A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Flew’s conversion – greatly exaggerated?

I blogged last week about a new book published by British philosopher and atheist-turned-deist Antony Flew which supposedly details his newfound belief in God (or at least a god of some kind).

Now, via Ross Douthat, I see there’s some legitimate reason to think that Flew, apparently in declining health and mental acuity, may have been pushed into putting his name on a book that was heavily ghotswritten by some of his Christian acquaintances, in particular Roy Varghese, whose academic credentials seem sketchy at best. At the very least, the article casts serious doubt on Flew’s ability at this point to make and defend the kinds of arguments being attributed to him. And Douthat is right that N.T. Wright putting his name to this project is particularly unfortunate.

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3 responses to “Flew’s conversion – greatly exaggerated?”

  1. Elliot

    Boo!! Boo, I say, to such shameful shenanigans.

    Something about the advertising associated with that book struck me as “off.” It didn’t seem like something Flew would put out himself, judging from the interviews he’s given. My sense was that he had just changed his mind to a sort of deism, and was content to talk about it in interviews. Meanwhile the book looked like pop Christian apologetics, rushed into print to counter the publishing successes of Hitchens & Co.

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  2. Andy

    The apologetic value of “ex-atheists” converting to non-atheism is severely overestimated in the first place. How important was Flew’s opinion to Christians when he was an atheist? Then he reconsiders in some limited way and suddenly it’s “A-ha! A-ha! See!”

    It would have been really interesting from an academic point of view to hear his reasons for changing his mind (much as the same sort of conversion story is very interesting to read from C.S. Lewis). But this? Hmmm….

    I’d really like to hear N.T. Wright’s take on it.

    Reply
  3. Louie Lawent

    I would like to comment on the following passages from Mr. Flew’s book. Bear in mind, that in playing the devil’s advocate, I classify myself as one who hopes that there is a God. Flew writes, “How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends [and] self-replication capabilities?”

    “ . . . our knowledge of the universe must stop with the big bang, which is to be seen as the ultimate fact.” “The laws of physics are ‘lawless laws’ that arise from the void – end of discussion.” Flew tackles the why is there something instead of nothing question and writes: “The only satisfactory explanation for the origin of such ‘end-directed, self-replicating’ life as we see on earth is an infinitely intelligent Mind.”

    My comment, “The something from nothing dilemma is the most mind-blowing question we on earth contemplate. If one believes that the intelligent life we see on earth (something from nothing) requires an infinitely intelligent mind, then we have to wonder how this infinitely intelligent God sprang from nothing.”

    Louie Lawent – author of “The Louie/God Interviews (What The Big Fella Really Thinks About Man And The Universe)”

    http://www.myspace.com/LouieLawent

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