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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.
- Sales Rank: #22889 in Books
- Brand: HarperOne
- Published on: 2008-11-04
- Released on: 2008-11-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .58" w x 5.31" l, .46 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
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 clear, accessible account of the ‘pilgrimage of reason’ which has led Flew to a belief in God.” (John Polkinghorne, author of Belief in God in an Age of Science)
“Antony Flew’s book will incense atheists who suppose (erroneously) that science proves there is no God.” (Ian H. Hutchinson, Professor and Head of the Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT)
“Towering and courageous... Flew’s colleagues in the church of fundamentalist atheism will be scandalized.” (Francis S. Collins, New York Times bestselling author of The Language of God)
“A very clear and readable book tracing his path back to theism, revealing his total openness to new rational arguments.” (Richard Swinburne, author of The Existence of God)
“This is a remarkable book in many ways.” (Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions)
“This is a fascinating and very readable account …” (Professor John Hick, Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Sciences, University of Birmingham)
“A stellar philosophical mind ponders the latest scientific results. The conclusion: a God stands behind the rationality of nature.” (Michael Behe, author of Darwin's Black Box and The Edge of Evolution)
“Antony Flew not only has the philosophical virtues; he has the virtues of the philosopher. Civil in argument, relentlessly reasonable….” (Ralph McInerny, Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame)
“A fascinating record …it will come as a most uncomfortable jolt to those who were once his fellow atheists.” (Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University)
“Flew’s exposition will be a source for reflective inquiry for many, many years...” (Daniel N. Robinson, Philosophy Department, Oxford University)
“Flew couldn’t be more engaging and remain an analytic philosopher...” (Booklist)
“In clear prose and brief chapters, Flew explains the four lines of evidence that convinced him....An intellectual conversion of great significance.” (Denver Post)
“The most lucid and penetrative pieces of philosophical theology to appear in years, altogether brilliant.” (The Catholic Herald)
“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.
Most helpful customer reviews
538 of 587 people found the following review helpful.
The Road Less Traveled By
By George R Dekle
Several years ago I read Antony Flew's book, "Thinking about Thinking" in its American incarnation (titled "How to Think Straight"). I immediately discerned three things. Flew was (1) a profound thinker, (2) an atheist, and (3) a decent human being. I was so impressed by his intellect that when I reached the last page, I turned back to page one and immediately read the book again.
I have since bought "God and Science" and "Merely Mortal". In "God and Science", Flew weighed the case for the Christian God and found it wanting, and in "Merely Mortal" he decided that there was no life after death. As I understand "There is a God", Flew sticks to both those positions. Flew has found God, but he has found Aristotle's god, the impersonal Unmoved Mover which, like God in Hobbes' "Leviathan" was the first cause of every subsequent effect. Aristotle's god is so ungodly that I have always considered him (Aristotle) the functional equivalent of an atheist. Flew's take on the Christian view of God seems to be as follows: God hasn't been proven to be like that, but it would be nice if he were. I can't say for sure, but I don't think Flew's assessment of the Christian God was any different before he renounced atheism. Flew has always been somewhat of an anomaly among atheists--an atheist who was polite to theists. A wit once said that an evangelical Christian was a fundamentalist with good manners. Flew was an atheist with good manners.
I've read a lot of atheist polemic, and I'm turned off by the ad hominem character of most of their arguments. It puts me in mind of Cicero's old dictum, "When you have no case, abuse the plaintiff". I've also read a lot of fundamentalist polemic which turns me off for the same reason. When an argument generates more heat than light, you have cause to suspect the bona fides of the person making the argument.
A New York Times article maligned Flew's book as the pseudo-scientific product of a "senescent scholar". Flew never claims that his book is science. He says it is philosophy which has been guided by scientific discovery made after he announced his atheism in 1950. I will admit that I had to look "senescent" up in the dictionary. It means "old". Okay. Are we to presume that all Social Security recipients are too dumb to be listened to? The terms "pseudo-science" and "senescent" are examples of subtle ad hominem arguments, designed to appeal to emotion rather than logic. The article engages in several other ad hominem arguments under the guise of factual reporting. I'll mention only one other.
The article suggests that a friend of Flew's, Ray Varghese, is a Christian "autodidact" who exploited poor old senescent Flew in the writing of the book. (I looked up "autodidact". It's a self-educated person. Shame on Varghese for teaching himself). It says on the cover of the book that the two collaborated. How did Varghese exploit Flew? By writing too much of the book? Varghese rebutted the article by admitting that he was responsible for the colorful anecdotes and witty section headings, but maintained that the core thought was through-and-through Flew.
I found this book yesterday afternoon and read it yesterday evening, blissfully ignorant of the controversy. These are the impressions I formed before I became aware of the controversy (I haven't changed them after reading about the controversy):
1. The work is not as rigorously reasoned as previous work by Flew. This was both good and bad. It was easier to read, but not as challenging.
2. The work repeated some recent arguments made by theists (such as the "fine tuning" argument) without subjecting them to the searching inquiry characteristic of Flew's earlier work.
3. The heart and soul of the book is Flew, and it is not that different from the Flew who was an atheist. Flew was always willing to change his mind if someone could show him through rational argument that there was a God. Someone did, and he changed his mind--but not much.
Most people come to God through faith, not reason. Flew has taken the road less traveled by, and that has made quite a difference. He has only approached Theism. You might say that he has come to the strait gate, but he has yet to enter thereby. I respected Flew from my first encounter with him, and this book has increased my respect.
1091 of 1216 people found the following review helpful.
READ THE BOOK
By Benjamin D. Wiker
Call me old-fashioned, but I thought the POINT of reviewing books--even books on Amazon--was to review the actual book that one has actually READ. It seems now that it has become a place to "spike" books that you haven't read, and don't want others to read.
Unlike other pseudo-reviewers, I've actually read Flew's There is a God (and interviewed Flew as well). Anyone who has actually read it--and I wonder if Mark Oppenheimer did, given the inattention to the substance of the book in his infamous NYT piece--understands that it is a terse description of Flew's long, drawn out intellectual journey toward God--a journey of two decades. Twenty years; not twenty minutes or twenty days. Flew wasn't struck by God on his way to Damascus like St. Paul; he was slowly, ever so slowly brought to intellectual assent to a Deism (about the thinnest belief in God one can have).
Thus, the entire focus of a reader of Flew's There is a God SHOULD be on the list of books Flew cites as definitive in the slow changing of his mind, not on niggling debates about the slowness of Flew's mind at this precise point.
Roy Varghese (his co-author) has been with him for a good part of that journey (as have other believers), and was instrumental in helping Flew gather together his twenty year sojourn to God. IF there were some kind of a Christian conspiracy to use Flew as a mouthpiece, certainly Varghese et al would have made Flew's "conversion" far more exciting, and even more, would have him become a card-carrying Christian rather than, as he adamantly maintains, a Deist (not even a Theist!--Flew corrected me on this point in an interview with him). To read Varghese's full response to Oppenheimer, see [...]
In regard to Varghese's The Wonder of the World (one of the books that helped convince Flew of the scientific case for an intelligent Creator God), Oppenheimer characterizes it as scientific hack work. Interesting! Why does it also come recommended by TWO Nobel Prize Winners (Charles Townes, inventor of the laser; and Arno Penzias, who co-discovered Cosmic Microwave Bacground Radiation), and also physicist (and non-believer) Robert Jastrow? Are they also senile? Come on, folks!
As even Oppenheimer admits, the kind of arguments that Flew cites as demonstrating that the latest science leads (at least) to Deism, are those used by a whole host of other eminent scientists and philosophers. Is Paul Davies senile?
The simple truth is that there are all too many who don't want the scientific and philosophic arguments that convinced Flew of God's existence to receive any recognition. They will do anything to stop others from reading Flew's book. Perhaps they should read it themselves?
135 of 148 people found the following review helpful.
Useful- But Incomplete
By Kyle Deming
Antony Flew opened up a firestorm of controversy when he publicly announced his conversion from atheism to deism in late 2004. As one of the most influential atheists of the 20th century, his change in mind was stunning. Many atheists were quick to denounce Flew- claiming that he was losing touch with reality in his old age. Flew, however, stood his ground, insisting that his conversion was real, thoughtful, and based on compelling evidence for the existence of a Creator.
In "There is a God", Flew recounts his life leading up to his conversion. Starting from his humble beginnings as the son of a preacher and leading to his persuasive defense of atheism as an academic, Flew gives us a brief glimpse into his life and work. Along the way, he points out that he has had many radical `conversions' in thinking. In his view, switching from atheism to deism is no particularly big deal. He just followed the evidence where it led.
The second part of the book offers a brief discussion of this evidence. Remarkably, in sharp distinction to the numerous atheist authors writing today, Flew contends that scientific discoveries (buttressed, of course, by philosophical arguments) have vindicated the existence of God. He mentions three areas where this is starkly the case. The first is the fact that nature obeys laws. The second is the existence of intelligently organized life. The third is the very existence of nature.
Unfortunately, Flew's discussion of these issues is rather cursory. Those looking for a detailed exposition need to explore elsewhere. Nevertheless, Flew's treatment is a welcome departure from the terrible philosophical treatment of scientific issues found in many of the new atheist books. Flew rightly calls out those scientists who offer philosophical arguments concerning the implications of the scientific facts. While they are perfectly within their rights to offer their philosophical opinion, these opinions must be judged by the canons of philosophy, not science. All too often, folks like Richard Dawkins assume that their scientific expertise entails that their philosophical views should be taken as authoritative. Flew rightly points out the distinction here.
Flew's "There is a God" is a quick and easy read. If you are interested in the life and work of Antony Flew, then this book will prove useful. Those looking for an extensive discussion of the arguments for the existence of God or for a refutation of atheism must look elsewhere.
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