Antony Flew, born February 11, 1923 died on April 8, 2010. He is survived by his wife, Annis, and two daughters.
Dr. Flew was an Atheist since his teens. He spent most of his life promoting Atheism. However, he always believed in the Socratic principle of following the evidence wherever it leads. This brought him to evolve into a Deist in 2004.
After becoming a Deist he wrote a book called There Is A God. The book made clear that he believed in Deism and not in any of the various "revealed" religions such as Christianity or Judaism. He described himself as a Deist along the same lines as Thomas Jefferson.
Many of the obituaries of Dr. Flew neglect to mention his Deism. They say he came to believe in Intelligent Design but also neglect to mention that it is not the Intelligent Design promoted by the Abrahamic "revealed" religions in the Bible and Koran. Antony Flew believed in Deistic Intelligent Design. He believed the complexity in the designs in Nature was too great to have occured by accident. In particular, the working code in DNA made him realize that code in and of itself is intelligence dependent. He, like Albert Einstein, believed this presupposes a Supreme Intelligence, or God.
Antony Flew demonstrated a lot of class, honesty and character by being able to publicly admit he was wrong. He had the courage to sincerely follow the Socratic principle and to DO something about it. As a Deist, I salute him and thank him.
