Heres a potentially fun, easy, and useful to nearly all of us social exercise. List, in no particular order, the great communicator minds of massive personal profound influence on you, that you fear that all of us might not be acquainted with, but who are easily discoverable on you tube or someplace less common on the internet. The more isolated bright minds join this project, the more its potential of extraordinary instant leap forward in our education will spring into reality.
I will start:
tier 1, the godlike ones -- Carl Sagan, Leonard Cohen. Dostoevsky (for Notes from Underground Underground)
tier 2, the potential godlike ones just waiting on the percieved still ripening opinion of this and other more superior literati for elevation to godlike status. - Sam Harris, Neil Degrasse Tyson.
This just scratches the surface, I personally await enlightenment from the best of you.
Leonard Cohen
Pat "The Bunny" Schneeweis
Alan Watts
Albert Camus
Jesse Sendejas (Days N' Daze)
Joseph Campbell
As a youth, I was a member of the Presbyterian church, not from a theistic stand point, but from a social stand point. I became an Atheist, or more rightly described as a non-believer, through my own skepticism, logical reasoning, common sense and observation of the natural world I live in. I did not need anyone else to lead me there. I have since used what others have said to validate and re-enforce my own conclusions. To name a few: Bertrand Russell, Robert Ingersoll, Carl Sagan.