He used to be an atheist. I mean not just a run-of-the-mill-angry-drunk atheist. But the king atheist. You know, It-was-me-who-cooked-up-the'all-real-Scotsman'-stuff atheist.
And he's not an atheist anymore because atheism really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That's what.
Heh. Consider the alternative:
"Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or else you'll go to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you!"
-George Carlin
Let's see, an 80 year old man with one foot in the grave and long past his intellectual peak, decides to believe in a Deist, non-meddling, concept of a god. I repeat, so what? It's not like he suddenly decided to believe in a religion. And it's not like he had any "followers" who might be influenced by his pronouncements.
As Rush says, there are no great books of moderation. And there are no "leaders" of atheism.
You really need to stop considering atheism as a religion or cult of personality.