
The news has been out since 2004 that the world’s leading atheist, Antony Flew, changed his mind in light of the available evidence. Like waking up from a bad dream, a number of atheists and skeptics reacted in, well, . . . disbelief. Their stance shifted to skepticism and then, as this late-in-life conversion became undeniable, it shifted to outright denunciations of Flew. In his God Delusion book, Richard Dawkins refers scornfully to the “over-publicized tergiversation [apostasy]†of Flew in his “old age,†having been “converted to belief in some sort of deity.†He contrasts Flew with the “great philosopher†Bertrand Russell, who “won the Nobel Prize.â€
Flew was of course, the atheist philosopher for decades, and his accomplishments, insight, and creativity can’t be minimized by such cheap shots from within his former “community.†His recently-released book, There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (Harper One, 2007) tells a remarkable story of Flew’s pilgrimage. He had been the son of a Methodist minister, but as a teenager he “rejected the thesis that the universe was created by an all-good, all powerful God.†The book recounts an astonishing career of achievements and acquaintances, including his participation in Oxford University’s Socratic Club during C.S. Lewis’s tenure as president (1942-1954). The club’s stated goal was to heed Socrates’ exhortation to “follow the argument wherever it leads.†This is the maxim Flew has sought to follow all his life. But for many of his critics, “free-thinking†is a one-way street: thinking is “free†if you move away from God, not toward God. Continue Reading »
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