Antony Flew (1923–2010), once hailed as the world's most prominent atheist philosopher, shocked the intellectual community in 2004 when he announced his conversion to deism, a belief in a non-interventionist God who created the universe. For Christians, Flew's journey from staunch atheism to acknowledging a divine intelligence, is a powerful testament to the rationality of belief in a purposeful intelligent design, even if he never fully embraced Christianity. His story, rooted in a lifelong commitment to following evidence, resonates with the Christian call to seek truth and reflects the transformative power of God's creation in pointing even the most sceptical minds toward Him. This blog post explores Flew's intellectual pilgrimage, the reasons behind his shift, and its implications for Christian apologetics, emphasising how his openness to divine order can inspire believers to engage sceptics with hope and reason.
Born in London in 1923, Flew was the son of a Methodist minister and educated at Kingswood School, a Christian institution founded by John Wesley. Despite this upbringing, Flew rejected Christianity at age 15, concluding that the existence of evil was incompatible with an all-powerful, benevolent God. His atheism solidified at Oxford, where he studied under Gilbert Ryle and was influenced by David Hume's critiques of religious arguments. Flew's 1950 paper, "Theology and Falsification," presented at C.S. Lewis's Socratic Club, argued that theological claims about God's nature were meaningless because they could not be empirically falsified, a position inconsistent with his acceptance of the argument from evil. This paper, alongside works like God and Philosophy (1966) and The Presumption of Atheism (1976), established Flew as a leading voice for atheism, influencing figures like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. His "presumption of atheism" posited that the burden of proof lies with theists, a stance that became a cornerstone of modern atheist arguments.
Yet, even as an atheist, Flew remained open to dialogue with Christians. His friendships with scholars like Gary Habermas and Terry Miethe, and debates with theists like Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig, showed his willingness to engage. These interactions, coupled with his commitment to "follow the evidence wherever it leads," planted seeds for his later transformation. For Christians, Flew's early openness reflects the Biblical principle of seeking truth (John 8:32), suggesting that honest inquiry can lead sceptics toward God's light.
In 2004, at age 81, Flew stunned the world by announcing his belief in a deistic God, a non-personal intelligent designer akin to Aristotle's "unmoved mover." His conversion, detailed in his 2007 book There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (co-authored with Roy Abraham Varghese), was driven by three scientific considerations: the laws of nature, the teleological organisation of life, and the existence of the universe itself.
1.Laws of Nature: Flew was struck by the fine-tuning of physical constants that allow life to exist. He argued that the universe's orderly laws, such as those governing gravity and electromagnetism, suggested an intelligent purpose, challenging his earlier view that the universe was self-sufficient.
2.Complexity of Life: Advances in molecular biology, particularly the complexity of DNA, convinced Flew that naturalistic explanations for life's origin were inadequate. He found Richard Dawkins's "lucky chance" argument for abiogenesis unconvincing, noting that the "almost unbelievable complexity" of DNA required an intelligent source. In a 2004 symposium, Flew stated, "What I think the DNA material has done is show that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements together."
3.Existence of the Universe: The Big Bang theory, indicating a finite universe with a beginning, undermined Flew's assumption that the universe was eternal. He reasoned that if the universe had a cause, a transcendent intelligent design was more plausible than an uncaused universe. I actually raised these very points with Flew when he visited Australia for seminars in the late 1980s, and he laughed off my claims. I found him rude and arrogant.
Flew's deism was not a full embrace of Christianity. He rejected divine revelation, an afterlife, and a personal God, maintaining that his "discovery of the divine" was a philosophical inference from empirical evidence, not a religious experience. For Christians, Flew's shift echoes Romans 1:20, which declares that God's "invisible qualities" are evident in creation, suggesting that even a deist's acknowledgment of design can be a step toward recognising the Creator.
Flew's announcement sparked intense debate. Atheist critics, including Dawkins and PZ Myers, alleged that Flew's advanced age and nominal aphasia (difficulty recalling names) indicated senility or manipulation by Christian co-authors like Varghese. A 2007 New York Times Magazine article by Mark Oppenheimer suggested that Varghese, not Flew, wrote much of There Is a God, citing stylistic differences and Flew's memory lapses in interviews. But that is hardly rational arguments against the position, seeking to undermine the man, not the arguments, as atheist often do. Nevertheless, the Flew controversy shone much light upon modern atheist thought and behaviour, as well as showing that philosophers are capable of changing their minds.