Thomas Henry Huxley
Huxley also developed scientific education in Britain, and fought against the more extreme forms of religion.  These activities had a big effect on the way people in Britain and elsewhere thought about the world.  Huxley used the term agnostic to say that he did not know if there is a god or not.  We continue to use the term agnostic today. Huxley was for many years a close friend of the Irish physicist John Tyndall.