I have but a few, but at the top of my short list, is...Thomas Pain. He faught in the war with George Washington and in the French Revolution and nearly perished in prison and stood against all manner of resistance in the Congress. And, unto his dying day, he professed his non-belief.
As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth. - Mikhail Bakunin
Skepticism, classical libertarianis, etc are exciting to me and are related to atheist to some degree.
I don't actually think of any one as a hero on atheist. The concept is too simple to be really excited about.
Shrug, just my 2 cents.
Lemmy Kilmister. He was honest and open about his opinions despite the time period he was in. Another much older Agnostic, would be Epricus.
Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Aldous Huxley, Frank Zappa, Richard Feynman, Stephen Fry ..Me! ??