God & Philosophy

Professor Flew is a wise man. I say this as a Catholic Theist (and he is no friend of Catholics, though he does respect them in their search for the truth). In this books Professor Flew presents his arguements against the existence (and even coherence) of the Monotheistic (read: "God of Abraham") deity. Flew's biggest fault is that he is a radical empiricist (at least when he was writing the book), which is a poor place to start as it eventually turns on itself. However he does raise still a number of salient points which the average theist should know how to answer. The average theist and/or upper level philosophy undergrads, may have a tough time reading and taking Professor Flew's meaning. The biggest qualm I have with the book is that it is a difficult read. Flew tends to digress, and then digress in his digresson, and 15 pages will have gone by before you get to what the chapter was supposed to deal with. His sentence structure is also a bit difficult at times to understand. That's not to say it's un-readable at all. Just that the average reader will need to understand that this book will need to be read and re-read most likely to fully take his meaning.

To Dear GangstaLawya Have you actually read the book or at least Flew's new introduction regarding his changed view on theism? He stated that there are number of new factors to consider before nailing down one's position on God's existence. Pray do not amplify what has been said and said soundly. Moreoever, whether Flew himself actually rejected his own argument or not, this book, even to Christians(incluidng I the writer of this review), furnishes a compelling and comprehensive reexamination of one's belief system. Descartes' meditation is still considered a work of great mind long after his arguments are proven defective or misleading. The fact that an author changed his view does not make his work less valuable.

Flew was one of the first to attempt clearly and precisely explain how most supposed discussions of the existence of "God" are vacuous and irrelevant in that they illegimately presuppose that said discussions are clear (meaningful?) as to what it is that is supposedly under discussion. Of course there also are issues involved in the by now the famous Flew arguments re theology and the possibility of falsification. This little book is one of the better places to begin a "serious" reading of these and many other issues.