George Orwell

Author

George Orwell was an English author and journalist, best known for the dystopian novel 1984 and the satirical novella Animal Farm. He is considered by many to be the quintessential writer of prophetic prose. His ideas have permeated beyond academia into public consciousness, with terms like “Big Brother” and “Orwellian” now firmly planted in popular culture. [1]
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Gordon Bowker's biography, George Orwell, is chock-full of passages about Orwell's atheism. Here are a few:
"Through the mass of detail now available, the human face of Orwell emerges. He was often painfully honest about his prejudices and self-contradictions. So while he was against private school, disliked Scots, and was a staunch atheist, he put his adopted son down for Westminster, chose to live among Scots on Jura, and asked to be buried according to the rites of the Church of England." (pp. xiv)

"Although Eric would turn atheist and spend his life attacking institutional religions, he always had a lingering affection for the Anglican Church, identifying with its dissenting martyrs, and allowing it to confirm, marry, and ultimately bury him." (pp. 5) (note: George Orwell was a pen name. His birth name was Eric Arthur Blair)

"The ability to hold two opposing views simultaneously, used to perverse effect in 1984, was a characteristic of his own paradoxical cast of mind. He loved animals and yet he was happy to shoot them; he was an atheist and yet he retained a highly religious sense of morality..." (pp. 123)