominent in Hayek's own versions of "The Fatal Conceit".}}</ref>
*[[J. B. S. Haldane]] (1892–1964), British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Why Some Like it Hot: Food, Genes, And Cultural Diversity|year=2004|publisher=Island Press|isbn=978-1-55963-466-3|author=Gary Paul Nabhan|accessdate=24 April 2012|page=73|quote=Not long after his first reading of Carson's work, Motulsky recalled a quirky speculation — described below — by the pioneering evolutionary biologist and agnostic JBS Haldane, who had published an essay in 1949 entitled, "Disease and Evolution."}}</ref>
*[[Hermann von Helmholtz]] (1821–1894), German [[physician]] and [[physicist]] who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science. In [[physiology]] and [[psychology]], he is known for his mathematics of the [[Human eye|eye]], [[Theory of vision|theories of vision]], ideas on the [[visual perception]] of space, [[color vision]] research, and on the sensation of tone, perception of sound, and [[empiricism]].  In [[physics]], he is known for his theories on the conservation of [[energy]], work in [[electrodynamics]], [[chemical thermodynamics]], and on a [[Mechanics|mechanical]] foundation of [[thermodynamics]].  As a [[philosopher]], he is known for his philosophy of [[science]], ideas on the relation between the laws of perception and the [[Physical law|laws of nature]], the science of [[aesthetics]], and ideas on the civilizing power of science.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Freethinkers|year=1945|publisher=Haldeman-Julius Publications|url=http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/dictionary.html|author=Joseph McCabe|accessdate=30 June 2012|quote=He was equally distinguished in physics and physiology and was the discoverer of the law of the conservatism of energy. Although he was the most eminent and most honored of German scientists, he was all his life an outspoken agnostic.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Epistemological Writings: The Paul Hertz/Moritz Schlick Centenary Edition of 1921 with Notes and Commentary by the Editors|year=1977|publisher=Springer|isbn=9789027705822|editor=Paul Hertz, Moritz Schlick, Malcolm F. Lowe, Robert Sonné Cohen, Yehúda Elkana|accessdate=30 June 2012|page=xxv|quote=Lenin found Helmholtz to be inconsistent, at one place a materialist about human knowledge, at another place agnostic and sceptic, and at yet other place a Kantian idealist, in sum a 'shame-faced materialist'.}}</ref>
*[[Gerhard Herzberg]] (1904–1999), [[Germany|German]] pioneering [[physicist]] and [[physical chemist]], who won the [[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] in 1971.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gerhard Herzberg|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/594/000100294/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[David Hilbert]] (1862–1943), German [[mathematician]]. He is recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|title=Hilbert|year=1996|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780387946740|page=92|author=Constance Reid|edition=2|accessdate=10 March 2013|quote=Perhaps the guests would be discussing Galileo's trial and someone would blame Galileo for failing to stand up for his convictions. "But he was not an idiot," Hilbert would object. "Only an idiot could believe that scientific truth needs martyrdom — that may be necessary in religion, but scientific results prove themselves in time."}}</ref><ref>Listed as agnostic on NNDB.com. [http://www.nndb.com/people/735/000087474/ David Hilbert]</ref><ref>"Mathematics is a presuppositionless science. To found it I do not need God, as does Kronecker, or the assumption of a special faculty of our understanding attuned to the principle of mathematical induction, as does Poincaré, or the primal intuition of Brouwer, or, finally, as do Russell and Whitehead, axioms of infinity, reducibility, or completeness, which in fact are actual, contentual assumptions that cannot be compensated for by consistency proofs." David Hilbert, ''Die Grundlagen der Mathematik'', [http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~odonnell/OData/Courses/22C:096/Lecture_notes/Hilbert_program.html Hilbert's program, 22C:096, University of Iowa].</ref><ref>"Also, when someone blamed Galileo for not standing up for his convictions Hilbert became quite irate and said, “But he was not an idiot. Only an idiot could believe that scientific truth needs martyrdom; that may be necessary in religion, but scientific results prove themselves in due time." Anton Z. Capri, ''Quips, quotes, and quanta: an anecdotal history of physics'' (2007), page 135.</ref>
*[[Frederick Gowland Hopkins]] (1861-1947), English [[biochemist]] who was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1929, with [[Christiaan Eijkman]], for the discovery of [[vitamin]]s. He also discovered the amino acid [[tryptophan]], in 1901. He was appointed [[President of the Royal Society]] from 1930 to 1935.<ref>{{cite web|title=Frederick Hopkins|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/610/000127229/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Gerard 't Hooft]] (born 1946), Dutch theoretical physicist. He shared the 1999 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] with his thesis advisor [[Martinus J. G. Veltman]] "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions".<ref>{{cite web|title=Gerardus `t Hooft - Science Video Interview|url=http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/35|accessdate=25 April 2012|year=2004|quote=When asked by the interviewer about his view of the universe and the design or non-design of the universe, Hooft replied, "Well absolutely amazing fact that it seems that the entire universe is now in grasp of theoretical physics. It still highly premature to make theories that includes how the big bang originated as and things like that. Although, people are tying that every day. ...As far as I'm concerned, everything seems to behave completely rationally. The laws of physics is all we need to understand how the universe got into being. And then eventually we end up with this religious question as to why is the universe is the way it is and how can it be it is a place for humans to live in, that is a miracle. I don't have really any answers here, but as a physicist I've learn to appreciate the fact that everything seems to have totally rational explanations and as far as I'm concerned, I expect the entire universe now also to be something you can explain in completely rational terms. That what I expect now, just because of past experience."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Gerardus `t Hooft - Science Video Interview|url=http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/35|accessdate=25 April 2012|year=2004|quote=When asked by the interviewer about his belief in an afterlife, Hooft replied, "Well, such beliefs I think I related to religions of the past and I don't think that notions such as 'afterlife' has any...scientific basis. Not in terms of modern science. So I can only say no."}}</ref>
*[[Fred Hoyle]] (1915–2001), English astronomer and mathematician.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fred Hoyle – Astronomer Extraordinaire|url=http://hoylehistory.com/famous-hoyles/fred-hoyle/|accessdate=22 April 2012|author=The Editor|date=19 June 2008|quote=Hoyle was reportedly an atheist during most of his early life, but became agnostic when he found that he could not feel comfortable trying to explain the finer workings of physics and the Universe as simply “an accident.”}}</ref>
*[[Edwin Hubble]] (1889–1953), American astronomer who played a crucial role in establishing the field of [[extragalactic astronomy]] and is generally regarded as the leading observational [[cosmologist]] of the 20th century. Hubble generally is known for [[Hubble's law]]. He is credited with the discovery of the existence of [[galaxy|galaxies]] other than the [[Milky Way]] and his galactic [[red shift]] discovery that the loss in frequency—the [[redshift]]—observed in the [[Electromagnetic spectrum|spectra of light]] from other galaxies increased in proportion to a particular galaxy's distance from Earth. This relationship became known as [[Hubble's law]]. His findings fundamentally changed the scientific view of the universe.<ref>{{cite book|title=Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae|year=1996|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226105215|author=Gale E. Christianson|accessdate=6 August 2012|page=183|quote=One morning, while driving north with Grace after the failed eclipse expedition of 1923, he broached Whitehead's idea of a God who might have chosen from a great many possibilities to make a different universe, but He made this one. By contemplating the universe, one might approximate some idea of its Creator. As time passed, however, he seemed even less certain: "We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is — at least in its physical aspects." His life was dedicated to science and the objective world of phenomena. The world of pure values is one which science cannot enter, and science is unconcerned with the transcendent, however compelling a private revelation or individual moment of ecstasy. He pulled no punches when a deeply depressed friend asked him about his belief: "The whole thing is so much bigger than I am,  and I can't understand it, so I just trust myself to it; and forget about it."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Hubble Time|year=2000|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9780595142477|author=Tom Bezzi|accessdate=6 August 2012|page=93|quote=John terribly depressed, and asked Edwin about his belief. Edwin said, "The whole thing is so much bigger than I am, and I can't understand it, so I just trust myself to it, and forget about it." It was not his nature to speculate. Theories, in his opinion, were appropriate cocktail conversation. He was essentially an observer, and as he said in The Realm (J the Nebulae: “Not until the empirical resources are exhausted, need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.” Edwin never exhausted those empirical resources. “I am an observer, not a theoretical man,” he attested, and a lightly spoken word in a lecture or in a letter showed that observation was his choice.}}</ref>
*[[Alexander von Humboldt]] (1769–1859), German naturalist and explorer. His quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of [[biogeography]].<ref>"Humboldt, by contrast, was an agnostic in religious sentiment and a Heraclitean in his cosmology; he regarded change, and species mutability, as being as natural as changing wind patterns or ocean currents."  Harry Francis Mallgrave, ''Gottfried Semper: Architect of the Nineteenth Century'' (1996), page 157.</ref>
*[[Andrew Huxley]] (1917–2012), English physiologist and biophysicist. He (along with [[Alan Hodgkin]]) won the 1963 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for his experimental and mathematical work on the basis of nerve action potentials, the electrical impulses that enable the activity of an organism to be coordinated by a central nervous system.<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary: Andrew Huxley|url=http://www.economist.com/node/21556885|publisher=The Economist|accessdate=14 May 2013|date=June 16, 2012|quote=He did not even mind the master's duty of officiating in chapel, since he was, he explained, not atheist but agnostic (a word usefully invented by his grandfather), and was “very conscious that there is no scientific explanation for the fact that we are conscious.”}}</ref>
*[[Thomas Henry Huxley]] (1825–1895), English biologist and coiner of the term ''agnosticism''.<ref>"Every variety of philosophical and theological opinion was represented there, and expressed itself with entire openness; most of my colleagues were ''ists'' of one sort or another; and, however kind and friendly they might be, I, the man without a rag of a label to cover himself with, could not fail to have some of the uneasy feelings which must have beset the historical fox when, after leaving the trap in which his tail remained, he presented himself to his normally elongated companions. So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of agnostic.'" [http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_huxley/huxley_wace/part_02.html Part 2 - Agnosticism]'', by T.H. Huxley, from ''[http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_huxley/huxley_wace/ Christianity and Agnosticism: A Controversy]'', New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1889. Hosted at the Secular Web. (Retrieved 5 April 2008)</ref>
*[[Robert Jastrow]] (1925–2008), American astronomer, physicist and cosmologist.<ref name = "leaderu">[http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth18b.html Leader U.] "Message from Professor Robert Jastrow"</ref>
*[[Edwin Thompson Jaynes]] (1922–1998), American physicist and statistician. He wrote extensively on [[statistical mechanics]] and on foundations of probability and statistical inference. He also pioneered the field of [[Digital physics]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Probability Theory: The Logic of Science|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-59271-0|author=Edwin T. Jaynes|editor=G. Larry Bretthorst|accessdate=28 April 2012|page=74|quote=We agnostics often envy the True Believer, who thus acquires so easily that sense of security which is forever denied to us.}}</ref>
*[[James Hopwood Jeans]] (1877{{spaced ndash}}1946), [[England|English]]  [[physicist]], [[astronomer]] and [[mathematician]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Future of Man|year=2004|publisher=Random House LLC|isbn=9780385510721|page=212|author=Pierre Teilhard De Chardin|accessdate=18 July 2013|quote=We can hardly wonder, in the circumstances, that agnostics such as Sir James Jeans and Marcel Boll, and even convinced believers like Guardini, have uttered expressions ol amazement (tinged with heroic pessimism or triumphant detachment) at the apparent insignificance of the phenomenon of Life in terms of the cosmos— a little mold on a grain of dust...}}</ref>
* [[Jerome Karle]] (1918–): [[United States|American]] [[physical chemist]]. Jointly with [[Herbert A. Hauptman]], he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize]] in [[Chemistry]] in 1985, for the direct analysis of [[crystal structure]]s using [[X-ray scattering techniques]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome Karle|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/659/000100359/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[August Kekulé]] (1829–1896), German organic chemist. He was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially in theoretical chemistry. He was the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure.<ref>{{cite book|last=Russell|first=Colin|title=Edward Frankland: Chemistry, Controversy and Conspiracy in Victorian England|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-54581-5|quote=It may be noticed in passing that the connection once made between Kolbe's cautious attitude to molecular structure and his alleged agnosticism in religion now seems thoroughly misplaced. Kolbe, son of a Lutheran pastor and apparently sharing his faith, is in sharp contrast to his rivals who were 'younger upper-middle class urban liberals and agnostics, such as Kekule'.}}</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on ''NNDB.com''. [http://www.nndb.com/people/934/000100634/ Friedrich August Kekulé], ''NNDB.com''.</ref>
*[[John Kendrew]] (1917–1997), [[England|English]] [[biochemist]] and [[crystallography|crystallographer]] who shared the 1962 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] with [[Max Perutz]]; their group in the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] investigated the structure of [[heme]]-containing [[protein]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=John C. Kendrew|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/551/000100251/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[John Maynard Keynes]] (1883–1946), British economist. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as [[Keynesian economics]], as well as its various offshoots.<ref>{{cite book|last=Toye|first=J.|title=Keynes on Population|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-829362-0|page=136|quote=Like Nietzsche, the young Keynes was both very aware of religion, and hostile to it. Formally speaking, in religion he was an aggressive agnostic. As described by his younger brother Geoffrey, 'he always felt an intellectual interest in religion, but at the age of seventeen or eighteen passed painlessly, as did my sister and I, into a natural state of agnosticism'.}}</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on ''NNDB.com''. [http://www.nndb.com/people/248/000024176/ John Maynard Keynes], ''NNDB.com''.</ref>
*[[Michio Kaku]] (born 1947), American theoretical physicist.<ref name="JPararajasingham"/>
*[[Alfred Kastler]] (1902–1984), [[French people|French]] [[physicist]]. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1966.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alfred Kastler|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/798/000099501/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Joseph Louis Lagrange]] (1736–1813), Italian-French mathematician and astronomer. He made significant contributions to all fields of analysis, number theory, and classical and celestial mechanics.<ref>"In religious matters Lagrange was, if anything at all, agnostic."  Eric Temple Bell, ''Men of Mathematics'' (1986).</ref><ref>"Napoleon replies: "How comes it, then, that Laplace was an atheist? At the Institute neither he nor Monge, nor Berthollet, nor Lagrange believed in God. But they did not like to say so." Baron Gaspard Gourgaud, ''Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena with General Baron Gourgaud'' (1904), page 274.</ref><ref>"Lagrange and Laplace, though of Catholic parentage, were agnostics."  Morris Kline, ''Mathematics and the Search for Knowledge'' (1986), page 214.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Niels Henrik Abel and His Times: Called Too Soon by Flames Afar|year=2000|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783540668343|author=Arild Stubhaug|accessdate=9 July 2012|page=204|quote=In Berlin, Lagrange staunchly maintained his "I don't know" position, and he came to be almost an agnostic.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Freethinkers|year=1945|publisher=Haldeman-Julius Publications|url=http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/dictionary.html|author=Joseph McCabe|accessdate=7 April 2013|quote=He was so brilliant that he solved the most difficult problems of the science at the age of 19 and a few years later won the prize of the Paris Academy of Science and was appointed Director of the Berlin Academy. He served the Republic and was head of the Commission that installed the decimal system, and was ennobled by Napoleon. He was never reconciled with the restored royalty and the Church - he was an agnostic - but he was too famous for them to touch him.}}</ref>
* [[Irving Langmuir]] (1881–1957), American chemist and physicist. He was awarded the 1932 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for his work in surface chemistry.<ref>"About his inattention to religion, his usual response was, "Never believe anything that can't be proved."" ''Irving Langmuir'', ''NNDB.com''.[http://www.nndb.com/people/776/000079539/#FN1]</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Quintessence of Irving Langmuir|year=1961|publisher=Pergamon Press|page=150|author=Albert Rosenfeld|accessdate=17 June 2013|quote=Though Marion herself was not an assiduous churchgoer and had no serious objection to Irving's agnostic views, her grandfather had been an Episcopalian clergyman.}}</ref>
* [[Anthony James Leggett]] (1938–), English-American physicist. Professor Leggett is widely recognized as a world leader in the theory of [[Cryogenics|low-temperature physics]], and his pioneering work on [[superfluid]]ity was recognized by the 2003 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Anthony J. Leggett|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/024/000027940/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Joseph Leidy]] (1823–1891), American paleontologist.<ref>{{cite web|title=Joseph Leidy|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/823/000165328/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Mario Livio]] (born 1945), Israeli-American astrophysicist.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Einstein Dilemma|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2006/aug/cover/article_view?b_start:int=3&-C=|publisher=Discover Magazine|accessdate=11 May 2012|author=Adam Frank|date=1 August 2006|quote="TeVeS does everything," says Mario Livio with enthusiasm. A self-described agnostic in the MOND debate, but one with an obvious love for the underdog, Livio says that Bekenstein's work is "a phenomenal paper."}}</ref>
* [[Seth Lloyd]] (born 1960), American mechanical engineer. He is a professor of [[mechanical engineering]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref name="JPararajasingham"/>
* [[James Lovelock]] (born 1919), British scientist, environmentalist and futurologist. He is best known for proposing the [[Gaia hypothesis]].<ref>"I'm a scientist, not a theologian. I don't know if there is a God or not. Religion requires certainty. Revere and respect Gaia. Have trust in Gaia. But not faith." James Lovelock, [http://www.salon.com/2000/08/17/lovelock/ James Lovelock, Gaia’s grand old man], Lawrence E. Joseph, 17 August 2000.</ref>
* [[Percival Lowell]] (1855–1916), American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of [[Pluto]] 14 years after his death.<ref>{{cite book|title=Percival Lowell: The Culture and Science of a Boston Brahmin|year=2001|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674002913|author=David Strauss|accessdate=26 May 2012|page=280|quote=Though Lowell claimed to "stick to the church" (doubtless from my early religious training)," he was an agnostic and hostile to Christianity.}}</ref>
* [[Frank Malina]] (1912–1981), American aeronautical engineer and painter, especially known for becoming both a pioneer in the art world and the realm of scientific engineering.<ref>{{cite book|title=To Touch the Face of God: The Sacred, the Profane, and the American Space Program, 1957–1975|year=2012|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9781421407883|page=22|author=Kendrick Oliver|accessdate=8 April 2013|quote=Frank Malina, who engineered the rockets for which Parsons supplied the fuel and who was subsequently appointed as the first director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had become an agnostic in college after reading Darwin's Descent of Man.}}</ref>
* [[Rudolph A. Marcus]] (born 1923), [[Canada|Canadian]]-born chemist who received the 1992 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for his theory of [[electron transfer]].<ref name="youtube.com"/>
* [[Lynn Margulis]] (1938–2011), American biologist. She is best known for her theory on the origin of [[eukaryote|eukaryotic]] [[organelle]]s, and her contributions to the [[endosymbiotic theory]], which is now generally accepted for how certain [[organelle]]s were formed. She is also associated with the [[Gaia hypothesis]], based on an idea developed by the English [[environmental scientist]] [[James Lovelock]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Lynn Margulis|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/228/000268421/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Dan McKenzie (geophysicist)]] (born 1942), British geophysicist.<ref name="JPararajasingham"/>
* [[Albert Abraham Michelson]] (1852–1931), American physicist known for his work on the measurement of the speed of light and especially for the [[Michelson-Morley experiment]]. In 1907 he received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Naukowe|first=Łódzkie|title=Bulletin de la Société des sciences et des lettres de Łódź: Série, Recherches sur les déformations, Volumes 39-42|year=2003|publisher=Société des sciences et des lettres de Łódź|page=162|quote=Michelson's biographers stress, that our hero was not conspicuous by religiousness. His father was a free-thinker and Michelson grew up in non-religious family and have no opportunity to acknowledge the believe of his forebears. He was agnostic through his whole life and only for the short period he was a member of the 21st lodge in Washington.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe|year=2002|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=9780375726095|author=John D. Barrow|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=136|quote=Morley was deeply religious. His original training had been in theology and he only turned to chemistry, a self-taught hobby, when he was unable to enter the ministry. Michelson, by contrast, was a religious agnostic.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson|publisher=University of Chicago Press|author=1984|coauthors=Dorothy Michelson Livingston, One Pass Productions, Cinema Guild|accessdate=16 September 2012|page=106|quote=On the religious question, Michelson disagreed with both these men. He had renounced any belief that moral issues were at stake in...}}</ref>
*[[Simon van der Meer]] (1925–2011), Dutch particle accelerator [[physicist]] who shared the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1984 with [[Carlo Rubbia]] for contributions to the [[CERN]] project which led to the discovery of the [[W and Z particles]], two of the most fundamental constituents of matter.<ref>"The Dutch Nobel prize-winner, Simon van der Meer expressed this as follows: "As a physicist, you have to have a split personality to be still able to believe in a god."" Alfred Driessen, Antoine Suarez, ''Mathematical undecidability, quantum nonlocality, and the question of the existence of God'' (1997).</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on ''NNDB.com''. [http://www.nndb.com/people/971/000099674/ Simon van der Meer], ''NNDB.com''.</ref>
* [[Ludwig von Mises]] (1881–1973), [[Austrian School|Austrian Economist]] and Philosopher. He was a prominent figure in the [[Austrian School]] of economic thought.<ref>Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises http://mises.org/pdf/asc/essays/kuehneltLeddihn.pdf</ref><ref>"Indeed, for someone who was an agnostic, Mises wrote a great deal about religion. The number of references he makes to religion is staggering, actually numbering over twenty-five hundred in his published corpus."  Laurence M. Vance, [http://mises.org/daily/1736 Mises Debunks the Religious Case for the State], Thursday, 10 February 2005.</ref><ref>"Ludwig von Mises, who was agnostic, skeptical, and non-political." Block, Walter and Rockwell Jr., Llewellyn H., ''Man, Economy, and Liberty: Essays in Honor of Murray N. Rothbard'', page 168.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism|year=2007|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|isbn=9781610163897|pages=257–258|author=Jörg Guido Hülsmann|accessdate=5 May 2013|chapter=7: The Great War|quote=But for now he thought that he—the agnostic Jew, cultural German, political individualist, scientific cosmopolitan, and Austrian patriot— had to fight the nationalists' war.}}</ref>
*[[Ludwig Mond]] (1839–1909), German-born British chemist and industrialist.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Life of Ludwig Mond|publisher=Taylor & Francis|author=J.M. Cohen|page=16|quote=Ludwig therefore learned sufficient Hebrew to go through the Barmitzvah ceremony, though he rapidly became an agnostic in outlook as he grew up.}}</ref>
*[[Robert S. Mulliken]] (1896–1986), [[United States|American]] [[physics|physicist]] and [[chemistry|chemist]], primarily responsible for the early development of [[molecular orbital theory]], i.e. the elaboration of the [[molecular orbital]] method of computing the structure of [[molecule]]s. Dr. Mulliken received the [[Nobel Prize]] for chemistry in 1966.<ref>{{cite web|title=Robert S. Mulliken|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/211/000099911/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Nathan Myhrvold]] (born 1959), American computer scientist, technologist, mathematician, physicist, entrepreneur, nature and wildlife photographer, master chef.<ref>
Charlie Rose: "What is your sense of religion and spiritual being?"
Myhrvold: "Not. It's --"
Charlie: "Not?"
Myhrvold: "There is a bunch of wonderful stories that people tell themselves and each other that they take as a matter of faith rather than evidence -- I'm not saying it's bad, and they get a tremendous amount of comfort from it. I like things that can be proven and I worry about things where i might be believing exactly what I would like to hear. So it would be wonderful if, after we die here, we go to a much better place, just like it would be wonderful if we were the most important things in the world, but in the past we thought we were really important. We discovered afterwards we weren't.
As a result, I am much more focused on things that I can understand in a scientific way which kind of -- lets faith out of it." Charlie Rose interview, [http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11022 Nathan Myhrvold, CEO And Founder, Intellectual Ventures], 20 May 2010.[http://www.livedash.com/transcript/charlie_rose/918/KQED/Friday_May_21_2010/303729/]</ref>
*[[David Nalin]] (born 1941), American physiologist. Nalin had the key insight that [[Oral rehydration therapy]] (ORT) would work if the volume of solution patients drank matched the volume of their fluid losses, and that this would drastically reduce or completely replace the only current treatment for cholera, intravenous therapy. Nalin's discoveries have been estimated to have saved over 50 million lives worldwide.<ref>{{cite book|title=Scientists Greater Than Einstein: The Biggest Lifesavers of the Twentieth Century|year=2009|publisher=Quill Driver Books|isbn=978-1-884956-87-4|coauthors=Billy Woodward, Joel Shurkin, Debra Gordon|accessdate=11 May 2012|page=138|quote=Through the years, David Nalin collected art wherever he went. Although he does not consider himself religious or spiritual, he was attracted to personal items of worship more than grandiose objects.}}</ref>
*[[Fridtjof Nansen]] (1861–1930), Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and [[Nobel Peace Prize]] laureate. In 1922, he was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of the First [[World War]] and related conflicts.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Nansen | first = Fridtjof | title = Min tro | url = http://www.amscan.org/SR%20Spring%2005%20p01-53_SR%20Spring%2005%20p01-57.pdf | journal = Nansens røst, andre bind | year = 1929 | page = 1 | accessdate =1942 }}</ref>
*[[Erwin Neher]] (1944-), [[Germany|German]] [[biophysics|biophysicist]]. Along with [[Bert Sakmann]], he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1991.<ref>{{cite web|title=Erwin Neher|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/838/000133439/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Ronald George Wreyford Norrish]] (1897–1978), [[United Kingdom|British]] [[chemist]]. As a result of the development of flash photolysis, he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1967 along with [[Manfred Eigen]] and [[George Porter]] for their study of extremely fast chemical reactions.<ref>{{cite book|title=The who's who of Nobel Prize winners, 1901-1995|year=1996|publisher=Oryx Press|isbn=9780897748995|edition=3|coauthors=Bernard S. Schlessinger, June H. Schlessinger|accessdate=24 September 2012|page=28|quote=Nationality: British. Religion: Agnostic; from Methodist background.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Trends in Electrochemistry and Corrosion at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Dedicated to Professor Dr. Josep M. Costa on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday|year=2004|publisher=Edicions Universitat Barcelona|isbn=9788447526390|author=Enric Brillas Coso|editor=Enric Brillas, Pere-Lluis Cabot|accessdate=24 September 2012|page=1216|quote=They were “not the same”, because they were different in their personalities and their approaches to scientific research. Eyring was a deeply religious man, while Norrish had no religious beliefs.}}</ref>
*[[Robert Noyce]] (1927–1990), American physicist, businessman, and inventor. He co-founded [[Fairchild Semiconductor]] in 1957 and [[Intel Corporation]] in 1968. He is also credited (along with [[Jack Kilby]]) with the invention of the [[integrated circuit]] or microchip which fueled the personal computer revolution.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Man Behind The Microchip: Robert Noyce And The Invention Of Silicon Valley|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195163438|author=Leslie Berlin|accessdate=22 May 2012|page=235|quote=The minister, who had hidden himself in a closet, stepped forward to marry the couple in a ceremony from which Bowers had excised every reference to God. "Bob agreed to that. Neither of us could decide about God," Bowers says. "I remember Bob saying, 'Some people who believe in God are good, and some people who believe in God are not good. So where does that leave you? He had [also] looked around and decided that religion is responsible for a lot of trouble in the world." Noyce, always pushing against the limits of accepted knowledge, told Bowers that what bothered him most about organized religions was that "people don't think in churches."}}</ref>
*[[Sherwin B. Nuland]] (born 1930), American surgeon and author of How We Die.<ref name="SherwinNuland">{{cite web | last = Morris | first = Edward | title = Finding the father inside | publisher = [[BookPage]] |date=January 2003| url = http://www.bookpage.com/0301bp/sherwin_nuland.html | accessdate =11 June 2007}}</ref>
*[[Paul Nurse]] (born 1949), 2001 [[Nobel Laureate]] in [[Physiology]] or [[Medicine]], called himself an atheist, but specified that "sceptical agnostic" was a more "philosophically correct" term.<ref>"I gradually slipped away from religion over several years and became an atheist or to be more philosophically correct, a sceptical agnostic." [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2001/nurse-autobio.html Nurse's autobiography at Nobelprize.org]</ref>
*[[Bill Nye]] (born 1955), American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, mechanical engineer and scientist. Popularly known as "Bill Nye the Science Guy".<ref>
Steve Wartenberg: ""So, do you believe in God?" I asked".
""You really can't know," answered Bill Nye the Controversial Guy." Steve Wartenberg, [http://articles.mcall.com/2006-04-06/news/3676075_1_bill-nyes-science-guy-intelligent-design The Morning Call], 6 April 2006.</ref>
*[[George Olah]] (born 1927), 1994 [[Nobel Laureate]] in [[Chemistry]], discoverer of [[superacids]],<ref>"Today, I consider myself, in Thomas Huxley's terms, an agnostic. I don’t know whether there is a God or creator, or whatever we may call a higher intelligence or being. I don’t know whether there is an ultimate reason for our being or whether there is anything beyond material phenomena. I may doubt these things as a scientist, as we cannot prove them scientifically, but at the same time we also cannot falsify (disprove) them. For the same reasons, I cannot deny God with certainty, which would make me an atheist. This is a conclusion reached by many scientists." George Olah, A Life of Magic Chemistry</ref>
*[[Mark Oliphant]] (1901–2000): Australian physicist and humanitarian. He played a fundamental role in the first experimental demonstration of [[nuclear fusion]] and also the development of the [[atomic bomb]].<ref>"It was nice to be honoured but I like ‘Mark’ not ‘Sir Mark’. When one’s young, one’s brash and all-knowing; when one’s old, one realises how little one knows. You asked me earlier if I believed in God and the hereafter. I would tend to say no but when one dies one could well be surprised." Mark Oliphant from an interview in 1996., [http://www.mickjoffe.com/Sir_Mark_Oliphant Sir Mark Oliphant - Reluctant Builder of the Atom Bomb].</ref>
*[[Karl Pearson]] (1857–1936): English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the discipline of [[mathematical statistics]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Outlook, Volume 101|year=1912|publisher=Outlook Co.|coauthors=Ernest Hamlin Abbott, Lyman Abbott, Francis Rufus Bellamy, Hamilton Wright Mabie|accessdate=17 June 2012|page=650|quote=Among the conflicting voices of present-day biologists there are those who, with Karl Pearson, an agnostic, affirm that physics and chemistry "can only describe, but cannot explain."}}</ref>
*[[Saul Perlmutter]] (born 1959), American astrophysicist. He shared both the 2006 [[Shaw Prize]] in Astronomy and the 2011 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] with [[Brian P. Schmidt]] and [[Adam Riess]] for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.<ref name="http">{{cite web|title=Another 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch annotation_id=annotation_125833&feature=iv&src_vid=s47ArcQL-XQ&v=6Gt4WSK_NlQ|accessdate=11 May 2012|author=JPararajasingham}}</ref>
* [[Henri Poincaré]] (1854–1912): French [[mathematician]], [[theoretical physicist]], engineer, and a [[philosophy of science|philosopher of science]]. He is often described as a [[polymath]], and in mathematics as ''The Last Universalist'', since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime.<ref>{{cite book|title=Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory|year=1979|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|isbn=9780486637730|page=170|author=Wolfgang Yourgrau|edition=3|accessdate=15 July 2013|quote=Poincare's general agnostic outlook culminated in his profound criticism for which the notion of simplicity had been made the occasion.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare|year=2012|publisher=Random House LLC|isbn=9780307824066|author=Henri Poincare|chapter=VII|quote=This hypothesis is indeed crude and incomplete, because this supreme intelligence would be only a demigod; infinite in one sense, it would be limited in another, since it would have only an imperfect recollection of the past; and it could have no other, since otherwise all recollections would be equally present to it and for it there would be no time. And yet when we speak of time, for all which happens outside of us, do we not unconsciously adopt this hypothesis;  do we not put ourselves in the place of this imperfect God; and do not even the atheists put themselves in the place where God would be if he existed? What I have just said shows us, perhaps, why we have tried to put all physical phenomena into the same frame. But that can not pass for a definition of simultaneity, since this hypothetical intelligence, even if it existed, would be for us  impenetrable. It is therefore necessary to seek something else.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Poincaré|first=Henri|title=Dernières Pensées|url=http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/philo/textesph/Dernierespensees.pdf|accessdate=10 April 2012|page=138|date=January 1, 1913|quote=Les dogmes des religions révélées ne sont pas les seuls à craindre. L'empreinte que le catholicisme a imprimée sur l'âme occidentale a été si profonde que bien des esprits à peine affranchis ont eu la nostalgie de la servitude et se sont efforcés de reconstituer des Eglises ; c'est ainsi que certaines écoles positivistes ne sont qu'un catholicisme sans Dieu. Auguste Comte lui- même rêvait de discipliner les âmes et certains de ses disciples, exagérant la pensée du maître, deviendraient bien vite des ennemis de la science s'ils étaient les plus forts.}}</ref>
* [[Siméon Denis Poisson]] (1781–1840), French mathematician, geometer, and physicist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Classical Probability in the Enlightenment|year=1995|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691006444|author=Lorraine Daston|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=381|quote=Poisson's understanding of causes, both natural and moral, was totally agnostic.}}</ref><ref>
"Now Ibn al-Haytham was a devout Muslim – that is, he was a supernaturalist. He studied science because he considered that by doing this he could better understand the nature of the god that he believed in – he thought that a supernatural agent had created the laws of nature. The same is true of virtually all the leading scientists in the Western world, such as Galileo and Newton, who lived after al-Haytham, until about the middle of the twentieth century. There were a few exceptions – Pierre Laplace, Siméon Poisson, Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac and Marie Curie were naturalists for example." John Ellis, ''How Science Works: Evolution: A Student Primer'', page 13.</ref>
*[[George Pólya]] (1888–1985), [[Hungarian Jew]]ish [[mathematician]].  He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at [[ETH Zürich]] and from 1940 to 1953 at [[Stanford University]].  He made fundamental contributions to [[combinatorics]], [[number theory]], [[numerical analysis]] and [[probability theory]]. He is also noted for his work in [[heuristics]] and mathematics education.<ref>{{cite book|title=George Pólya: master of discovery 1887-1985|year=1993|publisher=Dale Seymour Publications|isbn=9780866516112|coauthors=Harold D. Taylor, Loretta Taylor|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=50|quote=Plancherel was a military man, a colonel in the Swiss army, and a devout Catholic; Polya did not like military ceremonies or activities, and he was an agnostic who objected to hierarchical religions.}}</ref>
*[[Carolyn Porco]] (born 1953), American planetary scientist. She is best known for her work in the exploration of the outer [[solar system]], beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager missions to [[Jupiter]], [[Saturn]], [[Uranus]] and [[Neptune]] in the 1980s.<ref name="http"/>
*[[Vladimir Prelog]] (1906–1998), Croatian organic chemist. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1975.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vladimir Prelog|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/614/000100314/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Vilayanur S. Ramachandran]] (born 1951), Indian-American neuroscientist. Best known for his work in the fields of [[behavioral neurology]] and visual [[psychophysics]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Vilayanur S. Ramachandran interview|url=http://www.celebatheists.com/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran|publisher=BBC Radio 4|accessdate=12 May 2012|quote=Like most scientists I'm agnostic. If you're talking about God in some very abstract sense, like in India the Dance of Shiva or in the Spinoza sense of the word God, then I'll say I have no problem with it. But if you're talking about an old guy there who's watching me and making sure I behave myself and that I pray to him every day and that I will be punished in Hell if I do something wrong, I don't believe in that. And I don't want to offend anybody here, but that's my personal view.}}</ref>
*[[C. V. Raman]] (1888–1970), Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in India. He was the recipient of the [[Nobel Prize for Physics]] in 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called [[Raman scattering]] and is the result of the [[Raman effect]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Modern review, Volume 145|year=1981|publisher=Prabasi Press Private, Ltd.|editor=Ramananda Chatterjee|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=154|quote=CV Raman recehed the Nobel prize for physics in 1930 — and Lc was the first Asian scientist to get a Nobel award. Raman, bom in an orthodox South Indian Brahmin .family, was in agnostic.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=C.V. Raman: A Biography|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=9780143066897|author=Uma Parameswaran|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=5|quote=His readings in Herbert Spencer's philosophy and his leanings towards agnosticism (he avidly read R.G. Ingersoll—the American political leader, and Charles Bradlaugh—the English founder of the National Secular Society) and mainly his lack of money to repeat the courses, led him back to the village.}}</ref>
*[[John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh]] (1842–1919): [[England|English]] [[physicist]] who, with [[William Ramsay]], discovered the element [[argon]], an achievement for which he earned the [[Nobel Prize for Physics]] in 1904. He also discovered the phenomenon now called [[Rayleigh scattering]], explaining why the sky is blue, and predicted the existence of the [[surface wave]]s now known as [[Rayleigh waves]]. Rayleigh's textbook,'' The Theory of Sound'', is still referred to by acoustic engineers today.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson|publisher=University of Chicago Press|author=1984|coauthors=Dorothy Michelson Livingston, One Pass Productions, Cinema Guild|accessdate=16 September 2012|page=106|quote=Rayleigh was more tolerant. An Anglican with agnostic tendencies, he avoided direct questions as to his religious beliefs but when pressed would admit that he thought of Christ as a gifted man who could see further and truer than he. But he liked the idea of a power beyond what men see and an afterlife in which they may hope to take part.}}</ref>
*[[Grote Reber]] (1911–2002), American [[amateur astronomer]] and pioneer of [[radio astronomy]]. He was instrumental in investigating and extending [[Karl Jansky]]'s pioneering work, and conducted the first [[sky survey]] in the radio frequencies. His 1937 radio antenna was the second ever to be used for astronomical purposes and the first parabolic reflecting antenna to be used as a "[[radio telescope]]".<ref>"I submit that Hubble was looking for this principle of tired light. A hundred years from now, people will look back on the Big Bang Creationists and their antics with laughter much as we laugh at those who argued over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin!" Grote Reber,[http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles_2011/BigBang_Bunk.pdf The Big Bang is Bunk], page 49.</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on NNDB.com. [http://www.nndb.com/people/090/000172571/ Grote Reber], ''NNDB.com''</ref>
*[[Robert Coleman Richardson]] (born 1937), American experimental physicist. He, along with [[David Lee (physicist)|David Lee]], as senior researchers, and then graduate student [[Douglas Osheroff]], shared the 1996 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for their 1972 discovery of the property of [[superfluid]]ity in helium-3 atoms in the [[Cornell University]] Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics.<ref name="youtube.com"/>
*[[Charles Richet]] (1850–1935), French physiologist. He won the 1913 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for his work on [[anaphylaxis]].<ref>"Eugenie Richet was a highly religious woman; Charles made his first communion with real devotion and fleetingly promised to enter the priesthood, but he abandoned his childhood faith during his adolescence. As an adult, he became an agnostic, a freethinker and a Freemason, who was nonetheless fairly tolerant of his wife Amelie's continued faith." Mark S. Micale, ''The mind of modernism: medicine, psychology, and the cultural arts in Europe and America, 1880-1940'' (2004), page 220.</ref>
*[[Isaac Roberts]] (1829–1904), Welsh engineer and business man best known for his work as an [[amateur astronomer]], pioneering the field of [[astrophotography]] of [[nebulae]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers: A-L|year=2007|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780387310220|editor=Thomas A. Hockey|accessdate=11 June 2012|page=978|quote=Toward the end of his life he became an agnostic, expressing the view that revealed religion had no place in the Universe that he had explored.}}</ref>
*[[Richard J. Roberts]] (1943–), British [[biochemist]] and [[molecular biology|molecular biologist]]. He was awarded the 1993 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] with [[Phillip Allen Sharp]] for the discovery of [[intron]]s in [[eukaryote|eukaryotic]] [[DNA]] and the mechanism of gene-splicing.<ref>{{cite web|title=Richard J. Roberts|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/088/000133686/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Józef Rotblat]] (1908–2005), Polish-British physicist. Along with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.<ref>
Rotblat: "I have to admit, however, that there are really many things that I do not know. I am not a particularly religious person, and this is the reason for my agnosticism. To be an agnostic simply means that I do not know and will keep seeking the answer for eternity. This is my response to questions about religion." Joseph Rotblat, Daisaku Ikeda, ''A quest for global peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on war, ethics, and the nuclear threat'', Page 94.</ref>
*[[Carl Sagan]] (1934–1996), astronomer and skeptic.<ref>"Famed scientist Carl Sagan was also a renowned sceptic and agnostic who during his life refused to believe in anything unless there was physical evidence to support it." "Unbeliever's Quest" by Jerry Adler, in ''Newsweek'', 31 March 1997. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19241503.html Excerpt] hosted at HighBeam Research accessed 2 November 2007.</ref>
*[[Frederick Sanger]] (1918–2013), English [[biochemist]] and a two-time [[Nobel Laureate]] in [[Chemistry]].<ref name=hargittai>{{citation | last=Hargittai | first=István | title=Interview: Frederick Sanger | journal=The Chemical Intelligencer | volume=4 | issue=2 | pages=6–11 | publisher=Springer-Verlag | place=New York | date=April 1999 }}. This interview, which took place on 16 September 1997, was republished in: {{citation | last=Hargittai | first=István | year=2002 | title=Candid science II: conversations with famous biomedical scientists | chapter=Chapter 5: Frederick Sanger | publisher=Imperial College Press | place=London | isbn=1-86094-288-1 | pages=73–83}}</ref>
*[[Peter Schuster]] (born 1941), Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the [[University of Vienna]].<ref name="Peter Schuster">{{cite web |first=Peter |last=Schuster |title= Interview with Peter Schuster  |url=http://ncronline.org/mainpage/specialdocuments/intervieww-peterschuster.htm |work=National Catholic Reporter |accessdate=25 April 2008 |quote=... I was a Catholic, but I no longer consider myself one. I suppose I am agnostic. Let's put it his way -- I have difficulties with the idea of a personal God. I don’t have trouble with God as creator of the world as a whole. |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080405205910/http://www.ncronline.org/mainpage/specialdocuments/intervieww-peterschuster.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = 5 April 2008}}</ref>
*[[Nicholas Saunderson]] (1682–1739), English scientist and mathematician.<ref>{{cite book|title=Undaunted By Blindness, 2nd Edition|year=2011|publisher=eBookIt.com|isbn=9780982272190|author=Clifford E. Olstrom|accessdate=1 July 2012|quote=Saunderson, brutally frank in conversations and arguments, didn't miss many opportunities to make his opinion known. He could be profane and was an outspoken agnostic, causing much concern among his friends.}}</ref>
*[[Harlow Shapley]] (1885–1972), American astronomer. Best known for determining the correct position of the [[Sun]] within the [[Milky Way galaxy]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kragh|first=Helge|title=Matter and spirit in the Universe: scientific and religious preludes to modern cosmology|year=2004|publisher=OECD Publishing|isbn=978-1-86094-469-7|page=237|quote=Shapley was not committed to any particular model of the expanding universe, but he did have strong opinions about the relationship between astronomy and religion. A confirmed agnostic, in the postwar period he often participated in science-religion discussions, and in 1960 he edited a major work on the subject — ''Science Ponders Religion''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Revolutionaries of the Cosmos: The Astro-physicists|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198570998|pages=265–266|author=I.S. Glass|accessdate=30 April 2013|chapter=Harlow Shapley: Defining our galaxy|quote=Although a declared agnostic, Shapley was deeply interested in religion and was a genuinely 'religious' person from a philosophical point of view. 'I never go to church', he told Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, 'I am too religious.}}</ref>
*[[Charles Scott Sherrington]] (1857–1952), English neurophysiologist, histologist, bacteriologist, and pathologist. He, along with [[Edgar Adrian]], won the 1932 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].<ref>"Pavlov also sharply criticised Sherrington's agnosticism. "I am all the more surprised," Pavlov went on to say, "that for some reason or other he regards knowledge of this soul as something pernicious and clearly expresses this point of view; according to him..." George Windholz, ''Psychopathology and psychiatry'' (1994), page 419.</ref>
*[[George Gaylord Simpson]] (1902–1984), American [[paleontologist]]. He is considered to be one of the most influential paleontologist of the 20th century, and a major participant in the [[modern evolutionary synthesis]].<ref>"By his early teens, Simpson had given up being a Christian, although he had not formally declared himself an atheist. At college he began the gradual development of what might best be called positivistic agnosticism: a belief that the world could be known and explained by ordinary empirical observation without recourse to supernatural forces. Ultimate causation, he considered unknowable." Léo F. Laporte, ''Simple curiosity; letters from George Gaylord Simpson to his family, 1921-1970'' (1987), page 16.</ref>
*[[Jens C. Skou]] (1918–), Danish chemist. In 1997 he received the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (together with [[Paul D. Boyer]] and [[John E. Walker]]) for his discovery of [[Na+/K+-ATPase|Na<sup>+</sup>,K<sup>+</sup>-ATPase]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Jens C. Skou|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/828/000100528/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[Homer Smith]] (1895–1962), American physiologist. His research work focused on the kidney and he discovered [[inulin]] at the same time as [[A.N. Richards]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Reflections and reminiscences of an academic physician|year=1993|publisher=Lea & Febiger|isbn=978-0-8121-1666-3|author=Sol Sherry|accessdate=13 April 2012|page=79|quote=Another story deals with Homer Smith. As I noted previously, besides being the foremost renal physiologist of his time he was a devout agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[William Smith (geologist)]] (1769–1839), English [[geologist]], credited with creating the first nationwide [[geological map]]. He is known as the "Father of English Geology" for collating the geological history of England and Wales into a single record, although recognition was very slow in coming.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God|year=2011|publisher=Ulysses Press|isbn=9781569758465|author=Dan Barker|accessdate=15 June 2012|page=184|quote=Biographer Simon Winchester, reporting that Smith's “agnosticism was well-known,” writes that “For the first time the earth had a provable history, a written record that paid no heed or obeisance to religious teaching and dogma, that declared its independence from the kind of faith that is no more than the blind acceptance of absurdity. A science...had now at last broken free from the age-old constraints of doctrine and canonical instruction.}}</ref>
*[[George Smoot]] (1945–), [[United States|American]] [[astrophysics|astrophysicist]], [[cosmology|cosmologist]], Nobel laureate, and $1 million TV quiz show prize winner (''[[Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (U.S. game show)|Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?]]''). He won the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 2006 for his work on the [[Cosmic Background Explorer]] with [[John C. Mather]] that led to the measurement "of the [[black body]] form and [[anisotropy]] of the [[cosmic microwave background radiation]]."<ref>{{cite book|title=Y-Origins|year=2006|publisher=World Wide Publications|isbn=9780971742222|author=Wesscott Marketing|accessdate=6 August 2012|page=96|quote=...Astrophysicist George Smoot (an agnostic) said, "If you're religious, it's like looking at God."}}</ref>
*[[Charles Proteus Steinmetz]] (1865–1923): German-American mathematician and electrical engineer.<ref>{{cite book|title=Charles Proteus Steinmetz: a biography|year=1924|publisher=The Century & Co.|author=John Winthrop Hammond|accessdate=15 May 2012|page=447|quote=This has placed him before the public as an atheist.* The title he did not deny. The writer, however, would put him down as a confirmed agnostic, for an atheist is a person who knows there is no God, and Steinmetz was not of that...}}</ref>
*[[Piero Sraffa]] (1898–1983): influential Italian economist whose book ''Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities'' is taken as founding the Neo-Ricardian school of Economics.<ref>{{cite web|title=Piero Sraffa|url=http://digamo.free.fr/sraffaronca.pdf|accessdate=24 July 2012|author=Alessandro Roncaglia|pages=22–23|quote=Sraffa liked walks and bike rides. In Cambridge, he always moved  around by bike. He used to get up late in the morning and work late into the night. In Trinity as well as when associated with King’s, he regularly dined in the college. As I noticed when he invited me to  dinner  at Trinity, he took care to arrive after supper was served, so as to skip the  benedicite prayer (he was agnostic, with a leaning for atheism).}}</ref>
* [[Albert Szent-Györgyi]] (1893–1986), [[Hungary|Hungarian]] [[physiologist]] who won the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1937. He is credited with discovering [[vitamin C]] and the components and reactions of the [[citric acid cycle]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Albert Szent-Györgyi|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/553/000128169/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Leo Szilard]] (1898–1964), Austro-Hungarian physicist and inventor.<ref>
"Both Enrico and Leo were agnostics." Nina Byers, [http://arxiv.org/html/physics/0207094 Fermi and Szilard].</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Genius in the shadows: a biography of Leo Szilard : the man behind the bomb|year=1992|publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|isbn=9780684190112|coauthors=William Lanouette, Bela A. Silard|accessdate=15 June 2012|page=167|quote=He is what he seems to be: an idealist devoted to the task. As his consciousness, however, is materialistic, leaning to experimenting, and agnostic, he fails to understand himself, same as the world...}}</ref>
* [[Igor Tamm]] (1895–1971), [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[physicist]] who received the 1958 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]], jointly with [[Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov]] and [[Ilya Frank]], for their 1934 discovery of [[Cherenkov radiation]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Igor Y. Tamm|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/846/000099549/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Edward Teller]] (1908–2003), [[Hungarian American|Hungarian-American]] [[theoretical physics|theoretical]] [[physicist]], known colloquially as "the father of the [[hydrogen bomb]]". Teller made numerous contributions to [[nuclear physics|nuclear]] and [[molecular physics]], [[spectroscopy]] (the [[Jahn–Teller effect|Jahn–Teller]] and [[Renner–Teller effect|Renner–Teller]] effects), and [[surface]] physics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey In Science And Politics|year=2002|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=978-0-7382-0778-0|author=Edward Teller|accessdate=19 April 2012|page=32|quote=Religion was not an issue in my family; indeed, it was never discussed. My only religious training came because the Minta required that all students take classes in their respective religions. My family celebrated one holiday, the Day of Atonement, when we all fasted. Yet my father said prayers for his parents on Saturdays and on all the Jewish holidays. The idea of God that I absorbed was that it would be wonderful if He existed: We needed Him desperately but had not seen Him in many thousands of years.}}</ref>
* [[Thorvald N. Thiele]] (1838–1910), Danish astronomer, actuary and mathematician, most notable for his work in statistics, interpolation and the three-body problem. He was the first to propose a mathematical theory of [[Brownian motion]]. Thiele introduced the cumulants and (in Danish) the likelihood function; these contributions were not credited to Thiele by [[Ronald A. Fisher]], who nevertheless named Thiele to his (short) list of the greatest statisticians of all time on the strength of Thiele's other contributions.<ref>{{cite book|title=Collected Mathematical Works: Dirichlet series. The Riemann Zeta-function|year=1952|publisher=Dansk Matematisk Forening|author=Harald August Bohr|accessdate=10 July 2012|page=xiv|quote=Professor Thiele, who made a deep impression on us all, was a scholar devoted equally to astronomy and mathematics. His lectures affected us strongly by their fervour and by an atmosphere of mysticism which permeated them — which was unusual for a man of such pronounced agnostic views.}}</ref>
* [[E. Donnall Thomas]] (1920–2012), American [[physician]], professor emeritus at the [[University of Washington]], and director emeritus of the clinical research division at the [[Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center]].  In 1990 he shared the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] with [[Joseph Murray|Joseph E. Murray]] for the development of cell and [[organ transplant]]ation. Thomas developed [[bone marrow]] [[stem cell transplantation|transplantation]] as a treatment for [[leukemia]].<ref>{{cite web|title=E. Donnall Thomas|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/364/000132965/|publisher=NNDB.com|accessdate=18 July 2012}}</ref>
*[[John Tyndall]] (1820–1893), Prominent 19th century experimental physicist. Known for producing a number of discoveries about processes in the atmosphere.<ref>"Though research activities dominated his working days, Faraday never neglected to meet with his Christian friends for worship and prayer. We quote again from John Tyndall who, it should be said, was an agnostic:
"I think that a good deal of Faraday's week-day strength and persistency might be referred to his Sunday Exercises. He drinks from a fount on Sunday which refreshes his soul for a week."" The Biblical Creation Society, [http://www.biblicalcreation.org.uk/educational_issues/bcs010.html Michael Faraday pioneer scientist - Christian Man of Science], 2002.</ref><ref>"The odd subtext of that offer was that Faraday was intensely religious, and Tyndall was as fascinated with Faraday's convictions as he was with prayer, miracles, and cosmology. Faraday "drinks from a fount on Sunday which refreshes his soul for a week," said the agnostic Tyndall with obvious fascination -- and, perhaps, a trace of envy." John H. Lienhard, [http://uh.edu/engines/engines_of_our_ingenuity-display_episode.php?episode_number=1067 Science, Religion, and John Tyndall], ''The Engines of our Ingenuity''.</ref>
*[[Neil deGrasse Tyson]] (born 1958), American astrophysicist, science communicator, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the [[Hayden Planetarium]] at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and a Research Associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.<ref>{{Cite podcast | url = http://www.pointofinquiry.org/neil_degrasse_tyson_communicating_science/ | title = Neil deGrasse Tyson – Communicating Science | website = Point of Inquiry | publisher = Center for Inquiry | host = Chris Mooney | date = 28 February 2011 | accessdate =3 March 2011}}</ref>
*[[Stanislaw Ulam]] (1909–1984), Polish-Jewish mathematician. He participated in America's [[Manhattan Project]], originated the [[Teller–Ulam design]] of thermonuclear weapons, invented the Monte Carlo method of computation, and suggested [[nuclear pulse propulsion]].<ref>
""I'm an agnostic. Sometimes I muse deeply on the forces that are for me invisible. When I am almost close to the idea of God, I feel immediately estranged by the horrors of this world, which he seems to tolerate..." Later Ulam expressed his opinions about matters that have very little in common with science." Polska Agencja Międzyprasowa, ''Poland: Issue 9'' (1976).</ref><ref name='OLGIERD'>{{cite book | last1 = Budrewicz/ | first1 = Olgierd | title = The melting-pot revisited: twenty well-known Americans of Polish background | publisher = Interpress | year = 1977 | pages = 36 | url = http://books.google.com/books?ei=jntPUNaTMafZ0QHMloGQBQ&id=pc51AAAAMAAJ&dq=Olgierd+Budrewicz%7C&q=Sometimes+I+muse#search_anchor | accessdate = 2012-09-11}}</ref>
*[[Martinus J. G. Veltman]] (born 1931), Dutch theoretical physicist. He shared the 1999 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] with his former student [[Gerardus 't Hooft]] for their work on particle theory.<ref name="youtube.com"/>
*[[Rudolf Virchow]] (1821–1902), German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician. Referred to as "the father of modern pathology," he is considered one of the founders of [[social medicine]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The scientific 100: a rankings of the most influential scientists, past and present|year=1996|publisher=Carol Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8065-1749-0|author=John Simmons|page=90|quote=For his abrasive antiroyalist as well as agnostic views, Virchow was made to suffer in the subsequent period of political reaction; his meager salary was cut off and he was effectively dismissed from Charite.}}</ref><ref>"Virchow had no use for teleology in pathology: "The teleo-logical purists were always forced to go back to original sin,* without finding this way much recognition." We found Virchow to be an agnostic as early as 1845." Erwin Heinz Ackerknecht, ''Rudolf Virchow: doctor, statesman, anthropologist'' (1953), page 51.</ref>
*[[John von Neumann]] (1903–1957), Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including [[set theory]], [[functional analysis]], [[quantum mechanics]], [[ergodic theory]], [[geometry]], [[fluid dynamics]], [[economics]], [[linear programming]], [[game theory]], [[computer science]], [[numerical analysis]], [[hydrodynamics]], and [[statistics]], as well as many other mathematical fields. It is indicated that he was an "agnostic Catholic" due to his agreement with Pascal's Wager.<ref>{{cite book|title=Prisoner's Dilemma|year=1993|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=9780385415804|author=William Poundstone|accessdate=26 June 2012|quote=Of this deathbed conversion, Morgenstern told Heims, “He was of course completely agnostic all his life, and then he suddenly turned Catholic—it doesn't agree with anything whatsoever in his attitude, outlook and thinking when he was healthy.” The conversion did not give von Neumann much peace. Until the end he remained terrified of death, Strittmatter recalled.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=John Von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More|year=1992|publisher=American Mathematical Soc.|isbn=9780821826768|author=Norman MacRae|edition=2|accessdate=7 October 2012|page=379|quote=But Johnny had earlier said to his mother, "There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't." He also admitted jovially to Pascal's point: so long as there is the possibility of eternal damnation for nonbelievers it is more logical to be a believer at the end.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195166736|author=Abraham Pais|accessdate=23 September 2012|page=109|quote=He had been completely agnostic for as long as I had known him. As far as I could see this act did not agree with the attitudes and thoughts he had harbored for nearly all his life. On February 8, 1957, Johnny died in the Hospital, at age 53.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Key Ideas in Economics|year=2003|publisher=Nelson Thornes|isbn=9780748770816|coauthors=Robert Dransfield, Don Dransfield|accessdate=26 June 2012|page=124|quote=He was brought up in a Hungary in which anti-Semitism was commonplace, but the family were not overly religious, and for most of his adult years von Neumann held agnostic beliefs.}}</ref>
*[[Alfred Russel Wallace]] (1823–1913), British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of [[evolution]] due to [[natural selection]] that prompted [[Charles Darwin]] to publish his own theory.<ref>{{cite book|title=My Life. A record of events and opinions|publisher=Elibron.com|isbn=9781402184291|author=Alfred Russel Wallace|accessdate=9 June 2012|page=358|quote=I soon became intimate with him, and we were for some years joint investigators of spiritualistic phenomena. He was, like myself at that time, an agnostic, well educated, and of a more positive character than myself.}}</ref>
*[[André Weil]] (1906–1998), French mathematician. He is especially known for his foundational work in [[number theory]] and [[algebraic geometry]].<ref>"Andre Weil was an agnostic but respected religions." I. Grattan-Guinness, Bhuri Singh Yadav, ''History of the Mathematical Sciences'' (2004).</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=American national biography: Supplement, Volume 1|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195150636|coauthors=Paul Betz, Mark Christopher Carnes, American Council of Learned Societies|editor=Paul Betz, Mark Christopher Carnes|accessdate=9 July 2012|page=676|quote=Although as a lifelong agnostic he may have been somewhat bemused by Simone Weil's preoccupations with Christian mysticism, he remained a vigilant guardian of her memory,...}}</ref>
*[[Walter Frank Raphael Weldon]] (1860–1906), English evolutionary biologist and a founder of [[biometry]]. He was the joint founding editor of [[Biometrika]], with [[Francis Galton]] and [[Karl Pearson]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Walter Frank Raphael Weldon 1860-1906: A Memoir Reprinted from Biometrika|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107601222|author=Karl Pearson|accessdate=17 June 2012|page=5|quote=He was through the many years the present writer knew him, like his hero Huxley, a confirmed Agnostic.}}</ref>
*[[Norbert Wiener]] (1894–1964), American mathematician and child prodigy. He is regarded as the originator of [[cybernetics]].<ref>
"On June 2, 1964, Swami Sarvagatananda presided over the memorial service at MIT in remembrance of Norbert Wiener — scion of Maimonides, father of cybernetics, avowed agnostic — reciting in Sanskrit from the holy books of Hinduism, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita." Flo Conway, Jim Siegelman, ''Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search Of Norbert Wiener--Father of Cybernetics'' (2006), page 329.</ref>
*[[Eugene Wigner]] (1902–1995), [[Hungary|Hungarian]] [[United States|American]] [[theoretical physicist]] and [[mathematician]]. He received a share of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles"; the other half of the award was shared between [[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]] and [[J. Hans D. Jensen]]. Wigner is important for having laid the foundation for the theory of [[symmetry in physics|symmetries]] in [[quantum mechanics]] as well as for his research into the structure of the [[atomic nucleus]]. It was Eugene Wigner who first identified [[Xe-135]] "poisoning" in nuclear reactors, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as ''Wigner poisoning''. Wigner is also important for his work in pure mathematics, having authored a number of [[mathematical theorem|theorem]]s.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner As Told to Andrew Szanton|year=1992|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=9780306443268|coauthors=Eugene Paul Wigner, Andrew Szanton|editor=Andrew Szanton|accessdate=24 September 2012|page=60|quote=Neither did I want to be a clergyman. I liked a good sermon. But religion tells people how to behave and that I could never do. Clergymen also had to assume and advocate the presence of God, and proofs of God's existence seemed to me quite unsatisfactory. People claimed that He had made our earth. Well, how had He made it? With an earth-making machine?}}</ref>
*[[Frank Wilczek]] (born 1951), American theoretical physicist. Along with David J. Gross and Hugh David Politzer, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004.<ref>
"Although Wilczek grew up in the Roman Catholic faith, he now considers himself agnostic. He still has a fondness for the Church, so this book should not offend Christians. In fact Wilczek cites Father James Malley for a Jesuit Credo that states: "It is more blessed to ask forgiveness than permission.""  Jim Walker, ''nobeliefs.com''. [http://www.nobeliefs.com/Wilczek.htm]</ref>
* [[Steve Wozniak]] (born 1950), Co-founder of [[Apple Computer]] and inventor of the Apple I and Apple II.<ref name="Steve Wozniak">{{cite web |first=Steven |last=Wozniak |title= Letters-General Questions Answered |url=http://www.woz.org/letters/general/72.html |work=woz.org |accessdate=26 September 2007 |quote=... I am also atheist or agnostic (I don't even know the difference). I've never been to church and prefer to think for myself. I do believe that religions stand for good things, and that if you make irrational sacrifices for a religion, then everyone can tell that your religion is important to you and can trust that your most important inner faiths are strong.}}</ref>
* [[Chen Ning Yang]] (born 1922), Chinese-born American physicist who works on [[statistical mechanics]] and [[particle physics]]. He and [[Tsung-dao Lee]] received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on parity nonconservation of weak interaction.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Outline of Parapsychology|year=2009|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780761849452|page=322|author=Jesse Hong Xiong|accessdate=5 May 2013|chapter=Seven|quote=When a reporter asked him: “Do you believe there is a Creator who creates all in the universe?" Professor Chen Ning Yang (1922- ), a Chinese Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1957, answered: “I think it is hard for me to directly say 'yes' or 'no'. I can only say that when we more and more understand the wonderful structures in the nature, no matter whether we directly or indirectly ask the question, there does exist the question you ask: is there someone or God who takes charge of all? I think it is a question that will never be finally answered. (The reporter asked: 'Is it because what man knows is too limited?') On one hand, yes; on the other hand, we can have a feeling that the universe will not be created so wonderful without an ultimate goal.” Professor Yang held agnosticism here. And many outstanding scientists are clear-cut theists.}}</ref>
* [[Hubert Yockey]] (born 1916), American physicist and information theorist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life|year=2005|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226739366|coauthors=Eric D. Schneider, Dorion Sagan|accessdate=24 September 2012|page=22|quote=Physicist Hubert Yockey (1992, 1995) disparages thermodynamics, arguing that life is too improbable to have evolved. Yockey, who worked under Robert Oppenheimer on the bomb, claims to be agnostic. Although critical of creationists,  he argues that the primeval soup taught in textbooks is not plausible.}}</ref>
* [[Hans Zinsser]] (1878–1940), American [[bacteriologist]] and a prolific author. He is known for his work in isolating the [[typhus]] bacterium and developing a protective vaccine.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zinsser|first=Hans|title=Rats, Lice, and History|year=2007|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-0672-5|coauthor=Gerald N. Grob|page=xxvii|quote="...I, for one, must be content to remain an agnostic." Zinsser was gratified that death was coming with due warning rather than suddenness, and in his last months achieved a degree of philosophical tranquility and resignation.}}</ref><ref>Listed as an agnostic on ''NNDB.com''. [http://www.nndb.com/people/341/000166840/ Hans Zinsser], ''NNDB.com''.</ref>
 
===Celebrities and athletes===
* [[Kristy Hawkins]] (born 1980), Texas professional female bodybuilder and scientist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.okcupid.com/profile/Kmhawk|title=Kmhawk|accessdate=3/7/2013|publisher=OkCupid|date=}}</ref>
*[[Edmund Hillary]] (1919&ndash;2008), New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. He along with [[Tenzing Norgay]] became the first climbers confirmed as having reached the summit of [[Mount Everest]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Hillary, Edmund Percival|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/6h1/1|accessdate=14 May 2012|author=Shaun Barnett|quote=Hillary absorbed some of his father’s passion for social justice and Christian ideals, which he later tempered into an agnostic but compassionate and optimistic world-view.}}</ref>
*[[Pat Tillman]] (1976&ndash;2004), American professional football player and U.S. Army veteran.<ref>Krakauer, Jon ''Where Men Win Glory'', Doubleday, 2009, p 116, 314. "Tillman was an agnostic, perhaps even an atheist".  See also quotes from Tillman's brother Kevin.</ref>
*[[Rafael Nadal]] (born 1986), Spanish professional tennis player, winner of eleven [[Grand Slam (real tennis)|Grand Slam]] singles titles.<ref>http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1010377-rafael-nadals-agnosticism-refreshing-alternative-to-tim-tebows-psychosis</ref>
*[[Rob Van Dam]] (born 1970), American professional wrestler, winner of three separate major promotion world championships.
 
==See also==
* [[List of atheists]]
* [[List of humanists]]
* [[Lists of people by belief]]
 
==Notes==
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->
{{Reflist|30em}}
 
==External links==
*[http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Category:Agnostic Agnostics in The Celebrity Atheist List]
*[http://www.infidelguy.com/article75.html Famous Black Freethinkers]
*[http://www.visi.com/~markg/atheists.html Famous Dead Nontheists]
 
{{Belief systems}}
 
[[Category:Lists of religious skeptics|Agnostics]]
[[Category:Agnostics| ]]

Revision as of 03:24, 28 February 2014

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