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| Celebrities Without Faith: (From left to right) Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Sir Ian McKellen, Jodie Foster (Photo courtesy of http://current.com/entertainment/wtf/89523286_hollywoods-top-10-atheists.htm) |
WOODY ALLEN: He told Reader's Digest, "If you actually have faith, if you believe that there's more to life in a positive sense, then of course it's a wonderful thing." Then he added, "I can't bring myself to do it. If I'm sitting next to a guy and he has true belief, I look at him and think, poor thing, you really are deluded".
JODIE FOSTER: She told Entertainment Weekly she's an atheist but added, "I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don't believe in God." And asked by E! Online whether she ever prays to God, she answered, "No, absolutely never." Foster says she celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah with her children and that she only has questions so far and no answers.
BILLY JOEL: The singer publicly broached the topic early in his career, saying during an interview that he is an atheist and positing that religion is a source of many of the world's problems. Then he told Billboard magazine in 1994, "I still feel very much like an atheist in the religious aspects of things," but added, "There are spiritual planes I'm aware of that I don't know anything about and that I can't explain."
ANGELINA JOLIE: The actress is making Atlas Shrugged, the 1957 novel by famous Libertarian-atheist Ayn Rand, into a movie. Asked during an interview with The Onion whether God exists, Jolie said, "For the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesn't need to be a God for me."
BILL MAHER: Maher co-wrote and starred in Religulous, a movie which mocked all religions, especially Christianity. On Larry King Live, Maher said that "all religious people have a neurological disorder" and that religion is "insanity by consensus."
JOHN MALKOVICH: He has called himself an atheist but rarely expounds on the matter. Malkovich once said. "I believe in people, I believe in humans, I believe in a car, but I don't believe something I have absolutely no evidence of for millennia."
IAN MCKELLAN: Tom Hanks' co-star in The Da Vinci Code said during a press tour promoting the film, "I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, รข€˜This is fiction.' I mean, walking on water?" The actor, an outspoken advocate for gay rights, refers to himself as an atheist.
KEANU REEVES: He reportedly has called himself an atheist but told journalists abroad while promoting the 2005 supernatural thriller Constantine that he is less skeptical about the concept of heaven and hell. In Constantine, Reeves plays a man whose soul has been condemned.
CARL REINER: The Emmy-winning writer and actor best known for his work on The Dick Van Dyke Show calls himself an atheist. On occasion, he has said that "man invented God, not the other way around." He jokingly said, "There are 15 things I know about God, and one is that he is allergic to shellfish." He also complains of too many commandments. "You only need one: Do not hurt anybody."
BRUCE WILLIS: That's right. Even Hollywood's conservatives sometimes are hostile to religion (granted, Willis' conservative credentials often are exaggerated). In 1998, he told now-defunct George magazine that organized religions "are dying forms" and that "modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology."
Source: http://current.com/entertainment/wtf/89523286_hollywoods-top-10-atheists.htm
These are just some of the glittering names in Hollywood who are self-confessed atheists. We already know that Barry Manilow,Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Julianne Moore, and Daniel Radcliffe are also atheists but what is the main point I'm trying to emphasize? That religion is not really enough to answer all of humanity's questions and put direction to one's own existence. I've been very curious about atheism ever since I first encounter the word. There are some aspects of being an atheist that are both mind-boggling and mysterious like the very force and reason why these individuals turned out to be non-conformists. In the Philippine setting, all I know is that atheists are rare and can usually found in deep skirts of U.P. Most of theists classify atheism as a sign of 'unstable emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being' but I was never satisfied with this proposition. Honestly, there are some periods in my life that I consider the possibility of being an atheist. It's the lack of sufficient answers to my questions, the continuous injustice and inequality in our society, and hypocrisy of spiritual people that usually throw me into a deep search for genuine spiritual enlightenment. Moreover, you can't mock me for telling you that ironically, some atheists are better philanthropists and human rights advocates that those hypocritical and pretentious mainstream religious people. Is being an atheist evil? More often than not, we nod as a response to this question, believing that heretics are instruments by Satan to dupe the conformists. We harshly judge them as 'condemned', 'devilish', and 'will go straight to hell', and always think that believers are always better and principled than them. As what philippineatheists.org clearly stated, "Everyone is born an atheist, since no person has ever been quite well-indoctrinated before he or she was born". Atheists' principles are rooted from logic and common sense while for us believers, we have our faith to back up our arguments. Nevertheless, we are all entitled to give our own opinions and are created as human beings who are completely free to choose what we want to do and believe in life. For me, I have only one word to give those closed-minded people who are continuously rebuking and criticizing atheists and agnostics, and that is RESPECT. No one and nothing is perfect, be it theism or atheism, and we can't force everyone to believe what we do believe . Stop our own superiority complex and demonstrate RESPECT to everyone and this world will surely become a better place.
