Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, identifies himself as an "unbeliever" in a 24 June 2002 profile in The Independent titled 'Oliver Sacks: Professor Brainstorm' in [1]

Oliver Sacks has now declared himself to be an atheist. On page 35 of his book "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain," he says this:

"As I write, in New York in mid-December, the city is full of Christmas trees and menorahs. I would be inclined to say, as an old Jewish atheist, that these things mean nothing to me, but Hannukah songs are evoked in my mind whenever an image of a menorah impinges on my retina, even when I am not consciously aware of it."

(Sacks, O. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (2007). 1st edition, hardcover. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4081-0.)

In an interview on "Start the Week" (BBC Radio 4, 19 November 2007) Andrew Marr also asked Oliver Sacks whether he referred to himself as a "Jewish atheist", to which Oliver Sacks replied: "This is actually a phrase Jonathan Miller often uses and which I've adopted: "an old Jewish atheist"."