There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind by Antony Flew, Roy Abraham Varghese Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
Book Review: Flew's flip is a flop
Summary: 2 Stars
Never having encountered a book by the "world's most assertive astrophysicist" or one by the "world's zaniest zoologist", Flew's subtitle came as something novel. Compounded by the fact that i'd never heard of him - my not being a scholar in "atheism" - it would have been easy to pass this by as a crank's production. However, at the insistence of some respected colleagues, i was impelled to give it a look. It's difficult to impart what a stunning waste of time this little tome proved to be.
It's bad form to chide a man's account of his own life. After all, he's the one who lived it. However, even his account of his early life exhibits some glaring omissions. Raised by a Methodist family - his father was a Cambridge tutor in the sect - Antony went off to a boys' school for his secondary education. There, as a "unenthusiastic Christian", his faith eroded away - mostly due to the "wearying ritual" he encountered at Chapel. That's it. No other fundamental reason is given for his atheism, which he successfully concealed from his parents for many years. After some erratic efforts to become a philosophical scholar, Flew produced a paper, "Theology and Falsification", upon which he built his career. The "Falsification" bit was supposed to indicate his interest in science, and his desire to follow where the evidence might lead. If the remainder of the book is any indication, somebody changed the pointers along the track and Flew arrived at some never-never land.
As a "philosopher", of course, Flew need not be held to a fixed position once taken. He recounts his readings in philosophy and the encounters he had with notable people in the field. None of it, however, is used to expound on his self-professed lack of faith. Issues of gods, the universe, life or the world, never arise in this account. At least not until he attempts to explain his "conversion" - which is a bumbling failure.
To open his segment on "My Discovery of the Divine", Flew provides an update of Paley's "watch on the heath" concept, in this case with a satellite 'phone! From this, he works up a succession of ancient, weary arguments about Nature exhibiting "design" - Paley's contention, which Darwin ably dismissed over a century ago. Flew, apparently, has not caught up with the times. Worse, Flew also adopts Paley's notion of Nature's organisms having evolved for a "purpose". If ever an argument has been dispelled by science, teleology stands high in ranking. It's astounding to see anybody propose that fallacy in these times.
Along with these gaffes, Flew actually dredges up the old comparison about the odds of life emerging from material processes with the "monkeys typing the works of Shakespeare" fallacy. No greater misunderstanding of evolutionary biology could be displayed. There are those who claim that Flew was entering dementia when this book was written. While that remains unproveable, his lack of knowledge in fields relating to his arguments is glaring. Yet, he has no problem with out-of-context or irrelevant quotes being sprinkled throughout the text. His mental state is of no consequence, but it would have been kinder to himself and unsuspecting readers to have kept this empty dissertation under wraps. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]