Ex-atheists, Great Scot !

This week I have encountered a young and an old ex atheist. The young ex is Scott Brennan, who spoke at our 'Heart for Scotland' conference at Scottish Churches House, Dunblane. Five years ago he started The Lighthouse church movement in theb Lothians. Now there are thirteen cells and a youth bus. But when Scott was at school he wrote an essay entitled 'Why There Is No God.' It won a national award. He received a prize. It was a Bible! It seems he has never looked back.

The second ex atheist is Antony Flew. For fifty years he was one of the world?s most influential atheists. He changed his mind in 2004, and wrote a book entitled 'There is a God.' He faced up to the fact that modern science spotlights three dimensions of nature that point to God. The first is that nature obeys laws; how did these laws come to be? The second is that there are intelligently organized and purpose-driven beings; how could they originate from non-life? The third is the existence of nature; how did it come into existence? He came to the conclusion that it is more unrealistic to account for these by chance than by God.

In his book 'There is a God' Flew quotes Professor Stephen Hawkins: ?You still have the question: why does the universe bother to exist? If you like, you can define God to be the answer to that question?. He quotes Einstein: ?We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws?A little child entering a huge library knows someone must have written these books. It does not know how?. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.? He quotes Charles Darwin: ?I feel compelled to look for a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.?.He quotes Paul Davies: ?Atheists claim that the laws (of nature) exist reasonlessly and that the universe is ultimately absurd. As a scientist I find this hard to accept. There must be an unchanging rational ground in which the logical, orderly nature of the universe is rooted.?