If you're an Atheist...

...don't ever change your mind. Other atheists will start to question your intelligence, your motives, and whatever else they can find to attack.

Okay, that's a broad and unfair generalization, but it seems to work out. I ran across this about Antony Flew on another blog (Between Two Worlds):

Antony Flew, for those who do not know, was an atheist. He is now about 84 years old, and for most of his life championed the cause of atheism. One of his well-known articles is "The Presumption of Atheism," which argues that in discussions about the existence of God, we have to start with the assumption that God does not exist, and the burden of proof lies with the theist to prove God's existence.

But, a few years ago (I can't remember exactly how many), Antony Flew changed his tune. He began to believe in God. Now don't get all excited--he doesn't believe in the God of the Bible, but more like the Unmoved Mover of Aristotle, or the Watchmaker god of the Deists. But still, he changed his mind on the matter. This has been documented in a new book which came out recently called "There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind" written by Antony Flew and R. A. Varghese.

Apparently, though, in a review of this book in the New York Times, the writer questions everything from Antony Flew's involvement in this book to his intellectual capacity at the age of 80-something. The writer just couldn't accept that Antony Flew could change his mind and believe in something so ridiculous as God.

In a response to this Review, R. A. Varghese writes: "Tony has taken it on himself to respond to every attack on his intellectual integrity in contributions to publications ranging from a rationalist journal in New Zealand to the latest issue of Skeptic magazine in the UK. The attacks on him are always highlighted on the Internet--his responses are never to be found unless you happen to get hold of the print editions." The article this is taken from can be found here: Doubting Antony Flew.

It seems that atheism is just as dogmatic as they claim theists to be, and in the words of Varghese, referring to Antony Flew's position on the matter, several of the greatest "apostles of reason" are just "bigots."

I thought that this whole discussion was interesting, considering as the most vocal atheists all claim to deal with reason alone--until it doesn't prove or show what they want it to, apparently.

They don't take into consideration the fact that even our faculty of reason has been tainted by sin, and so we must constantly keep watch over our own thoughts as well, testing even those spirits that we find in ourselves.