Who deserves a place on the ceiling?

I am intending to paint an atheists version of the world famous Sistine Chapel ceiling. The original was painted by Michaelangelo and took him 4 years. Our ceiling is only around a third of the size and so will not take quite so long, my very limited talent is hardly going to challenge the maestro but its the idea that is important here. Rather than depicting biblical figures and creationist myths the new ceiling is to celebrate those 50 individuals who have made the most significant contribution to civilization (this has nothing to do with whether the individuals are atheists or not, the criteria is about their impact not their faith). Its a contentious proposition so we need all the help we can get to decide on the chosen few.

Below is a list of the contenders so far nominated for a place on the "Atheists Ceiling"

In the right hand side column is a list of those who are (almost) definitely up there already.

If you disagree and think any of these individuals should be taken off the list or, better still, you have a new nomination, then let me know. Send your nomination with a paragraph explaining why they deserve a place on the ceiling along with the other greats and I will add them for consideration. We are very aware that the list is currently predominately male and western and are keen to redress the balance, and are looking for heroes from all over the world, from all eras and of all sexes!

We currently have over 90 possibles and 22 probables so will at some stage have to devise a set of criteria to whittle these down. Again any ideas please send a post.

To make your nomination or leave a message, sipmly click on the "nominations" button below.

If you would like to email me direct my email is in the "My Profile" section

Possibles: Individuals who have been nominated for a place on the ceiling

If you want to know why these individuals have been selected, click on them for their Wikipedia entry

Alexander the Great - Greek ruler and explorer
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi - Moroccan cartographer and scientist
Dante Alighieri - Italian poet
Aristotle - Greek philosopher, writer and scientist
Jane Austen - English writer
Johann Sebastian Bach - German composer
Christiaan Barnard - South African surgeon
Matsuo Basho - Japanese poet
Ludwig van Beethoven - German composer
Alexander Graham Bell - Scottish scientist and inventor
Karl Benz - German engineer
Clarence Birdseye - American Inventor
Bì Shēng - Chinese inventor of movable type printing
Niels Bohr - Danish physicist
Filippo Brunelleschi - Italian architect and sculptor
Michelangelo Buonarroti - Italian painter, sculptor and architect
Gaius Julius Caesar - Roman Emperor
Cai Lun - Chinese inventor of paper
Charlie Chaplin - American actor
Cleopatra - Ruler of Egypt
Constantine I - Serbian Roman founder of the Holy Roman Empire
Madam Curie - Polish/French physicist and chemist
King David - Hebrew ruler
Hywel Dda - Welsh ruler and creator of laws
Walt Disney - American animator
John Dalton - English physicist and chemist
Frederick Douglass - American statesman, abolitionist and reformer
Bob Dylan - American musician
Marcel Duchamp - French artist
Thomas Edison - American inventor
Elizabeth I - English Queen
Euclid - Greek mathematician
Michael Faraday - English physicist and chemist
Alexander Fleming - Scottish biologist and pharmacologist
Henry Ford - American industrialist
Richard Feynman - American physicist
Sigmund Freud - Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist
Bill Gates - American computer scientist and industrialist
Goethe - German writer, scientist and poet
D.W. Griffith - American film director
Hatshepsut - Egyptian pharaoh Queen
Jimi Hendrix - American musician
Hippocrates of Cos - Greek physician
Hero of Alexandria - Greek engineer
Hildegard of Bingen - German saint, scientist, composer and visionary
Homer - Greek poet
James Hutton - Scottish geologist
Imhotep - Egyptian physician, scientist, architect and inventor
Thomas Jefferson - American politician
Joan of Arc - Soldier and saint
Carl Jung - Swiss psychiatrist
Lord Kelvin - Irish mathematician, physicist and engineer
Martin Luther King - American civil rights leader
Genghis Khan - Mongolian Emperor
Ibn Khaldūn - Tunisian philosopher, social scientist and economist
Joseph Lister - English surgeon and pioneer of sterilization
Carl Linnaeus - Swedish botanist and zoologist
Auguste and Louis Lumière - French pioneers of cinema
Ada Lovelace - English, first computer programmer
Frank Lloyd Wright - American architect
Federico García Lorca - Spanish poet
Stanley Kubrick - American film director
Mahatma Gandhi - Indian philosopher and politician
Guglielmo Marconi - Italian scientist and inventor
Nelson Mandela - South African politician
Gregor Mendel - Austrian scientist
Thomas Midgley - American Mechanical engineer and chemist
Mohammad Ali - American Boxer
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī - Persian mathematician and scientist
Florence Nightingale - English nurse
Emmy Noether - American mathematician
Jesse Owens - American athlete
Tom Paine - American Philosopher
Pablo Picasso - Spanish artist
Plato - Greek philosopher
Marco Polo - Italian explorer
Elvis Aaron Presley - American musician
Qin Shi Huang - Chinese ruler creator of great wall of china
Bertrand Russell - English philosopher
John Ruskin - English artist and philosopher
Sappho - Greek poet
Mary Seacole - Jamaican nurse
Shen Kuo - Chinese scientist - magnetic and true north
Adam Smith - Scottish philosopher and economist
Homer Simpson - American cartoon character
Marie Stopes - Scottish pioneer of contraception
Nikola Tesla - Serbian physicist and mathematician
Fox Talbot - English inventor of photography
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture - Haitian liberator
Tu Fu & Li Po - Chinese poets
Sun Tzu - Chinese military strategist
Alan Turing - English mathematician
Virgin Mary - Mother of Jesus
Vyasa - Indian scribe of Hinduism
Watson and Crick - American / English scientists, discovery of structure of DNA
Orson Wells - American film director, writer and actor
Ida B Wells - American campaigner for civil and women's rights
Mary Wollstonecraft - English writer, philosopher and feminist
Malcolm X - American civil rights leader
Frank Zappa - American musician
Zhang Heng - Chinese scientist, poet and statesman


Visit our website for more information on the villa where the ceiling is to be painted and the beautiful region of Le Marche, at:

http://www.vacanzaitalia.co.uk