by Bubblegum Apotheosis 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Exclusive Interview with Former Atheist Antony Flew
http://www.biola.edu/antonyflew/index.cfm
What changed in Anthony Flew's mind that moved him into thinking there might be a God? One of the last interviews I heard from Dr. Richard Dawkins makes me tingle, that he might become a deist some day, or is it my wishful thinking?
People's brains rewire all the time. We are not who we were yesterday. It is entirely possible to find a reweighting of evidences as we change such that conclusions become less fixed. 5 year old Qcmbr was convinced of Santa but gradually the evidence for Santa ( for example I'd heard sleigh bells on the roof one Christmas morning ) faded and was replaced with new evidence. Flew obviously found some information that convinced his elderly brain.
As an atheist I am more than happy to be wrong. There are no metaphysical rewards for disbelief, no nirvana awaits me. If a superior being shows up I'll be amazed but I won't be unhappy ( unless they are murdering scumbag overlords) and I'll simply adjust my worldview in the light of new facts. Im not simply against religion I'm actually really against faith and religions lack of evidence. Who knows where I'll be tomorrow.
Qcmber: It's nice you don't attack Tony Flew has coming down with dementia as other online atheist have charged. Something new or old, crossed his mind that allowed him to see there is room for some kind of higher power. I am happy you are able to have joy with your current belief systems, who knows, maybe something big will change either of our world views tomorrow or the next day! Thanks for you thoughts on this!
So asides Flew, which other scholars has turned deist?
It's nice you don't attack Tony Flew has coming down with dementia as other online atheist have charged.
Sadly it is true however.
Please take time to read this article and tribute to Flew by Kenneth Grubbs about the intrigue behind the controversial book "There is a God".
Deism is a god of the gaps argument from design. I don't know why Flew lost his nerve .
One of the last interviews I heard from Dr. Richard Dawkins makes me tingle, that he might become a deist some day, or is it my wishful thinking?
What was it that Dawkins said that made you think that?
Please also see this article in the New York Times from 2007 by Mark Oppenheimer
Haven't you heard . . . EVERY believer was once an Atheist.
My dad uses Flew in one of his talks. The point being 'even established atheists have come to realise there is a creator!'.
But Q is right, people change all the time. And our own opinions and beliefs shouldn't be swayed just because someone we like has changed their mind. We have to stick to the evidence and wherever that leads. Atheism shouldn't be followed for a figurehead.
Its that anthropormorphic image in our heads that throws us off. I like what Eddie Izzard said- ..if there was a god you'd think when we landed on the moon he'd come up and say Well Done!
The controversy with flew is that at the time the book There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, he's mental health was already declining.
Bubblegum Apotheosis wrote It's nice you don't attack Tony Flew has coming down with dementia as other online atheist have charged.
Stating facts are not an attack, and not just online atheists but other well known atheists pointed this out, still this does not meant what he wrote in his book is wrong, we should pass judgment after understanding his points and examin them critically, and not be closed minded.
Here is an interesting citation from My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: an Exclusive Interview with Former British Atheist Professor Antony Flew Gary R. Habermas, Philosophia Christi Vol. 6, No. 2 (Winter 2004) on wikipedia
He supported the idea of an Aristotelian God with "the characteristics of power and also intelligence", stating that the evidence for it was stronger than ever before. He rejects the ideas of an afterlife, of God as the source of good (he explicitly states that God has created "a lot of" evil), and of the resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact though he has allowed a short chapter arguing for Christ's resurrection to be added into his latest book.
Another
Flew was particularly hostile to Islam, and said it is "best described in a Marxian way as the uniting and justifying ideology of Arab imperialism." [5] In a December 2004 interview he said: "I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam , because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins" . [17]
Sounds like my kinda god lol, with any atheists one question needs to be answered, were is the evidence?
Flew is a philosopher, a dying art since psychology was invented, now lets look back at the controversy.
In 2007, Flew published a book titled There is a God, which was listed as having Roy Abraham Varghese as its co-author. Shortly after the book was released, the New York Times published an article by religious historian Mark Oppenheimer, who stated that Varghese had been almost entirely responsible for writing the book, and that Flew was in a serious state of mental decline, having great difficulty remembering key figures, ideas, and events relating to the debate covered in the book. [6] His book praises several philosophers (like Brian Leftow, John Leslie and Paul Davies), but Flew failed to remember their work during Oppenheimer's interview. The article provoked a public outcry, in which atheist PZ Myers called Varghese "a contemptible manipulator." [29]
A further article by Anthony Gottlieb noted a strong difference in style between the passages giving Flew's biography, and those laying out the case for a god, with the latter including Americanisms such as "beverages", "vacation" and "candy". He came to the same conclusion as Oppenheimer, and stated that "Far from strengthening the case for the existence of God, [the book] rather weakens the case for the existence of Antony Flew". [30] Varghese replied with a letter disputing this view. [31] Flew released a statement through his publisher stating that although Varghese did the actual writing, the book belonged to him and represented his thinking. [32] An audio commentary by William Lane Craig [33] concurs with this position, but Richard Carrier disputes this view. [36] In June 2008, Flew stated his position once again, in a letter to a fellow of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship. [7]
Christian writer Regis Nicoll claims that "Moreover, in a signed, handwritten letter (a copy of which I now have) sent to Roy Varghese, the legendary philosopher reaffirmed his conversion while criticising Oppenheimer for drawing attention away from the book’s central argument: the collapse of rationalism." [37] He argues that "Even Mark Oppenheimer described the ex-atheist 'flaunt[ing] his allegiance to deism' in May 2006 to a Christian audience at Biola University."
