similar thing happened to this gentleman...
Posted on 09/07/2007 12:53:40 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
For your perusal : Former foremost atheist, Philosopher, Antony Flew's latest book -- "There IS a God : How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind".
Antony Flew was one of the world's most prominent atheist who wrote many books trying to debunk the notion of the existence of God.
He has debated many Christian thinkers like Gary Habermas and William Lane Craig on the issue in the past and was considered a champion of atheism.
Among his most famous books promoting atheism are :
* Hume's Philosophy of Belief (1961)
* Logic And Language (1961) editor
* God and Philosophy (1966)
* Logic & Language (Second Series) (1966) editor * Evolutionary Ethics (1967)
* Darwinian Evolution (1984)
* God, Freedom and Immortality: A Critical Analysis. (1984)
* The Presumption of Atheism (1984)
* God: A Critical Inquiry (1986)
* Does God Exist?: A Believer and an Atheist Debate (1991) with Terry L. Miethe
* Does God Exist: The Craig-Flew Debate (2003) with William Lane Craig
However, after re-thinking the issue for a long time, Flew announced that he has come to believe in God, three years ago (2004).
Antony Flew, has now authored a book with HarperCollins (There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, October 23, 2007), his co-author being Roy Varghese, author of the Intelligent Design friendly book : WONDER OF THE WORLD: A JOURNEY FROM MODERN SCIENCE INTO THE MIND OF GOD
Charles H. Townes - Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the laser, has actually endoresed Varghese's book as : "...a sensitive, profound and clear discussion of the important issues of our universe and our existence."
This is how the Publisher describes Flew's latest book :
---------------------------------------
For the first time, this book will present a detailed and fascinating account of Flew's riveting decision to revoke his previous beliefs and argue for the existence of God. Ever since Flew's announcement, there has been great debate among atheists and believers alike about what exactly this "conversion" means. There Is a God will finally put this debate to rest.
This is a story of a brilliant mind and reasoned thinker, and where his lifelong intellectual pursuit eventually led him: belief in God as designer.
------------------------------------------
This book is sure to be a facinating read for the open-minded.
And He has very few people He can call His trusted friends...
This same guy wrote a book very similar to this one year ago.
There might be a “cure” after all, lol!
Ping...
“You believe that there is one God: you do well. The devils
also believe, and tremble.” James 2:19
The thing that impresses me about Antony Flew is this — he isn’t the sort of person who REFUSES to be convinced when he realizes that he is wrong. In other words, being a top college professor never made him arrogant. He is willing to pursue the evidence wherever it leads.
If you saw his debates with Gary Habermas for instance, he was forceful in his views, but was totally lucid, kind and down to earth, never looking down at people even when they were not as highly educated as he is.
C.S. Lewis, one of the most prolific Christian writers, was also a staunch athiest at one time, but he was never a prolific athiest writer like Flew. I am going to get Flew’s “conversion” book, should be very inteesting reading.
Remember, if you really want it badly enough, the mother and child reunion is only emotion away.
Is that a new FR code word? I can't keep up. :^)
Do you know Paul Simon got that expression from a dish in a chinese restaurant?
“Know where the words came from on that? You would never have guessed. I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called “Mother and Child Reunion.” It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, “Oh, I love that title. I gotta use that one.”
HABERMAS: Once you mentioned to me that your view might be called Deism. Do you think that would be a fair designation?FLEW: Yes, absolutely right. What Deists, such as the Mr. Jefferson who drafted the American Declaration of Independence, believed was that, while reason, mainly in the form of arguments to design, assures us that there is a God, there is no room either for any supernatural revelation of that God or for any transactions between that God and individual human beings.
Must’ve gotten an unfavorable diagnosis. /humor (sort of)
It’s easy to believe in God when you have nothing else left: the challenge is believing and living a Christian life when you’re healthy, successful and prosperous.
From Wikipedia: (In an article) Flew states that he has left his long-standing espousal of atheism by endorsing a deism of the sort that Thomas Jefferson advocated (”While reason, mainly in the form of arguments to design, assures us that there is a God, there is no room either for any supernatural revelation of that God or for any transactions between that God and individual human beings.”).
. . .
He’s reasoned himself to God in the abstract.
Lord, if it is your will, put your fire in Flew’s heart and make his understanding concrete. Say hello Lord.
My thoughts as well. Has the smell of a deathbed conversion...not that there is anything wrong with that!
HABERMAS: I agree that near death experiences do not evidence the doctrines of either heaven or hell. But do you think these evidential cases increase the possibility of some sort of an afterlife, again, given your theism?FLEW: I still hope and believe there’s no possibility of an afterlife.
I’d like to read this guy’s book. From the way you describe him, he seems like an interesting fellow. Your description of his intellectual curiosity leading to his change in thinking is the most interesting part. I just hope his “belief” is more than just the existential angst of an old man facing his own mortality.
The ego of man alone is enough impetus to believe in God I imagine, although perhaps that’s not enough in God’s eyes, lol.
Yup.
Here’s another one for ya.
The idea for popular song came from Popsicles,Icicles, a song of the sixties where the lyrics went...
Bright stars and guitars and
Drive-ins on Friday night
These are a few of the things we love
“Guitars and” was smoothed together in Icicles, Popsicles until it sounded like Guitarzan. A few years later, Ray made his recording.
read later
And your point is what?
For several thousand years astronomers lacked a naturalistic description of gravity. Was gravity during that period a manefestation of unspecified pushers and shovers?
He also did a great job of exposes the procedural disingenuousness in Rawls’ Theory of Justice.
Deism is such weak sauce; totally unaccountable for free will. Further, Jefferson postulated deism as one part of his (somewhat unfortunately) ever-shifting view of God he espoused during his lifetime -- however, his postulation, per se, is entirely apropos of the Enlightenment period.
I suspect that is much less true today than it was five years ago.
A profoundly educational verse for the masses of the world.
MM (in TX)
Well, it is his free will to deny his own free will.
Is that like riding the roller coaster again while your pants are still wet?
I got the paranoia blues
From knockin' round New York City
Where they'll roll you for a nickel
And stick you for the extra dime.
Any way you choose,
You're bound to lose in New York City.
Oh I just got out in a nick of time
yeah, I just got out in a nick of time.
Paul Simon, "Paranoia Blues"
I think he is a deist of some sort though.
Be interestiing to know what his former fans think of him now. Considering his age (81) they probably think his change of views are the result of senility.
From the editorial review on Amazon:
Like Mr. Buckley, Patrick Glynn is a Christian who has written a book about his faith. But his is a very different journey-from faith to agnosticism and finally back to faith again. As he puts it: "This book had its origins in a spiritual reawakening-or to put the situation somewhat less philosophical atheist or agnostic, I finally realized that there was in fact a God."
Mr. Glynn, the product of a secular Harvard education roughly 25 years after Mr. Buckley was at Yale, is a former arms-controller and now a professor at George Washington University. In "God: The Evidence" he sets out in layman's language the scientific evidence for the existence of God. This is a monumental and ultimately impossible task-no one can reason his way to faith-but Mr. Glynn's review of the scientific literature is compelling.
His thesis is that the scientific discoveries of the past 25 years, especially in the physical sciences, have refuted the idea of a "random universe"-the modern idea that human life was a chance event-in favor of the "anthromorphic principle": the idea that there is an intelligent guiding hand at work. The phrase "anthromorphic principle" was coined by Brandon Carter, a Cambridge University physicist and cosmologist, at a seminal 1973 lecture in Krakow, Poland, where the world's greatest scientific thinkers had gathered to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus. He argued that the long list of mysterious coincidences inexplicable to students of the origins of the universe share one common denominator: All were necessary for the creation of human life, thus implying a creation by design.
Carter was by no means alone in these God-friendly views. His lecture was inspired by ideas that were just then beginning to percolate in scientific circles and that took off afterward. Mr. Glynn summarizes a host of these ideas, among them those of astronomer Fred Hoyle, progenitor of the "big bang," who once said: "An explosion in a junkyard does not lead to sundry bits of metal being assembled into a useful working machine."
Mr. Glynn devotes a chapter to the science of psychology, reviewing studies that show a correlation between religious belief and mental health-in contrast to Freud's view of religion as a childish illusion in need of correction. Elsewhere, he looks at the growing body of literature on near-death experience, which he believes offer evidence of an afterlife.
Underlying Mr. Glynn's analyses is one crucial point, which is that Western intellectual life is undergoing a huge shift: It is finding room for God. Until very recently the history of modern scientific thought-Galileo, Darwin, Freud-pointed away from religion toward a secular world view. Now, the "God hypothesis" is gaining ground; and for the first time since the heretic Galileo appeared before the Inquisition, science and faith aren't on a collision course.
End review. I found the book fascinating, although some of the physics parts were beyond what little knowledge I have in that subject.
So basically, this guy thinks that every musing that crosses his mind needs to be shared with the world, eh? Doesn’t sound like he’s changed in essentials, simply going from “You should listen to why I don’t believe” to “You should listen to why I do.”
The dollar turned from both sides.
btt
I had a room mate back in the early 90’s who was a devout atheist. There was never any chance of me changing his mind.
When I found out he was selling several pounds of pot each month I immediately moved out. One month later the house was stormed early in the morning during a countywide raid 2 days before Christmas.
He spent it in jail and had an epiphany of some sorts and seeds others had planted took root and he became a professing born again Christian and is still to this day.
As for this author, I hope he’s had his original books pulled from all shelves.
similar thing happened to this gentleman...
I wonder if Inspector Dreyfus' clone Hitchens will be the next to come to his senses?
No, it won't.
This link (sorry it’s Huffington) has the best “can’t miss” pictures. Totally hilarious.
Christopher Hitchens Gets a Really Extreme Makeover
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/06/vanity-fair-is-a_n_63263.html
“Hitchens sums up his life of scotch and cigarettes.
I need the junky energy that scotch can provide, and the intense short-term concentration that nicotine can help supply. To be crouched over a book or a keyboard, with these conditions of mingled reverie and alertness, is my highest happiness.”
‘Nuff said, lol.
“And your point is what?”
It not MY point, it was Flew’s.
I second that prayer. Holy Spirit, do your work.
Oh man. Hitchens in the shower was enough to beg for blindness.
I have a brother who is athiest and sometimes I wish he’d wake up and start using his brain instead of quoteing left wing liberal talking points.
My question is why not? I doubt that any atheist will be convinced by his conversion to belief any more than any believer would be convinced not to believe if the Pope came out claiming Jesus was really just a crackpot and all of Christianity is bunk. Those that are convinced by such trivial things only prove they never spent any time analyzing things for themselves and are just empty headed followers. I have never believed anything because of popular man or woman professed it. Truth is not a popularity contest.
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