Richard Dawkins

A scientist who has written important books on evolution and even more important books showing why Creationists haven't a leg to stand on. However, what was needed above both of these (especially in the USA) was a book filled with examples of the endless cruelties of God the Father in the Old Testament, as well as those of Jesus Christ (who would send those who so much as call one's brother a fool to eternal torture, as well as every person who doesn't believe in him), and this he gave us in The God Delusion. He treats the problems with the other religions in it as well, but I'll just remark on the Christian aspect. Most people are not cruel, and nobody could believe that a good, loving God could commit the dozens of atrocities of the Old Testament unless his main reading of the Bible came as a child: maybe being shown as an adult the extreme nastiness of the the Godhead of the Bible will make some people see the absurdity of it all. And maybe this will speed up the process of discarding this ancient fairy tale the Bible--a piece of literature with not an iota more basis for belief than the Greek myths, and which (apart from the dangers of extremists who want to go back to stoning homosexuals and adulterers) creates some degree of antiscientism in every person who believes it.