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Philosopher Who Gave the New Atheists Their Theoretical Foundations Became Convinced that God Exists
Enza Ferreri Blog ^ | 29 December 2013 | Enza Ferreri

Posted on 01/24/2014 7:51:27 PM PST by Enza Ferreri

Splendid sunset on the sea - from the website Human Health and Animal Ethics

British professor Antony Flew wrote over thirty philosophical works which established the foundations for atheism for half a century.

His 1950 paper "Theology and Falsification" was the most reprinted philosophical publication of the 20th century.

In December 2004 Flew announced in a symposium and subsequent video that he had completely changed his view and now, based on scientific evidence, believed that God exists.

In 2007 he wrote the book There Is a God (Amazon USA) (Amazon UK) , subtitled How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.

This is the man without whose ideas the various Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Dennett, Wolpert, Stenger, (not to mention Christopher Hitchens and Pat Condell) et al, none of whom is a philosopher, would not have had rational arguments to support their faith: atheism.

So it's not surprising that, when on 9 December 2004 the international journalist agency Associated Press gave the world the news about the British Professor of Philosophy's "conversion" with the headine "Famous Atheist Now Believes in God: One of World's Leading Atheists Now Believes in God, More or Less, Based on Scientific Evidence", atheists became hysterical.

Roy Abraham Varghese, in his Preface to There Is a God, wrote:

"One atheist Web site tasked a correspondent with giving monthly updates on Flew's falling away from the true faith. Inane insults and juvenile caricatures were common in the freethinking blogosphere. The same people who complained about the Inquisition and witches being burned at the stake were now enjoying a little heresy hunting of their own. The advocates of tolerance were not themselves very tolerant. And, apparently, religious zealots don't have a monopoly on dogmatism, incivility, fanaticism, and paranoia.

"But raging mobs cannot rewrite history. And Flew's position in the history of atheism transcends anything that today's atheists have on offer."

Photo of sea sunset courtesy of the website Human Health and Animal Ethics


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Politics; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: antonyflew; atheistphilosopher; atheists; flew; god; peta; philosophy; vegan; vegetarian
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1 posted on 01/24/2014 7:51:27 PM PST by Enza Ferreri
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To: Enza Ferreri

bookmark


2 posted on 01/24/2014 7:52:17 PM PST by GOP Poet
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To: Enza Ferreri

bfl


3 posted on 01/24/2014 7:53:51 PM PST by Nervous Tick (Without GOD, men get what they deserve.)
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To: Enza Ferreri

Yet another bookmark.


4 posted on 01/24/2014 8:04:37 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (NRA)
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To: Enza Ferreri

A famous atheist slips on a banana peel and believers think God taught him a lesson. Amusing.


5 posted on 01/24/2014 8:10:06 PM PST by Misterioso (All life is a purposeful struggle, and your only choice is the choice of a goal. - Ayn Rand)
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To: Enza Ferreri

I think I would put my money on the lottery, before I put it on an atheist.


6 posted on 01/24/2014 8:11:13 PM PST by FreeperCell
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To: Enza Ferreri

The problem with the modern Atheist movement is that they are Ardent Authoritarians.

This is why the only Atheist that I actually respect is Penn Jillette.


7 posted on 01/24/2014 8:12:51 PM PST by GraceG
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To: Enza Ferreri

I heard recently that Friedrich Nietzsche (who you might call the father of ‘old’ atheism), during his final years in an insane asylum, did little but sit and recite scripture he’d learned in his youth.

Ironic.


8 posted on 01/24/2014 8:39:14 PM PST by Viennacon
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To: Misterioso

I guess all spiritual belief is amusing to atheists.


9 posted on 01/24/2014 8:44:36 PM PST by elcid1970 ("In the modern world, Muslims are living fossils.")
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To: Enza Ferreri

To those that liked this post, you’ll love quotes from Blaise Pascal.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/blaise_pascal.html


10 posted on 01/24/2014 9:00:59 PM PST by Usagi_yo
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To: GraceG

That’s definitely at the heart of the militant atheists.


11 posted on 01/24/2014 9:26:04 PM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: Usagi_yo
you’ll love quotes from Blaise Pascal.

Well dang; he stole an idea I wanted to put into a book, and 400 years ago too -- that's talent!

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.
— Blaise Pascal

12 posted on 01/24/2014 9:51:54 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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The existence of God — by virtue of changing one’s view — imagine that.


13 posted on 01/24/2014 10:53:44 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: elcid1970

Only to us happy-go-lucky atheists, mind you.


14 posted on 01/25/2014 1:15:20 AM PST by Misterioso (Ayn Rand on mercy: Those who grant sympathy to guilt, grant none to innocence.)
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To: GraceG

The so called New Athiests in particular make me laugh out loud. They are especially full of that peculiar blend of ignorance, arrogance, and flat out stupid that make the lefties so charming.


15 posted on 01/25/2014 2:47:07 AM PST by Psiman (PS I am not a crackpot)
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To: Enza Ferreri; All

I always go back to the FIRST QUESTION that always gets “harrumphed, fluffed, tut tutted, or buried away in a sea of pseudo logical aphorisms.

“So how did all matter and energy come into existence? What put the “is” in “all there is”?


16 posted on 01/25/2014 3:10:03 AM PST by mdmathis6 (American Christians can help America best by remembering that we are Heaven's citizens first!)
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To: OneWingedShark

‘you’ll love the quotes from Blaise Pascal’...I was just thinking that perhaps Flew recently stumbled across Pascal’s Wager.


17 posted on 01/25/2014 8:45:15 AM PST by dogcaller
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To: FreeperCell

Me too. And I never play the lottery.


18 posted on 01/25/2014 9:11:18 AM PST by Delta 21 (If you like your freedom, you can keep your freedom. Period.)
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To: GraceG

You admit to RESPECTING an atheist?

These people, including Penn Jillette, deserve no respect. Funny wisecracks do not redeem damnation by God. Giving even one of them respect is an insult to God. Please consider long and hard what you are doing.

I guess it’s useful to see which side you’ve really lined up with, despite paying lip service to belief.


19 posted on 02/23/2014 2:54:54 PM PST by Sane View
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To: GraceG
"Jillette was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts. His mother, Valda R. Jillette (née Parks; 1909–2000), was a secretary, and his father, Samuel Herbert Jillette (1912–1999), worked at Greenfield's Franklin County Jail.
Penn became an atheist in his early teens after reading the Bible and was subsequently asked to leave the church after asking questions in a youth group that also made skeptics of his peers."

Source: Wikipedia

*****************************

Imho, this was a failure on the part of his church.

20 posted on 02/23/2014 2:59:02 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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