Tudge, Colin (8 December 2007). "The art of the soluble". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 22 May 2010. Atkins, Peter W. (1997). The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465072668. In December 2006, Atkins was interviewed by journalist Rod Liddle in a UK television documentary on atheism called The Trouble with Atheism. In the documentary, Liddle asked Atkins: "Give me your views on the existence, or otherwise, of God." Atkins replied: "Well, it's fairly straightforward: There isn't one. And there's no evidence for one, no reason to believe that there is one, and so I don't believe that there is one. And I think that it is rather foolish that people do think that there is one." [12] In July 2016, Atkins was quoted as stating, “We are a hiccup on the way from one oblivion to another oblivion.” [13]

He was the first Senior Member of the Oxford University Secular Society, a Distinguished Supporter of Humanists UK (formerly known as the British Humanist Association) and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. [6] He is also a member of the advisory board of The Reason Project, a US-based charitable foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. The organisation is led by fellow atheist and author Sam Harris. Atkins has regularly participated in debates with theists, including John Lennox, [7] Alister McGrath, Stephen C. Meyer, Hugh Ross, [8] William Lane Craig, [9] [10] Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, [11] and Richard Swinburne. Physical Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. 2014. ISBN 978-0-19-968909-5. Atkins, Peter W.; Shriver, D. F. (2010). Inorganic Chemistry (5thed.). W. H. Freeman. ISBN 978-1-4292-1820-7.Atkins is known for his use of strident language in criticising religion: He appeared in the 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, in which he told interviewer Ben Stein that religion was "a fantasy" and "completely empty of any explanatory content. It is also evil". [14]

Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science. Oxford University Press. 2003. ISBN 0-19-860941-8. Atkins, Peter W.; Beran, J. A. (1992). General Chemistry (2nded.). New York: Scientific American Books. ISBN 978-0716724964. Atkins married Judith Kearton in 1964 and they had one daughter, Juliet (born 1970). They divorced in 1983. In 1991, he married fellow scientist Susan Greenfield (later Baroness Greenfield). They divorced in 2005. In 2008, he married Patricia-Jean Nobes (née Brand). Atkins, Peter W.; de Paula, Julio; Friedman, Ronald (2009). Quanta, Matter, and Change: A molecular approach to physical chemistry. New York: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 978-0-7167-6117-4. Atkins, Peter W.; Friedman, Ronald (2010). Molecular Quantum Mechanics (5thed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199541423.

On Being: A Scientist's Exploration of the Great Questions of Existence. Oxford University Press. 2011. ISBN 978-0-19-960336-7. Atkins left school ( Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham) at fifteen and took a job at Monsanto as a laboratory assistant. He studied for A-levels by himself and gained a place, following a last-minute interview, at the University of Leicester.

Atkins, Peter. "Who Really Works Hardest to Banish Ignorance?". Council for Secular Humanism . Retrieved 22 March 2008. He was a member of the Council of the Royal Institution and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was the founding chairman of IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education, and is a trustee of a variety of charities. Atkins, Peter W.; Symons, M. C. R. (1967). The Structure of Inorganic Radicals. Amsterdam, New York: Elsevier Pub. Co. OCLC 543225.The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-19-957219-9. Van 't Hoff Centennial Symposium". Archived from the original on 5 October 2008 . Retrieved 17 August 2008. Atkins, Peter W.; de Paula, Julio (2011). Physical Chemistry for the Life Sciences (2nded.). W.H. Freeman & Company. ISBN 978-1-4292-3114-5. Atkins has lectured in quantum mechanics, quantum chemistry, and thermodynamics courses (up to graduate level) at the University of Oxford. He is a patron of the Oxford University Scientific Society. In 2007, Atkins's position on religion was described by Colin Tudge in an article in The Guardian as being non-scientific. In the same article, Atkins was also described as being "more hardline than Richard Dawkins", and of deliberately choosing to ignore Peter Medawar's famous adage that "Science is the art of the soluble". [15] Personal life [ edit ]