Comments for Eppur Si Muove at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 12 out of 12 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:23:19 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13372 Flew's conversion is only murky if you discount almost all of what he said and wrote in the last three years of his life. Now suppose we did the same for our commenter, Joe. I suppose we could make his opposition to orthodox Roman Catholicism to be unreliably murky. Just don't count anything he says or writes contrary to our already fixed position about him. How can we know his heart? Certainly not from anything he writes or says! He may actually be a very well known Roman Catholic by the name of Joe ... Namely, the Pope! - G.K. Thursday Wed, 12 Sep 2012 19:21:22 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13371 BOB, he did not call that an argument. Did you read the words "this is an argument?" - jason taylor Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:35:33 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13370 Antony Flew, whom I admired when an Atheist, not least for his patience in hearing out contrary arguments, became a deist late in life specifically because he thought developments in the vastly more complex realm of biology were confirming intimations in advanced physics, that the universe is no accident. He did not change position lightly, & was wrestling with details to the end, with characteristic candour & honesty. As he said in an interview, "It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design." He was trashed by Richard Dawkins & his outriders, who repeatedly suggested he was senile, & being used & confused by born-again whackos. Flew nevertheless answered for himself quite coherently & intelligently in a voice with which this reader at least was long familiar. We cannot know what is in another man's heart, but we can often follow what he says, & Flew said he had converted from Atheism to Deism, not Christianity. But he did add a nearly Chaucerian retraction: "As people have certainly been influenced by me, I want to try and correct the enormous damage I may have done." It was a very impressive man who said that. - David Warren Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:27:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13369 Joe, "how can anyone know what is in someone else's heart?" And that you call an argument? - BOB Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:53:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13367 This article recalls to mind the contemporary effort among "progressives" in the "academy" to suffocate scientfic skepticism and force academic conformity to the phony "consensus" of "scientists" about "global warming." The author Michael Chrichton (Jurassic Park) wrote in the WSJ a year or so before he died warning us to watch out when so-called scientists start talking about "consensus" - they're trying to pick your pocket. - Chris in Maryland Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:47:41 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13366 @Howard, Flew's alleged latter day "conversion" is murky at best. According to some of his last quotes, he remained atheistic to the end. However, how can anyone know what is in someone else's heart? - Joe Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:39:46 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13365 Mr. Warren reminded me of my own 7th grade science teacher who had an enduring impact on me. How many good teachers have been driven out of schools by mediocrity, complacency, and envy? I was also fascinated by the Encode news story last week. I was reminded of the late 19th and early 20th century eugenicists who believed in "junk people." Defective people without a purpose or meaning or even basic "use" and therefore ignorable or worse disposible. H.G. Wells and others were unwitting and unknowing useful idiots for Hitler and his kind. No junk DNA; no Junk People was one thought I had after reading the story. Probably too much of a simplification I'm sure. I wish Mr. Warren would write more often here. He's obviously had an interesting life with interesting responses to it. - Graham Combs Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:50:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13364 @Joe: As you may know, Anthony Flew later changed his mind about teleology in nature and became a deist. He was particularly impressed by discoveries concerning the DNA master codes. - Howard Kainz Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:34:06 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13363 Antony Flew took up Aquinas' premises that "Everything in nature ... is directed to its goal by someone with understanding, and this we call God." ...Flew wrote, "this to conclude, on the basis of evidence largely if not exclusively contrary, that always and absolutely everywhere. even where there seems to be no human or other natural direction, all development is nevertheless always completely subordinate to and dependent upon supernatural control. This argument constitutes a most gigantic begging of the question, and a begging of it in defiance of the evidence actually offered in support of the conclusion thus illicitly attained. Such a performance by the goy Aquinas demands a Yiddish-type response: "And that you call an argument?" - Joe Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:20:20 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13362 Speaking about the relation between theology and philosophy before Aquinas, Etienne Gilson makes a statement to the effect that Christians knew there was something wrong with philosophy since it was saying things which contradicted the Faith. However, the Christian would have to wait for the philosophers to figure it out. Wouldn't this be an appropriate attitude to take toward some of science's 'findings' today? - Nick Kangas Wed, 12 Sep 2012 03:20:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13360 thanks for a informative read!, Jack - Jack,CT Wed, 12 Sep 2012 02:27:43 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/eppur-si-muove.html#comment-13358 I cannot rid myself of the suspicion that Intelligent Design is an "empty" concept, incapable of distinguishing any conceivable sequence of events from any other. - Michael Paterson-Seymour Tue, 11 Sep 2012 22:34:14 +0100