Without wishing to be rude, it occurs to me that one might start to hope there is a “god” when one reaches the later stages of one’s life. Personally, I would not wish to waste the last years of my life advocating that they teach lies and myths to children.

Atheist toleration does not extend to former atheists.

No nimrod, atheist toleration does not extend to former atheists when former atheists start spewing Darwin’s deathbed conversion nonsense — as Flew has done.

“Atheist toleration does not extend to former atheists.” was from the article.

The truth of the matter is Anthony Flew had a change of heart at the end of his long life. With life’s lessons and experiences behind him, he became a theist…

In an attempt to ignore what he might be trying to teach you, you make a statement that he was really a “deist”…

One could make the argument that you are really a deist from a comment you made several months ago…

“We don’t know everything, but we know enough to say there is no God”…

At least he was honest enough to admit he could not falsify christianity…

And from one of your own sites…

http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&id=138

There will no doubt be at least one comment stating he became an old kook or began to suffer from Alzheimer’s or something…

It’s to bad so many on this board have such closed minds that they can not look at his life and try to learn from the wisdom that life taught him…

It speaks volumes how so many have thrown Flew under the bus, since he changed his views, much the same way so many Sam Harris supporters decided to discredit him ever since he spoke his mind last weekend…

By asserting that Flew was somehow our “leader” for all of these years they can say to their children “see, even the atheist leader believes in god.” How is this really different from any other xian lie?

“My discovery of the divine has proceeded on a purely natural level, without any reference to supernatural phenomena…It has had no connection with any of the revealed religions. Nor do I claim to have had any personal experience of God or any experience that may be called supernatural or miraculous…”

Sounds pretty deistic to me.
And looks like Dinesh is just trying to ride his coattails to sell his own book.

I don’t know if old age and any accompanying disease had anything to do with the *conversion*. But if I start talking religion in my aging years, someone please, take me out back and put me down.

there are a lot of loyal Christians who had a change of heart and became atheists, are you open minded to them?

This is not convincing me that I should stop rejecting arguments from authority, which is all that it is, as presented here.

Funny how Dinesh thinks such an argument should be effective against non-believers.

How strange that unearthing this ancient news (2004) is coupled with blatant promotion of D’Souza’s latest paperweight, What’s So Great About Christianity

The quotes Dinesh provides imply to me that Flew is a deist, not a theist, since his beliefs are apparently not based on any supernatural phenomena or revealed religion. Looking at quotes in his wiki entry make it seem like Flew is not even consistently deist.

Anyone who claims him as a Christian, let alone a theist is engaging in wishful thinking at the least, and is probably just Lying For Jesus.

“Atheist websites condemn him as an apostate.” Why do I suspect that ‘apostate’ is straight from Dinesh and not found on any atheist website with regard to Flew. Apostasy is usually defined as rejection of a religious belief, so where are the atheists who equate atheism and religious belief?

If you notice, he gave zero evidence to support his hope or belief there might be something after all. ZERO. He said nothing to refute his arguments for atheism. Why? Because he knows there is no logical refutation.

Now, if he came up with some new argument or evidence for why he decided to believe, he would have everyone’s attention. But no. He resorted to the “it’s so complicated there might be something out there” argument. His own writings refute that argument. (By the same reasoning, if God is so complicated, He must have had a creator too. It’s a play on the first cause argument that gets nowhere.)

Most atheists admit we can’t know everything. That’s no reason to make things up. I guess if you are old with the fear of death, making up things isn’t so bad. Hope springs eternal, even for Flew.

If someone wants to believe he will live forever on Sugar Mountain in the Sky, most of us see that as a comfort mechanism. Flew’s statement was more of an acknowledgment that we don’t know everything.

If someone wants to call the unknown god, that’s fine but most atheists see that as a classical “god of the gaps” cop out.

Believers, of course are jumping on Flew and pointing to him as an example of an atheist converted. Most atheists, on the other hand, have compassion for Flew. The guy is kind of senile at this point. He is nowhere near the great thinker he once was.