Antony Flew was indeed a notorious atheist. Before anyone ever heard of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, Flew forcefully argued against the idea of God with his contemporaries.
He was the “Richard Dawkins” of his day before Dawkins was born, although with admittedly better philosophical abilities. Flew has debated against Thomas Warren and William Lane Craig.
Atheist changes his mind
But in 2004, Flew shocked the world by announcing his change of mind, from vociferous atheism to a confident and thoughtful theism.
He went on to explain why in the book “There is a God,” with the help of Roy Abraham Varghese and Bishop N.T. Wright. The first three chapters operate under the heading “My Denial of the Divine,” but the next seven chapters are under “My Discovery of the Divine.”
Christian roots did not produce belief
In the first few chapters, Flew explained his journey toward atheism despite being the son of a Methodist minister. He was raised in a Christian home and went to a private Christian school — sound familiar?
But like many atheists today, his Christian roots did not grow from the inside out. He was not born again of God’s Spirit. He was simply brought up with Christian teachings that were not taken to heart.
Flew himself said, “Never did I feel the slightest desire to commune with God.”
By the time he was 15, Flew was arguing with fellow students over the incompatibility of the omnipotence and goodness of God in light of the “evil” and “imperfections” of the world. He also rejected belief in the afterlife.
Evaluating the holes in the argument
But after thoughtful reflection, Flew explained the weak basis for his early atheism:
“As I have mentioned, the grounds on which I embraced atheism at the age of 15 were clearly inadequate. They were built on what I later described as two ‘juvenile insistencies’: (1) the problem of evil was a decisive disproof of the existence of an all-good, all-powerful God; and (2) the ‘free-will defense’ did not relieve the Creator of responsibility for the manifest ills of creation.”
Unlike many modern “new” atheists, Flew was able to admit that the basis for his atheism was both inadequate and “juvenile,” without any real substance.
There’s much to learn from Flew’s honesty and integrity as he, unlike his former atheist buddies, followed the evidence where it led to belief in the existence of an infinite Intelligence.
In the next seven chapters, Flew explained how he discovered this infinite Intelligence. Interestingly, he did not come to this awareness by the preaching of the gospel or from reading Scripture.
Evaluating the new argument
According to Flew, “Science spotlights three dimensions of nature that point to God. The first is the fact that nature obeys laws. The second is the dimension of life, of intelligently organized and purpose-driven beings that arose from matter. But it is not science alone that has guided me. I have also been helped by a renewed study of the classical philosophical arguments.”
It was disappointing that Flew did not go into great detail about the evidence that convinced him of God’s existence. But to his credit, he did provide good evidence and arguments supporting his thesis that the argument of design “constitutes a persuasive case for the existence of God.”
Letting the evidence speak for itself
In his final chapter, the secret to coming to a rational conclusion about the existence of God was his honesty and willingness to allow the evidence to speak for itself.
I can think of no greater evidence of the veracity of Romans 1:20 than Flew’s words here: “I have followed the argument where it has led me. And it has led me to accept the existence of a self-existent, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, and omniscient Being.”
Sounds like the God of the Bible to me.
Flew passed away in April of this year. I didn’t know this and was looking forward to his next book since this one was very insightful. Hopefully, he made that next vital step of the heart to truly find the God he had found with his mind.