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[WordofGod]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=315976

Famous Atheist Now Believes in God
One of World's Leading Atheists Now Believes in God, More or Less, Based on Scientific Evidence
Associated Press
NEW YORK Dec 9, 2004

 

[levious]

Man Near Death Finds God... Public Shocked!

Seriously though, holiday feel good news story, feels so staged.

I am not an atheist btw.

 

[cubanb]

if he is famous, why haven't i heard of him?

 

[AntoneM]

"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."

he's still not religious

 

[geogaddi]

* waiting for the 'he is about to die cause he's old, so, he succumbs to fear' *

 

[geogaddi]

holy crap! levious is ahead of my pre-determination!

(or just quick to say stuff)

 

[Hitokage]

The title is misleading, the man now believes in a Creator, not the Judeo-christian God.

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?"

Heh, suckered in by the stupid information theory argument from the ID camp.

 

[levious]

holy crap! levious is ahead of my pre-determination!

(or just quick to say stuff)

eh, the forum's loading a bit slow...

But yeah, it's certainly not far-fetched... can you imagine facing death believing that the end was literally the END? I can't.

And yes, in my mind reaching 80 + years of age constitutes facing death.

 

[border]

Religious zealots are trying to prop this guy up now? Did they miss the part where he said the Christian god is a "cosmic Saddam Hussein" and that there is no afterlife....or are they just ignoring it?

Sounds like he bought into intelligent design theory or something.

 

[KingGondo]

I predict that this thread will either:

a) spark immense controversy amongst GA's polarized posters, creating a 10+ page long thread, or

b) hopefully end soon, because this story is insignificant and surprisingly non-controversial, despite the gloating tone of the initial poster.

Too bad Flew doesn't believe in anything more than some sort of "god, more or less", because that would create a hell of a thread!

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

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

Man, I hate that argument. It just pushes back the question. If something must have created the first simple organisms, how did that thing come about without a prior creator, and so on?

 

[Property of Jumpship]

Hmm... Im reading one of his book right now and I'll probably stop reading it. Fucking hypocrite.

 

[soundwave05]

Man, I hate that argument. It just pushes back the question. If something must have created the first simple organisms, how did that thing come about without a prior creator, and so on?

The Kentucky Fried Chicken guy from The Matrix created God.

 

[pnjtony]

ERGO!

Vis-A Vis!

 

[Phoenix]

The title is misleading, the man now believes in a Creator, not the Judeo-christian God.

Not sure why people always assume the word God is equivalent to the Judeo Christian God.

 

[levious]

Not sure why people always assume the word God is equivalent to the Judeo Christian God.

when it's capitalized and used as a pronoun rather than a noun. Yes, it's a title, so every word is capitalized, but saying Believes in God, rather than Believes in a God in the title is the difference.

 

[Hitokage]

Not sure why people always assume the word God is equivalent to the Judeo Christian God.

Language use aside, I'm curious if there even is a use of "God"(not "god") that isn't judeochristian.

levious: you mean name, not pronoun.

 

[levious]

do I? Not sure when we're talking about God/god... but ok, I guess. I mean, God is God, but that's not his name right? Of course, that question was never welcomed in CCD class, but that might have been more because we had a limited session.

 

[StoOgE]

Ive been pretty convinced that there has to be some sort of creator for years... but no way is anyone going to be scientifically convinced that a specific diety exists. It sorta goes against the grain of faith. Which is something that bothers me about religious people that are bothered by evolution.

If you have faith, stuff like that shouldnt bother you. Im pretty sure most religious people arent actually religious.. they are just afraid of their own mortality and desperatly want to kling to something that makes them go on forever.

<--- before someone yells at me for being a heathen, Im Christian. My father and Uncle are both preachers.

BTW: Capital "God" is Judeo-Christian. Ive never heard it used in any other way.. its a proper name refering to that one diety.

 

[cvxfreak]

Heh, this is certainly a coincidence.

 

[NLB2]

People like this atheist turned deist really make me wonder why people are so stupid. After all, did Kant not publish his Critique of Pure Reason, in which he refutes any and all teleological arguments three centuries ago?

Yet idiots such as this man and many Christian apologists still use this antiquated argument as proof of a god.

 

[geogaddi]

People like this atheist turned deist really make me wonder why people are so stupid. After all, did Kant not publish his Critique of Pure Reason, in which he refutes any and all teleological arguments three centuries ago?

Yet idiots such as this man and many Christian apologists still use this antiquated argument as proof of a god.

Ad homonims.

There are MANY critiques against Kant critiques against teleogical arguments. (See philosophy publications (published in philosophical journals) from Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Michael Wreen, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, William P. Alston, Robert Audi, Frank Beckwith, William Lane Craig, Dallas Willard, J.P. Moreland if you are interested.

Kant didn't exactly "settle" the issue and quite frankly I don't think anyone will. It's best, imo, to examine both sides of the equation and weigh them.

 

[Azih]

Capital "God" is Judeo-Christian. Ive never heard it used in any other way..

Unless of course, it comes at the start of a sentence.

 

[iapetus]

Ad homonims.

Cool! The idea of 'ad homonym' arguments is one that appeals to me for some reason.

 

[Hitokage]

Ad homonims.

Funny typos aside, NLB2 did not use ad hominem. If anything, he used appeal to authority.

 

[Warm Machine]

Atheists do it all the time. Its an inside joke...

better a christian die than an atheist.

 

[dem]

:lol @thread title

 

[SickBoy]

I was sort of surprised when I read the story, because basically the guy's always said "I'll go where the evidence takes me" and the only evidence he can offer up is "damn this is complex! How could nature do this?"

I mean, I don't really care, you can plant me firmly in the agnostic camp... it's not like this story is shattering my core beliefs or anything... I just thought the reasoning was off...

I suppose maybe it's part of parcel of him challenging his faith as an athiest... I'm just wondering why it took him 66 years to do so...

 

[Anthropic]

Anthony Flew wrote this in 2001:

http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=138

The more I contemplate the eschatological teachings of Christianity and Islam the more I wish I could demonstrate their falsity

And here's an update:

http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=369

 

[AstroLad]

Hooray for Pascal's Wager.