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

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Anthony Flew's remarkable book, There Is A God, provides an approachable and compelling overview of his own journey from being a proponent of atheism to a new found position of theism. Over the past half century, Flew was the philosophical champion of atheism at Oxford and elsewhere. In fact, Flew was involved in the Socratic Club at Oxford where C. S. Lewis and other Christians debated atheists in the 1940's. It was at this club that Flew presented the paper "Theology and Falsification" later reprinted in his book New Essays in Philosophical Theology in 1955. Later, he would write God and Theology (1966) which was an attempt to present a systematic argument for atheism. One of Flew's most important contributions to the dialog was the concept of the "presumption of atheism." So when Anthony Flew changes his mind and embraces theism one can appreciate that the recounting of his journey is of interest for atheists and theists alike.
Socrates taught that we must follow the argument wherever it leads. Flew's story is essentially the pursuit of the question of God throughout his career as a philosopher and how he came to embrace theism. It is important to note that he has not had a religious experience or some kind of dramatic conversion that has brought about his change of mind. Rather it has been a lifetime of wrestling with moral, psychological and philosophical questions which have led him to follow the argument to theism.
While this is a popular book, it nevertheless deals with important questions regarding atheism and its philosophical underpinnings. While Flew is sometimes critical of popular atheist writers today such as Dennett, Dawkins, Stenger and Harris his purpose is not to promote or evangelize for a particular view. He is simply telling his own story and it makes for very interesting reading.

this book outlines RATIONAL arguments for/against the existence of god. Regardless of your beliefs, it is certainly worth a read!

this book is about a man who finds God. He doesn't find him though evagelical channels, but through scientific evidence. Anthony Flew is a famous athiest, who has frequently and publically defended this ideology against other famous christians, ie C.S. Lewis.
He is confronted at the latter years of his life, with nagging scientific evidence of design in nature. When he investigates, the evidence is so overwhelming, he had to change his position, at great personal cost.
Though he doesn't endorse any specific form of Christianity, he admits the evidence supports some kind of designing intelligence is was at work in the past. Physics and biology expresses many features not explained by random accidents of chemistry etc.
Joe Jensen, Canada.

Great book, regardless of what you believe. While Professor Flew has an interesting writing style it is easy to adapt. What I like about this book is that 1) Antony Flew was a prominent atheist for many years. 2) He approaches his belief in God from a purely logical perspective. Great read!! Read the appendices as well.

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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.

In conclusion, it's unclear whether Flew has lost the desire to reason effectively or is trying to make amends for initially not believing (for over five decades) his Methodist minister father or whether 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.

(published 2007; preface; introduction; 10 chapters; main narrative 160 pages; 2 appendices; notes)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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