George Carlin ,simply because he was so brilliant in his ability to talk about the absurdities of the concept of God and religion and make you laugh at the same time .This was a guy who was indoctrinated in catholic schools and was given a front row seat to all the bullshit and was able to incorporate this in his comedy routines ,books ,etc.

I have always found that the biting commentary of Christopher Hitchens suited my mood when it comes to the topic of religion. I also like the eloquence of Stephen Fry.

I did not leave religion because of seeing or reading what others had to say. I did my own research, and discovered false prophets, contradictions, and unscientific stories in the Bible. The more I researched, the more convinced I became that religion is just a scam based on mythology.

Not sure how "influential" he's been, but I rather enjoy John Cleese.

Hitchens, Barker, and Dillahunty. Basically because they’re all brilliant speakers.

For me comedians have made the best points as they point out how ridiculous religion is

George Carlin

Dave Allen (Irish/British)

Bill Maher

David Hume the Scottish philosopher (1711-76), father of the Scottish Enlightenment. He was the most influential of all British philosophers and his philosophical empiricism, scepticism and naturalism influenced the thinking of, amongst others; Emmanuel Kant, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Popper, Albert Einstein and Naom Chomsky, He is my own personal favourite atheist/agnostic and I recommend that you read his seminal work - A Treatise Of Human Nature or any of his other works, they should be available at most libraries. I was lucky enough to be born and educated in Edinburgh, which was also Hume’s birthplace, and Edinburgh University is where he was educated and lectured, and it was where he first developed his philosophies. I studied him extensively at school and college.

Richard Dawkins,"The God Delusion."

George Carlin, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, in thst order.

Bertrand Russell.

George Carlin was a big influence. I also love the brilliant YouTube videos of Non-Stamp Collector, DarkMatter 2525 and Edward Current along with the usual suspects: Hitchens, Dawkins, Dillahunty, Andrews and AronRa.

Bertrand Russell

In my teens, Russell helped to confirm my own thoughts tending toward agnosticism. Forty years later, primarily Hitchens, but supported by Harris, and Dawkins, tipped me over into atheism. There have been many since then. Two I've recently found of great value are the writings of Robert Ingersoll, and Thomas Paine's "The Age Of Reason". A google search can find you numerous quotations from each to determine if you feel they will be of value to you. I'd also give special mention to the youtube channel 43Alley. It's small but fantastic. In 5 years I have yet to hear it mentioned by anyone in my acquaintance.

All the writers of the bible. That book is so full of crap that after thoroughly reading it I was convinced of how ridiculous, illogical and just plain wrong

Pontius Pilate

Not being brought up religious it was never an issue but it was watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos as a kid, that gave me the appreciation and curiosity for this universe we live in.

Apart from Sagan there have been many listed by others that I have also been influenced by Dawkins, Hitchens Sam Harris, George Carlin, also Karl Marx, Chomsky, Seneca, Simone de Beauvoir, Camus (I was obsessed with being an absurdist once upon a time!)Phillip Adams, Tim Minchin and more recently a young fellow name of Alex O'Connor aka CosmicSkeptic on youtube. Also our only female prime minister, Gillian Gillard was an atheist. She inspires me.

So there is a life time of great readings and philosophies out there. Enjoy.

I did not come to be an atheist by reading other atheists. I figured it out on my own while in Catholic School.

Francis Bacon, The statement Reality is Absolute is the explicit recognition of the primacy of existence. This means that reality is not subject to wishes, whims, prayers, or miracles. If you want to change the world, you must act according to reality. Nothing else will affect reality.
So therefor it follows:
A contradiction arises when two ideas each make the other impossible. Contradictions don't exist in reality because reality simply is as it is and does not contradict itself. Only our evaluations of reality can contradict each other. If you think you have found a contradiction, then check your premises. Either you're mistaken about it being a contradiction or one of the contradicting concepts has been improperly formed.

If the content of your knowledge contains contradictions, then some of your knowledge is in error. Because in order to be successful in reality one must know reality, success requires correct knowledge. It is therefore important to continually search for and root out contradictions in your knowledge in order to make sure that your knowledge corresponds to reality. The two primary methods for doing this are logic, the art of non-contradictory identification, and integration.

I became an A-theist by observing reality; by reason, evidence and facts and no person Influenced me. However since becoming an A-theist, Bertrand Russell and Robert Ingersoll are my mentors.

Christopher Hitchens was wonderful, highly intelligent and funny. Five great Christopher Hitchens debates:

[learnoutloud.com]

Carl Sagan! I still remember my self doing the I can't wait to watch his next episode on TV! My further high school and college learning also added to that learning!

No one. I came to this on my own.

I was Atheist/Agnostic at the age of 12. It wasn't until I was a couple years older that I realized lots of other people had felt that way in the past.

Frank Zappa.

Albert Einstein made conflicting statements about God, and I really don’t think any religious classification fits him. Einstein had a very deep reverence for nature, and that reverence, humility and awe far outshines any belief or disbelief, as expressed here:

“Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.“