In 2004 the atheist world was rocked ...
... although for some reason atheists didn't notice this ...
...by the news of one of the most important defections from its ranks in recent times. The world’s leading atheist, Antony Flew ...
... who none of us had ever heard of ...
BTW, I didn't realize there was a ranking system for atheists. Looking at the daft arguments he comes up with for theism, I find it hard to believe that he was ever the "world's leading" anything.
For over 50 years Flew was the number one proponent of atheism ...
... without atheists knowing who the heck he was.
I certainly had never heard of the man until he became a poster boy for theists.
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Incidentally, if he was "the world's leading atheist", who is now in the number one spot? Or won't you know until the next obscure nonentity gets religion?
Oh, and if this is "one of the most important defections", who are all the others? You have names, perhaps? How did
they rank?