Obama in company of Humanists as Nobel Prize recipient

(c) AP Photo/Gerald Herbert.

It was announced today that President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year "for efforts to solve complex global problems including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons". The vote was unanimous in the Nobel Committee, which said, "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future..."

Barack Obama is a Christian, but in his inaugural speech he was the first U.S. President to acknowledge non-believers, and was later the first U.S. President to mention Humanists. In the national prayer breakfast on February 5, 2009 Obama said:

"We know too that whatever our differences, there is one law that binds all great religions together. Jesus told us to "love thy neighbor as thyself." The Torah commands, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." In Islam, there is a hadith that reads "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." And the same is true for Buddhists and Hindus; for followers of Confucius and for humanists. It is, of course, the Golden Rule - the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth."

In being awarded the Nobel Prize, Obama joins with people of many beliefs, and recipients include several Humanists. Here are some Humanists who have also been awarded the Nobel Prize...

Nobel Prize Winning Humanists

Albert Einstein - Physics (1921)
for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect

John Boyd Orr - Peace (1949)
for his scientific research into nutrition and his work as the first Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

Linus Pauling - Chemisty (1954)
for research with X-ray crystallography and modeling in crystal and protein structures, (later used by Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick to discover the double helix structure of the DNA molecule)

Linus Pauling - Peace (1962)
(only one of four individuals who have received more than one Nobel Prize) for his campaign against above ground nuclear testing

James Watson - Physiology or Medicine (1962)
for discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material

Francis Crick - Physiology or Medicine (1962)
for discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material

Andrei Sakharov - Peace (1975)
for advocacy of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union