Design arguments have caused philosopher Antony Flew to renounce 66 years
of atheism and admit that the universe is created. Specifically, he was
convinced by the complexity of life and the improbability
of abiogenesis.
Antony Flew's conversion was not to theism, but to a weak deism, a
belief that a creator set the universe in motion but has not
participated in any way since (Carrier 2004).
Flew's one and only piece of relevant evidence for accepting a deistic
god was the apparent improbability of a naturalistic origin for life
(Carrier 2004). Flew, by his own admission, had not kept up with the
relevant science and was mistaught by Gerald Schroeder, a physicist and
Jewish theologian (e.g., Schroeder 2001). He later conceded, "I now
realize that I have made a fool of myself by believing that there were
no presentable theories of the development of inanimate matter up to
the first living creature capable of reproduction" (Carrier 2005).
Thus Flew's conversion is, by Flew's own admission, baseless.
Flew remains a deist but calls his belief a "very modest defection from
my previous unbelief" (Carrier 2005).
The argument from authority is weak to begin with, and Flew has never
been a spokesperson for atheism, much less for the unrelated subject of
evolution. Nobody's unsupported beliefs, including Flew's, constitute
an argument for or against evolution (nor for or against atheism). Only
evidence and logical argument are legitimate reasons to accept or
reject any objective position.
