RE: If sufficiently advanced techology is indistinguishable from magic...
May 11, 2013 at 1:21 pm
(This post was last modified: May 11, 2013 at 1:28 pm by Creed of Heresy.)
A professor of Philosophy...not a professor of genetics. I am a very capable writer (by the opinion of others) and a talented cook (reiteration). Yet for some reason I don't comment on automobile engines. Why? Because I don't fucking know anything about them.
It doesn't seem strange to you that the man was an atheist his entire life but at the very end of his lifespan he suddenly found god?
How convenient for him.
He was a man who was confronted with his mortality and succumbed to fear. This is exemplified by how wildly he kept changing his opinions and stances during the last ten years of his life. He went from having a constant stance that would change only in minor ways according to new data to suddenly making wild jump to conclusions at the very end of his lifespan, and he never really did much to justify his sudden changes in position other than "I just has a feels, guiz." Which, surprise surprise, caused most people to stop taking him seriously...including many of the religious, who considered what he was doing to be a deathbed conversion and little else.
Also it's worth noting that apparently this.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Flew...h_Varghese
It doesn't seem strange to you that the man was an atheist his entire life but at the very end of his lifespan he suddenly found god?
How convenient for him.
He was a man who was confronted with his mortality and succumbed to fear. This is exemplified by how wildly he kept changing his opinions and stances during the last ten years of his life. He went from having a constant stance that would change only in minor ways according to new data to suddenly making wild jump to conclusions at the very end of his lifespan, and he never really did much to justify his sudden changes in position other than "I just has a feels, guiz." Which, surprise surprise, caused most people to stop taking him seriously...including many of the religious, who considered what he was doing to be a deathbed conversion and little else.
Also it's worth noting that apparently this.
Quote:In 2007, Flew published a book titled There is a God, which was listed as having Roy Abraham Varghese as its co-author. Shortly after the book was released, the New York Times published an article by religious historian Mark Oppenheimer, who stated that Varghese had been almost entirely responsible for writing the book, and that Flew was in a serious state of mental decline, having great difficulty remembering key figures, ideas, and events relating to the debate covered in the book. His book praises several philosophers (like Brian Leftow, John Leslie and Paul Davies), but Flew failed to remember their work during Oppenheimer's interview. The article provoked a public outcry, in which atheist PZ Myers called Varghese "a contemptible manipulator."
A further article by Anthony Gottlieb noted a strong difference in style between the passages giving Flew's biography, and those laying out the case for a god, with the latter including Americanisms such as "beverages", "vacation" and "candy". He came to the same conclusion as Oppenheimer, and stated that "Far from strengthening the case for the existence of God, [the book] rather weakens the case for the existence of Antony Flew". Varghese replied with a letter disputing this view. Flew released a statement through his publisher stating that although Varghese did the actual writing, the book belonged to him and represented his thinking. An audio commentary by William Lane Craig concurs with this position, but Richard Carrier disputes this view. Though Carrier's objections have themselves been criticised. In June 2008, Flew stated his position once again, in a letter to a fellow of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Flew...h_Varghese
