Review of Anthony Flew’s “There Is A God: How the world’s most notorious atheist changed his mind”
I must say that I did rather well following up David Berlinski’s “The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Pretensions” with what I just read. It is a combination I would recommend to anyone suspicious of the current popularity of the “new” atheism.
After reading Anthony Flew’s book, “There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind“, I can only imagine what atheists must be saying behind closed doors. His 50 years of experience comes shining through from the very beginning. Most impressive to me was Mr. Flew’s insistence on following where the evidence leads. I have heard this said by others before only to be a bit disappointed in the end. Regardless of what side I found myself on, they eventually ended up leaning some direction more than they probably intended. Such was not the case for Mr. Flew. An fine example of this can be found in the preface, where he dares to take on what was then a force, Logical Positivism, wanting the argument of theists to be more developed. This did not turn him towards theism then (it would take recent discoveries in both cosmological and DNA research to help him along here), but it demonstrated how true to his word he was.
Also both refreshing and clarifying was Chapter 5, “Who Wrote the Laws of Nature?”, where Flew addresses Einstein’s position on God. I will not dare ruin such a fascinating chapter, but I will leave a teaser in saying that Einstein was by no means an atheist or a pantheist and said so himself.
I have to point out I found Appendix A, “The ‘New Atheism’: A Critical Appraisal of Dawkins, Dennett, Wolpert, Harris, and Stenger” by Roy Abraham Varghese (who also wrote the Preface) to be an impressive and satisfying response to the current wave of “new” atheists. Why such a critique does not get more coverage in the mainstream media is disappointing, but not at all surprising nowadays. Nonetheless, after reading this portion of Varghese’s Appendix A I have no problem understanding why the tide is turning:
“Numerous major works of theism in the analytic tradition have since been written by Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga, Peter Geach, William P. Alston, George Mavrodes, Norman Kretzmann, James F. Ross, Peter Van Inwagen, Eleonore Stump, Brian Leftow, John Haldane, and many others over the last three decades. Not a few of these address issues such as the meaningfulness of assertions about God, the logical coherence of the divine attributes, and the question of whether belief in God is properly basic — precisely the issues raised by Flew in the discussion he sought to stimulate. The turn toward theism was highlighted in a Time magazine cover story in April 1980: ‘In a quiet revolution in though and argument that hardly anyone would have foreseen only two decades ago, God is making a comeback. Most intriguingly this is happening … in the crisp intellectual circles of academic philosophers.’”
Because of the work of folks mentioned above, as well as Anthony Flew, of course, the tide in the upper levels of philosophical academia has been turning toward the theist. After reading Anthony Flew’s “There Is A God”, you will understand why this is the case.
Orthodox Bishops Statement on Same-Sex Unions: Moral Crisis in our Nation
Click here.
May the bishops be blessed after making such a difficult decision.
Biting Off More Than We Can Chew
“In the beginning God made heaven and earth” (Genesis 1:1).
That verse contains so much for some and so little for others. For folks like myself, it explains how everything began. It is even more significant for us Orthodox reciters of the Nicene Creed that reads at its beginning:
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
We believe God made it all.
That one verse in Genesis sends my mind reeling into places that I can remain for long parts of many days. It causes me to think of an eternal God, two words that give me a glimpse of a horizon over which there is Something I have no real idea about nor the capability to fully understand. What is eternity? Who can honestly tell me they fully understand that which has always been and shall be? I do not dare begin to think I can comprehend it. And yet somehow something in me gets the gist of what eternity is. I can say it to you in a conversation and you will not only understand the definition of the word, but you will understand how that word allows us to transcend, if ever so minutely, where we are in the present.
Then there is God. He is the I Am. He is not like me nor is he like the most magnificent thing I could imagine imagining. What He is only He can be. Nevertheless, something in me can comprehend that Something that is way beyond who I am. Wonderfully, and mercifully through His grace, I can easily see the greatness of me and every other human being on the planet compared to any other living creature. Even in a withered and frail form a man can be great (e.g. Stephen Hawking, Franklin D. Roosevelt). Not so in the animal kingdom. Therefore it is quite easy for me to see that I am made in the image of God. The eternal God who is the cause of there being a beginning at all.
Then there are some to whom that glorious verse means little or nothing at all. They want more they say. Or so they think. They want the full story of how it all came to be. They want scientific explanations for they whys of life. It causes me to wonder whether or not they understand what they are asking. Do they realize that Almighty God condescends to speak to us through the limits of scientific explanation, much less whatever audible language we speak? God has spoken to us throughout all of creation in a language we seemingly ignore. Read the latest research regarding the design of our universe, its exactness, its intricacy, how it all must be exactly where it is. Look at the earth, its location in our universe, how it happens to be in the best spot in the universe for us humans to study our universe and what is outside of it. Look at the earth itself and how its seasons come and go, along with the tides, and crops, and generation after generation of all that is. Then delve into the microscopic world and see how the detail persists even down to that level. I’m sure either direction you choose to go in you can spend the rest of your life exploring, and you will never be able to say I’ve figured it all out. God cannot be accused of lacking in language. We lack in our ability to listen. We want to listen our way.
My fear is the answers will come for those who ask for more details, but in a fashion similar to chapters 38-41 of the book of Job. If such is the case then may God have mercy.
As I wrote earlier, I believe God made it all. To ask Him for details in an explanation of our choosing is biting off more than we can chew. It is best that we ask for what we can stand. For the Einsteins and Hawkings this will be much in our eyes. For others it will be less. In either case, we need to humbly remember Who it is we ask.
