Tuesday, November 20, 2007

More on Flew Flying the Atheist Coop

Christian journalist, Doug LeBlanc has written a good blog piece on the Flew controversy. It comes down to this: The New York Times tried to smear Flew.

5 comments:

Kyl Schalk said...

This is one of my favorite papers. I think it gives some great information about how some people are not informed, etc. Francis Beckwith wrote, “Here's my theory: Wills, Smiley, et al., are not informed on these matters. They are relying on inherited stereotypes and widely held bigotry embraced by most of the people in whose circles they run. It's not that they know the truth and are suppressing it. They just don't know the truth because they don't believe it could in principle exist. They are committed to the proposition that if you don't hold to a liberal, materialist view of the state, then you are ignorant, evil, or incurably religious, or any two or all three. Given that commitment, they can't see the point of looking for something they believe can't be there.” http://homepage.mac.com/francis.beckwith/Bigotry.htm

Kyl Schalk said...

There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind sounds like a great book!

Anonymous said...

Here is Flew's response to critics, though you may have already seen it:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6501078.html

Ed Darrell said...

A lot of people are wondering about the alleged conversion. First, up to the moment Flew said he thinks there may be something to the concept of justifying God on the basis of design, Mao and Stalin were the world's most notorious atheists. Then Flew, on the basis of bad information, said he questioned evolution, and now he's ahead of Mao and Stalin.

Who runs that beauty pageant? Shouldn't he have to put on a swim suit or something?

But second, Flew has backtracked a couple of times since he made the original "conversion." It seems he gives different stories depending on who he's talking to, and whether anyone is in the room pumping him with science falsely so-called. If he's being pumped with false science, he's against evolution. If not, he's questioning nothing much new.

And then there's the appearance of the tragedy of people taking advantage of an 84-year-old man who shows all the signs of his age. Who is this Varghese fellow, anyway? Can anyone vouch for his bona fides?

See here:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/11/roy_varghese_and_the_exploitat.php

If the defense of Christianity rests on this book, we're in a lot of trouble.

If anyone thinks this book makes a good case against evolution, against atheism, or for Christianity, they haven't read the book, or they don't know much about one or all of those topics.

There is a God. I wish God would do some thing to save Flew from this abuse. I wish God would do something to save Christians from such frippery, and such dishonorable discourse.

Ed Darrell said...

Oh, try this one; it should fit in the box:
http://tinyurl.com/2qd5rs