Global InformationList of nonreligious Nobel laureates information
This list of nonreligious Nobel laureates comprises laureates of the Nobel Prize who have self-identified as atheist, agnostic, freethinker, or otherwise nonreligious at some point in their lives.[2]
Many of these laureates earlier identified with a religion. In an estimate by Baruch Shalev, between 1901 and 2000, about 10.5% of all laureates, and 35% of those in literature, fall in this category.[1] According to the same estimate, between 1901 and 2000, atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers won 8.9% of the prizes in medicine, 7.1% in chemistry, 5.2% in economics, 4.7% in physics, and 3.6% in peace.[1] Alfred Nobel himself was an atheist later in life.[3]
Shalev's book lists many Jewish atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers as religiously Jewish. For example, Milton Friedman, Roald Hoffmann, Richard Feynman, Niels Bohr, Élie Metchnikoff, and Rita Levi-Montalcini are listed as religiously Jewish; however, while they were ethnically and perhaps culturally Jewish, they did not believe in a God and self-identified as atheists.[1]
- ^ a b c d Shalev, Baruch Aba (2003). "Religion of Nobel prize winners". 100 years of Nobel prizes. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. pp. 57–61. ISBN 978-81-269-0278-1.
- ^ Kimball, John (2015). Physics Curiosities, Oddities, and Novelties. CRC Press. p. 323. ISBN 978-1-4665-7636-0.
- ^ Evlanoff, Michael; Fluor, Marjorie (1969). Alfred Nobel: The Loneliest Millionaire. W. Ritchie Press. p. 88.