Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) was a writer of fantasy and horror fiction, and the inventor of the Cthulhu mythos.
He asserts his atheism in the essay "A Confession of Unfaith", which is reprinted in the collection Miscellaneous Writings edited by S. T. Joshi.
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"If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences." -- need source