Antony Flew

Who bears the burden of proof: the one who claims a dragon lives in his garage, or the one who asks to see it? He revolutionized the debate by insisting on the "presumption of atheism," arguing that we should start from a position of skepticism until evidence dictates otherwise. "Follow the argument wherever it leads," was his lifelong motto, even when it took him through the thorniest thickets of analytical philosophy. He stripped the theist of their favorite escape hatches, demanding that divine claims be falsified just like any other scientific statement. Although he famously shifted his views late in life, his early work remains the gold standard for the logical necessity of doubt. He is the architect of the intellectual "checkmate."