{"id":6435,"date":"2010-06-19T11:03:44","date_gmt":"2010-06-19T11:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/06\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-18.html"},"modified":"2010-06-19T11:03:44","modified_gmt":"2010-06-19T11:03:44","slug":"saturday-afternoon-book-review-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/06\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-18.html","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Afternoon [Morning] Book Review: Andy Holt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Library.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Blog Book Review:There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind<\/a>\"\"<\/strong><\/em> by Antony Flew<\/p>\n

Questions: How does the “conversion” of a notorious atheist strengthen your faith? What are the most important philosophical questions regarding the existence of God? What are the most important pieces of scientific evidence in this debate?<\/b><\/p>\n

Antony Flew was a leading philosopher and atheist of the mid
\nto late twentieth century. He taught at several distinguished schools,
\nincluding Oxford, Aberdeen, and Reading. He also taught at Bowling Green State
\nUniverstiy, near my hometown of Toledo, Ohio. He passed away in April of this
\nyear.<\/p>\n

In There is a God<\/i>,
\nFlew lays out his journey from atheism to deism, briefly sketching each of the
\narguments that influenced the evolution of his thought. Because I am not a
\nphilosopher, I will not attempt to summarize those arguments here. The book
\nitself is short enough (less than 220 pages) and colloquial enough to not be
\noverwhelming. Many of us may need a Philosophical Dictionary nearby to
\nunderstand some of the terms, but most folks can easily follow the arc of the
\nstory.<\/p>\n

The book is a narrative rather than a philosophical
\ntreatise, and it tells the story of Flew’s life as it pertains to the issue of
\nthe question of God. He tells tales of his many interactions with Christian and
\nTheist philosophers in debates and dialogues. While there was no singular
\nmoment of illumination, it was the cumulative effect of these interactions
\nwhich brought him to his “conversion.” (I put conversion in quotes because he
\ndid not become a Christian, so far as I know. He simply came to believe in a
\n“divine Mind”.)<\/p>\n

The “conversion” sent a shockwave through the philosophical
\nand atheistic communities. Flew was a pillar of atheism, one of the greatest
\nminds and most ardent defenders of the “faith”. His admission of the existence
\nof a divine Mind was too much for some to bear. There were accusations that the
\nco-author, Roy Abraham Varghese, manipulated Flew, by then an old man, into
\npublishing this book. While Flew admitted that Varghese did the actual writing,
\nhe asserted that the thoughts were his. In the years leading up to his death,
\nFlew publicly declared, again and again, that he had become a deist (and denied
\nbecoming a Christian or a Theist).<\/p>\n

The guiding principle of Flew’s life, and the through line
\nof this book, is the Aristotelian line, “follow the argument wherever it
\nleads.” It was his commitment to this ideal that ultimately led him out of
\natheism and into belief in a divine Mind. The primary evidence, as laid out in
\nhis book, is the complexity of DNA and the lack of a naturalistic explanation
\nfor the evolution of reproductive capability. These issues led him to belief in
\na divine Mind, which of course is not all the way to the Christian Creator God,
\nbut is a large leap of faith for an atheist of his stature.<\/p>\n

The book includes two appendices, one by Varghese and the
\nother by N.T. Wright. While Flew was “converted” to the concept of a divine
\nMind, he did not believe in divine revelation, though he was open to being
\nconvinced. Of all the religions claiming divine revelation, he thought
\nChristianity to be the only one worth noting. <\/p>\n

“I think that the Christian religion is the one religion
\nthat most clearly deserves to be honored and respected whether or not its claim
\nto be a divine revelation is true. There is nothing like the combination of a
\ncharismatic figure like Jesus and a first-class intellectual like St. Paul. …If
\nyou’re wanting Omnipotence to set up a religion, this is the one to beat.”
\n(185-6)<\/p>\n

Wright’s contribution is a brief but potent sketch of his defense
\nfor the existence of Jesus, his divinity, and the historicity of the
\nresurrection. This alone is worth the price of the book, and if you’ve never
\nread Wright (what are you waiting for?!), will give you a solid introduction to
\nhis three large volumes on Jesus.<\/p>\n

I don’t know where Antony Flew stood on the issues Wright
\nraised when he died in April. There’s something oddly refreshing, for me at
\nleast, that his book was about his conversion to deism and not to evangelical
\nChristianity. It seems more honest that way, I guess. But of course I hope that
\nhe came to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, and to receive the forgiveness
\noffered him from the cross. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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