There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
In There Is a God, one of the world's preeminent atheists discloses how his commitment to "follow the argument wherever it leads" led him to a belief in God as Creator. This is a compelling and refreshingly open-minded argument that will forever change the atheism debate.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
British philosopher Flew has long been something of an evangelist for atheism, debating theologians and pastors in front of enormous crowds. In 2004, breathless news reports announced that the nonagenarian had changed his mind. This book tells why. Ironically, his arguments about the absurdity of God-talk launched a revival of philosophical theists, some of whom, like Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinburne, were important in Flew's recent conversion to theism. Breakthroughs in science, especially cosmology, also played a part: if the speed or mass of the electron were off just a little, no life could have evolved on this planet. Perhaps the arrogance of the New Atheists also emboldened him, as Flew taunts them for failing to live up to the greatness of atheists of yore. The book concludes with an appendix by New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop N.T. Wright, arguing for the coherence of Christian belief in the resurrection. Flew praises Wright, though he maintains some distance still from orthodox Christianity. The book will be most avidly embraced by traditional theists seeking argumentative ammunition. It sometimes disappoints: quoting other authorities at length, citing religion-friendly scientists for pages at a time and belaboring side issues, like the claim that Einstein was really a religious believer of sorts. (Nov.)
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Review
"A most valuable and readable overview of the many evidential changes of landscape that 20th century science is furnishing to the oldest question in Western civilization: Is there a God?" -- American Spectator
About the Author
Philosopher and former atheist Antony Flew set the agenda for modern atheism with his 1950 essay "Theology and Falsification," which became the most widely reprinted philosophical publication of the last half century. Flew has published over thirty books, including God and Philosophy, The Presumption of Atheism, and How to Think Straight. He spent twenty years as professor of philosophy at the University of Keele and has also held positions at Oxford, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Reading. He now lives in Reading, England.
Customer Reviews
The universe, the earth, life, rational and moral man - all require the Mind of God
FLEW REVIEW THERE IS A GOD
This must-read book is outstandingly easy to read, because the author and his collaborators - Roy Abraham Varghese (Preface and Appendix A) and Anglican Bishop Tom Wright (Appendix B) - all write with admirable clarity, but also because the print layout is so easy on the eye, with well-spaced lines and attractive type-face. A model. Would that more authors managed to put their deepest thoughts, like Flew here, in a mere 160 pages (his own text)!.
One cry of anguish, more than a mere speck in this ointment. How, oh how, did the book's editors allow it to be published without an index? To illustrate, the book repeatedly demolishes Richard Dawkins - this happens all over the place, but without cross-referencing. Every author mentioned, and every idea and topic, should every time be referenced in an index.
The author's text is divided into two main parts of equal length: the first, an outline of his early slide from the traditional Christian childhood of his time to atheism in his late teens, and an ensuing active `apostolate' in defence of atheism, via a stream of books and various university posts, from his Oxford days (including meetings chaired by C S Lewis!) in the early 1950s through teaching posts in Aberdeen, Keele, various American universities, and Reading, to his 80th year, when at a symposium in New York in 2004, "To the surprise of all concerned, I announced at the start that I now accepted the existence of a God ... when asked if recent work on the origin of life pointed to the activity of a creative Intelligence, I said: `Yes, I now think it does ... almost entirely because of the DNA investigations ... the DNA material ... has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together (pp. 74,5)." On the `monkey theorem' [random monkey key-board tapping to see if it will produce a Shakespearean sonnet] Flew concludes: "You will never get a sonnet by chance. The universe would have to be 10 to the 600th times larger. Yet the world just thinks the monkeys can do it every time (pp. 75-77)." What about the whole of Shakespeare?
In 1961 Flew wrote an acclaimed commentary on Hume's Philosophy of Belief. He now says, "I have long wanted to make major corrections to my book ... in the light of my new-found awareness that Hume was utterly wrong to maintain that we have no experience, and hence no genuine ideas, of making things happen and of preventing things from happening, of physical necessity and of physical impossibility (p. 57)." Hume would notice that the application of heat to a pot of water co-existed with the water's boiling. But he refused to say that the heat caused the water to boil. Flew's rejection of this is something that I also believe most profoundly as a general principle, which I enunciate this way, that philosophers who reject the reality of the world outside of their minds, or who reject any concept of morality or of right and wrong, cannot and do not live by these beliefs in practice. Flew puts it beautifully: "Hume's scepticism about cause and effect and his agnosticism about the external world are of course jettisoned the moment he leaves his study (p. 58)."
In the second part of his book, Flew outlines the reasons that brought him to belief in a God, a Mind who designed the universe. Note however that Flew has (so far) stopped short of identifying this God with the Judeo-Christian God. He says: "The God whose existence is defended by [David] Conway [in his book The Rediscovery of Wisdom: From Here to Antiquity in Quest of Sophia] and myself is the God of Aristotle (p. 92)."
Nevertheless, he has included, as Appendix B in his book, a 30-page essay by the present Anglican Bishop of Durham, N T Wright, a leading New Testament scholar, who argues to a newly-sympathetic Flew that the evidence for the real existence of the Person of Jesus Christ, the solidity of his claim to fulfil in himself all the Old Testament expectations that the God of Israel would visit and save his people, the Christian claim that he is divine, the evidence for miracles and, supremely, the miracle of the Resurrection, provide a most solid platform for making the `leap of faith' to belief in Jesus Christ. As Flew says on page 186, introducing Wright's essay, "If you're wanting Omnipotence to set up a religion, this is the one to beat."
However, Flew stresses that "my discovery of the Divine has been a pilgrimage of reason and not of faith", as he `followed the evidence wherever it led'.(p. 93)."
One of the interesting things about this book is the clearly perceived relationship between philosophy and science, especially as expressed in current Darwinism. Flew defends the absolute right of the philosopher to critique scientists, on the unchallengeable grounds that the scientist is not always acting merely as a scientist: "When you ask how it is that those subatomic particles - or anything [Flew highlights `anything'] physical - could exist and why, you are engaged in philosophy. When you draw philosophical conclusions from scientific data, then you are thinking as a philosopher (p. 89)." When the scientist extrapolates from what he sees under the microscope or in the fossils or in field work, to preach that rational, moral man must have evolved, and actually has `evolved', by exactly the same micro-evolutionary steps as explain adaptations within species, he is stepping outside his brief and his competence as a scientist. There is a fast-growing literature pointing out that this `belief' is scientifically and logically unsustainable.
For reasons of space, I sum up: "Science spotlights three aspects of nature that point to God. The first is the fact that nature obeys laws. The second is the dimension of life, of intelligently organized and purpose-driven beings, which arose from matter. The third is the very existence of nature (pp. 88,89)." "Those scientists who point to the Mind of God do not merely advance a series of arguments or a process of syllogistic reasoning. Rather, they propound a vision of reality that emerges from the conceptual heart of modern science and imposes itself on the rational mind. It is a vision that I personally find compelling and irrefutable (p. 112)." "The only satisfactory explanation for the origin of such `end-directed, self-replicating life as we see on earth is an infinitely intelligent Mind (p. 132)."
In Appendix A, Varghese attacks the `New Atheists', Dawkins, Dennet, Wolpert, Harris and Stenger. He lists five phenomena that call for a God: human rationality, life and autonomous action, consciousness, conceptual thought, and the human self which is the center of consciousness, thought and action (pp. 161,162) In brief, these "underlie our experience of the world and ... cannot be explained within the framework of the `new atheism' (p. 165)."
Great
There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind by Antony Flew is a book about a man who was a staunch atheist for most of his life and now becomes a believer in God. It did not happen overnight it took twenty years but he is now a believer. When he was a atheist he claimed he would follow the evidence no matter where it lead him. "The evidence" that he followed led him to the conclusion that there was a God. Breakthroughs in science, especially cosmology played a big part in Flew's change of mind. He learned that if the mass or speed of an "electron" were off by a fraction there would be no life on this planet. There is much more evidence of God's existence if you know where to look! If you liked Flew's book you might like the book entitled "The Enlightenment, What God Told Me After One Million Prayers: A Message For Everyone,"
FLEW FINALLY FINDS the FLOCK
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In the parable of the lost sheep (a sheep that has strayed from the flock) found in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says there will be more joy in Heaven over "one sinner that repenteth" than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. Thus, the main author of this book states (or repents):
"It`s time for me to lay my cards on the table, to set out my own views, and the reasons that support them. I now believe that the universe was brought into existence by an infinite Intelligence [and this Intelligence belongs to God]. I believe that the universe's intricate laws manifest what scientists have called the Mind of God. I believe that life and reproduction originate in a divine Source [and that Source is God]."
The above is found in this slim book by, according to the book's cover, "the world's most notorious atheist," Antony Flew (born: 1923) , a "renowned" philosopher who announced in 2004 that he now accepts the existence of God.
Roy Varghese (whose name also appears on the book's front cover) is, I presume, the co-author of this book (with Flew being the main author). Unlike for Flew, there is no information about him anywhere in the book but an Internet search reveals that he "is the editor and author of various books on the interface between science and religion."
The book itself is divided into six sections:
(1) Preface by Varghese
(2) Introduction by Flew
(3) Part 1 (three chapters) written by Flew explains, against an autobiographical background, his "denial of the Divine"
(4) Part 2 (seven chapters) written by Flew explains, after over half a century as an atheist, his "discovery of the Divine"
(5) Appendix A by Varghese about the "New Atheists"
(6) Appendix B by Flew which is a "dialogue on Jesus with [Bishop] N.T. Wright."
The best parts of this book (for me anyway) are the autobiographical details written by Flew. For someone totally unaware of Flew's existence, I now feel I know him well. The history of twentieth century philosophy is well presented. Also, I found some of the philosophy presented to be quite interesting (but some readers may find it too abstract for their taste).
Some of the science presented is quite good but in some spots Flew demonstrates little understanding of science and how it works.
However, the good points of this book are prologue to its reasoning for the existence of God. Instead of trying to construct a coherent chain of reasoning in his own words, Flew often presents his views by quoting the written works of mainly scientists (the quotes here are out of context), popularizers of science, and philosophers.
Flew doesn't seem to care if readers understand what he is trying to say. For example, one crucial passage refers to a "C-inductive argument" for God, but there is no explanation as to what such an argument is.
The pattern of reasoning seems always to be the same--something (such as consciousness or the order of nature) is said to be mysterious (that is, science can't explain or adequately explain a phenomenon) and its boldly asserted that the only "logical" and possible explanation for it is "an infinitely intelligent Mind."
We're never told how and why the existence of such a mind constitutes an explanation.
Finally, the form of reasoning illustrated in this book actually highlights one of the truly bad effects of religion. This is that it's a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding. If you don't understand how something works, never mind: just give up and say God did it.
(Alternatively, if you do something wrong, you don't have to take responsibility for your actions. Just say: "The devil made me do it.")
In conclusion, it's unclear whether:
(1) Flew has lost the desire to reason effectively or
(2) he is trying to make amends for initially not believing (for over five decades) his Methodist minister father or
(3) he is attempting to open up a space for himself in Heaven (Flew is in his 80s) or
(4) he no longer cares what's published under his name.
One thing I am certain of, though, is that this lost sheep remains rather...lost.
(first published 2007; preface; introduction; 10 chapters; main narrative 160 pages; 2 appendices; notes)
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