finitum non capax infiniti

Anthony Flew was one of the most prominent atheist philosophers of the 20th century. As you might have heard, he has recanted of his atheism and turned towards theism. His book There is No A God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind is a recounting of his journey.

The first part of his book is entitled “My Denial of the Divine.” In it, Flew recounts his early life experiences and how they shaped him towards both his profession as a philosopher and his belief system as an atheist. From an early point in his life Flew decided to follow the dictum placed in the mouth of Socrates in Plato’s Republic: “Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.” Recounting his many published works, debates, and lectures, Flew guides the reader through his thinking process and argumentation which led him to be an atheist.

The second part of his book is entitled “My Discovery of the Divine.” In this section Flew reveals the reasoning behind his change of mind. There are three dimensions of nature that Flew sees as pointing towards God: natural laws, the teleological organization of life, and the very existence of the universe. Although Flew utilizes science in many of his arguments, the arguments themselves are based on philosophy. In other words, the fact that there is a teleological organization of life does not prove that there is a God on scientific grounds, but on the philosophical ground that this teleological organization makes absolutely no sense unless there is a God behind it.

Flew’s reasoning is what led him to believe in a God. He writes:

I must stress that my discovery of the Divine has proceeded on a purely natural level, without any reference to supernatural phenomena. It has been an exercise in what is traditionally called natural theology. It has had no connection with any of the revealed religions. Nor do I claim to have had any personal experience of God or any experience that may be called supernatural or miraculous. In short, my discovery of the Divine has been a pilgrimage of reason and not of faith (93).

The existence of a God which flew has come to believe in is not the God of Scripture…but it is a step in the right direction. What is interesting about his posture is how open he is to understanding more about Christianity. I must agree with Scot McKnight’s review of this book in that the Appendix with Flew’s questions about Jesus answered by N. T. Wright is absolutely brilliant. Wright’s answers are solid and represent somewhat of a highlight reel of both Jesus and the Victory of God and The Resurrection of the Son of God written in a more lay-friendly way. Flew himself writes that he was impressed with Wright’s answers and is looking forward to learning more.

There are some heady philosophical discussions in this book that people not familiar with philosophy might get lost in. At points I had to think hard about some of the concepts that Flew was writing about, even to the point of busting out my college philosophy textbook. But I would not discourage people from reading this book. The book itself is both interesting and brings up some philosophical points within the atheistic argument that I have not heard before and benefited from. Both appendices are excellent. The first is a critique of “The New Atheism” by Roy Abraham Varghese (who also wrote an excellent Preface to the book) and the other is the aforementioned Q & A on Jesus by N. T. Wright.

If you have atheistic or agnostic friends who are interested in philosophy, I would recommend reading this book and also recommend it to your friends. It would definitely provide good topics for discussion. The only shortcoming of the book is that it is the recounting of Flew’s journey to theism and not Christianity. Hopefully he will continue to learn more about the God of the Bible and be convinced. It is encouraging to know that he is open to that possibility.