“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

EPICURUS (Greek philosopher, 341-270 B.C.E.)

My name is Eric Knight:

This site will be dedicated to my personal exploration of Atheism, Philosophy and Humanism. As a neophyte I would like to use this medium as a source of education and gateway for myself and anyone interested in the further exploration of these topics. As a dedicated Anti-Theist, the topic of Atheism, Apologetics and Counter Apologetics will be the lion’s share of the content and my newest interest into the affairs of Philosophy will most likely be the supporting topic/topics to the questions and matters of Atheism. Humanism will most likely be a side bar and/or separate topic that will be dealt with as the content and examination of Atheism and Philosophy expands. I am looking forward to any and all input from Atheists, Theists and hopefully Philosophers alike and hope to keep an open honest and healthy ongoing discussion in regards to these matters.

A bit about me: as a child I grew up in a good home raised by my grandparents. As I recall my family were never overly religious, but my grandparents did attend church every Sunday and so did I. I never acted as an alter boy; However, I did sing in the choir, tenor range and I thought I was quite good. At the age of twelve I moved in with my mother who did not attend church accept during Easter and Christmas and as I recall the subject was never really discussed. I still believed in God, Jesus and the like but I did loose the childhood belief of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy fairly early on (probably around Eight or Ten).

My belief carried on into my early Twenties at witch point I seemed to have a revelation of sorts at the age of 23 or 24. I had been watching television and the movie “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” came on and I watched intently as I tend to enjoy SiFi, Action and Fantasy movies. There is a point in the movie when we discover the humans living underground that have the ability to read minds and are disfigured from nuclear war. What struck me most about this part was the worship of the nuclear missile, it was kind of an, ah ha moment for me and made me start to rethink the idea of belief and worship which lead me to reconsider the belief in God. I still believed in a God of sorts, so I started to foray into other forms of religion such as Buddhism, Daoism and Hinduism. I still do my own from of meditation today as a way of relaxing, to clear my head and a way of reflecting on problems.

At the age of 25, my first wife and I moved to Germany (I being the house husband) gave me a lot of free time so I began to read the Bible. It was at this point that the belief started to wax and wane then finally be no more. It is my belief that if more people just read the Bible (actually read it and not just pick out parts that fit their own brand of Christianity) using a critical eye and a bit of logic, they too would very quickly loose any presumptions about a Biblical or Christian God. I have spent almost 25 years now as a non-believer, but it was not until watching an episode of Family Guy on television where Brian (the dog) falls in love with a woman when they both reach for the last copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins at the local book store. He lets her take it and she promises to mail it to him when she's done reading it. Oddly enough I now find myself thanking a cartoon and of course Richard Dawkins for my new found ideals of Atheism.

At the beginning I placed a statement by the Greek Philosopher EPICURUS, while my own conversion to Atheism was not predicated on the problem of evil, you would be well advised to read God's Problem by Bart D. Ehrman

Thank you

Family Guy and

Richard Dawkins