2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt

by James A. Haugt

Society rarely acknowledges the many and varied gifts that disbelievers give to the world. This insightful, witty collection sets the record straight by profiling dozens of famous people who were skeptical of conventional religious beliefs. Included, among others, are Isaac Asimov, W.E.B. DuBois, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Omar Khayyam, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, John Stuart Mill, Ayn Rand, Gene Roddenberry, Margaret Sanger, George Bernard Shaw, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Voltaire, with many quotes that reveal their rejection of the supernatural.

Genres: Religion, Atheism, History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Biography

459 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 1996

Reviews

[Ronald Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short biographies and selected quotes of well-known individuals who have questioned the accepted religious beliefs of their times, this book provides a long-range perspective on the perpetual struggle between accepted metaphysical beliefs and individual rational thought. While most of the book is about freethinkers in the Christian world, the first chapter looks further back to great minds who questioned the theology of the Ancient Greeks and a Persian who questioned the teachings of Islam in the 12th century. From that time forward, the book's parts are organized by ages, reflecting the major stages in the development of philosophical, scientific, and political thought, and the evolving challenges to, and retaliation by, orthodox Christianity. The final articles focus on the argument over the role, if any, religion should play in the legislative process and government policy.

"Part Four: The American Rationalists" was especially interesting. When reading the quotes of the great thinkers of early American nationhood, I was struck with how history has censored their thoughts. They also made me think a lot about current demagogues like Glenn Beck, who bloviate these days on the Christian basis of the American Constitution and "God-given rights", while trying to foment anti-Islamic hysteria. Many of the founding fathers were atheists, agnostics, Deists, or Unitarians, whose disbelief and doubts regarding the teachings of the major Christian denominations were deliberately reflected in the Constitution and its early amendments. Some of them privately felt strongly anti-Catholic sentiments, but held the ideal of religious tolerance as more important and thus refrained from publicly voicing those sentiments - which should be a prime example today for those who dream of a Christian-Muslim conflict.

At times the quotes in this book would start to seem quite repetitive, but then an individual or set of quotes would introduce an unusually witty play on words or refreshing perspective to renew my interest. This book also provided some wonderful additions to my reading list - individuals whose names I had heard, but didn't know much about - especially great thinkers and writers of the last century, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, George Santayana, Bertrand Russell, H. L. Mencken, Will Durant, Walter Lippman, Langston Hughes, and Jean-Paul Sartre. I look forward to reading them all.

This book was a good reminder of how the freedom to think - especially to doubt or not believe - is a critical goal that must be continually sought and maintained. While many of the doubters in this book focus on the historical horrors committed in the name of religion, the more meaningful biographies were those in which they provided details of the moment when they began to doubt or decided they didn't believe, and the personal turmoil that resulted. As a child who was forced to attend an evangelical church, I know I made my decision when told that it had never rained on earth before Noah's flood, and that because one of Adam's ribs had been used to create Eve, men had one fewer rib than women. Even at an early age, I decided these people were telling me lies. I wonder how many cumulative hours were added to those revival meetings because I stubbornly refused to be called to the altar to "accept Jesus", often with me the only person still sitting on a pew. This book helps me understand that I'm not the one who should be having to explain myself. The explanation should be expected of those who tried to brainwash me - and all those other children - with a bunch of counter-intellectual crap from the time I was a little child.

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book when I read the blurb, but I got about 20% of the way through before deciding I just had to abandon it. The entire book seems to be merely short blurbs about individuals, followed by a random sample of their comments about religion. It seemed very much a copy/paste job with materials anyone could find through a simple Google search. I would not recommend this to anyone unless you just want a list of authors all collected together as a jumping off point for more in depth reading. Which, again, you could just find on Google. I wouldn't waste the time or money on this.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books!

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be aware that this is a SURVEY of famous nonbelievers. For each figure, the book gives brief biographical material followed by a collection of quotes. Other reviewers are right--there isn't a lot of depth. A few of the quotations aren't even full sentences, so they could have done a better job with that. Still, I learned a great deal and have a newfound respect for some figures I didn't know well, like the Huxleys, Henry James, Santayana. As I read, several themes solidified, e.g. the tenacity of superstition when inculcated early. Happy to have the book in my "atheist library." As my man Robert Ingersoll put it, “The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels.”

[S.P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd been looking forward to this for a while. I thought, wow a book about the history of people throughout the ages to whom the idea of an all powerful deity is a little off. Instead what you get is a lot of name-dropping, quotes, often our of context, and a very badly put together inconsequential narrative. I would advise even the most rabid atheist to avoid this book at all costs (and it isn't cheap!). An awful book best avoided.

[Jerome Lusa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew!

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very interesting surprises in the list of non-believers.
Science and rationalism are slowly winning out.

[Tracy Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a book to curl up on the couch with. Haught wrote very short (mostly 1 page) biographies on historic figures, but many were not even atheists. Shakespere and Kepler? And then would have 1 to 2 pages of quotes. Reading that many quotes out of context was tiring.
I don't recommend this book unless you're an atheist looking for a new sig line.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reason it only gets a couple, is that it is a reference book more than a page turner. If you were writing an essay and wanted to pull some pithy quotes from luminaries who were atheists, this would help. But it's list making and that's rarely entertaining.

[Reese Forbes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rational thought prevails - the greatest thinkers of the last 2000 yrs (to 1996) were agnostics, atheists, Deists (nature is the nature of "god"}. Philosophers, scientists, poets, politicians, businesspersons, even those that came from a religious background reject dogma.