Week 18 - "Prominent Women Atheists, Agnostics, & Anti-Theists"

I'm doing this week a bit early because I've been falling behind lately due to being so busy and I have a spare minute right now to get this done.

This week's topic is short and sweet, simply titled "Prominent Women Atheists, Agnostics, & Anti-Theists," women of "no faith" who are part of popular culture in any way, be that actors, musicians, authors, journalists, philosophers, scientists, Nobel Prize winners, activists, etc.

"I love the idea of God, but it's not stylistically in keeping with the way I function. I would describe myself as an enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God."

Carrie Fisher - Actress, Princess Laia in the Star Wars Series

 "No, this is not what a fair God would do. And why does it not say anywhere in the Bible that slavery is wrong? It only says that you should treat your slaves well. Well, I don't care if you treat them well. How is it possible that it is not immoral to own another person? Why isn't that one of the Ten Commandments? 'Thou shalt not own another person.' You want to sit here and tell me that fornication is worse than owning someone?" 
Mira Sorvino - American Actress, "Romy & Michele's High School Reunion."

"I don't believe in that (religion) I believe this is it, and I believe it's the best way to live."
Natalie Portman - American Actress, "Black Swain," "V For Vendetta," Queen Amidala in the Star Wars Series

 "I have no religion. I wasn’t raised that way, and I have nothing now.”
Eva Gaëlle Green - French Actress and Model, "Casino Royale."

"I don't have faith in anything but my fellow human beings and the world around me. I have strong faith in people but not beyond people, I’m an atheist."
Sarah Polley - American Actress, "Dawn of the Dead," "Splice."

"I'm an atheist; I suppose you can call me a sort of libertarian anarchist. I regard religion with fear and suspicion. It's not enough to say that I don't believe in God. I actually regard the system as distressing: I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Koran, and I refute them."
Emma Thompson - British Actress & Screenwriter, "Sense and Sensibility," "Love Actually," Professor Sybill Trelawney in the Harry Potter series.

“I’m not that religious. I believe in treating people how you want to be treated.”  
Amanda Bynes - American actress, Singer, Fashion Designer, "Hairspray," "The Amanda Show."

"Praying is like a rocking chair - it'll give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere."
Gypsy Rose Lee - American Burlesque entertainer, 1911 to 1970

"Back in my early childhood I learned that God doesn’t fight on any army’s side. So there was little point in praying. Nonetheless, before every battle, prayers were read, all kinds of incantations were incited, staged by all sorts of preachers. We attended these ceremonies and I saw how all the soldiers stood in place, as though they couldn’t believe their ears. I couldn’t believe it either, but It counted for nothing… Since then, I have given up belief in God, in a ‘light’ that leads us, or anything of that sort."
Marlene Dietrich - German-American Actress & Singer, 1901 to 1992

"I'm an atheist, so it was actually a joy. Spitting on Christ was a great deal of fun. I can't embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages. And that persecution still goes on today all over the world."
Amanda Donohoe - English Film and Television Actress, "Frasier," "Ally McBeal," "Batman Beyond," "Liar, Liar."

"First of all, that anybody believes in god -- just because somebody severe-looking told them god exists -- is really a hoot. Why not believe there's a big pink dinosaur in the sky? How about if I tell you, in a very convincing tone, that one's floating around up there -- occasionally bending down to nibble one of those styrofoam Jack-In-The Box thingees off SUV antennae? Oh co me on -- can'tcha take it on faith? It's no more ridiculous than believing that some guy who looks like Charlton Heston clutching the Ten Commandments is sitting in a wing chair on your roof, passing judgment on the universe."
Amy Alkon - American Journalist, Advice Columnist published in over 100 newspapers within North America.

"Brad and I are raising our children to respect everyone. We have a bookshelf in the house that has the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, everything. We will take our children to church, temple, Buddhist ceremonies, Mosques, teaching them about all faiths. Whatever religion they choose, the choice will be theirs... I respect all religions. What I don't respect is when people use religion to attack others. I've met people across the world, in the middle of nowhere, who are just trying to survive and all they have is religion. In some way it helps them, and I wouldn't take it away from them."
Angelina Jolie - American Actress

"I have a hard time believing that God would expect me to believe a bunch of ancient ramblings. This is 2008. Unlike the people who wrote the bible, we know the world is round, what gravity is, that dinosaurs once ruled our planet, etc etc. The utter lack of education of people that long ago is what pushes me away from "The Book". That, and the fact that a bunch of primitive men wrote it.""

Adrianne Curry - Model, seen first on America's Next Top Model Cycle 1

"For most of the history of our species we were helpless to understand how nature works. We took every storm, drought, illness and comet personally. We created myths and spirits in an attempt to explain the patterns of nature."
Ann Druyan - American Author & Producer specializing in products about cosmology and science. Wife of Carl Sagan

"All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final."
Hypatia - Greek Philosopher AD 350-370 (ish) to Ad 415 (murdered by a Christian mob)

 

"I was born Catholic, I was baptised, but in my life I feel profoundly secular."
Carla Bruni Sarkozy - Italian-French Songwriter, Singer, Actress, former Model. (she was also banned from the Vatican by the Pope himself)
 

 "If we had put the energy on earth and on people that we put on mythology and on Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have any hunger or homelessness."
Butterfly McQueen - African-American Actress, 1911 to 1995. In her will, she left money for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a group of atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers. She also donated her body to science.

"Religion is the source of all the problems in the world. I don't believe in organized religion at all. It's what separates people. One religion just represents fragments, it causes war. More people have died because because of religious conflict than any other reason."

Gwyneth Paltrow - American Actress

"I absolutely believe what Ellie believes (her character in Contact) that there is no direct evidence, so how could you ask me to believe in God when there's absolutely no evidence that I can see? I do believe in the beauty and the awe-inspiring mystery of the science that's out there that we haven't discovered yet, that there are scientific explanations for phenomena that we call mystical because we don't know any better."
Jodie Foster - American Actress 

 

"Religion matters to me as an atheist because millions of innocent people have died in its name. Ashoka’s conquest of Kalinga (300,000 killed), the 2nd century battle for the Jewish holy land (2 mil killed), the Crusades (1,000,000 + killed), the 16th century French wars on religion (~4,000,000  killed), the persecution of the Waldensians (900,000 killed), the 18th century Taiping rebellion (~30,000,000 killed), the 2nd Sino-Japanese war (10,000,000 killed), the Holocaust (11,000,000 killed), the 30-Years War (11,500,000 killed), and the list goes on and on and on."

Laci Green - American Youtube Personality, Ex Mormon

 

"Our Constitution was not intended to be used by any group to foist its personal religious beliefs on the rest of us."
Katharine Hepburn - American Actress, 1907 to 2003 

"I get a lot of questions about my beliefs in religion and spirituality because I write about religion and its effect on people's lives, but I'm not a religious person at all. I don't believe in God, but I am curious and open to the reasons behind why so many people do believe in religion. I believe that we, as humans, have control over our destiny and fate."
Julia Darling - British Novelist, Poet, & Dramatist

“I think I can understand the solace that’s available in the whole construct of religion. But I really don’t believe in the power of prayer, or things would have been avoided that have happened, that are awful. So it’s a horrible position as an intelligent, emotional, yearning human being to sit outside of the available comfort there. But I just can’t go there.”
Meryl Streep - American Actress
 

"In that tree [at the age of 8] I gave up a belief in God, and nothing I have seen in the last thirty-seven years has changed my mind on that point."
Lauren Bacall - American Actress, 1924 to present, Wife of Humphrey Bogart 

"When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions; that bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brain of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of "thus saith the Lord."
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - American Social Activist, Abolitionist, Leading Figure of the early Woman's Movement, 1815 to 1902 

"As long as the public school is used to recruit the child or to segregate the children according to religion or to use the truancy power of the public schools to make them go to religions classes, I'm against it."
Vashti McCollum - Was the plaintiff in a landmark 1948 Supreme Court case that struck down religious education in the public schools. It was the first time the First Amendment’s establishment clause had ever been applied to rule out a government sponsored activity, 1912 to 2006 

"Again I dare to write against male-made religion. I believe that women are oppressed by every religion. If any religion allows the persecution of people of different faiths, if any religion keeps people in ignorance, if any religion keeps women in slavery, then I cannot accept that religion. Freedom for women will never be possible until they cross the barrier of religion and patriarchy."
Taslima Nasrin - Bengali Ex-Doctor turned Author who has been living in exile since 1994

 

"Organized religions and their dogmas only serve to indoctrinate the participants into sheeplike common behaviors. This type of blind assimilation promotes the popularity of top-forty count down radio stations and movie sequels. Skepticism towards groups, holy or otherwise, is enriching and makes you a far more entertaning person"
Janeane Garofalo - American Actress, Left-Wing Political activist, Writer.

 

 Interviewer: Was there a turning point in terms of your leaving behind religion? Did you just wake up one day and realize you were an atheist?
"No. It was a long process. I just became a stronger agnostic, and then I started to realize that everyone who was saying they were agnostic really hadn't thought about it that much. Still, I went with agnosticism for a long, long time because I just hated to say I was an atheist -- being an atheist seemed so rigid. But the more I became comfortable with the word, and the more I read, it started to stick."
Julia Sweeney - American Actress, Comedian, Author, "Saturday Night Live."

 "The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation."
Emma Goldman - Political Activist, 1869 to 1940

etc...

Other Notable Atheists, Agnostics, Anti-theists not listed above...

Margaret Sanger - American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist, coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood
Virginia Woolf - English Author, Essayist, Publisher, and Writer of Short Stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century, 1882 to 1941
Susan Blackmore - English Freelance Writer, Lecturer, and Broadcaster on Psychology
Germaine Greer - Australian Writer, Academic, Journalist and Scholar of Early Modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century

Björk - Icelandic Singer & Songwriter
Kathy Griffin - American Actress & Comedian
Simone de Beauvoir - French Existentialist Philosopher, Public Intellectual, Political Activist, Feminist Theorist, Social Theorist
Asia Carrera - American Pornagraphic Actress
Olivia Wilde - American Actress
Ariane Sherine - English Comedy Writer & Journalist
Jennifer Love Hewitt - American Actress
Ani DiFranco - American Singer, Guitarist, Poet, & Songwriter
Ashley Paramore - Development Director of the Secular Student Alliance
Ellen Page - Canadian Actress
Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Somali-Dutch Feminist & Atheist Activist, Writer, Politician
Carolyn Porco - American Planetary Scientist
Emilia Fox - English Actress
Uma Thurman - American Actress
Chelsea Handler - American Humorist, Television Host, Actress, Model, Author
Sasha Grey - American Former Pornographic Actress, Model, Musician, Mainstream Actress
Catherine Deveny - Comedy Writer, Columnist
Rachel Griffiths - American Actress
Nina Hartley - American Pornagraphic Actress
Oriana Fallaci - Italian Jourlanist, Author, Political Interviewer
Karen Russell - American Attorney, Political Strategist, Harvard Graduate
Sarah Silverman - American Actress & Comedian
Diane Farr- American Actress
Heidi Klum - German Model
Natalie Dormer - English Actress
Rose Byrne - American Actress, "X-Men - First Class"
Monica Belluci - French-Italian Actress & Model
Barbara Eden - American Actress, "I Dream Of Jeannie"
Elyse Sewell - American Model
Julianne Moore - American Actress, "Hannibal"
Helen Mirren - English Actress
Thandie Newton - American Actress, "2012"
Kari Byron - American Television Host
Gina Davis - American Actress, Film Producer, Writer, Former Model, Women's Olympics Archery Team Semi-Finalist
Adrienne Shelly - American Actress, Director, Screenwriter
Marie Curie - American Physicist & Chemist
Shirley Manson - American Singer & Songwriter