Antony Flew, who formerly argued that miracles do not happen, recently participated in what many regard as little short of a miraculous event:
Biola University awarded Antony Flew, 83, formerly an outspoken debater for atheism, with the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth. Flew, a British philosopher, drew much criticism for deciding in 2004 that natural sciences supply evidence for an intelligent designer. Biola granted the award for Flew's "lifelong commitment to free and open inquiry and to standing fast against intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression."
Here's some background:
Antony Flew and Gary Habermas [a Christian philosopher and theologian]met in February 1985 in Dallas, Texas. The occasion was a series of debates between atheists and theists, featuring many influential philosophers, scientists, and other scholars.
A short time later, in May 1985, Flew and Habermas debated at Liberty University before a large audience. The topic that night was the resurrection of Jesus. Although Flew was arguably the world's foremost philosophical atheist, he had intriguingly also earned the distinction of being one of the chief philosophical commentators on the topic of miracles. Habermas specialized on the subject of Jesus' resurrection. Thus, the ensuing dialogue on the historical evidence for the central Christian claim was a natural outgrowth of their research.
Over the next twenty years, Flew and Habermas developed a friendship, writing dozens of letters, talking often, and dialoguing twice more on the resurrection. In April 2000 they participated in a live debate on the Inspiration Television Network, moderated by John Ankerberg. In January 2003 they again dialogued on the resurrection at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.
During a couple telephone discussions shortly after their last dialogue, Flew explained to Habermas that he was considering becoming a theist. While Flew did not change his position at that time, he concluded that certain philosophical and scientific considerations were causing him to do some serious rethinking. He characterized his position as that of atheism standing in tension with several huge question marks.
Then, a year later, in January 2004, Flew informed Habermas that he had indeed become a theist. While still rejecting the concept of special revelation, whether Christian, Jewish or Islamic, nonetheless he had concluded that theism was true. In Flew's words, he simply "had to go where the evidence leads."
There is a fascinating record of a lengthy dialogue between Habermas and Flew at the link. In it Flew makes it clear that he is not so much a theist as he is a deist, but the fact that he is no longer an atheist is all by itself a very remarkable thing.
