Famous atheist now believes in God

[Champ]

NEW YORK (AP) -- A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God - more or less - based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday.

At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.

Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.

"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BELIEVING_ATHEIST?SITE=ININS&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[cheezus]

1. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life?

great, now on to the matter of finding the only good explanation for the existence of a super-intelligence

[phantom power]

2. Your evil logic makes the kittens cry.

[trotsky]

3. Heheh... so true.

This guy has been a staunch atheist for 50 years and he falls for one of the oldest and lamest theistic arguments of all time - the Watchmaker's Argument? OK, sure.

[alvis]

4. Uh oh, looks like to trip to internet infidels for me

I definitely have to check this out. I quite like Anthony Flew.

www.infidels.org

[gWbush is Mabus]

5. he's probably playing it safe before he dies

[Nevernose]

6. Yep. Chickened out at the last minute, didn't he?

[On the Road]

7. Keep in Mind He's 81 Years Old

His childhood was in the 1920s and 30s. Deistic arguments are much more convincing to someone who grew up in that environment.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. Unfortunately, that is the one great danger for rationalists.

We find it hard to accept that we cannot come up with answers to those most fundamental questions, i.e., the origin of matter and the nature of infinity.

Myself, I am willing to accept that there are, at this time, limits to experiential knowledge. I can no more understand infinity than my cat can understand electricity. I am willing to say, "I don't know".

Human intelligence searches for patterns, and those patterns must conform to human experience. Where there is no experience, the pattern will create a false recognition. A common example is the phenomenon of sightings of fairies, Virgin Marys, and UFOs -- all likely the same things, interpreted by the culture that sees them.

In this case, the false recognition presents a pattern that suggests a higher intelligence, to conform with our own experience of intelligence.

That doesn't make the recognition true. It does make it hard to disbelieve, if it is not seen for what it is.

IMHO.

[CornField]

11. Curious

Are you a fan of Joseph Campbell? Much of what you just typed could have come from him.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Actually, I've never read him.

Maybe I need to. It's always nice to see opinions vindicated by famous thinkers.

[CornField]

9. Even so, he's still gonna piss off the fundamentalists & evangelicals

"Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives."
----

The vast majority have never heard the word deist. Those who have will march you to the church and back while bellowing how Jefferson was not one. (And, no, they don't care that he wrote his own version of the bible or not -- he was a Christian, Dammit. All those founding fathers were.)

[azoth]

14. Oh man I get so friggin tired of that line of reasoning.

My husband's family is very fundie and the mere notion that the US wasn't founded on "christian" principles is simply too much for them to bear.

Yikes.

[noshenanigans]

10. I believe this is what's known as "covering your ass".. n/t

[Fenris]

13. Well, thank you Anthony Flew

I can no longer use the parable of the gardener to defend atheism. Well, I suppose I still can, but it will be a bit diminished.