Was Clarence Darrow an atheist

Answer 1

Darrow is widely recognised as having had a deeply antagonistic view of religion, based on an almost childlike understanding of the subject.

He claimed he was an agnostic, a person who believes that it is not possible for man to know if a God exists or not, or if any gods exist or not, but in practice he clearly regarded anyone with religious views as "bigots" and "ignoramuses" (as he put it at the Scope Trial), and regarding his own religious ideas made comments like "I don't believe in God any more than I would believe in Mother Goose!"

It is important to remember that Darrow was one of several children of the "local atheist" in his home town. On the one hand this meant being fed a constant diet of atheistic literature, from Nietzsche to Ingersoll, and on the other seeing his father treated with scorn and derision by other townsfolk. As Darrow himself put it, the children, whatever their own views might be, felt bound to defend their father, and in Darrow's case this seems to have become a lifelong personal crusade.