I know what you mean. Nietzsche, Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault and Metcalf are the ones I have yet to move away from. And I doubt that I ever will.
Most atheists haven’t read Nietzsche. Most of them have read Dawkins, however. But the very notion of calling Dawkins a genius is a sick joke…
I find nietzsche’s impact as the most deep and profound on me in a very positive sense, whatever he wrote he wrote with his blood!
Aren’t we all?
Let me tell you a little story.
Because I greatly respect Nietzsche and his observations of human nature and religion, I bought a t-shirt 3 years ago with the phrase “God is Dead” on it. The shirt was meant to be a joke;
“God is dead” --Nietszche
“Nietszche is dead” --God
And to this day, no one has known who Nietszche was or known that phrase without me explaining it (in fact, most people find it offensive even when I try to explain that it is a joke). Save for college philosophy, Nietszche’s name does not appear in any history textbook and does not appear on tv.
I did not know Nietszche’s name until I read about him in an OVERVIEW OF PHILOSOPHY.
Try to remember where you heard of him.
The Greatest Genius in History is not someone who is only mentioned in college philosophy.
The atheists I know are atheist because they think it is most reasonable, not because someone told them that religion is bad.
I voted for Newton. He invented the mathematics (calculus) that is most often used in the physics of today (much of which is also his invention).
I realize that he was flawed and made mistakes but I think his intellectual achievements were unsurpassed.
Leonardo Da Vinci would be my second place vote, but much of his work was based on copying or abstracting those things readily apparent in Nature.
It’s an old joke, but not a bad one. It’s included, among other places, in a compendium of British graffiti I have that was compiled in the early 1990s.
What philosophers names do appear in history textbooks or on TV? I can think of very few.
I found out about him through watching ‘A Fish Called Wanda’. And then finding a book of his on a shelf and being attracted by the complexity of the spelling of his name.
Apparently, Marx is the second most highly referenced figure in history, behind Christ.
The atheists I know, excepting a few, are atheists because they are reacting against their parents’ religious beliefs, or those of their educational institution. Put simply, they are atheists because they want to prove they are independent of these things. It has nothing to do with the validity of religious belief.
Jesus all the way! J.C. knew a thing or two about Truth, Athenticity, and being bloody Ambiguous! J.C. and the nail drivin’ five! Biggin’ it up in Heaven! Authenticity! such a crude abstraction but such necessary in life: Warts and all people, warts and all! Jesus comes across as pretty authentic! Ya!
Jesus, for indirect genius, his thoughts are astounding to some extent!!
Da Vinci in terms of pratical genius! He had genius in abundance, his brain house was some world!