I agree with banderson, no use in using a UV filter to prevent a frontal smash to the front element, but it helps to keep the front element clean of scratches, dirt, and other small particles. Do these small things even matter? Of course not, you can smash your front element to a million pieces and it still won't show in most cases! But I like to keep my lenses clean anyways.
I also agree with above poster saying it would have happened without the filter too. A filter is glass, and glass flares. It may make flaring worse, but flaring will be present with or without the filter if you point it right at the bloody sun.