There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind

It would seem that respect for intellectual honesty would not be related to content. In other words, if someone displays a high level of integrity in what they believe and how they arrive at conclusions, it would be respected by intelligent people regardless of whether or not they agree with those beliefs. Alas, I must live in a fantasy world. In this book Antony Flew explains clearly and carefully how the underlying foundation of his intellectual life: "follow the evidence where it leads" first led him to atheism and now leads him to theism. The names he is called by his former friends calls into question their own intellectual honesty and whether or not they have the courage to follow the evidence where it leads. I highly commend this book not based on my support for its conclusions, but for a very clearly written travelogue of a brilliant man's journey through the deepest questions in life.

This book was quite different than I expected. I thought it would be arguments for the existence of God, and its notoriety due to the fact that they were being posed by someone who once made arguments against. But no, it's not really that. Then I thought it would be a sort of conversion story, with the bells and whistles toned down since the author was a philosopher-- a sort of muted, boring conversion story. But no, wrong again. And there was the question if it was going to be on the philosophical level of "If P then Q" or "The unexamined life is not worth living" sort of philosophy. But it's not really on either. All these disclaimers are necessary because this book really didn't fit my general reading list, nor any of my preconceptions about it. Anyone who wants arguments for the existence of God, generally known as "apologetics" can certainly find easier to read books. Anyone who wants involved philosophical proofs won't find those either. This is a sort of middle-ground book which is not really casual reading, but at the same time, anyone interested in the topic or with background in the subject will find it a significant contribution to the discussion. The subtitle is "How the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind". It sounds like more "New Atheist" hype, but it's actually the case that since the 1950s, beginning with a widely reprinted article, "Theology and Falsification", Antony Flew has been a leading atheist philosopher. The irony is that the above mentioned article was first read at the Socratic Club at Oxford, a debating society chaired by C.S. Lewis, known for writing works of Christian apologetics, although he also converted from atheism, largely through the influence of J.R. R. Tolkien. Part one of this book, titled "My Denial of the Dvine", gives a brief biographical sketch of Flew's embrace of atheism and the climate of philosophy in the '50s, then dominated by logical positivism. Part two is entitled "My Discovery of the Divine", and reconsiders many of the questions and ideas of part one. Along the way Flew provides answers to Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, as well as Daniel Dennet and other atheist scientists. He also shows how Dawkins incorrectly bills Einstein as an atheist, and considers the views of many scientists who would call themselves theists. That takes up about 150 pages. The book is introduced by Roy Abraham Varghese, who also provides, in Appendix One, a critical appraisal of the "New Atheism". Appendix Two is by New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright, who challenged some of Flew's views in the past, and whose own calm consideration of the case for "The Self- Revelation of God in Human History" forms the topic for this dialogue with the author. Those expecting a dumbed-down popular approach to the big questions will not find it here. Especially in considering the origin of the universe, what is generally called the Anthropic or fine-tuning principle, and the Cosmological Argument, Flew's

Antony Flew's "There is a God" deserves a careful read by both believer and non-believer. Flew, the son of a Methodist minister, tells of his upbringing and time at Kingswood School. Flew was an atheist by age 15, and he kept this fact a secret before the time it leaked out by age 23. Flew interacted with C.S. Lewis and met with Ludwig Wittgenstein. Flew the Oxford educated philosopher became an icon of atheistic thinking, as well as a philosopher of many publications. The atheist remained honest with his principles, he followed the argument where it led. Flew tells that he has changed his mind before, several times. He defected from full compatibilism, and became a supporter of free will. Flew (page 63) writes: "A moving is a movement that can be initiated or quashed at will; a motion is a movement that cannot. The power of moving is an attribute peculiar to people, whereas entities incapable of consciousness or intention can only manifest motion. Agents are creatures who, precisely and only insofar as they are agents, can and cannot but make choices." Flew (page 75) tells that he stopped being an atheist in 2004, and announced to the world: "What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by 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. It's the enormous complexity of the number of elements and the enormous subtlety of the ways they work together. The meeting of these two parts at the right time by chance is simply minute. It is all a matter of the enormous complexity by which the results were achieved, which looked to me like the work of intelligence." Flew (page 80) pokes at Dawkins's selfish genes that were thought to control our human like emotions, and writes: "Although he [Dawkins] later issues occasional disavowals, Dawkins gave no warning in his book [The Selfish Gene] against taking him literally. He added, sensationally, that `the argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes.' If any of this were true, it would be no use to go on." Flew (page 88) lays his cards on the table: "I now believe that the universe was brought into existence by an infinite Intelligence. I believe that this universe's intricate laws manifest what scientists have called the Mind of God. I believe that life and reproduction originate in a divine Source." Flew sews together an evidential tapestry, mostly by pointing to the work of others like Albert Einstein, Paul Davies, Gerald Schroeder, John Barrow, Richard Cameron, David Berlinski, and several others. Overall, I am impressed with Flew's thinking. Flew (page 115) writes on cosmological fine tuning: "The fine tuning has been explained in two ways. Some scientists have said the fine tuning is evidence for divine design; many others have speculated that our universe is one of multiple others -a

In 2004 the atheist world was rocked by the news of one of the most important defections from its ranks in recent times. The world's leading atheist, Antony Flew, announced that he was no longer an atheist, but a theist. This of course sent shock waves through the anti-theist camp, since they had long been claiming that rational and reasonable people only choose unbelief, whereas believers can only be regarded as stupid, gullible and deluded. It is pretty hard to describe Antony Flew in those terms. Indeed, given his credentials, this is an amazing book about an amazing intellectual about-face. For over 50 years Flew was the number one proponent of atheism. And as a world class scholar with over 30 books on philosophy in print, he was one of the twentieth century's most imposing intellectual figures. In this book we hear about the reasons why he has abandoned atheism and embraced its counterpart. The significance of this turnaround can be seen in part by the ugly attacks and bitter responses by fellow atheists. They have made it perfectly clear that Flew has committed the unpardonable sin here. Their crude and ugly attacks on him and his decision is a telling commentary on the intellectual shallowness, bigoted fundamentalism, and narrow-minded intolerance that characterises so much of the new atheism. The first half of this book is a brief intellectual biography of Flew. Here we learn about how he was raised in a Christian home; his decision to embrace atheism at age 15; his career as a professional philosopher; his numerous important works on philosophy; his time as a Marxist; his encounters with such intellectual heavyweights as C.S. Lewis, A.J. Ayer, Gilbert Ryle, Wittgenstein, and others; his debates with Christian theists such as Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, William Lane Craig; his debates with fellow atheists such as Richard Dawkins; and his six decades as a dogmatic atheist. The second half of the book deals with why he finally felt compelled to abandon his atheism and embrace theism. He offers three main reasons for his defection, (or apostasy, as many fellow atheists regard his move). The first bit of evidence he cites is the fact that nature obeys rational and ordered laws. The second is the fact that we are intelligently organised and purpose-driven beings. The third is the very existence of nature itself. The brute evidence of nature, in others words, has led Flew to recognise that "the universe was brought into existence by an infinite Intelligence". He expands these three points in some detail, and demonstrates how any open-minded examination of recent scientific discoveries can only point in one direction: that matter alone is not all there is, and a supreme intelligence must be directing what we observe in nature. All the reasons offered in this book are based on an honest assessment of the evidence. Flew had made it a life habit to follow the command of Plato attributed to Socrates, "We must follow the argum