Nicholas Everitt (born 21 October 1943) is an English philosopher and atheist writer who specializes in

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

and

philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known Text (literary theo ...

Biography

Everitt obtained his degree in Moral Science from

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and a postgraduate degree from

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

."Nick Everitt's Homepage"
Retrieved 12 February 2021. He was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

and taught briefly at

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2017, the university had about 4,100 full-time undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students, including full-time a ...

and

Ngee Ann Polytechnic Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) is a post-secondary education institution and Statutory boards of the Singapore Government, statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Education (Singapore), Ministry of Education in Singapore. Established in ...

. He taught for the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

as an Associate Lecturer and after retirement currently teaches the AA308 course, "Thought and Experience – Themes in the Philosophy of Mind" and "The Existence of God" for the Department of Continuing Education at Lancaster University. Everitt is an atheist and his best known work is ''The Non-Existence of God'', published by

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...

in 2003. Everitt argues that the divine attributes of God (

omniscience Omniscience () is the capacity to know everything. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, this is an attribute of God. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain. In Buddhism, there are di ...

omnipotence Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as o ...

omnipresence Omnipresence or ubiquity is the property of being present anywhere and everywhere. The term omnipresence is most often used in a religious context as an attribute of a deity or supreme being, while the term ubiquity is generally used to describ ...

omnibenevolence Omnibenevolence (from Latin ''omni-'' meaning "all", ''bene-'' meaning "good" and ''volens'' meaning "willing") is defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "unlimited or infinite benevolence". Some philosophers have argued that it is impos ...

) in traditional

theism Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with ''deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred ...

are individually self-contradictory or cannot be co-instantiated."Reasoning Away God"
''New Humanist''. Retrieved 12 February 2021. The book contains criticisms of all the standard theistic arguments (cosmological, ontological, moral, teleological). It was positively reviewed in academic journals.

Selected publications

*''Modern Epistemology: A New Introduction'' (with Alec Fisher, 1995)
''The Non-Existence of God''
(2003)
''The Argument from Imperfection''
(2006)

References

External links

Nicholas Everitt
eastanglia.academia.edu {{DEFAULTSORT:Everitt, Nicholas 1943 births 20th-century English philosophers 21st-century English philosophers Academics of the University of East Anglia Atheist philosophers English atheist writers English sceptics Epistemologists Critics of Christianity Critics of religions Philosophers of religion Rationalists Living people