One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Antony Flew was until 2004 a rather unknown philosopher, whose earlier claim to fame was a disproof in the 1950s of the possibility of the Christian god. However, in 2004 it was announced thathe had become a deist -- seeing that the complexity of living organisms made abiogenesis unfeasable. The IDists were not slow to celebrate the event, while atheist Richard Carrier tried to downplay the conversion. Carrier's version of the conversion can be found here. Recently, a book, There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, listing Antony Flew as author together with the Christian apologist Roy Abraham Varghese. Mark Oppenheimer has written a New York Times article (here), which critically examines the book, the friendship between Flew and various Christians and the correspondence between Carrier and Flew. Several bloggers have addressed the issue, and I will here list the blog entries:

• PZ Myers (Pharyngula): Roy Varghese and the exploitation of Antony Flew

Myers mainly quotes Oppenheimer for the mental decline of Antony Flew.

• Richard Carrier (RCs Blogs): Antony Flew's Bogus Book

  Carrier claims that the book isn't written by Flew -- it is written as comtemporary Christian apologetics.

• Mark Perakh (Talk Reason): Flew, Schroeder, Varghese: What a company!

  Perakh tones down the conversion; deists are really just a variety of atheists.

• William Dembski (Uncommon Descent): I Liked the Old Atheists Better

  Dembski prefers the intellectual honesty and civility of an old-school atheist like Antony Flew for the crass and unruly behavior of the newer varietysuch as Richard Dawkins. Add to that the Flew is no longer an atheist.

  The article is followed by a message from Flew stating that he stands by the book. It was written by Varghese, because Flew is too old to write, but he has read the book and claims that it is his words.