User:Concernedresident/Antony Flew

Antony Flew was the the world's most notorious atheist - at least according to the ghostwritten book ascribed to his authorship. To be more precise he was a well regarded British philosopher, critic of Christian apologetics - including the doyen of Christian apologetics - C.S. Lewis, and originator of the no true Scotsman argument.

Flew died in April of 2010.

An old atheist
Flew was recognized as having been a prominent atheist - having been widely published on the subjects pertaining to atheism and counter-apologetics. In his 1976 book The Presumption of Atheism, Flew argued that, in the absence of evidence for God's existence, atheism should be presupposed.

Conversion from atheism
There was much rejoicing, and Christian apologists did feast on lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies - when in 2004 Flew announced his conversion to deism. To be more precise, he claimed belief in the Aristotelian view of God - which postulates a creator that initiated creation but then sat back and intervened no more.

Apologists manage to ignore this glaring lack of a personally involved god. It's obviously more important to focus on the claim that a former atheist adopted a belief - even if it's bears little resemblance to the beliefs held by the apologists. Flew's beliefs have as much in common with Christianity as they do with pretty much any religion that postulates any kind of divine being(s). Odinists are yet to try to capitalize on Flew's conversion, but certainly they have just a strong a claim as Christians.

The book There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind drew criticism amid claims that a great deal of the book was not actually written by Flew. Richard Carrier, an American philosopher, engaged in written correspondence with Flew after news of his "conversion" became known, and discovered odd discrepancies between Flew's stated position in the book and that provided in his letters. Mark Oppenheimer, a journalist and academic, interviewed Flew, and what follows is a list of issues with the claim that Flew is in any meaningful way the author of the book:


 * Flew could recall little of the contents of the book he wrote. Specifically he was unable to recall authors and the work which he had referenced in the book. This could be attributed to mental decline - he was in his 80s at the time, or perhaps his ghostwriters used references that Flew was not personally familiar with.
 * Flew is claimed to have admitted to Oppenheimer, that he had not actually written the book.
 * Varghese, one of the co-authors listed on the jacket, is claimed to have admitted that the book was his idea and that he done all of the original writing for it.

Flew has stated though that the book accurately reflects his views.