1. World Famous Atheist Converted by the Scientific Evidence for God 2. 3. The world renowned atheist author Dr.

Antony Flew at age 81 astounded other atheists with his candid admission. Flew, who is an emeritus professor of philosophy at Britain's Reading University has said that the scientific evidence available to us today is overwhelmingly in favor of the existence of a creator God. Flew, who was raised Methodist became an atheist at age 15, has been an influential champion of atheism for more than fifty years. He has argued repeatedly that there was not enough evidence to support the notion of a creator. But Flew has changed his mind and now believes in God based on the scientific evidence. Flew concluded that a superintelligence is the only plausible explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of the universe. Flew now describes himself as a deist. A deist is someone who believes in a God who is not actively involved in peoples lives. He has stated that he is not a Christian and does not believe in an afterlife. However, Flew has admitted that his God could be a person from the perspective of a being that has intelligence and purpose. 4. 5. Teaching at Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele and Reading universities in Britain, and in visits to numerous U.S. and Canadian campuses, and in books, articles, lectures and debates, Flew has presented the view that there is a lack of evidence for God. But during this time Flew underwent a gradual conversion from atheism to deism. In a letter he wrote in the August-September issue of Britains Philosophy Now magazine, "It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism." Flew said he had "been persuaded that it is simply out of the question that the first living matter evolved out of dead matter and then developed into an extraordinarily complicated creature". Flew correctly specifies that the scientific establishment has simply failed to answer this question. By taking issue with the naturalistic chemical origin of life, Flew is attacking the intellectual foundation of modern atheistic materialism and purely naturalistic evolution. Flew conceded that his current thoughts on the origin of life are similar to those of the intelligent design community. 6. 7. Flew stated that his "whole life has been guided by the principle of ... Follow the evidence, wherever it leads." By doing this he has come to the conclusion from "biologists investigation of DNA ... the almost

unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved." Flew went on to say that "It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design. Yet somehow we are still unable to present this very evidence to students at all levels of the American academic system. A newspaper in Texas recently made the obvious connection between Flews admission and academics: "If the scientific data are compelling enough to cause an atheist academic of Antony Flew's reputation to recant much of his life's work, why shouldn't Texas schoolchildren be taught the controversy?" Flew has been an atheist for nearly 70 years and has now come to believe that naturalism is inadequate to explain the origin of the universe and life. He has come to this conclusion based solely on scientific evidence. This event should now make it untenable for evolutionists in the United States to continue to argue that Intelligent Design is just Biblical creationism under a different guise. 8. 9. It is my opinion that the evidence for intelligent design of life and our universe literally leaps out at you from our current body of scientific knowledge. Over the next couple of decades intelligent design will roll in along side of evolution in school curriculums. It should be taught in schools as the science it is, and under the Supreme Court's current separation of church and State rulings, it is perfectly legal. We are on the brink of a revolution here. It has only been since the middle part of the 19th century that naturalism has dominated science. Virtually all scientists before this era were creationists. In the last fifty years amazing research tools have been invented. The electron microscope, the particle supercollider, the Hubble space telescope, and many other advanced scientific instruments have revealed a creation infinitely more complex than the simplistic ideas born out of the ignorance of the late 19th and early 20th century. We now know cells are not just chemical soup as Darwin imagined, but are indeed nanotechnological systems like nothing we could have ever imagined. A hundred years from now, if the Lord tarries, the age of Darwinian evolution and the rule of naturalism in science may be viewed as the dark ages of science. 10. 11. Famous Atheist "Flew" Now Believes in God and 12. 13. 14. By RICHARD N. OSTLING 15. AP Religion Writer

16. 17. 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. 18. 19. Antony Flew 20. Antony Flew. Into the Light? 21. Antony Flew. Moving Towards the Light? 22. Antony Flew. Out of the Shadows? 23. Antony Flew. Out of the Darkness? 24. 25. 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. 26. 27. Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives. 28. 29. "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." 30. 31. Flew first made his mark with the 1950 article "Theology and Falsification," based on a paper for the Socratic Club, a weekly Oxford religious forum led by writer and Christian thinker C.S. Lewis. 32. 33. Over the years, Flew proclaimed the lack of evidence for God while teaching at Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele, and Reading universities in Britain, in visits to numerous U.S. and Canadian campuses and in books, articles, lectures and debates. 34. 35. There was no one moment of change but a gradual conclusion over recent months for Flew, a spry man who still does not believe in an afterlife. 36. 37. Yet biologists' investigation of DNA "has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved," Flew says in the new video, "Has Science Discovered God?"

38. 39. The video draws from a New York discussion last May organized by author Roy Abraham Varghese's Institute for Metascientific Research in Garland, Texas. Participants were Flew; Varghese; Israeli physicist Gerald Schroeder, an Orthodox Jew; and Roman Catholic philosopher John Haldane of Scotland's University of St. Andrews. 40. 41. The first hint of Flew's turn was a letter to the August-September issue of Britain's Philosophy Now magazine. "It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism," he wrote. 42. 43. The letter commended arguments in Schroeder's "The Hidden Face of God" and "The Wonder of the World" by Varghese, an Eastern Rite Catholic layman. 44. 45. This week, Flew finished writing the first formal account of his new outlook for the introduction to a new edition of his "God and Philosophy," scheduled for release next year by Prometheus Books. 46. 47. Prometheus specializes in skeptical thought, but if his belief upsets people, well "that's too bad," Flew said. "My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato's Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads." 48. 49. Last week, Richard Carrier, a writer and Columbia University graduate student, posted new material based on correspondence with Flew on the atheistic www.infidels.org Web page. Carrier assured atheists that Flew accepts only a "minimal God" and believes in no afterlife. 50. 51. Flew's "name and stature are big. Whenever you hear people talk about atheists, Flew always comes up," Carrier said. Still, when it comes to Flew's reversal, "apart from curiosity, I don't think it's like a big deal." 52. 53. Flew told The Associated Press his current ideas have some similarity with American "intelligent design" theorists, who see evidence for a guiding force in the construction of the universe. He accepts Darwinian evolution but doubts it can explain the ultimate origins of life. 54.

55. A Methodist minister's son, Flew became an atheist at 15. 56. 57. Early in his career, he argued that no conceivable events could constitute proof against God for believers, so skeptics were right to wonder whether the concept of God meant anything at all. 58. 59. Another landmark was his 1984 "The Presumption of Atheism," playing off the presumption of innocence in criminal law. Flew said the debate over God must begin by presuming atheism, putting the burden of proof on those arguing that God exists. 60. 61. More articles: http://fwd4.me/Iif
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