User:ConfuciusOrnis/Scratch

Classical antiquity
The first century BC Roman poet, Titus Lucretius Carus, in his magnum opus, De Rerum Natura, wrote: "But 'tis that same religion oftener far \ Hath bred the foul impieties of men:" A philosopher of the epicurean school, Lucretius believed the world was composed soley of matter and void, and that all phemonenon could be understood as resulting from purely natural causes. Lucretius, like Epicurus felt that religion was born of fear and ignorance, and that understanding the natural world would free people of it shackles.
 * Democritus
 * Epicurus

Renaissance

 * Desiderius Erasmus
 * Leonardo da Vinci
 * Giordano Bruno
 * Galileo Galilei

Niccolò Machiavelli, at the beginning of the sixteenth century said: "We italians are irreligious and corrupt above others... because the church and her representatives have set us the worst example." To Machiavelli, religion was merely a tool, useful for a ruler wishing to manipulate public opinion.

The Enlightenment

 * Baron Holbach
 * Denis Diderot
 * David Hume
 * Voltaire
 * Thomas Paine

Modern

 * Percy Bysshe Shelley
 * Thomas Huxley
 * Friedrich Nietzsche
 * Bertrand Russel
 * Sam Harris
 * Richard Dawkins
 * Christopher Hitchens
 * Daniel Dennett
 * Salman Rushdie