Category Archives: Current Events

“Schaeffer Sunday”Remembering Francis Schaeffer at 100

March 23, 2014 – 1:45 am

schaeffer

THE FRANCIS SCHAEFFER CENTENNIAL – INVOCATION – PASTOR TONY FELICH

Uploaded by on Feb 3, 2012

Pastor Tony Felich of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, KS gives the invocation to the mini conference event in honor of Francis Schaeffer’s 100th Birthday.

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This year Francis Schaeffer would have turned 100 on Jan 30, 2012. I remember like yesterday when I first was introduced to his books. I was even more amazed when I first saw his films. I was so influenced by them that I bought every one of his 30 something books and his two film series. Here is a tribute that I got off the internet from Chuck Colson’s website www.breakpoint.org :

Truth With Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer

Article by Bing Davis January 2007

I cannot begin to express how many sympathetic back pats, mildly shaken heads and ever so slightly rolled eyes I have gotten at the news that I was reviewing a book on the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. I must say that I have understood, at least partially, those reactions by Godly and loving people. After all, who can not have a bit of a smile, or a tug at one’s heart and maybe their intellect, at the thought of Francis Schaeffer? At the myriad explanations of him, the differing opinions on him, the disciples who revere him and the opponents who remain baffled by him even in their distaste for him?

Those of us of “a certain age” remember firsthand the differing schools of thought surrounding Schaeffer, the powerful way that he affected almost everyone who encountered him either personally or through his writings. What I found interesting even then was the way in which parishes and wide swaths of laymen were moved positively by Schaeffer to begin to study, yes STUDY, the doctrines of the faith that some had embraced uncritically since childhood. I remember the way these lifelong Christians say next to those still challenging the faith, those new to the faith and those just desirous of seeing what all the commotion was about. At the same time, I was moved by how many “educated” Christians, those with degrees, those who taught in seminaries and other institutions of higher learning, were frequently critical, even dismissive of this man that their unwashed counterparts in the pews embraced so fully.

In his book on the apologetics of this much-misunderstood thinker, Bryan Follis has done a grand job of untangling the knot that was the apologetic of Francis Schaeffer, without succumbing to the Alexandrian need to simply cut the knot and declare it untied. Follis has broken his book down into an Introduction, 4 simple chapters and a stirring Conclusion. He has shown a willingness to interact with major critics of a man he clearly loves, while at the same time seeking to use Schaeffer’s words, and not Follis’ own, to make his case for his understanding of Schaeffer’s apologetic. The chapter titles, “Calvin and the Reformed Tradition,” “Arguments and Approach,” “Rationality and Spirituality” and “Academic or Apologist” describe the path Follis treads in giving us a clear view of Schaeffer in light of the major influences on him and questions concerning him.

To oversimplify, Schaeffer received criticism from several different and differing viewpoints. The Warfieldian evidentialists dismissed him as a presuppositionalist. The Van Tilan presuppositionlists dismissed him as a rationalist with evidentialist leanings, and all looked with great disfavor on his extensive use of rational arguments with non-believers. Follis eventually places Schaeffer as leaning more toward the “verificationalist” method described by Edward Carnell in his “An Introduction to Christian Apologetics” published in 1948. While describing Schaeffer as being most like this method of apologetics, Follis shows that Schaeffer defies pigeon-holing, which is what seems to have driven his rejection, in large part, by the academy in his day.

Follis says this in setting the framework for understanding Schaeffer, “…it is impossible to understand Schaeffer, never mind properly evaluate his apologetics, unless we grasp that he was a practitioner and not a theoretician, and so interpret him in the context of what he sought to do.” Follis does an admirable job of keeping the focus on Schaeffer’s heart for the lost, and his willingness to understand the language and context of his conversation partner so that he could most effectively relate the Gospel message to that person in the way most relevant to their understanding and situation in life. What caused such consternation in academic circles, it seems in retrospect, is that while Schaeffer defied strict definition in philosophical/apologetical terms, he happily embraced the only definition he sought, Evangelist.

One of the areas in which Schaeffer was most roundly criticized was that of his lightly regarded scholarship, particularly as it relates to his formulation and interpretation of the flow of human history and how it related to the Modern and post-Modern thought so prevalent then and now. Follis makes a telling point when he shows that while some of Schaeffer’s critics might have had their say in his day, Schaeffer is most assuredly having his say now, as we see almost precisely the progression of thought and deterioration of values, language and morality that he predicted and against which he warned in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

In describing Schaeffer’s methodology, Follis continues to return to Schaeffer’s idea that we must lovingly “take the roof off of” the inconsistent logic, denial of reality and false psychological props that most unbelievers use to give themselves “a false sense of meaning or a fleeting feeling of satisfaction.” Schaeffer contended that we should never be cruel in exposing the unbeliever’s shortcomings, but rather learn his language and move into his story in order to solve the “problem of how to communicate the Gospel so that it is understood.”

The highlight of the read for this reviewer was the Conclusion, entitled “Love as the Final Apologetic.” In this section, Follis takes what he has given us in the previous four chapters and contextualizes it to the local church today. Follis asks the questions that are already coursing through the mind of his reader, “Do we see compassion and love like this (Schaeffer in his work) today in many churches? Can the outsider visit your church and experience the reality of Christ’s love and truth both being taught and lived? And what of our individual lives – do they reflect the love of Christ, and do we, in an age of doubt, commend His truth?” As the beginnings of an answer to these questions, this book will be a valuable addition to any bookshelf.

In the final analysis we can ask “Should we seek to teach Schaeffer’s apologetic?” The answer is “Probably not,” because Schaeffer’s apologetic seems uniquely fitted to who Schaeffer was. But if we ask, “Should we seek to instill Schaeffer’s heart for the lost in our own lives and apologetic, as well as the lives of all we teach, lead or among whom we live?” who among us could possibly answer “no?”

Bryan A. Follis / Illinois: Crossway, 2006

Review by Bing Davis, Pastor of Grace Fellowship, Spring Hill, TN

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E P I S O D E 1 0 How Should We Then Live 10#1 FINAL CHOICES I. Authoritarianism the Only Humanistic Social Option One man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. A. Society is sole absolute in absence of other absolutes. B. But society has to be led by an elite: John Kenneth […]

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Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 9 How Should We Then Live 9#1 T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads to Pessimism Regarding a Meaning for Life and for Fixed […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 8 How Should We Then Live 8#1 I saw this film series in 1979 and it had a major impact on me. T h e Age of FRAGMENTATION I. Art As a Vehicle Of Modern Thought A. Impressionism (Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas) and Post-Impressionism (Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 7 How Should We Then Live 7#1 I am thrilled to get this film series with you. I saw it first in 1979 and it had such a big impact on me. Today’s episode is where we see modern humanist man act on his belief that we live […]

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Andy Rooney was an atheist

How Now Shall We LiveClick here to purchase Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey’s How Now Shall We Live?, dedicated to Francis Schaeffer.


Click here for a list of Francis Schaeffer’s greatest works, from the Colson Center store!

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Francis Schaeffer | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Former Atheist Antony Flew noted that Evolutionists failed to show “Where did a living, self-reproducing organism come from in the first place?”

March 21, 2014 – 4:03 am

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Does God Exist? Thomas Warren vs. Antony Flew

Published on Jan 2, 2014

Date: September 20-23, 1976
Location: North Texas State University

Christian debater: Thomas B. Warren
Atheist debater: Antony G.N. Flew

For Thomas Warren: http://www.warrenapologeticscenter.org/

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Antony Flew and his conversion to theism

Uploaded on Aug 12, 2011

Antony Flew, a well known spokesperson for atheism for several decades, changed his mind and turned from atheism to Deism. Professor Flew, who was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, has given clear reasons why he made that transition. These reasons have been presented briefly in this compilation.

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The Bible and Science (Part 01)

Discussion (1 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas

Uploaded on Sep 22, 2010

A discussion with Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas. This was held at Westminster Chapel March, 2008

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Moral Implications of Atheism – Kyle Butt

Quotes William Provine, Dan Barker, Charles Darwin,Peter Singer, James Rachels, Eric R. Pianka,  Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris

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Ricky Gervais act outs atheist bewilderment and frustration in the face of nice Christian nonsense

Uploaded on Jan 20, 2010

Scene from Extras series one, “Kate Winslet”, in a conversation all atheists will recognise only too well.

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Is There a God? William Lane Craig vs Victor J. Stenger (University of Hawaii, 2003)

Uploaded on Jul 31, 2011

http://reasonablefaith.org – University of Hawaii, 2003 – Is There a God? William Lane Craig vs Victor J. Stenger. A debate before a packed house at the University of Hawaii with Professor of Physics Victor Stenger in which Craig and Stenger square off on such issues as the Big Bang and the beginning of time, the odds of the fine-tuning of the constants and quantities requisite for life, evil and moral values, religious experience, and many more. This is William Lane Craig’s first debate with atheist Victor Stenger.

Craig’s second debate with Stenger: http://youtu.be/EjOs62PJciI

William Lane Craig and his arguments and evidence for God:

Contingency Argument for God (the Leibnizian Argument):

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Kalam Cosmological Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Teleological Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Ontological Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Moral Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Belief in God as Properly Basic:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLE…

Links to videos of William Lane Craig:

http://drcraigvideos.blogspot.com

We welcome your comments in the Reasonable Faith forums:
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/forums/

Follow Reasonable Faith On Twitter: http://twitter.com/rfupdates

Add Reasonable Faith On Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/reasonablefai…

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Why did the famous atheist Antony Flew leave atheism behind in 2004? Maybe one of the reasons was because he saw that evolutionists were not giving good answers to the most basic questions. For instance, Flew said they failed to adequately answer the question: “Where did a living, self-reproducing organism come from in the first place?”

Entertaining the notion of a place of wonder

British philosopher Antony Flew has been called the world’s most influential philosophical atheist. As far back as his debates with Christian apologist C. S. Lewis in 1950, he…

By Jonathan Witt

Special to The Times

British philosopher Antony Flew has been called the world’s most influential philosophical atheist. As far back as his debates with Christian apologist C.S. Lewis in 1950, he argued that there simply wasn’t enough evidence for a creator.

Now Flew has changed his mind.

Those who admired his intellect when he was an atheist should listen carefully to his reasoning now — for if a man suddenly becomes persona non grata for changing his mind, then the possibility of reasoned civil discourse withers.

That’s a tough warning to heed, however, because Flew takes issue with the bedrock of modern materialism: pre-biotic evolution.

In a recent interview (www.biola.edu/antonyflew), Flew points out that even if Charles Darwin’s theory of random variation and natural selection can explain how organisms evolved, the theory does not explain one crucial question: Where did a living, self-reproducing organism come from in the first place?

Flew insists that the scientific establishment has simply failed to answer this question persuasively, and he singles out Richard Dawkins, another influential British atheist and leading proponent of Darwinism:

“Richard Dawkins constantly overlooks the fact that Darwin himself, in the 14th chapter of ‘The Origin of Species,’ pointed out that his whole argument began with a being which already possessed reproductive powers.”

If we trace evolution backwards, we reach a primitive single cell from which nothing simpler could survive and reproduce. How did it come to be? This first cell must be produced by something other than natural selection — a point Darwin readily conceded.

Those eager to expunge God’s fingerprints from nature weren’t concerned by this shortcoming in Darwin’s material explanation for life, because Darwin and his contemporaries thought a single cell was a simple blob of protoplasm. How hard could it be for nature to randomly produce something so simple?

In those days the cell was a black box, a mystery. But in the 20th century, scientists were able to open that black box and peek inside. There they found not a simple blob, but a world of complex circuits, miniaturized motors and digital code.

We now know that even the simplest functional cell is almost unfathomably complex, containing at least 250 genes and their corresponding proteins.

Explains New Zealand geneticist Michael Denton, each cell “is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms.”

The odds of a primordial soup randomly burping up even one protein strand of moderate length are dramatically less than one chance in 10 to the 150th power.

It’s hard to grasp how long these odds are — one followed by 150 zeros. We know that a lot of strange things can happen in a place as big and old as our universe, but as mathematician and philosopher William Dembski explains in the Cambridge University Press book “The Design Inference,” the universe isn’t remotely big enough, old enough, or fast enough to generate that much complexity.

Nor have attempts to explain this complexity as the natural outworking of the laws of nature proven successful. The best explanation? Intelligent design.

Most contemporary biologists will have none of this. Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin is refreshingly open about their reason. He admits their prior commitment to see only material causes forces them to “produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that Materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”

Lewontin’s approach isn’t science. It’s dogma. Flew’s method is more objective. He has decided to follow the evidence wherever it leads. “It now seems to me,” he says, “that the findings of more than 50 years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design.”

Such evidence has drawn Flew from atheism to a non-specific theism. He isn’t ready to accept the God of a particular religion, nor does he believe in an afterlife. The change is, nevertheless, significant. He no longer inhabits a worldview where the miraculous and the irrational are synonymous.

The amazing complexity of even the simplest cell; the information-bearing properties of DNA; the exquisite fine-tuning of the laws and constants of physics that make organic life possible; the Big Bang of the cosmos out of nothing — these signs of intelligence do not compel our belief in a God who thundered from Mount Sinai, lay in a manger or hung from a cross. But the evidence does have metaphysical implications, drawing us to a still place of wonder where such notions can be reasonably entertained.

Jonathan Witt is senior fellow and writer in residence at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture in Seattle.

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Mark Oppenheimer of Time Magazine claims Antony Flew was convinced by PSEUDOSCIENCE that God exists!!!

_____________ Mark Oppenheimer of Time Magazine claims Antony Flew was convinced by PSEUDOSCIENCE that God exists!!! Below you will read:  ”There Is a God” is perhaps the handiest primer ever written on the science (many would say pseudoscience) of religious belief. Regis Nicoll does a good job of refuting the claim that Flew was manipulated by […]

A review of “There is a God” by Antony Flew March 31, 2012

________ During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian Rogers and Francis Schaeffer and challenge them with the evidence for the Bible’s historicity and the claims of the gospel. Usually I would send them a cassette tape of Adrian Rogers’ messages “6 reasons I […]

Review of Antony Flew Book: THERE IS A GOD Article by R.C. Sproul May 2008

During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian Rogers and Francis Schaeffer and challenge them with the evidence for the Bible’s historicity and the claims of the gospel. Usually I would send them a cassette tape of Adrian Rogers’ messages “6 reasons I know […]

The Death of a (Former) Atheist — Antony Flew, 1923-2010 Antony Flew’s rejection of atheism is an encouragement, but his rejection of Christianity is a warning. Rejecting atheism is simply not enough, by Al Mohler

________________________________ Discussion (1 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas Uploaded on Sep 22, 2010 A discussion with Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas. This was held at Westminster Chapel March, 2008 ______________________ During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer | Tagged  | Edit | Comments (0)

Antony Flew’s journey from Atheism to Theism

During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian Rogers and Francis Schaeffer and challenge them with the evidence for the Bible’s historicity and the claims of the gospel. Usually I would send them a cassette tape of Adrian Rogers’ messages “6 reasons I […]

Will Science render supernatural answers unnecessary?

  Will Science render supernatural answers unnecessary?   ARGUMENT #2: The “gaps” in scientific knowledge have been closing due to scientific discovery. Eventually, supernatural explanations will be rendered unnecessary.       RESPONSE: In one sense, this statement is true. Modern science has been learning more and more about our world over the last several hundred years. […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Educated Scholars like Antony Flew can believe in God!!!

March 20, 2014 – 4:50 am

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Discussion (1 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas

Uploaded on Sep 22, 2010

A discussion with Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas. This was held at Westminster Chapel March, 2008

Debate – William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens – Does God Exist?

Uploaded on Jan 27, 2011

April 4, 2009 – Craig vs. Hitchens Debate from Biola University.

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The Bible and Science (Part 02)

When I think about the lessons we can take away from the Antony Flew episode I come back to two very obvious ones. Flew’s change from atheism to theism  completely negates the idea that only common people who are uneducated and haven’t done the research can believe in a God. Secondly, he must have known the incredible hatred that would be unleashed on him from the atheistic community if he betrayed their beliefs.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

#17 Dr. Antony Flew

This proof is what I’m going to call a “piggyback proof”. I propose that you accept the word of a really smart person who searched for the truth about God for his whole life in a very unusual way.In 2004 after about 50 years as one of the world’s leading and best known atheists, Antony Flew, came to the conclusion that there must be a God.”After a lifetime of probing philosophical inquiry, this towering and courageous intellect has now concluded the evidence leads conclusively to God” [1]

“Antony Flew has been for most of his life a very well known philosophical champion of atheism.” [5]

Other atheists were quick to call him senile and said that he was manipulated in his old age by certain Christians. He denied it and came out with a book called,There Is A God, How The World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind [9]. It tells his story and the arguments that convinced him. (There are videos on YouTube of his appearances if you search under Antony Flew.) [8]

“I now believe that the universe was brought into existence by an infinite Intelligence. I believe that this universe’s intricate laws manifest what scientists have called the Mind of God. I believe that life and reproduction originate in a divine Source.” [11]

“This is a fascinating and very readible account of how a distinguished philosopher who was a militant atheist for most of his working life came to believe in the intelligent design of the univers…” [2]

“A fascinating record of how one of our most prominent contemporary atheists was led to the conviction that God does exist.” [3]

“A stellar philosophical mind ponders the latest scientific results. The conclusion: a God stands behind the rationality of nature.” [4]

Flew was not your average atheist. He was considered a brilliant philosopher who at a very young age in 1950 published a paper called Theology and Falsification on atheism that is the most widely reprinted over the last 50 years and has been highly influencial in philosophy around the world.

He was always involved in the highest levels of the academic world, even having a professorship at Oxford. He kept up on the latest philosophical arguments for and against God as well as the latest scientific research into the origins of life and the universe.

One of his greatest virtues was his commitment to academic integrity and dedication to the Socratic Method of following the evidence wherever it might lead.

Ultimately, it was the developments in modern science that convinced him that there must be an intelligent source that designed and created the universe. TheBig Bang Theory, namely that the universe had a beginning something like 13 billions years ago, does not allow for enough time in order for the complexity of life that we observe to have developed according to evolution. Also, research discoveries in micro-biology and DNA led him to the same conclusion, namely that there must have been an intelligent cause.

This man was one of the greatest and most respected philosophical minds of the 20th century. He debated far and wide those who believed in a God. For him to finally change his mind after 50 years of debating, believing, and researching is a monumental change, certainly not done lightly or easily.

His change completely negates the idea that only common people who are uneducated and haven’t done the research can believe in a God.

Secondly, he must have known the incredible hatred that would be unleashed on him from the atheistic community if he betrayed their beliefs. He responded as ever with kindness and gentleness, which is all too evident in the book he wrote,There Is A God. In it he patiently spells out the philosophical journey he had taken in life and clearly what lead him to change his mind so all the world could know.

“When Antony Flew, in the spirit of free-thinking, followed the evidence where he thought it led, namely, to theism, he was roundly denounced by supposed free-thinkers in the severest of terms. He had, it seemed, committed the unpardonable sin.” [6]

“Perhaps what provides the deepest satisfaction in reading this philosophical memoir is the author’s transparent integrity, so habitual over a productive lifetime as to be, as Aristotle would have it, second nature. How shrill and self-absorbed are the opposing works of a Dawkins or a Dennett by comparison.” [7]

This man understood all the arguments for atheism inside and out. In fact, he created some of those arguments himself. He was the author of 30 books. All his life he wanted to follow the evidence to find the truth and he ended up accepting that there must be a God.

“In fact, my two main antitheological books were both written long before either the development of the big-bang cosmology or the introduction of the fine-tuning argument from physical constants. But since the early 1980’s, I had begun to reconsider. I confessed at that point that atheists have to be embarrassed by the contemporary cosmological consensus, for it seemed that the cosmologists were providing a scientific proof of what St. Thomas Aquinas contended could not be proved philosophically; namely, that the universe had a beginning.” [10]

In 2007, Flew was interviewed by Benjamin Wiker. He said again that his deism was the result of his “growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other noted scientists that there had to be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe” and “my own insight that the integrated complexity of life itself – which is far more complex than the physical Universe – can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source.” [12]

You could do all the research yourself and study all the arguments for and against God. Or you could just take a short cut and check out what Antony Flew has to say. I enjoyed reading his book very much although at times the philosophy was over my head. He was clearly a brilliant thinker.

There must be a God.

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[1] Francis S. Collins, author of The Language of God

[2] John Hick, professor and Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Sciences, University of Birmingham

[3] Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University

[4] Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box and The Edge of Evolution

[5] Richard Swinburne, author of The Existence of God

[6] William Lane Craig, Research Professor, Talbot School of Theology

[7] Daniel N. Robinson, Philosophy Department, Oxford University

[8] YouTube video example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1e4FUhfHiU

[9] There Is A God, by Antony Flew, 2007, Harper Collins, New York, NY

[10] There Is A God, page 135.

[11] There Is A God, page 88

[12] Dr. Benjamin Wiker: Exclusive Flew Interview, 30 October 2007. http://www.tothesource.org/10_30_2007/10_30_2007.htm

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  Will Science render supernatural answers unnecessary?   ARGUMENT #2: The “gaps” in scientific knowledge have been closing due to scientific discovery. Eventually, supernatural explanations will be rendered unnecessary.       RESPONSE: In one sense, this statement is true. Modern science has been learning more and more about our world over the last several hundred years. […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Tagged | Comments (0)

Antony Flew rightly noted that Richard Dawkins’ “monkey theorem was a load of rubbish”

March 19, 2014 – 4:43 am

________

 

William Lane Craig versus Eddie Tabash Debate

Uploaded on Feb 6, 2012

Secular Humanism versus Christianity, Lawyer versus Theologian. Evangelical Christian apologist William Lane Craig debates humanist atheist lawyer Eddie Tabash at Pepperdine University, February 8, 1999. Visit http://www.Infidels.org and http://www.WilliamLaneCraig.com

________________

Antony Flew on God and Atheism

Published on Feb 11, 2013

Lee Strobel interviews philosopher and scholar Antony Flew on his conversion from atheism to deism. Much of it has to do with intelligent design. Flew was considered one of the most influential and important thinker for atheism during his time before his death (he’s a much better thinker than Richard Dawkins too – even when he was an atheist). His conversion to God-belief has caused an uproar among atheists. They have done all they can to lessen the impact of his famous conversion by shamelessly suggesting he’s too old, senile and mentally deranged to understand logic and science anymore.

News on Antony Flew’s conversion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1e4FU…

Interview and discussion with Antony Flew:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53REH…

________________

Kalam Cosmological Argument – Douglas Groothuis, PhD

Published on Jul 13, 2012

Doug Groothuis gives a lecture on the Kalam Cosmological Argument. What’s interesting about this lecture is that Groothuis did not accept the Kalam Cosmological Argument at first but was later convinced by it.

Notes:

http://www.relyonchrist.com/Lecture/1…
http://www.relyonchrist.com/Lecture/1…

Kalam Cosmological Argument

(Moreland, Scaling the Secular City; see also William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith [Crossway, 1994]; Paul Copan and William Lane Craig, Creation from Nothing [Baker, 2004]; William Lane Craig and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, God: A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist [Oxford, 2004])

Preliminary: concepts of (a) the actual infinite and (b) the potential infinite

1. The universe had a beginning
2. The impossibility of the actual infinite (distinguish from potential infinite)
3. The impossibility of traversing an actual infinite (even if it exists); forming an actual infinite through successive addition, piece by piece…
4. Scientific confirmation from Big Bang cosmology (absolute origination). See also John Jefferson Davis, “Genesis 1:1 and Big Bang Cosmology,” in The Frontiers of Science and Faith (InterVarsity, 2002), 11 — 36; and Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (revised ed., 1992).
5. Scientific confirmation from second law of thermodynamics.
6. Astronomer Fred Hoyle (who once advanced the steady state cosmology) argues against the universe being infinitely old in virtue of its hydrogen consumption. The argument can be stated as a modus tolens deduction (denying the consequent).
7. Can everything come from nothing without a cause? The “pop theory” (biting the metaphysical bullet)
8. Philosophical critique of everything from nothing…
9. God and time (see Greg Gansell, editor, God and Time: Four Views [InterVarsity, 2001])
10. Argument against an impersonal cause
11. Argument against God needing a cause (Bertrand Russell)
12. Quentin Smith’s acceptance of Big Bang cosmology and denial of God’s existence.
13. Unitary: Ockham’s razor
14. Incorrigible, inextinguishable (having existed, God cannot fail to exist)
15. Personal, volitional (“personal explanation”—R. Swinburne)
16. Omnipotent: nothing is a greater expenditure of power than exnihilating the entire cosmos. This is rational to hold, given the argument.
17. Supplies the necessary conditions for impeccable and omnipotent goodness: (1) – (4). Need (5) moral argument and (6) the Incarnation for the final necessary condition, which, with (1) – (4), make for necessary and sufficient conditions.

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Antony Flew rightly noted that Richard Dawkins’  “monkey theorem was a load of rubbish.”

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Why Richard Dawkins’ typing monkey theorem is a load of nonsense

The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins employs the typing monkey concept in his book The Blind Watchmaker to demonstrate the ability of natural selection to produce biological complexity out of random mutations.

I have often heard this argument advanced by atheists in debates but in fact it does not survive deeper scrutiny.

Philosopher and former atheist Antony Flew, who became a theist in later life, explains how he changed his mind on whether the origin of life pointed to the activity of a creative Intelligence. It was in a debate in 2004 at New York University with Israeli scientist Gerald Schroeder that he announced he now accepted the existence of a God.

Flew explains his thinking in his book ‘There is a God’, which I finally got around to reading earlier this year. He argues on pp75-8 as follows:

‘I have embraced since the beginning of my philosophical life of following the argument no matter where it leads.

I was particularly impressed with Gerry Schroeders’s point-by-point refutation of what I call the “monkey theorem.” This idea, which has been presented in a number of forms and variations, defends the possibility of life arising by chance using the analogy of a multitude of monkeys banging away on computer keyboards and eventually ending up writing a Shakesparearean sonnet.

Schroeder first referred to an experiment conducted by the British National Council of Arts. A computer was placed in a cage with six monkeys. After one month of hammering away at it (as well as using it as a bathroom!), the monkeys produced fifty typed pages – but no a single word. Schroeder noted that this was the case even though the shortest work in the English language is one letter (a or I). A is a word only if there is a space on either side of it. If we take it that the keyboard has thirty characters (the 26 letters and other symbols), then the likelihood of getting a one-letter world is 30 x 30 x 30, which is 27,000. The likelihood of a getting a one-letter word is one chance of 27,000

Schroeder then applied the probabilities to the sonnet analogy. “What’s the chance of getting a Shakespearean sonnet?” he asked, He continued….

•All the sonnets are the same length. They’re by definition fourteen lines long. I picked the one I knew the opening line for, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” I counted the number of letters; there are 488 letters in the sonnet. What’s the likelihood of hammering away and getting 488 letters in exact sequence as in “Shall I campare thee to a summer’s day? What you end up with is 26 multiplied by itself 488 times – or 26 to the 488th power. Or, in other words, in base 10,10 to the 690th.

•Now the number of particles in the universe – not grains of sand, I’m talking about protons, electrons, and neutrons – is 10 to the 80th . Ten to the 80th is 1 with 80 zeros after it. Ten to 690th is 1 with 690 zeros after it. There are not enough particles in the universe to write down the trials; you’d be off by a factor of 10 to the 600th.

•If you took the entire universe and converted it to computer chips – forget the monkeys – each one weighing a millionth of a gram and had each computer chip able to spin out 288 trials at, say, a million times a second; if you turn the entire universe into these microcomputer chips and these chips were spinning a million times a second (producing) random letters, the number of trials you would get since the beginning of time would be 10 to the 90th trials. It would be off again by a factor of 10 to the 600th. You will never get a sonnet by chance. The universe would have to be 10 to the 600th time larger. Yet the world just thinks monkeys can do it every time.

After hearing Schroeder’s presentation, I told him that he had very satisfactorily and decisively established that the ‘monkey theorem’ was a load of rubbish, and that it was particularly good to do it with just a sonnet; the theorem is sometimes proposed using the works of Shakespeare or a single play, such as Hamlet. If the theorem won’t work for a single sonnet, then of course it’s simply absurd to suggest that the more elaborate feat of the origin of life could have been achieved by chance.’

Posted by at 09:14

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Article from 2005 indicated Antony Flew abandoned atheism because of Law of Biogenesis!!!!

March 18, 2014 – 1:34 am

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Does God Exist? Thomas Warren vs. Antony Flew

Published on Jan 2, 2014

Date: September 20-23, 1976
Location: North Texas State University

Christian debater: Thomas B. Warren
Atheist debater: Antony G.N. Flew

For Thomas Warren: http://www.warrenapologeticscenter.org/

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Antony Flew and his conversion to theism

Uploaded on Aug 12, 2011

Antony Flew, a well known spokesperson for atheism for several decades, changed his mind and turned from atheism to Deism. Professor Flew, who was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, has given clear reasons why he made that transition. These reasons have been presented briefly in this compilation.

_________________________________

The Bible and Science (Part 01)

Discussion (1 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas

Uploaded on Sep 22, 2010

A discussion with Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas. This was held at Westminster Chapel March, 2008

______________________

Moral Implications of Atheism – Kyle Butt

Quotes William Provine, Dan Barker, Charles Darwin,Peter Singer, James Rachels, Eric R. Pianka,  Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris

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Is There a God? William Lane Craig vs Victor J. Stenger (University of Hawaii, 2003)

Uploaded on Jul 31, 2011

http://reasonablefaith.org – University of Hawaii, 2003 – Is There a God? William Lane Craig vs Victor J. Stenger. A debate before a packed house at the University of Hawaii with Professor of Physics Victor Stenger in which Craig and Stenger square off on such issues as the Big Bang and the beginning of time, the odds of the fine-tuning of the constants and quantities requisite for life, evil and moral values, religious experience, and many more. This is William Lane Craig’s first debate with atheist Victor Stenger.

Craig’s second debate with Stenger: http://youtu.be/EjOs62PJciI

William Lane Craig and his arguments and evidence for God:

Contingency Argument for God (the Leibnizian Argument):

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Kalam Cosmological Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Teleological Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Ontological Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Moral Argument for God:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Belief in God as Properly Basic:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLE…

Links to videos of William Lane Craig:

http://drcraigvideos.blogspot.com

We welcome your comments in the Reasonable Faith forums:
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/forums/

Follow Reasonable Faith On Twitter: http://twitter.com/rfupdates

Add Reasonable Faith On Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/reasonablefai…

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Article from 2005 indicated Antony Flew abandoned atheism because of Law of Biogenesis!!!!

 

Weighing the Evidence

An Atheist Abandons Atheism

By Chuck Colson|Published Date: January 10, 2005

Antony Flew, the 81-year-old British philosophy professor who taught at Oxford and other leading universities, became an atheist at age 15. Throughout his long career he argued — including in debates with an atheist-turned-Christian named C. S. Lewis — that there was a “presumption of atheism,” that is, the existence of a creator could not be proved.

But he’s now been forced to face the evidence. It comes from the Intelligent Design movement, led by Dr. Phillip Johnson and particularly the work of Michael Behe, the Lehigh biochemist who has proven the “irreducible complexity” of the human cell structure. Though eighty-one years old, Flew has not let his thinking fossilize, but has faithfully followed his own dictum to “go where the evidence leads.”

Christian philosophy professor Gary Habermas of Liberty University conducted an interview with Flew that will be published in the winter issue of Philosophia Christi, the journal of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and Biola University. Flew told Habermas that a pivotal point in his thinking was when he realized two major flaws in the various theories of how nature might have created itself. First, he recognized that evolutionary theory has no reasonable explanation for “the first emergence of living from non-living matter” — that is, the origin of life. Second, even if a living cell or primitive animal had somehow assembled itself from non-living chemicals, he reasoned it would have no ability to reproduce.

Flew told Habermas, “This is the creature, the evolution of which a truly comprehensive theory of evolution must give some account. Darwin himself was well aware that he had not produced such an account. It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design.”

Flew has, thus, become a Deist — that is, he acknowledges God as creator but not as a personal deity. In his opinion, “There is no room either for any supernatural revelation of that God or any transactions between that God and individual human beings.” In fact, he told a group last May that he considers both the Christian God and the Islamic God to be “omnipotent Oriental despots — cosmic Saddam Husseins.”

But a crack is beginning to develop in his opinion that God hasn’t spoken through Scripture. When he reads the first chapter of Genesis, Flew says he’s impressed that a book written thousands of years ago harmonizes with twenty-first-century science. “That this biblical account might be scientifically accurate,” says Flew, “raises the possibility that it is revelation.” A book containing factual statements that no human knew about at the time of writing seems to argue that the authors must have had coaching from the Creator.

The evidence is there for all who will look, as his one-time adversary C. S. Lewis discovered, and as more and more thinking intellectuals are discovering today. So it is that Antony Flew, perhaps the most famous philosopher of atheism, is just a step or two away from the kingdom.

For further reading and information:Today’s BreakPoint offer: Read Dr. Gary Habermas’s interview with Antony Flew, “Atheist Becomes Deist: Exclusive Interview with Former Atheist Anthony Flew,” from the winter 2004 issue of Philosophia Christi.

Read more about “irreducible complexity” in the “Worldview for Parents” page titled, “More Than Coincidence.”

“Famous Atheist Now Believes in God,” ABC News, 9 December 2004.

Stuart Wavell and Will Iredale, “Sorry, says atheist-in-chief, I do believe in God after all,” London Sunday Times, 12 December 2004.

Andrew Klavan, “Going All the Way: An atheist ‘converts’ to intelligent design. Why so timid, Mr. Flew?” Wall Street Journal, 24 December 2004.

Read the “Letter from Antony Flew on Darwinism and Theology” from Philosophy Now.

Read Flew’s previous position: “The Presumption of Atheism” from his 1984 book God Freedom and Immortality: A Critical Analysis.

Jonathan Witt, “Entertaining the notion of a place of wonder,” Seattle Times, 20 December 2004.

Peter S. Williams, “A Change of Mind for Antony Flew,” Access Research Network.

William Dembski, ed., Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing (ISI, 2004).

Phillip E. Johnson, The Right Questions (InterVarsity, 2002).

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FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 12 H.J.Blackham and Materialistic Humanism: The World-View of Our Era (Feature on artist Arturo Herrera)

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“Woody Wednesday” Discussing Woody Allen’s movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and various other subjects with Ark Times Bloggers (Part 6) Judah ” I believe in God, Miriam. I know it… because without God the world is a cesspool”

_____________________________ Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Discussion: Part 3 Uploaded by camdiscussion on Sep 23, 2007 Part 3 of 3: ‘Is Woody Allen A Romantic Or A Realist?’ A discussion of Woody Allen’s 1989 movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors, perhaps his finest. By Anton Scamvougeras. http://camdiscussion.blogspot.com/ antons@mail.ubc.ca ______________ I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

“Music Monday” Phoenix Part 1

March 17, 2014 – 12:20 am

Phoenix – Entertainment (Live on SNL)

Phoenix (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the band. For other uses, see Phoenix (disambiguation).
Phoenix
Phoenix Wiltern June 28th.jpg
Background information
Origin Versailles, France
Genres Alternative rock, indie rock,[1]synthpop, New Wave
Years active 1999–present
Labels Glassnote
Loyauté
Associated acts Daft Punk
Darlin’
Air
Cassius
Website wearephoenix.com
Members Thomas Mars (vocals)
Deck d’Arcy (bass)
Laurent Brancowitz (guitar)
Christian Mazzalai (guitar)

Phoenix is an alternative rock band from Versailles, France,[2] consisting of Thomas Mars, Deck d’Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz.[3]

Contents

[hide]

History[edit]

Formation and early years[edit]

Vocalist Thomas Mars, bassist Deck d’Arcy, and guitarist Chris Mazzalai started playing together as a “garage band” based out of Mars’s house in the suburbs of Paris, France. In 1995, Laurent Brancowitz, Mazzalai’s older brother, permanently joined the band on guitar after the end of Darlin’, a short-lived band that Brancowitz had formed with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Bangalter and de Homem-Christo later formed Daft Punk.[4]) Two years later the band took on the name Phoenix and pressed 500 copies of a single on their own label, Ghettoblaster. Shortly after, they were signed to the Paris-based Source Records. Phoenix became well acquainted with labelmates Air when they acted as their backing band on several U.K. TV appearances.[5]

Phoenix – 1901 (Live on Letterman) 18 Juin 2009

United and Alphabetical (2000-2004)[edit]

Following their two singles “If I Ever Feel Better” and “Too Young”, United was released in 2000. Their track “Too Young” was in the soundtrack for the movie Lost in Translation (which was directed by Thomas’ future wife, Sofia Coppola), and was also played in the movie Shallow Hal. The band’s second album, Alphabetical, was released in 2004 and saw the band reach more mainstream success, with the singles “Everything Is Everything” and “Run Run Run” reaching some alternative rock airplay charts.[which?] Hedi Slimane commissioned a special mix of their song “Victim of the Crime” as the soundtrack to one of his runway shows for Dior Homme.

Phoenix – Lisztomania Official Video (Best Quality + Lyrics)

Live! Thirty Days Ago, It’s Never Been Like That and Kitsuné Tabloid (2005-2009)[edit]

Following Alphabetical, the band toured three continents, playing 150 dates. This tour was followed up with a live album, Live! Thirty Days Ago, released only 30 days after the end of the tour. Phoenix then spent time in Berlin during the summer of 2005, making use of Planet Roc studios to produce their third album, It’s Never Been Like That. To promote the release of It’s Never Been Like That, Phoenix toured the United States and Europe in 2006. American band Paramore performed a cover of the song “Long Distance Call” live on Taratata, a French TV show.

The band curated a compilation album for French electronic music record and fashion label Kitsuné .It was released on March 23, 2009, just about 2 months short of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.The mix tape includes music by Elvis Costello, Roxy Music, Kiss, Lou Reed and others.

Phoenix – Lasso (Live on Letterman)

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009)[edit]

In early 2009, it was announced that the band was returning with a new album titled Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, which was released on May 25, 2009.[6] The album was recorded in Paris, and was co-produced and mixed by Philippe Zdar of Cassius.[7] “1901“, a tribute to early Paris, was released on February 23, 2009 as a free download prior to the release of the first single and aired for the first time on Australian radio station Triple J.

“1901” was also featured in the US during Super Bowl XLV in a Green Bay Packers montage. Phoenix also performed “Lisztomania”, “1901, and “Too Young” on Saturday Night Live on April 4.[8] They also performed “Lisztomania” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,[9] “Girlfriend” on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,[10] and “1901” on the Late Show with David Letterman,[11] Jimmy Kimmel Live![12] and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.[13]

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix won Best Alternative Music Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. Shortly afterwards, “1901” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Alternative Songs chart.[14] The album was the first Phoenix album to be certified gold and appeared on numerous “Best of” lists at the end of 2010, including Rolling Stone magazine.[15]

Following the album’s release, Phoenix appeared at various major music festivals, including the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2009, Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California in 2010, the 2010 Bonnaroo Music Festival, the Southside Festival and Hurricane Festival in Germany, the 2010 Lollapalooza Music Festival, the Mile High Music Festival, Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco, California, Rock Werchter 2010 in Belgium, and the 2010 Reading and Leeds Festivals. On October 20, 2010, Daft Punk made a special appearance for their show in Madison Square Garden.

Allmusic.com, a review website, commented favourably on the release of the album. “Beyond containing the band’s best, most efficient songwriting, the album also stands apart from the first three studio albums by projecting a cool punch that is unforced,” a reviewer commented.[16] Vocalist Thomas Mars, described as “more bright-eyed and youthful than ever,” is more prominent in these songs, harmonising well with the instruments. “Maybe they’ve just hit their stride,” the reviewer says.

Phoenix are the subject of a documentary From a Mess to the Masses that documents their 2009-2010 tour in support of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The film was directed by Antoine Wagner and Francisco Soriano—Wagner was also responsible for directing the “Lisztomania” music video. The title of the documentary is a lyrical excerpt from “Lisztomania” and the total running time is 52 minutes. From a Mess to the Masses premiered in Germany and France on the Arte television network on October 13, 2011.[17][18]

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

The Christian influence on society is real and that is one of the reasons Antony Flew left Atheism!!!

March 14, 2014 – 6:26 am

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Antony Flew on God and Atheism

Published on Feb 11, 2013

Lee Strobel interviews philosopher and scholar Antony Flew on his conversion from atheism to deism. Much of it has to do with intelligent design. Flew was considered one of the most influential and important thinker for atheism during his time before his death (he’s a much better thinker than Richard Dawkins too – even when he was an atheist). His conversion to God-belief has caused an uproar among atheists. They have done all they can to lessen the impact of his famous conversion by shamelessly suggesting he’s too old, senile and mentally deranged to understand logic and science anymore.

News on Antony Flew’s conversion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1e4FU…

Interview and discussion with Antony Flew:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53REH…

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 Did Jesus Rise from the Dead Gary Habermas vs Anthony Flew

Published on May 30, 2013

Gary Habermas vs Anthony Flew – Did Jesus rise from the dead?

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Antony Flew – World’s Most Famous Atheist Accepts Existence of God

Uploaded on Nov 28, 2008

Has Science Discovered God?

A half-century ago, in 1955, Professor Antony Flew set the agenda for modern atheism with his Theology and Falsification, a paper presented in a debate with C.S. Lewis. This work became the most widely reprinted philosophical publication of the last 50 years. Over the decades, he published more than 30 books attacking belief in God and debated a wide range of religious believers.

Then, in a 2004 Summit at New York University, Professor Flew announced that the discoveries of modern science have led him to the conclusion that the universe is indeed the creation of infinite Intelligence.

For More Info Visit:
http://ScienceFindsGod.com

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Discussion (2 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas

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The Kalam Cosmological Argument (Scientific Evidence) (Henry Schaefer, PhD)

Published on Jun 11, 2012

Scientist Dr. Henry “Fritz” Schaefer gives a lecture on the cosmological argument and shows how contemporary science backs it up.

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Debate – Does God Exist? William Lane Craig vs Herb Silverman

Uploaded on Aug 21, 2011

University of North Carolina Wilmington (March 23, 2010) – Does God Exist? William Lane Craig debates atheist Herb Silverman on the existence of God.

Links:

http://reasonablefaith.org
http://drcraigvideos.blogspot.com

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The Bible and Science (Part 02)

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The Christian influence on society is real and that is one of the reasons Antony Flew left Atheism!!!

Beggar to Beggar

Saved by Increments

By Chuck Colson|Published Date: January 11, 2005

A leading intellectual elaborates on why he abandoned atheism. But, surprisingly, he says his reasons were not entirely intellectual.

British philosophy professor Dr. Antony Flew has been the subject of several Weblog discussions recently. Born the son of a Methodist minister, he embraced atheism at age 15 and spent most of his life promoting unbelief. Recently, he announced that evidence is forcing him to admit that a creator-God probably does exist.

To the extent that the media have reported Flew’s change of mind, they have emphasized his cerebral cogitations, the “argument to design” logic. He reasons that DNA and other intricacies — as distant as the galaxies and as close as our own bodily structures — overwhelmingly suggest a wise creator-God. Several news dispatches mention that the Intelligent Design concept that several of my friends and I have championed has played a part in stimulating him to recognize God’s “characteristics of power and also intelligence.”

But another major factor in Prof. Flew’s change of heart showed up in his interview with Liberty University philosopher and historian Dr. Gary Habermas, published in the journal Philosophia Christi. Flew admires John and Charles Wesley, whose influence continues to uplift society more than two centuries after their deaths. Flew told Habermas, “Methodism made it impossible to build a really substantial Communist Party in Britain and provided the country with a generous supply of men and women of sterling moral character. . . [Methodism’s] decline is a substantial part of the [cause for the] explosions both of unwanted motherhood and of crime in recent decades.” For Flew, God’s reality demonstrates itself in the lives of people who follow biblical principles.

I have found that the work that we do in Prison Fellowship to be our most powerful apologetic and witness. People can see the Gospel lived out, as Flew has done.

Flew also had long-term personal contact with C. S. Lewis. He recalls that while they were both on the Oxford faculty, they attended the weekly meetings of the Socratic Club, chaired by Lewis. Although Flew disagreed with Lewis on many issues, he remembers Lewis as “an eminently reasonable man.” Instead of raising his voice or pounding the table, Lewis spoke softly and showed respect for Flew, earning Lewis the right to be heard.

What lessons can we learn from Prof. Flew’s spiritual pilgrimage, about how to witness to atheists and skeptics? First, we need to avoid an arrogant triumphalism — a put-down attitude that comes across as “I told you so! What took you so long to recognize what has been obvious to me for years?” Second, we need to demonstrate the Gospel every opportunity we have, showing our secular friends how Christian efforts create a better society.

And finally, remember the principle of evangelism by increments. Many people do not accept Christ the first time they hear the Gospel. C. S. Lewis moved first from atheism to intellectual assent, and then later to saving faith in Christ.

Seldom does somebody move all the way from atheism to salvation, as a result of one person’s presentation on one occasion. When God gives us the privilege to carry the ball a few yards, that’s fine: He often gets someone else to carry it the rest of the way across the goal line.

For further reading and information:Today’s BreakPoint offer: Read Dr. Gary Habermas’s interview with Antony Flew, “Atheist Becomes Deist: Exclusive Interview with Former Atheist Anthony Flew,” from the winter 2004 issue of Philosophia Christi.

Ted Olsen, “Weblog: Atheist No More, Flew Still Rejects Revelation,” Christianity Today, 10 December 2004.

Alister McGrath, The Twilight of Atheism (Doubleday, 2004).

Art Lindsley, True Truth: Defending Absolute Truth in a Relativistic World (InterVarsity, 2004). Read more about this book in the commentary, “Absolutes without Absolutism.”

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Touchstone, 1996 version).

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The Fine Tuning Argument for the Existence of God from Antony Flew!

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The Death of a (Former) Atheist — Antony Flew, 1923-2010 Antony Flew’s rejection of atheism is an encouragement, but his rejection of Christianity is a warning. Rejecting atheism is simply not enough, by Al Mohler

________________________________ Discussion (1 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas Uploaded on Sep 22, 2010 A discussion with Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas. This was held at Westminster Chapel March, 2008 ______________________ During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian […]

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“Woody Wednesday” Discussing Woody Allen’s movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and various other subjects with Ark Times Bloggers (Part 6) Judah ” I believe in God, Miriam. I know it… because without God the world is a cesspool”

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By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Antony Flew, George Wald and David Noebel on the Origin of Life

March 14, 2014 – 1:55 am

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Does God Exist?: William Lane Craig vs Antony Flew

Uploaded on Dec 16, 2010

http://drcraigvideos.blogspot.com – William Lane Craig and Antony Flew met in 1998 on the 50th anniversary of the famous Copleston/Russell debate to discuss the question of God’s existence in a public debate. Unlike Richard Dawkins, Flew was one of the most respected atheist thinkers of the 20th and early 21st century (his scholarly works on David Hume are still studied today, and his “presumption of atheism” argument is still used by atheists). He became a deist* shortly before he died in April, 2010 (although he was an atheist when he debated Craig). The debate was transcribed into a book: http://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-…

* – Flew’s conversion has caused quite a scandal. Dr. Craig comments on it here: http://www.rfmedia.org/blog/index.php…

Antony Flew has comments on some of the controversies over his book and his conversion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CViBlN…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcdsRe…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUmZQh…

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http://www.reasonablefaith.org/forums/

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Discussion (3 of 3): Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, and Gary Habermas

The Kalam Cosmological Argument (Scientific Evidence) (Henry Schaefer, PhD)

Published on Jun 11, 2012

Scientist Dr. Henry “Fritz” Schaefer gives a lecture on the cosmological argument and shows how contemporary science backs it up.

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In the below comment section David Noebel stated the following:

Since writing my article on the origin of life I have read two books that basically make the same point and I will quote briefly from them, but encourage anyone interested in the subject to read both books from cover to cover: (1) John C. Lennox, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?, p.102, “Colin Patterson’s description highlights something very easily overlooked–the fact that natural selection is not creative. As he says, it is a ‘weeding out process’ that leaves the stronger progeny. The stronger progeny must be already there; it is not produced by natural selection…selection is made from already existing entities.” (2) Antony Flew, There Is A God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, p. 124 and 131, “The latest work I have seen shows that the present physicists’ view of the age of the universe gives too little time for these theories of abiogenesis [life from nonlife] to get the job done…How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self-replication capabilities, and ‘coded chemistry’?…So how do we account for the origin of life? The Nobel Prize-winning physiologist George Wald once famously argued that ‘we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.’ In later years, he concluded that a preexisting mind, which he posits as the matrix of physical reality, composed a physical universe that breeds life: ‘the stuff of which physical reality is constructed is mind-stuff. It is mind that has composed a physical universe that breeds life…’ The only satisfactory explanation for the origin of such ‘end-directed, self-replicating’ life as we see on earth is an infinitely intelligent Mind.” David A. Noebel

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During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian Rogers and Francis Schaeffer and challenge them with the evidence for the Bible’s historicity and the claims of the gospel. Usually I would send them a cassette tape of Adrian Rogers’ messages “6 reasons I know the Bible is True,” “The Final Judgement,” “Who is Jesus?” and the message by Bill Elliff, “How to get a pure heart.”  I would also send them printed material from the works of Francis Schaeffer and a personal apologetic letter from me addressing some of the issues in their work. My second cassette tape that I sent to both Antony Flew and George Wald was Adrian Rogers’ sermon on evolution.  

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Photo of Pastor Adrian Rogers Memorial Tribute

Below is the video of Rogers’ sermon on Evolution.

Check out this short article by Adrian Rogers:

I think that Antony Flew may have pondered this quote from George Wald which was in Adrian Rogers’ sermon.

Dr. George Wald of Harvard:

“When it comes to the origin of life, we have only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility…Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved one hundred years ago by Louis Pasteur, Spellanzani, Reddy and others. That leads us scientifically to only one possible conclusion — that life arose as a supernatural creative act of God…I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generationarising to evolution.” – Scientific American, August, 1954.

Adrian Rogers said the lack of an  answer for the  origin of life was a big reason Rogers rejected evolution.  Rogers noted, “Evolution offers no answers to the origin of life. It simply pushes the question farther back in time, back to some primordial event in space or an act of spontaneous generation in which life simply sprang from nothing.”

I actually had the chance to correspond with George Wald twice before his death. He wrote me two letters and in the first one he suggested that he was just using hyperbole when he made the assertion that is quoted by Dr. Rogers. He also suggested the religion of Buddhism although he said he was not a Buddhist himself, but he thought that would be closest to the truth which he thought was atheism. This does seem to contradict what Flew says of Wald’s views in the 1990’s. Flew contended concerning Wald:

In later years, he concluded that a preexisting mind, which he posits as the matrix of physical reality, composed a physical universe that breeds life: ‘the stuff of which physical reality is constructed is mind-stuff. It is mind that has composed a physical universe that breeds life…’ 

In my letters to both Wald and Flew in the 1990’s I demonstrated that  there is evidence that points to the fact that the Bible is historically true as Schaeffer pointed out in episode 5 of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE? There is a basis then for faith in Christ alone for our eternal hope. This link shows how to do that.

Fortunately some modern philosophers and scientists are starting to wake up and realize that materialistic chance evolution was not responsible for the origin of the universe but it was started by a Divine Mind. In fact, Antony Flew who was probably the most famous atheist of the 20th century took time to read several letters I sent him the 1990’s which included much material from Francis Schaeffer and he listened to several cassette tapes I sent him from Adrian Rogers and then in 2004 he reversed his view that this world came about through evolution and he left his atheism behind and  because a theist.  I still have several of the letters that Dr. Flew wrote back to me and I will be posting them later on my blog at some point. One of the letters I got back in 1994 said specifically that he enjoyed listening to whole cassette tape.

Below is a fine article by David A. Noebel on the subject of the Origin of Life.

Posted: 10/23/07

The Spontaneous Origin of Life

By David A. Noebel

A little over a decade ago the Harvard University Gazette newspaper (September 12,1996) carried an article by William J. Cromie, which began, “Jack Szostak is trying to make a living organism out of nonliving chemicals.”

Szostak, a professor of genetics at Harvard University, says he is trying to imagine the simplest possible system that could get life started, and then make it in his lab.

Instead of heading for the world of the nonliving, however, Szostak has hit upon the idea that the best candidate for the first organism is “a bit of ribonucleic acid (RNA) enclosed in a plain capsule.”

That sounds so scientifically romantic-just a bit of RNA and a plain, simple capsule.  The article fails to mention how immensely complex both items are!  For the incredible complexity that accounts for these “simple” building blocks of life, see Michael J. Behe, The Edge of Evolution:  The Search for the Limits of Darwinism.

In fact, Szostak doesn’t hint how such items were originally found in nature to begin the process of creating life from nonliving matter.  RNA is not exactly nonliving matter and the “plain capsule” is not exactly nonliving matter.  The capsule is a protective sheaf that allows good things into that first speck of life; and disallows bad things to reach that same speck.  Its name is complexity-designed complexity!

The Cromie article admits that Szostak plans to skip the hard part of creating those original living molecules from plain old dead chemicals and instead start with “trillions of pieces of RNA in a solution.” Is this a cop-out or not?  Can someone explain to me in very short sentences how anyone would believe that trillions of pieces of RNA were just lying around along with a jar of the perfect solution at the very site where life was about to be born?

Instead of taking seriously the nanotechnology (machines made from molecules which make life possible) involved in such an undertaking, the genetics professor decides to skip that part.  But isn’t that the heart of the issue before us.  Hear the counsel of Francis Crick:  “An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.”  Or how about the counsel of the president of the National Academy of Sciences who stated, “the chemistry that makes life possible is much more elaborate and sophisticated than anything we students had ever considered.”

In other words, within the same article we are told: (a) a Harvard professor is going to show the world how to make life from nonliving matter, and (b) how this same professor is going to begin his proof by bypassing nonliving matter and going directly to living matter.  Am I missing something here that any semiliterate person should find suspicious?

The article concludes with Szostak’s parting shot-“If we make something everyone agrees is alive, that would provide a plausible scenario for the great event [creating life from nonliving chemicals].”

Well, not exactly Dr. Szostak!  When you cash in your bits of RNA and its rich bed of information for good old dry, nonliving chemicals then we’ll tune you in again.  When you explain where you found that “plain capsule” to protect that first speck of life we’ll think more seriously of your efforts.

Now this brings up another question that demands an answer.  Does this whole process of creating life from nonlife require only an intelligent Harvard professor and a lab?  Don’t we need to add something else to this equation, i.e., intelligence?  Aren’t we getting awful close to the biblical declaration that the God of the universe (the intelligent portion) “created them male and female”  (Genesis 1)?  And would this not be a trillion times more difficult than creating a mere first speck of life?

David Berlinski makes this very point in his excellent response to his critics (Commentary, September 1996).  Upon quoting from Raff and Kaufman, who insist that the “central and still unsolved problem is, how do genes direct the making of an organism,” Berlinski writes, “Until we know that, I, for one, would hold off on claims that ‘the origin of life and its myriad of forms must be recast as the origin of biological information.'”

But Szostak isn’t the only one seeking to create life from nonlife.  In a more recent article entitled “Scientist to create artificial life” (Press Association Ltd., October 7. 2007) we are told that Craig Venter, a DNA researcher, has built “an almost entirely new life form for the first time.”

What nonliving chemicals did he use?  Listen carefully to the explanation-he built a “synthetic chromosome” and “implanted it in an existing living cell.”  And Venter is asking this already existing, living cell to host his chromosome in order to reproduce this new life form.

Would we be downright mean to ask Venter to place his synthetic chromosome into something nonliving and then show the world how a newly created life form really looks and functions?

Now it’s true that the article says the DNA researcher was creating “artificial” life and not life itself, but the impression is certainly given that life from nonlife is right around the corner.

However, we can still safely say that nonliving chemicals without intelligence equal nonliving chemicals.  We could just as honestly say that nonliving chemicals with human intelligence equal nonliving chemicals.  Life comes only from life according to the Law of Biogenesis, and this demands what materialists are reluctant to admit-a living and wise God!

Behe quotes from a National Academy of Sciences booklet entitled “Science and Creationism” that admits that “many scientists” believe that God created the universe including life on Earth.  That’s good!  What isn’t so good is that many of these same scientists still argue that Darwin’s natural selection and mutations can get us from that first speck of life to that first cell, from that first cell to multi-cells, and from multi-cells to Richard Dawkins.  I don’t believe that’s  possible, and it’s never been empirically proven to be possible.  It is a load that natural selection and mutations cannot handle.  It’s what 500 PhDs were trying to say when they did say, “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life.” (See Discovery Institute’s website for complete text)  Also, for readers seriously interested in this particular aspect of the subject please consider Stephen C. Meyer’s well-written article “Intelligent Design:  The Origin of Biological Information” also available via Discovery Institute’s website.

Those who argue for a materialistic interpretation of life, however, have to square their position with Michael Denton’s observations that life depends on the integrated activities of hundreds of thousands of different protein molecules.  And that’s just the start.  This organic book of life is written in a distinctive language-a genetic text.  The late Carl Sagan, a committed materialist, admitted that each cell contains more information than the Library of Congress. Will the materialists please tell the waiting world where this genetic text came from?  The Christian explanation is that it came from the mind of God.  And no nonliving chemicals have yet shown us such a written text.

It should also be noted that a living being does not develop simply because of its genetic code “but because of the mysterious force we call ‘life.’  It is ‘life’ that grows and animates the being in accordance with its genetic endowment.” (Dean Davis, In Search of the Beginning)

But those seeking to create life in their labs have an additional problem.  According to John Sanford’s classic Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome, this problem is not just creating life from nonliving matter, but halting the decay of information that makes life possible.

If, as Carl Sagan admits, each cell contains more information than the Library of Congress, then obviously some of the information had to be available in that first speck of life as well.  In fact, at one level life might well be defined as information.  The book of life is the book of genetic information plus the breath of God.

But that information decays.  Genomes decay.  Life goes downward (the Second Law of Thermodynamics), not up, up and away toward multi-specks of life, cells, multi-cells and evidentially Carl Sagan or Richard Dawkins.

Life is complex in all its aspects.  There really is no “simple” speck of life or “simple” cell.  There is also no empirical evidence that life emerged from nonliving matter apart from the very intelligence of God in the equation.  That translates into my parting statement:  spontaneous generation is a fairy-tale for grown-ups!

Distributed by http://www.worldviewweekend.com

By David NoebelEmail: Noebel@Summit.orgClick here for bio and archived articles

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Re: The Spontaneous Origin of Life

Posted On: 11/03/07 12:57:15 PM Age 71, CO

Since writing my article on the origin of life I have read two books that basically make the same point and I will quote briefly from them, but encourage anyone interested in the subject to read both books from cover to cover: (1) John C. Lennox, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?, p.102, “Colin Patterson’s description highlights something very easily overlooked–the fact that natural selection is not creative. As he says, it is a ‘weeding out process’ that leaves the stronger progeny. The stronger progeny must be already there; it is not produced by natural selection…selection is made from already existing entities.” (2) Antony Flew, There Is A God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, p. 124 and 131, “The latest work I have seen shows that the present physicists’ view of the age of the universe gives too little time for these theories of abiogenesis [life from nonlife] to get the job done…How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self-replication capabilities, and ‘coded chemistry’?…So how do we account for the origin of life? The Nobel Prize-winning physiologist George Wald once famously argued that ‘we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.’ In later years, he concluded that a preexisting mind, which he posits as the matrix of physical reality, composed a physical universe that breeds life: ‘the stuff of which physical reality is constructed is mind-stuff. It is mind that has composed a physical universe that breeds life…’ The only satisfactory explanation for the origin of such ‘end-directed, self-replicating’ life as we see on earth is an infinitely intelligent Mind.” David A. Noebel

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The Fine Tuning Argument for the Existence of God from Antony Flew!

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FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 12 H.J.Blackham and Materialistic Humanism: The World-View of Our Era (Feature on artist Arturo Herrera)

  Today I am going to look at H.J. Blackham and the artist featured today is  Arturo Herrera. Herrera’s art interests me because it is based on the idea that accidental chance can bring about something beautiful and that is the same place that materialistic modern men like Blackham have turned to when they have concluded […]

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The Fine Tuning Argument for the Existence of God from Antony Flew!

March 13, 2014 – 5:25 pm

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Jesus’ Resurrection: Atheist, Antony Flew, and Theist, Gary Habermas, Dialogue

Published on Apr 7, 2012

http://www.veritas.org/talks – Did Jesus die, was he buried, and what happened afterward? Join legendary atheist Antony Flew and Christian historian and apologist Gary Habermas in a discussion about the facts surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Join the third and final debate between Flew and Habermas, one that took place shortly before Flew admitted there might be a God, just before his death.

Over the past two decades, The Veritas Forum has been hosting vibrant discussions on life’s hardest questions and engaging the world’s leading colleges and universities with Christian perspectives and the relevance of Jesus. Learn more at http://www.veritas.org, with upcoming events and over 600 pieces of media on topics including science, philosophy, music, business, medicine, and more!

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The God Debate II: Harris vs. Craig

Uploaded on Apr 12, 2011

The second annual God Debate features atheist neuroscientist Sam Harris and Evangelical Christian apologist William Lane Craig as they debate the topic: “Is Good From God?” The debate was sponsored in large part by the Notre Dame College of Arts and Letters: The Henkels Lecturer Series, The Center for Philosophy of Religion and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts.

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The Fine Tuning Argument for the Existence of God from Antony Flew!

Imagine entering a hotel room on your next vacation. The CD player on the bedside table is softly playing a track from your favorite recording. The framed print over the bed is identical to the image that hangs over the fireplace at home. The room is scented with your favorite fragrance…You step over to the minibar, open the door, and stare in wonder at the contents. Your favorite beverage. Your favorite cookies and candy. Even the brand of bottled water you prefer…You notice the book on the desk: it’s the latest volume by your favorite author…

Chances are, with each new discovery about your hospitable new environment, you would be less inclined to think it has all a mere coincidence, right? You might wonder how the hotel managers acquired such detailed information about you. You might marvel at their meticulous preparation. You might even double-check what all this is going to cost you. But you would certainly be inclined to believe that someone knew you were coming.      There Is A God  (2007)  p.113-4

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Does God Exist? by Brett Knukle of STAND TO REASON

In January of 2004, the atheist community was rocked by a major announcement. Antony Flew, probably the world’s most influential atheist of the last 50 years, publicly acknowledged his move from atheism to belief in God’s existence (he hasn’t embraced Christianity just yet, though). Let me give you some perspective. Flew’s announcement is equivalent to Billy Graham calling a press conference and telling the world he is leaving Christianity. Can you imagine the shockwaves throughout the Christian world?

So why did this life-long atheist ditch atheism? Flew said he “had to go where the evidence leads.” And what was that evidence? “I think that the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries…I think the argument to Intelligent Design is enormously stronger than it was when I first met it.”

Whoa. Did you hear that? A really smart atheist was convinced by the scientific evidence for God’s existence. If only everyone could be as open-minded and honest as Flew. So what is Intelligent Design? And what evidence is he referring to?

Intelligent Design makes two basic claims: 1) Intelligent agents leave behind evidence or “fingerprints” and 2) in the natural world we have discovered those fingerprints. The first claim is uncontroversial.

Think about it. You’re an intelligent agent. Everywhere you go you leave behind evidence of your presence. It could be a note you wrote, clothes you left on the floor, or actual fingerprints you smudged on a sliding glass door. If someone enters a room after you and looks closely enough, they’ll find evidence you had been there. Likewise, when we investigate the natural world, we find Someone’s fingerprints. Here are two examples.

First, scientific discoveries of the last century provide strong evidence the universe exploded into existence in the Big Bang. Yes, I said the Big Bang. And no, if you accept the Big Bang it does not mean you accept evolution. This is an unfortunate myth Christians sometimes believe. If Big Bang evidence is persuasive to you, then you must also accept an old universe (approximately 12 billions years old). But some Christians think an old earth is necessarily connected to evolution. That’s nonsense. In fact, don’t get stuck on debates about the age of the earth. It’s more important that God created than when He created. Whether you think the earth is young or old, Christians on both sides can join forces against macroevolution.

The important thing about the Big Bang is it points to a beginning and therefore, to a Beginner or First Cause. If you heard a small bang in the room next door and asked your mom what caused it and she said it was nothing, would you be satisfied with her answer? Of course not. You’d check it out for yourself. You’d look for the cause of the small bang. Well, what’s true of small bangs is true of big bangs. The Big Bang implies a beginning and therefore, a Beginner. And no one fits that description better than God.

Second, recent scientific discoveries show our universe is finely tuned. This simply means there are certain details in the universe that had to be “just right” in order to produce life. For example, the gravitational force must be constant. The expansion rate of the universe must be constant. A life-sustaining solar system can have only one star. And on and on.

Scientists tell us there are more than 50 “just right” details in the universe that make life on planet earth possible. What are the chances of this happening? Really smart guys who calculate this stuff tell us there is a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a percent chance. In other words, there is no chance for chance. Instead, a finely tuned universe points to a Fine Tuner, God. These are just two examples of the evidence but we’ve got more. Biological information in DNA. Irreducible complexity at the molecular level. Earth’s special location in the universe. The more we discover about our universe, the more we see God’s fingerprints all around us.

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Mark Oppenheimer of Time Magazine claims Antony Flew was convinced by PSEUDOSCIENCE that God exists!!! (includes Richard Dawkins Interview Ricky Gervais About Atheism!)

March 12, 2014 – 3:47 pm

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Antony Flew – World’s Most Famous Atheist Accepts Existence of God

Uploaded on Nov 28, 2008

Has Science Discovered God?

A half-century ago, in 1955, Professor Antony Flew set the agenda for modern atheism with his Theology and Falsification, a paper presented in a debate with C.S. Lewis. This work became the most widely reprinted philosophical publication of the last 50 years. Over the decades, he published more than 30 books attacking belief in God and debated a wide range of religious believers.

Then, in a 2004 Summit at New York University, Professor Flew announced that the discoveries of modern science have led him to the conclusion that the universe is indeed the creation of infinite Intelligence.

For More Info Visit:
http://ScienceFindsGod.com

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Richard Dawkins vs William Lane Craig – Full Debate –

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Antony Flew on God and Atheism

Published on Feb 11, 2013

Lee Strobel interviews philosopher and scholar Antony Flew on his conversion from atheism to deism. Much of it has to do with intelligent design. Flew was considered one of the most influential and important thinker for atheism during his time before his death (he’s a much better thinker than Richard Dawkins too – even when he was an atheist). His conversion to God-belief has caused an uproar among atheists. They have done all they can to lessen the impact of his famous conversion by shamelessly suggesting he’s too old, senile and mentally deranged to understand logic and science anymore.

News on Antony Flew’s conversion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1e4FU…

Interview and discussion with Antony Flew:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53REH…

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Mark Oppenheimer of Time Magazine claims Antony Flew was convinced by PSEUDOSCIENCE that God exists!!! Below you will read:

 “There Is a God” is perhaps the handiest primer ever written on the science (many would say pseudoscience) of religious belief.

Regis Nicoll does a good job of refuting the claim that Flew was manipulated by those from the Christian point of view in his excellent article, “ANTONY FLEW’S CHANGE OF MIND: True Convert or Exploited Scholar?”

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2007

The Conversion of Antony Flew

Recently I picked up the new book, There Is A God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, by Antony Flew, “with Roy Abraham Varghese” (though I haven’t had a chance to read it yet). But you don’t need to buy the book to get the gist of its claims. The New York Times Magazine has published an article about Flew and his book.

Mark Oppenheimer writes:

[Flew’s] greatest contribution remains his first, a short paper from 1950 called “Theology and Falsification.” … In a masterfully terse thousand words, Flew argues that “God” is too vague a concept to be meaningful. For if God’s greatness entails being invisible, intangible and inscrutable, then he can’t be disproved — but nor can he be proved.

The book offers elegant, user-friendly descriptions of the arguments that persuaded Flew, arguments familiar to anyone who has heard evangelical Christians’ “scientific proof” of God. From the “fine tuning” argument that the laws of nature are too perfect to have been accidents to the “intelligent design” argument that human biology cannot be explained by evolution to various computations meant to show that probability favors a divine creator, “There Is a God” is perhaps the handiest primer ever written on the science (many would say pseudoscience) of religious belief.

In other words, Flew converted from a silly form of atheism to a silly form of religion. I mean, anyone who buys the analysist/positivist argument against God deserves to believe the argument from design. By the way, Flew’s early essay is also available. (I guess I’m just not sophisticated enough to write a line like the following: “For if the utterance is indeed an assertion, it will necessarily be equivalent to a denial of the negation of the assertion.”)

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Antony Flew’s Change of Mind

True Convert or Exploited Scholar?

By Regis Nicoll|Published Date: December 21, 2007

“I have followed the argument where it has led me. And it has led to accept the existence of a self-existent, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, and omniscient Being.” (Antony Flew in There is a God)

A STUNNING DEFECTION
Few people in modern history have had the influence on anti-theistic thought as Antony Flew.

Through his 30-plus philosophical works—from the 1000-word essay, Theology and Falsification to the 210-page treatise, God and Philosophy—Flew turned the tables of debate, making atheism the default position and shifting the burden of proof to believers.

That was before the legendary figure announced his defection to deism in 2004. The news sent shock waves throughout freethinking circles. The question on everyone’s mind was how Antony Flew could accept what he spent a lifetime refuting. Bewildered admirers blamed an octogenarian’s end-of-life fear. Maddened colleagues charged “sloppy scholarship.”

In the years that followed, Flew went on record in various venues to explain his position. The most comprehensive account is in the book released this fall, There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.

It is a thoroughly readable and inspiring account of a man whose life-long intellectual pursuit has been guided by the Socratic dictum to “follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

The first half of the book traces Flew’s upbringing in a Christian home to his rejection of God and his life as a professional philosopher. Included are the factors that shaped his atheism and the philosophical arguments he advanced. In the second half we learn about his discovery of the Divine.

Flew’s journey brought him to two instrumental conclusions: one, that materialistic science could not account for the laws of nature, the teleological essence of life, and the origin of the cosmos; and two, that there were compelling philosophical arguments for an Omnipotence operating outside of spacetime.

Those conclusions led him to an Aristotelian God—a Being who is “self-existent, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, and omniscient.” At the same time, Flew remains adamant about his rejection of an interventionist Deity, the afterlife and revealed religion, although he is open to the latter. An important point to bear in mind, as will soon be made clear, is that Antony Flew has held firm to these convictions ever since his 2004 announcement.

Summarizing his journey, the former atheist states, “my discovery of the Divine has been a pilgrimage of reason and not faith.” Others are not so sure.

A TRUE CONVERSION?
Shortly after the book’s release, Mark Oppenheimer wrote an article for the New York Times, asking whether Flew’s conversion is “what it seems to be.”

Considering the age of Flew (84) and his stature, it’s a valid question. But given Oppenheimer’s leading description of a “senescent scholar” with “memory failing,” “a continent away” “without an internet connection,” who “has become a mere symbol, a trophy,” the conclusion seems clear from the get-go.

With the punch suitably spiked, the aged oracle is methodically depicted as a useful, if affable, idiot of the intelligent design (ID) movement.

Oppenheimer describes a DVD where Flew, under “prodding” by a couple of ID advocates, admits that current advances in science point to an Intelligence. The mention of Flew’s halting diction and seeming acquiescence complete the desired effect.

Details of private correspondence between Flew and Richard Carrier are disclosed. Carrier, it will be noted, is an atheist of some prominence who is concerned that this one time great thinker hasn’t kept up with science. As he sees it, his job is to awaken Flew from his academic slumber, by provoking him to catch up on the latest theories.

It would appear that nearly two-months of badgering by Carrier had some effect: In the 2005 edition of his 1966 classic, God and Philosophy, Flew declined to mention his move to deism.

When it comes to Flew’s latest book, There is a God, Oppenheimer sets his sights not on the arguments, but the authorship. The book bears the attribution, “Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese.” After learning that the book was Varghese’s idea and that “an extensive copy editor” was involved, Oppenheimer wonders “how much Flew was left in the book?” With Varghese identified as a “crusader” of intelligent design and the copy editor as an evangelical pastor, the not-so subtle implication is: very little.

This is interesting, given Oppenheimer’s acknowledgement that Flew has been intellectually challenged by Varghese (and others) over a span of 20 years. By simple arithmetic he would realize that 20 years ago Antony Flew was 64 years old—what some might call, the new “middle age.”

Nevertheless, the picture we are left with is not of a critical thinker committed to “following the evidence wherever it leads,” but of a declining academic following the evidence “as it has been explained to him.”

HOLDING FIRM
But is the portrayal accurate? Is Antony Flew a senescent senior whose views vacillate according to the manipulation of would-be handlers? Not to those who have been paying attention to his public statements.

For instance, in March 2005—less than a month after his apparent backpedaling under the “tutelage” of Richard Carrier—Flew re-affirmed his belief in the Aristotelian God. When asked in a BBC interview whether he was retracting that belief, Flew responded, “Oh no . . . a belief bound up with the deep feeling in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God.”

One month later, Flew told Christianity Today that he had been reevaluating the evidence for intelligent design for several years. He went on to say that the evidence led him to accept “an Intelligence that produced the integrative complexity of creation.” Although he rejects Christianity and the notion of life-after-death and supernatural revelation, Flew maintained that he was a “deist like Thomas Jefferson.”

Even Mark Oppenheimer described the ex-atheist “flaunt[ing] his allegiance to deism” in May 2006 to a Christian audience at Biola University.

Shortly after the publication of There is a God, Flew told Ben Wiker, “I think the origins of the laws of nature and of life and the Universe point clearly to an intelligent Source. The burden of proof is on those who argue to the contrary.” Flew added that his “God is a person but not the sort of person with whom you can have a talk. It is the ultimate being, the Creator of the Universe.”

The public record paints a picture bearing little semblance to the stumbling scholar in the New York Times. In fact, from early 2005 through late 2007, Antony Flew’s statements have been unwaveringly consistent with those in a lengthy interview with Gary Habermas, shortly after his “coming out” in 2004.

At the same time, it would be naïve to suggest that Antony Flew has not experienced a decline in faculties commensurate with his age. Flew, himself, admits to “nominal aphasia,” or difficulty in remembering names. But to suggest that this evinces a mentally enfeebled scholar who has fallen victim to crafty Christians is ridiculous.

A FULL PARTNER
For the last couple of weeks I have been in contact with Roy Varghese, Flew’s co-author, to gather information about There is a God.

Mr. Varghese admitted to me that he pulled the book together, drawing on material from published and unpublished works by Flew, as well as, from interviews and private correspondence. Varghese wrote the Preface and one of the appendices; he and the copy editor wrote anecdotes for some of the chapters.

Upon request, Mr. Varghese forwarded me a letter he wrote to the Times, addressing at length the issues raised by Oppenheimer. Concerning Flew’s involvement in the book, Varghese states: “Tony edited, corrected and approved at least ten versions of the manuscript.” (I have since reviewed ample evidence validating that statement but which, because of legal restrictions, cannot be divulged.)

But perhaps it is best to let “Tony” to speak for himself. In a recent statement carried by Publishers Weekly, Flew sets the record straight:

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.

That hardly sounds like a man whose tenacity has diminished with age. Moreover, in a signed, handwritten letter (a copy of which I now have) sent to Roy Varghese, the legendary philosopher reaffirmed his conversion while criticizing Oppenheimer for drawing attention away from the book’s central argument: the collapse of rationalism.

To all those freethinking naysayers, Tony’s message (and I’m paraphrasing) is clear: Having long exhausted your philosophical capital to no avail, all that is left you, is to attack the messenger. Not only am I resolute in my new worldview; but the very foundation upon which yours rests has proven bankrupt.

That’s a blunt message from anyone, much less from a cognitively challenged codger who lets others do his thinking for him.

Regis Nicoll is a freelance writer and a Centurion of the Wilberforce Forum. His “All Things Examined” column appears on BreakPoint every other Friday. Serving as a men’s ministry leader and worldview teacher in his community, Regis publishes a free weekly commentary to stimulate thought on current issues from a Christian perspective. To be placed on this free e-mail distribution list, e-mail him at: centurion51@aol.com.

Articles on the BreakPoint website are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Chuck Colson or PFM. Links to outside articles or websites are for informational purposes only and do not necessarily imply endorsement of their content.

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During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian Rogers and Francis Schaeffer and challenge them with the evidence for the Bible’s historicity and the claims of the gospel. Usually I would send them a cassette tape of Adrian Rogers’ messages “6 reasons I […]

“Woody Wednesday” Discussing Woody Allen’s movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and various other subjects with Ark Times Bloggers (Part 6) Judah ” I believe in God, Miriam. I know it… because without God the world is a cesspool”

_____________________________ Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Discussion: Part 3 Uploaded by camdiscussion on Sep 23, 2007 Part 3 of 3: ‘Is Woody Allen A Romantic Or A Realist?’ A discussion of Woody Allen’s 1989 movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors, perhaps his finest. By Anton Scamvougeras.http://camdiscussion.blogspot.com/ antons@mail.ubc.ca ______________ I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times […]

“Woody Wednesday” Discussing Woody Allen’s movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and various other subjects with Ark Times Bloggers (Part 5) “Judah knew in his heart that God was watching his every move!!!”

Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Discussion: Part 2 Uploaded by camdiscussion on Sep 23, 2007 Part 2 of 3: ‘What Does The Movie Tell Us About Ourselves?’ A discussion of Woody Allen’s 1989 movie, perhaps his finest. By Anton Scamvougeras. http://camdiscussion.blogspot.com/antons@mail.ubc.ca______________ I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such […]

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