Who's your favorite prominent atheist?

I really like Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist podcast. He’s smart, he’s funny, he pissed off Ken Ham. What’s not to like?

Physicist Professor Brian Cox. My favourite public intellectual. While was an undergraduate, Brian was a member of a group D:ream. He played keyboard.

Here he is very patient with Australian fuck knuckle Malcolm Roberts. At the time this troglodyte was a member of The Australian Senate. He was chucked out of the senate because he had neglected to cancel his British citizenship. (members of the Australian parliament may not hold dual citizenship)

From Top Of The Pops UK in 2011.There Brian is , tall thin and hairy on the keyboard.

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I admire those atheist who can debate Christians without sounding condescending. I have trouble doing that. When some numb nut believes in magic I don’t know how to seriously respond to that.

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Hadn’t thought of that.

On reflection, I find it very difficult not be condescending , especially with the low rent dickheads we get here. :innocent:

Matt Dillahaunty for his ability to use logic and reason while taking phone calls. He is shit when it comes to debate. It’s like he is in awe of the degrees or scholarship of those he goes up against and does not want to offend them. (Or he is attempting to look more educated and articulate himself instead of just being himself.) The result is that he lets them get away with shit that he would never let the average person get away with. He just does not call them on their bullshit. He is a very boring debater and will often miss countering arguments from the other side.

Hitchens, on the other hand, was a force to be contended with on the debate circuit, “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.” Talk about a man capable of calling people on their shit and not giving a damn who they were!!! Five stars to good ole Hitch! I miss him.

For historicity of the Bible, Carrier is tops. He is a polyglot and a scholar who has put a lot of work into researching the topics about which he speaks. I pick him over Bart Eherman but just barely. Since Bart has admitted to being Atheist, he has certainly gotten a whole lot more realistic and that is appreciated. When push comes to shove, if I fact check Bart against Carrier, I will go with the information Carrier provides. “And the argument about Paul visiting the actual brother of the Lord will continue for another generation.” (One of their major contentions.)

Rationality Rules is next on my list. Solid debunking of theistic philosophical arguments. Nice presentation style, clear, well spoken, easily understood.

Jim Jefferies - I love his rip on religion. Partying with Jesus is a “Must Watch.”

George Carlin: “God Needs Money” No one does it better than George."

Tim Minchin: And when you need a break from it all, and just want to kick back and hear some tunes, nothing beats “Fuck The Mother Fucking Pope, I Love Jesus,” or “Storm.”

(EDIT) Noted people that did not make the list"
Dawkins: He’s a biologist and in that realm he is quite interesting. When he begins addressing Biblical scholarship, atheism, Christian beliefs, or topics related to theology… well… lets just say he is not well researched and leave it at that.

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LOL ---- I find the very words… “I’m a Christian” condescending. As soon as they are uttered I want to tell the fuck tard to go fuck themselves. Think about it. Just think. Why in the fuck would anyone utter such nonsense. It’s like a used car salesman saying “Trust me!.”

“I’ll pray for you.”

Aw fuck! You stupid fucking piece of shit! You! Pray for me? How about you just give me a me a hundred thousand dollars instead? Why in the fuck don’t you spend your time doing something useful.

Condescending? Condescending? Fuck the asshole that can not keep their stupid religious shit to themselves. I’ll give you condescending.

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Yes, Hitchens is missed. He was in one of the first atheist debates I found on the internet. I thought him concise and easy to follow, and so quick on his feet I almost felt sorry for the people he debated. Almost.
I applaud your response to “I’ll pray for you”. I’m happy to say that the last person to keep telling me that has switched to telling me I’m lost. Apparently not lost enough, she still has been able to find me.

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Matt Dillahaunty for his ability to use logic and reason while taking phone calls. he is shit when it comes to debate. It’s like he is awe of the degrees or scholarship of those he goes up against and does not want to offend them. The result is that he lets them get away with shit that he would never let the average person get away with. He just does not call them on their bullshit. He is a very boring debater.

Hitchens, on the other hand, was a force to be contended with on the debate circuit, “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.” Talk about a man capable of calling people on their shit and not giving a damn who they were!!! Five stars to good ole Hitch! I miss him.

For historicity of the Bible, Carrier is tops. He is a polyglot and a scholar who has put a lot of work into researching the topics about which he speaks. I pick him over Bart Eherman but just barely. Since Bart has admitted to being Atheist, he has certainly gotten a whole lot more realistic and that is appreciated. When push comes to shove, if I fact check Bart against Carrier, I will go with the information Carrier provides. “And the argument about Paul visiting the actual brother of the Lord will continue for another generation.” (One of their major contentions.)

Rationality Rules is next on my list. Solid debunking of theistic philosophical arguments. Nice presentation style, clear, well spoken, easily understood.

Jim Jefferies - I love his rip on religion. Partying with Jesus is a “Must Watch.”

George Carlin: "God Needs Money

Yair. It’s up there with probably the same people who have a yellow and black sign in the back window of their SUV*** BABY ON BOARD I think automatically CRETIN BEHIND THE WHEEL

***These people absolutely musty have an SUV in case they wish to visit a drive through zoo. Besides, climate change is a hoax anyway.

During the recessional of my marriage we lived in a very toffy area. The road which our house faced backed on to a primary school. Mums would come to pick up their darlings. There were only 3 kinds of cars in evidence: Volvo station wagons, Large Mercedes and humongous SUV’s . Of course these entitled women double parked. I used to yell at them to no avail. After a child was hit by a Volvo in front of me, I phoned the local council and yelled at them. They sent a brown bomber and he booked the lot of 'em .–Summary offences which meant fines and demerits on their licences.

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I agree, his scathing wit was something to behold. When taking questions from the audience after a debate once, a woman asked a loaded question, you know the sort of nonsense we’ve seen asked on here, like “what evidence would you accept for a deity”, that type of thing. The Hitch said loudly “WELL, what a particularly stupid question, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

It was the polite caveat at the end that did it for me, I howled with laughter. As my namesake character once said in an episode of the Big Bang Theory, “there is such a thing as a stupid question, and those who ask them should be told so. Right to their stupid face.”

:grin:

The Hitch’s literary skill was even more impressive, and he could carry you along in an argument even if you broadly disagreed with his point. Though I rarely did disagree with him of course.

I’ve thought of another prominent atheist I like. Penn Jillette He just seems so good at it :slight_smile:. He’s mainly known as a magician but is quite the renaissance man. Back in the day he appeared on Trump’s show "The Apprentice ". He was competing against some vocal Christians and took a friends advice to counter it by being the nicest person in the room. Unfortunately, in my experience, not really that hard of a goal. Just another thing I dislike about christianity is that it teaches only christians can be decent human beings. I’ve actually had someone tell me, “You’re an atheist? I can’t believe it. You’re so nice.” Anyway, the contest for the winner on The Apprentice came down to Jillette and one other guy. Jillette was told that as part of the show he had to say he supported Trump for president. This was way before anyone thought Trump had a snow balls chance in hell of even winning a primary, but Jillette wouldn’t do it. He takes his politics seriously, and he was astute enough to know that many viewers actually thought The Apprentice depicted real life. It was all, of course, just a show and people weren’t even really competing for a job. He lost the competition because Trump had the last say, and afterwards Trump told him that he should have supported him for president. Trump then started tweeting how Jillette’s Las Vegas show was boring and assorted other insults. Jillette just laughed and said, “Do you really want a president who’ll go after a Carny?” Jillette also said, “How ever bad you think Trump is, he’s worse.” Anyone who’s against Trump is my kind of person. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and so on and so forth.

Just sound condescending.

You don’t owe them a fucking single thing. You don’t have to censor your personality or how you “sound” - especially to them…

Jesus fuckin’Christ - they are suppose to be full grown adults BUT they are fucking always wanting you to join them with their fucking imaginary friend!

I don’t think I censor myself much. I AM a nice person :slight_smile:. I’m of the “We are all in this together, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to be kind to each other” school of thought. Jillette is a nice person too, but he isn’t a push over, and I’m not either.

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I left off nice. I don’t think I was ever nice, actually. I was always told to “be nice”, “play nice”, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”…

I was somewhat,
Sorta
Acceptably nice (so I thought) when I was full out religious…

Now I’m just me. Not nice. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Congratulations if you’re willing to settle for that.

Pretty sure I’m not a nice person, although I guess it depends on how one defines nice. As a rule of thumb I think ‘nice’ is such a bland, colourless word. I far prefer people who are interesting and intelligent with a suitably dark sense of humour and wit.–and hopefully not an axe murderer. I also love spicy food.

. Nor do I describe myself as an especially good nor especially bad person. Both my virtues and my vices are pretty average. I guess I’m a median kind of person.

Ahhhhh, I’m not ALL nice. Describing yourself as a “median kind of person” sounds kind of bland too.

Well, me, obviously. Really guys? No-one voted for me? And after I sent everyone that fruit basket.

I like the YouTube channel by Holy Koolaid. He researches well and, for me, uses just the right amount of humour/mockery without overplaying it. His series on How the bible fails as History is excellent.

Hitch. Sam Harris. The late great Carl Sagan. Bertrand Russell.

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Cog! Goddamit!!!

Next time send mine to the secret address (I’ll message you)… Cog got to it first and, well, told me you sent me a basket with shit in it!

You can’t trust these damned atheists. Satan worshippers every one.

Satanic Chimp

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