George R. R. Martin

Author

Martin is an American fantasy, horror, and sci-fi author/screenwriter, best known for his series of best-selling fantasy novels, 'A Song of Ice and Fire', which HBO adapted into the cable series 'Game of Thrones'. Martin was selected by Time magazine as one of the "2011 Time 100", a list of the "most influential people in the world". [1]
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In a July 12, 2011 interview by James Hibberd for Entertainment Weekly entitled "George R.R. Martin talks 'A Dance With Dragons'", Martin was engaged in the following exchange:

Interviewer: There’s a line in book 5 where character says, “The gods are good.” Jaime thinks, “You go on believing that.” You talk about religion a lot in the stories, but what are your views?
Martin: I suppose I’m a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic. I find religion and spirituality fascinating. I would like to believe this isn’t the end and there’s something more, but I can’t convince the rational part of me that that makes any sense whatsoever. That’s what Tolkien left out — there’s no priesthood, there’s no temples; nobody is worshiping anything in Rings.

He goes on to say, "And as for the gods, I’ve never been satisfied by any of the answers that are given. If there really is a benevolent loving god, why is the world full of rape and torture? Why do we even have pain?" [2]