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: Ghost-Written, But Accurate
Summary: 4 Stars
Anthony Flew: "My name is on the book and it represents exactly my opinions. I would not have a book issued in my name that I do not 100 percent agree with. I needed someone to do the actual writing because I'm 84 and that was Roy Varghese's role. The idea that someone manipulated me because I'm old is exactly wrong. I may be old but it is hard to manipulate me. This is my book and it represents my thinking."
Unceasingly polite to those who didn't share his opinions, Anthony Flew was a gentleman atheist. Now he's older and has apparently changed his mind. I have no problem accepting that Flew's book was predominantly ghost-written by Varghese but reflects Flew's views. This is not an unusual practice. Many public figures have "authored" books "with help from" some named journalist - who wrote a book for a sports celebrity, for example, whom you suspect might be barely literate. In Flew's case, he's old, maybe he's tired, he's most likely not as sharp as he once was, and he simply changed his mind over a number of years.
As the text of the book clearly shows, he didn't change his mind by much. As a deist rather than an atheist, he would still reject revelations from God, miracles, interventions, prophecies, the Trinity, inspired Books from God, and an afterlife. Deism, the preferred belief system of the first five presidents, pretty much requires a higher intelligence of some sort to put things in motion, then retire to His ranch in the Andromeda galaxy - or somewhere - or not. Flew may now believe in God, sort of, but He's certainly not the anthropomorphic God familiar to Christians.
Flew's previous books were rigorously thought out. Parts of this book deal with three categories of supposed proofs of God - nature obeys rational and ordered laws, we are intelligently organized and purpose-driven beings, the very existence of nature itself. They are not the superbly academic treatises Flew used to write. I would suspect these parts were written by Varghese and approved by Flew. No wonder this part of the book is not particularly convincing. The rest of the book is a memoir that very much appears to be Flew's story as dictated by Flew - the best source anyone will find who's curious about why he changed his mind. And he is still respectful and polite.
Book Review: simple but much to chew on
Summary: 5 Stars
First, I did read the entire book. (Also, I won't keep this too wordy.)
Second, As an atheist who became a believer in God, I could identify with Flew and his memoir. Follow the evidence where it leads. And, for me, it was in a physical chemistry class where I became convinced a divine mind was behind the universe. In Flew's book, his journey is longer, but he also had more invested in his atheism than I. I remember reading Flew's analysis of Kai Nielsen arguing against God in the book Does God Exist. Flew's arguements against God were mostly philosophical and he makes a great distinction between scientists who incorrectly infer scientific data to philosophy. The most current abusers are Richard Dawkins and his ilk but Carl Sagan made the same mistakes in the 1990's, he just was more respectful.
The great aspect about Flew's book is its tone is not an attack. It is simply a following of a man's mind. Flew does not get off insulting current atheist. If they make a philosophical error, he simply addresses the error. He will show how their logic breaks down but he's not about coming up with creative insults or making broad statements about how irrational a group may be. The constant in this book is follow the evidence (NOT THE ATTITUDE) where it leads.
Also, I want to say that I can only hope to be as sharp a mind in my eighties as Flew is (relatively speaking since I am not as smart as him now in my prime.)
Finally, there are two appendices that are both good essays. The first is philosophical, the second theological but both are nice reference works.
Book Review: There is a God by Antony Flew
Summary: 5 Stars
A very sincere account of a very intelligent mind that persisted to follow the arguement to wherever it takes him. ( Socrates).Antony Flew is now convinced that the universe did not come about by just a simple coincidence or by just a stroke of luck.It is impossible to have such a universe obeying the laws of physics perfectly and continously without having a perfect, super intelligent mind (i.e.a creator) behind it. I want to read Antony Flew papers now that he is convinced theist.
Anthony Said.
Book Review: Excellent book despite what the critics say
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought this was an excellent autobiographical book and an excellent apologetic book.
By far the best chapter is chapter 6, which is Flew's argument for a Creator from the fine tuning argument. I have no reason to believe that this is not an authentic argument from Flew himself, given his current Deistic position.
I think Flew effectively refutes the "Multiverse" response as an empty solution, which merely moves the problem one step back. Whatever you believe the source of our present Universe to be, you still have to account for the existence of the Physical Laws, which would then form a part of the 'Multiverse' as well. I think a lot of convincing arguments come from exploring the issues surrounding the big bang together with the undeniable anthropic nature of our Universe. I think this book, and this chapter in particular is extremely useful and have found it to be convincing even among some of my more agnostic and atheistic colleagues.
Book Review: A gradual peaceful journey that appears more dramatic to the observer
Summary: 4 Stars
The author's intellectual journey from notable proponent of atheism to deist is interestingly detailed here, helping to illustrate the subtle but culturally very meaningful difference between seeing the universe as ordered and seeing it as artifactual. You don't get much of a sense of a human drama behind this journey as much as a long series of small choices that add up over time, a gradual "conversion" rather than a lightning bolt.
The technical differences in Flew's views over time are largely concealed in nuances. That makes this book particularly challenging to read deeply in order to empathize with Flew's soi disant conversion.
The emotional and socio-political implications of the shift between deism and strict atheism are much more significant than the technical issues Flew discusses, and these are not directly addressed to any great extent in this book. Yet it is clearly those implications that drives the strong reactions people have to Flew's personal intellectual journey. I think this is why our reaction to this book, as seen in many reviews here, tends to have much more drama than the book itself.
To me, the conceptual purely "engineering" difference between the extra-naturally pre-ordered universe of Deism and a purely natural world that orders itself over time is almost negligible if you think about it in terms of the processes involved. This is what makes Flew's journey one of nuances rather than a grand leap.
However, the implications of a world that contains deity and one that doesn't are immensely signficant to us way out of proportion to the "engineering" involved. It means something important to us to say that the universe is self-ordered vs. ordered by something sentient, not least because the latter leaves open the real possibility that something big and important cares about us. Ironically, Flew doesn't take that additional step through the door of theism, he remains in the doorway of deism, leaving the possibility of something caring about us but not the kind of personal faith that drives the more religiously minded person.
Flew's reflections on his path from atheist to deist make for a revealing picture of the "Necker Cube" nature of conceptual worldviews, showing how subtleties of view can accumulate over time to produce what appears at the end to observers to be a dramatic change in worldview. The drama of Flew's journey however seems to be more in the way the rest of us perceive it rather than any real drama for Flew himself.