Well ‘heroes’ might be the wrong word…
these are people I greatly respect for their accomplishments.
People who helped explain the world around us:
Carlo Rovelli (b1956 - )
Books: “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics”, etc.
Einstein (b1879 - d1955)
James Maxwell (b1831 - d1879)
Michael Faraday (b1791 - d1867)
Lucretius (b99 - d55 BCE)
Wrote the poem “On The Nature Of Things” that stirred the beginning of the Renaissance when rediscovered in 16th Century
Epicurus (b341 - d270 BCE)
Created Epicureanism: Living a good life believing in science rather than gods
Democritus (b460 - d370 BCE)
First person to postulate the existence of the atom
People who corrected the misconceptions many of us had:
Jared Diamond (b1937 - )
Books: “Guns, Germs and Steel” and “Collapse”
Richard Elliott Friedman (b1946 - )
Book: “Who Wrote the Bible?”
Jorgen Randers (b 1945 - )
Book: “2052 - A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years"
People who helped level the playing field between the rulers and those they want to rule:
M.L. King, Jr. (b1929 - d1968)
People who helped us face the severe racial inequities in America:
Ijeoma Oluo (b~1980)
Book: "Mediocre, The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America"
People who did things I wish I had done:
Neal and Linda Goldstein (b~1947)
Sold their house and traveled around the world smelling the roses from 2015-2020
People we thought were good, but were not:
William Cody (Buffalo Bill) (b1846 - d1917)
Killed thousands of buffalos for sport, and killed and scalped native Americans to gain notoriety.
See Ch. 1 in this book:
People brave enough to publicly question what most people believe:
Richard Dawkins (b1941 - )
Christopher Hitchens (b1949 - d2011)
"Your religion, you may believe, came into existence when its fundamental truth was revealed by God to somebody, who then passed it along to others. It flourishes today because you and the others of your faith know that it is the truth, and God has blessed you and encouraged you to keep the faith.
But why do all the other religions exist? If those people are just wrong, why don't their creeds crumble?"
