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 ...
As the church sign said "Those that wait till the last hour to get saved often die at 10:30"
As we saved people know, we are only a heartbeat away from Heaven (or Hell)
we=you
Just substitute "It" for "He" and you'll get over it.
No!
Satan recognizes there is a "Higher Power" and we know the Evil One's eternal future. (Rev 18:1-6)
According to scripture, Prof. Flew is lost unless he has been "reborn" into a saving faith through Christ Jesus. Good works is not enough. Faith in a false prophet such as Mohammed or Joseph Smith is not enough. And belief in a higher power is not enough.
RIP.
I'll PM you my address - I really want that nit.
My inner-nihilist delights in a post like this that is rife with contradictions, non-sequiturs, oxymorons, and intentionally-ironic self-aggrandizements. The entire statement implodes upon itself with an artfulness that rivals Nietzsche's pessimistic aphorisms. Kudos.
btw, I don't knock Atheists. Today's atheist may be tomorrow's faithful believer in the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Some accounts make him a theist, or believer in a personal God who acts on the world, but the evidence for that is skimpy.
Thanks for the ping!
Depends on what qualifies as "experience," I suppose....
R.I.P. dear Sir Anthony. I shall miss you, but hope to meet you some day.
May God ever bless you.
I join in prayer for all his friends and loved ones.
Antony Flew, Unatheist, Dies at 87
Professor Antony Flew Dies (World's Foremost Rationalist Philosopher/Atheist Who Changed His Mind)
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