Talk:List of secular humanists

Jefferson
Jefferson was a Christian deist. If anything, he ought to be under 'religious humanists' but I'm not sure if even that is accurate. Joffeloff 12:42, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Vashti Cromwell McCollum (1912-2006) Certainly should be listed with the Humanists. She was a dedicated Humanist and served on the American Humanist Association board of directors in 1952 and served as president of the AHA from 1962 to 1965. Her most notable accomplishment was the case involving Christian Sunday school classes in the Champaign, Illinois public schools that she prosecuted all the way to the US Supreme Court, winning decisively in an 8 to 1 decision, that, to this day, is a landmark case in US constitutional law. The case, Peo. of the State of Illinois, ex rel McCollum -v- School Board, 333 US 203 (1948), established the applicability of the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution to the several states and their municipalities by virtue of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Remove tag
I'd like to remove the unreferenced tag. It seems extraneous to me, given that this is just a list. If there is controversy over a certain listed person, that can be argued on the discussion page. There is no need for the tag. --Dialecticas 18:11, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Atheists?
WTF? Why so many of listed are atheists?
 * Because somebody accidentally created an article on secular humanists and called it just "humanists". - Cos Oro (talk) 17:23, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Deletion of sourceless entries
As with all articles, all information in this list should be supported by reliable sources. I have recently added sources for many of the entries, and have deleted those for whom I have not yet found sources. The deleted names may be found here. The deleted names are in the left column, highlighted in yellow. Please do not restore these names to the list without providing a reliable source for their humanism. Nick Graves 16:32, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

To do list
There are a number of things that can be done to improve and expand the list:


 * 1) Find reliable sources for deleted names so they may be restored to the list.
 * 2) Add birth/death years for each entry.
 * 3) Add description of each person listed (ie. occupation and humanism-related activities).
 * 4) Add pictures of particularly prominent humanists.
 * 5) Divide names into subsections, either alphabetically or by occupation.

Any help with these would be most appreciated. Nick Graves 16:32, 19 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Björn Ulvaeus was born 1945, member of ABBA and composer. If the source can be in swedish there is plenty more. Ssteinberger (talk) 22:21, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Another thing that can be done: Include more women in the list and in the photos to make the gender balance more reflective of the population of humanists. There's a real gender imbalance in the population of famous humanists, but the photos on the right are currently of 39 men and one woman, or 97.5% male, which is a tad extreme. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.173.186.26 (talk) 17:15, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Agreed -- this list is extremely gender biased. (jasper jon (talk) 06:57, 28 September 2020 (UTC))

Tyson is explicit
Over at Humanist Network News, episode 39, Neil DeGrasse Tyson says he does not want to call himself a Humanist (at 14 minutes in).

Why no Fry ?
After reading the list I was confused to see that Stephen Fry does not appear. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism and stated "it is essential to nail one’s colours to the mast as a humanist". I would do it my self but thought that their must be some reason as to why someone has not done so already someoneishere11 16:01, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Don't worry about it, I'll add him. Ninmacer20 (talk) 02:20, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Meaningless List
This list is simply redundant with similar lists of secularists. I counted all of one non-atheist/agnostic from the list, Erasmus. The title should either be changed to "List of secular humanists" or some attempt to include non secularists should be undertaken. Kevin Corbett (talk) 04:34, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Agreed. It says religious humanists, but Jesus is omitted, as is Erasmus. It says modern, but it contains Buddha. lakitu (talk) 00:12, 30 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I am going to just be bold and retitle the article as "List of Secular Humanists" and see if I can't start a separate list of religious humanists. It seems that the guiding principle of this article in terms of sources is an identification with secular humanism (for example, being given an award or recognition by the American Humanist Association is evidence that an individual is considered to be a humanist) so I think this will just make it more honest. Kevin Corbett (talk) 06:13, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

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Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Stewart OBE should be listed as a humanist. He is a patron of the British Humanist Association. I'm not sure if he's a SECULAR humanist but he is clearly a humanist. And human. 66.67.32.161 (talk) 23:20, 4 February 2016 (UTC). Added 23 November 2021.

Einstein was a secular humanist
Einstein was a prominent member of a number of secular Humanist organisations. The following paragraph contains a quote that is often taken out of context to claim incorrectly that he was a theist. While discussing quantum physics he had used god as a metaphor. In 1954 he wrote: "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." See also: Religious and philosophical views of Albert Einstein.

This is an example of how Einstein is quoted out of context: "The list contains Einstein, who was a theist, as can be seen notably in his famous quote "Der liebe Gott wuerfelt nicht." He belongs in a list of humanists, but not in a list of secular humanists." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hdembinski (talk • contribs) 08:36, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

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