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Professor Antony Flew Dies (World's Foremost Rationalist Philosopher/Atheist Who Changed His Mind)
The Telegraph ^ | 04/14/2010

Posted on 04/14/2010 9:29:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Professor Antony Flew, the rationalist philosopher who died on April 8 aged 87, spent much of his life denying the existence of God until, in 2004, he dramatically changed his mind.

Flew always described himself as a "negative atheist", asserting that "theological propositions can neither be verified nor falsified by experience", a position he expounded in his classic paper Theology and Falsification (1950), reputedly the most frequently-quoted philosophical publication of the second half of the 20th century.

He argued that any philosophical debate about the Almighty must begin by presuming atheism, placing the burden of proof on those who believe that God exists. "We reject all transcendent supernatural systems, not because we've examined or could have examined each in turn, but because it does not seem to us that there is any good evidence in reason to postulate anything behind or beyond this natural universe," he proclaimed. A key principle of his philosophy was the Socratean concept of "follow the evidence, wherever it leads".

When Flew revealed that he had come to the conclusion that there might be a God after all, it came as a shock to his fellow atheists, who had long regarded him as one of their foremost champions. Worse, he seemed to have deserted Plato for Aristotle, since it was two of Aquinas's famous five proofs for the existence of God – the arguments from design and for a prime mover – that had apparently clinched the matter.

After months of soul-searching, Flew concluded that research into DNA had "shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved".

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: antonyflew; atheism; atheists; god; obituary; philosophy
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1 posted on 04/14/2010 9:29:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, now he knows if he made the right choice


2 posted on 04/14/2010 9:30:50 AM PDT by silverleaf (Karl Marx was NOT one of America's Founding Fathers)
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To: SeekAndFind

Does anyone know if Flew ever came to faith in Christ?


3 posted on 04/14/2010 9:31:24 AM PDT by Guyin4Os (A messianic ger-tsedek)
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To: SeekAndFind

In the face of eternity, man’s logic, man’s attempt to reason away the miracles of the universe ... simply fall apart.


4 posted on 04/14/2010 9:33:14 AM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: silverleaf

>>Well, now he knows if he made the right choice<<

Pascal’s Wager?


5 posted on 04/14/2010 9:34:39 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Craven spirits wear their master's collars but real men would rather feed the battlefield's vultures)
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To: Guyin4Os
Does anyone know if Flew ever came to faith in Christ?

Exactly what I was wondering. "Believing in God" is meaningless by itself. Hell's full of demons and fallen angels who most certainly believe in God.

MM (in TX)

6 posted on 04/14/2010 9:35:08 AM PDT by MississippiMan (http://gogmagogblog.wordpress.com/)
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To: SeekAndFind

one of those i better cover my bets moments...??...


7 posted on 04/14/2010 9:36:09 AM PDT by tatsinfla
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To: SeekAndFind
Flew always described himself as a "negative atheist", asserting that "theological propositions can neither be verified nor falsified by experience", a position he expounded in his classic paper Theology and Falsification (1950), reputedly the most frequently-quoted philosophical publication of the second half of the 20th century.

Nietzsche already covered that in detail.

"negative atheist"---a God fearing agnostic.
8 posted on 04/14/2010 9:37:17 AM PDT by Electric Graffiti (I'm armed and Amish.)
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To: SeekAndFind

bump for later


9 posted on 04/14/2010 9:42:20 AM PDT by SpinnerWebb (In 2012 you will awaken from your HOPEnosis and have no recollection of this... "Constitution")
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To: Guyin4Os
Does anyone know if Flew ever came to faith in Christ?

From the article: But believers waiting to welcome this most prodigal of sons back into the fold were to be disappointed. Flew's conversion did not embrace such concepts as Heaven, good and evil or the afterlife – let alone divine intervention in human affairs. His God was strictly minimalist – very different from "the monstrous oriental despots of the religions of Christianity and Islam", as he liked to call them. God may have called his creation into existence, then, but why did he bother? To that question, it seemed, Flew had no answer.

10 posted on 04/14/2010 9:42:54 AM PDT by Zakeet (Will Rogers never met the Wee Wee)
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To: Guyin4Os

Many of us that may not believe in God know that we will say a prayer just before we die. Don’t knock us Athiests and Agnostics for being living and thinking beings. Basically, we just don’t care...yet. God appreciates this skepticism.


11 posted on 04/14/2010 9:46:43 AM PDT by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/ - via iPhone from Tokyo.)
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To: betty boop; Alamo-Girl

BTTT


12 posted on 04/14/2010 9:46:43 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: Electric Graffiti

Nietzsche is dead. God is not.


13 posted on 04/14/2010 9:47:07 AM PDT by Retired Greyhound
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To: lefty-lie-spy

I care— I just don’t KNOW.


14 posted on 04/14/2010 9:48:51 AM PDT by agooga (Struggling every day to be worthy of their sacrifice.)
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To: lefty-lie-spy
"Basically, we just don’t care...yet. God appreciates this skepticism."

So you're not sure whether or not He exists, but you still understand his thought processes?

15 posted on 04/14/2010 9:49:21 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack

LOL. Good one, Joe.


16 posted on 04/14/2010 9:50:38 AM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually." (Hendrix))
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To: Guyin4Os
Does anyone know if Flew ever came to faith in Christ?

God knows.... and it's all up to Him.

17 posted on 04/14/2010 9:54:38 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: Joe 6-pack

Sort of, yeah, but currently I just don’t care.
Perhaps you’d be surprised that so many of us are out here.
SFSGSW until my time comes.


18 posted on 04/14/2010 9:55:18 AM PDT by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/ - via iPhone from Tokyo.)
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To: lefty-lie-spy

So what else does God appreciate? Do you get these answers in visions? Most of the weakest-minded religious that have visions tell us that He’s saddened by peoples’ skepticism and behavior.


19 posted on 04/14/2010 9:58:18 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: lefty-lie-spy
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

~ CS Lewis ~

20 posted on 04/14/2010 10:00:51 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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