Antony Garrard Newton Flew (11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010)
was a British philosopher. Belonging to the
analyticAnalytic philosophy is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century...
and
evidentialistEvidentialism is a theory of justification according to which the justification of a belief depends solely on the evidence for it. Technically, though belief is typically the primary object of concern, evidentialism can be applied to doxastic attitudes generally...
schools of thought, he was notable for his works on the
philosophy of religionPhilosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts, and the relationship of religion and science...
.
Flew was a strong advocate of
atheismAtheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, arguing that one should presuppose atheism until empirical evidence of a God surfaces. He also criticised the idea of
life after deathThe afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
, the
free will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
defence to the
problem of evilIn the philosophy of religion, the problem of evil is the question of how to explain evil if there exists a deity that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient . Some philosophers have claimed that the existences of such a god and of evil are logically incompatible or unlikely...
, and the meaningfulness of the concept of God. However, in 2004 he stated an allegiance to
deismDeism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
, stating that in keeping his lifelong commitment to go where the evidence leads, he now believes in God. He later wrote the book
There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, with contributions from Roy Abraham Varghese. This book (and Flew's conversion itself) has been the subject of controversy, following an article in the New York Times magazine alleging that Flew had mentally declined, and that Varghese was the primary author. The matter remains contentious, with some commentators including
PZ MyersPaul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
and
Richard CarrierRichard Cevantis Carrier is an American historian. He is best known for his writings on Internet Infidels, otherwise known as the Secular Web, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for several years....
supporting the allegations, and others, including Flew himself, opposing them.
Flew taught at the universities of Oxford,
AberdeenThe University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
, Keele and
ReadingThe University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...
, and at
York UniversityYork University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
in
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. He was also known for the development of the
no true ScotsmanNo true Scotsman is an informal logical fallacy, an ad hoc attempt to retain an unreasoned assertion. When faced with a counterexample to a universal claim, rather than denying the counterexample or rejecting the original universal claim, this fallacy modifies the subject of the assertion to...
fallacy, and his debate on
retrocausalityRetrocausality is any of several hypothetical phenomena or processes that reverse causality, allowing an effect to occur before its cause....
with
Michael DummettSir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett FBA D.Litt is a British philosopher. He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford...
.
Biography
Flew, the son of the Methodist minister and theologian
Robert Newton FlewRobert Newton Flew Robert Newton Flew Robert Newton Flew ((1886–1962) was an English Methodist minister and theologian, and an advocate of ecumenism among the Christian churches.-Family and education:...
(1886-1962) and his wife Winifred
née Garrard (1887-1982), was born in London, England. He was educated at
St Faith's SchoolSt Faith's School is an independent preparatory day school on Trumpington Road, Cambridge, England, for boys and girls aged four to thirteen. The present headmaster is Nigel Helliwell, and the school has in excess of five hundred children...
,
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
followed by
Kingswood SchoolKingswood School, referred to as 'Kingswood', is an independent day and boarding school located in Bath, Somerset, England. The school is coeducational and educates some 950 children aged 3 to 18. It is notable for being founded by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in 1748...
, Bath. He is said to have concluded by the age of 15 that there was no God. During the Second World War he studied Japanese at the
School of Oriental and African StudiesThe School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
,
University of London-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, and was a
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
intelligence officer. After a period with the Inter-Services Topographical Department in Oxford, he was posted to
Bletchley ParkBletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
in June 1944.
After the war, Flew achieved a first class degree in
Literae HumanioresLiterae Humaniores is the name given to an undergraduate course focused on Classics at Oxford and some other universities.The Latin name means literally "more humane letters", but is perhaps better rendered as "Advanced Studies", since humaniores has the sense of "more refined" or "more learned",...
at
St John's College__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
, Oxford. Flew was a graduate student of
Gilbert RyleGilbert Ryle , was a British philosopher, a representative of the generation of British ordinary language philosophers that shared Wittgenstein's approach to philosophical problems, and is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "the ghost in the...
, prominent in
ordinary language philosophyOrdinary language philosophy is a philosophical school that approaches traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by distorting or forgetting what words actually mean in everyday use....
. Both Flew and Ryle were among many Oxford philosophers fiercely criticised in
Ernest GellnerErnest André Gellner was a philosopher and social anthropologist, described by The Daily Telegraph when he died as one of the world's most vigorous intellectuals and by The Independent as a "one-man crusade for critical rationalism."His first book, Words and Things —famously, and uniquely...
's book
Words and Things (1959). A 1954 debate with
Michael DummettSir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett FBA D.Litt is a British philosopher. He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford...
over backward causation was an early highlight in Flew's career.
For a year, Flew was a lecturer in philosophy at
Christ Church, OxfordChrist Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
. Afterwards, he was a lecturer for four years at the
University of AberdeenThe University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
, and a professor of philosophy at the University of Keele for twenty years. Between 1973 and 1983 he was professor of philosophy at the
University of ReadingThe University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...
. At this time, he developed one of his most famous arguments, the
No true ScotsmanNo true Scotsman is an informal logical fallacy, an ad hoc attempt to retain an unreasoned assertion. When faced with a counterexample to a universal claim, rather than denying the counterexample or rejecting the original universal claim, this fallacy modifies the subject of the assertion to...
fallacy in his 1975 book,
Thinking About Thinking. Upon his retirement, Flew took up a half-time post for a few years at
York UniversityYork University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
,
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
Flew married on 28 June 1952. He had two daughters. Flew died on 8 April 2010, while nursed in an Extended Care Facility in Reading, England, suffering from
dementiaDementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
.
Prominent atheist
While an undergraduate, Flew attended the weekly meetings of
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
's
Socratic ClubThe Oxford Socratic Club was formed in December 1941, at Oxford University, by Stella Aldwinckle of the Oxford Pastorate and a group of undergraduate students, in order to provide "an open forum for the discussion of the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in...
fairly regularly. Although he found Lewis to be "an eminently reasonable man" and "by far the most powerful of Christian apologists for the sixty or more years following his founding of that club," he was not persuaded by Lewis's
argument from moralityThe argument from morality is one of many arguments for the existence of God. It comes in different forms, all aiming to support the claim that God exists with observations about morality...
as found in
Mere ChristianityMere Christianity is a theological book by C. S. Lewis, adapted from a series of BBC radio talks made between 1941 and 1944, while Lewis was at Oxford during World War II...
. Flew also criticised several of the other philosophical proofs for God's existence. He concluded that the
ontological argumentThe ontological argument for the existence of God is an a priori argument for the existence of God. The ontological argument was first proposed by the eleventh-century monk Anselm of Canterbury, who defined God as the greatest possible being we can conceive...
in particular failed because it is based on the premise that the concept of Being can be derived from the concept of Goodness. Only the scientific forms of the
teleological argumentA teleological or design argument is an a posteriori argument for the existence of God based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on an interpretation of teleology wherein purpose and intelligent design appear to exist in nature beyond the scope of any such human...
ultimately impressed Flew as decisive.
During the time of his involvement in the
Socratic ClubThe Oxford Socratic Club was formed in December 1941, at Oxford University, by Stella Aldwinckle of the Oxford Pastorate and a group of undergraduate students, in order to provide "an open forum for the discussion of the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in...
, Flew also wrote the article "Theology and Falsification," which argued that claims about God were meaningless where they could not be tested for truth or falsehood. Though initially published in an undergraduate journal, the article came to be widely reprinted and discussed. Later, in
God and Philosophy (1966) and
The Presumption of Atheism (1976, reprinted 1984), Flew argued that one should presuppose atheism until evidence of a God surfaces. Flew was also critical of the idea of
life after deathThe afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
and the
free will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
defence to the
problem of evilIn the philosophy of religion, the problem of evil is the question of how to explain evil if there exists a deity that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient . Some philosophers have claimed that the existences of such a god and of evil are logically incompatible or unlikely...
.
Conversion from atheism
On several occasions, apparently starting in 2001, rumours circulated claiming that Flew had converted from atheism. Flew denied these rumours on the Secular Web website.
In January 2003 Flew and
Gary HabermasGary Robert Habermas is an American evangelical Christian apologist, historian, and philosopher of religion. He is a prolific author, lecturer, and debater on the topic of the Resurrection of Jesus...
, his friend and philosophical adversary, conducted a dialogue on the resurrection at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. During a couple of telephone discussions shortly after that dialogue, Flew explained to Habermas that he was considering becoming a theist. While Flew did not change his position at that time, he concluded that certain philosophical and scientific considerations were causing him to do some serious rethinking. He characterised his position as that of atheism standing in tension with several huge question marks.
In December 2004, an interview with Flew then 81 years old, conducted by Gary Habermas was published in the journal
Philosophia Christi (published by the Evangelical Philosophical Society with the assistance of
Biola UniversityBiola University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located near Los Angeles. Biola's main campus is in La Mirada in Los Angeles County, California. In addition, the university has several satellite campuses in Chino Hills, Inglewood, San Diego, and Laguna Hills.-...
), with the title,
Atheist Becomes Theist - Exclusive Interview with Former Atheist Antony Flew. Flew agreed to this title. According to the introduction, Flew informed Habermas in January 2004 that he had become a deist, and the interview took place shortly thereafter. Then the text was amended by both participants over the following months prior to publication. In the article Flew states that he has left his long-standing espousal of
atheismAtheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
by endorsing a
deismDeism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
of the sort that
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
advocated ("While reason, mainly in the form of arguments to design, assures us that there is a God, there is no room either for any supernatural revelation of that God or for any transactions between that God and individual human beings."). Flew stated that "the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries" and that "the argument to
Intelligent DesignIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
is enormously stronger than it was when I first met it". He also answered in the affirmative to Habermas's question, "So of the major theistic arguments, such as the cosmological, teleological, moral, and ontological, the only really impressive ones that you take to be decisive are the scientific forms of teleology?". He supported the idea of an
Aristotelian GodThe Aristotelian and Neo-Aristotelian views of God have been influential in Western intellectual history.-The Metaphysics:In his book on first philosophy, which most now call the Metaphysics, Aristotle discussed the meaning of "being as being". Aristotle concluded that "being" primarily refers to...
with "the characteristics of power and also intelligence", stating that the evidence for it was stronger than ever before. He rejects the ideas of an afterlife, of God as the source of good (he explicitly states that God has created "a lot of" evil), and of the resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact though he has allowed a short chapter arguing for Christ's resurrection to be added into his latest book.
Flew was particularly hostile to
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, and said it is "best described in a Marxian way as the uniting and justifying ideology of Arab imperialism." In a December 2004 interview he said: "I'm thinking of a God very different from the
God of the ChristianIn Christianity, God is the eternal being that created and preserves the universe. God is believed by most Christians to be immanent , while others believe the plan of redemption show he will be immanent later...
and far and away from the
God of IslamIn Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular . God is unique and inherently One , all-merciful and omnipotent. According to the Islamic...
, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins".
Controversy over his position
Flew subsequently changed his position given in the Habermas interview as justification for his endorsing of deism. In October 2004 (before the December publication of the Flew-Habermas interview), a letter written to the
historianA historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and atheist,
Richard CarrierRichard Cevantis Carrier is an American historian. He is best known for his writings on Internet Infidels, otherwise known as the Secular Web, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for several years....
of the Secular Web, stated that he was a deist and also said that "I think we need here a fundamental distinction between the God of
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
or Spinoza and the Gods of the Christian and the Islamic Revelations." Flew also said: "My one and only piece of relevant evidence [for an Aristotelian God] is the apparent impossibility of providing a naturalistic theory of the origin from DNA of the first reproducing species ... [In fact] the only reason which I have for beginning to think of believing in a First Cause god is the impossibility of providing a naturalistic account of the origin of the first reproducing organisms."
In another letter to Carrier of 29 December 2004 Flew went on to retract his statement, writing "a deity or a 'super-intelligence' [is] the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature," and "I now realise that I have made a fool of myself by believing that there were no presentable theories of the development of inanimate matter up to the first living creature capable of reproduction." He blamed his error on being "misled" by
Richard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
, claiming Dawkins "has never been reported as referring to any promising work on the production of a theory of the development of living matter." His 2007 book revisited the question, however, and questioned contemporary models: "the latest work I have seen shows that the present physical universe gives too little time for these theories of abiogenesis to get the job done." He added: "The philosophical question that has not been answered in origin-of-life studies is this: How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self-replication capabilities, and "coded chemistry"? Here we are not dealing with biology, but an entirely different category of problem."
The work of the
Orthodox JewishOrthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
nuclear physicist
Gerald SchroederGerald L. Schroeder is an Orthodox Jewish physicist, author and lecturer at Aish HaTorah's Discovery Seminar, Essentials and Fellowships programs and Executive Learning Center, who focuses on what he perceives to be an inherent relationship between science and spirituality.-Education:Schroeder...
had been influential in Flew's new belief, but Flew told Carrier that he had not read any of the critiques of Schroeder that Carrier referred him to.
However, in spring 2005, when Raymond Bradley, an atheist in Editorial Board for
The Open Society journal, wrote an open letter to Flew accusing him of not "check[ing]
the veracity of [Schroeder's] claims before swallowing them whole," Flew strongly responded to that charge in a letter published in the same journal in summer 2006, describing the content of Bradley's letter "extraordinary offensive" and the accusation made by him as an "egregiously offensive charge"; he also implied that Bradley was a "secularist bigot," and suggested that he should follow Socrates's advice (as scripted in Plato's
Republic) of "follow[ing] the argument wherever it leads." Other prominent atheists, such as
Richard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
, suggested Flew's deism was a form of
God of the gapsGod of the gaps is a type of theological fallacy in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God's existence. The term was invented by Christian theologians not to discredit theism but rather to discourage reliance on teleological arguments for God's existence.-...
.
When asked in December 2004 by Duncan Crary of Humanist Network News if he still stood by the argument presented in
The Presumption of Atheism, Flew replied he did but he also restated his position as deist: "I'm quite happy to believe in an inoffensive inactive god." When asked by Crary whether or not he has kept up with the most recent science and theology, he responded with "Certainly not," stating that there is simply too much to keep up with. Flew also denied that there was any truth to the rumours of 2001 and 2003 that he had converted to Christianity.
Restatement of position
A letter on Darwinism and theology which Flew published in the August/September 2004 issue of
Philosophy NowPhilosophy Now is a philosophy magazine, published every two months and sold from news-stands and bookstores in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada. It aims to appeal to the general educated public, as well as to students and philosophy teachers. It was founded in 1991...
magazine left the world hanging when it closed with, "Anyone who should happen to want to know what I myself now believe will have to wait until the publication, promised for early 2005, by Prometheus of Amherst, NY of the final edition of my
God and Philosophy with a new introduction of it as ‘an historical relic’."
The preface of
God and Philosophy states that the publisher and Flew went through a total of four versions (each extensively peer-reviewed) before coming up with one that satisfied them both. The introduction raises ten matters that came about since the original 1966 edition. Flew states that any book to follow
God and Philosophy will have to take into account these ideas when considering the philosophical case for the existence of God:
- A novel definition of "God" by Richard Swinburne
Richard G. Swinburne is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been a very influential proponent of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His philosophical contributions are primarily in philosophy of religion and...
- The case for the existence of the Christian God by Swinburne in the book Is There a God?
- The Church of England's change in doctrine on the eternal punishment of Hell
- The question of whether there was only one big bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
and if time began with it
- The question of multiple universes
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise everything that exists and can exist: the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy as well as the physical laws and constants that describe them...
- The fine-tuning
The fine-tuned universe is the proposition that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal fundamental physical constants lie within a very narrow range, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different the universe would be...
argument
- The question of whether there is a naturalistic account for the development of living matter from non-living matter
- The question of whether there is a naturalistic account for non-reproducing living matter developing into a living creature capable of reproduction
- The concept of an Intelligent Orderer as explained in the book The Wonder of the World: A Journey from Modern Science to the Mind of God by Roy Abraham Varghese
- An extension of an Aristotelian/Deist concept of God that can be reached through natural theology, which was developed by David Conway.
In an interview with
Joan Bakewell for
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
in March 2005, Flew rejected the
fine-tuningThe fine-tuned universe is the proposition that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal fundamental physical constants lie within a very narrow range, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different the universe would be...
argument as a conclusive proof: "I don't think it proves anything but that it is entirely reasonable for people who already have a belief in a creating God to regard this as confirming evidence. And it's a point of argument which I think is very important - to see that what is reasonable for people to do in the face of new evidence depends on what they previously had good reason to believe." He also said it appeared that there had been progress made regarding the naturalistic origins of
DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. However, he restated his deism, with the usual provisos that his God is not the God of any of the revealed religions. In the same interview, Flew was asked whether he was retracting belief in an Aristotelian God, but answered no.
One month later, Flew told
Christianity TodayChristianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
that although he was not on the road to becoming a Christian convert, he reaffirmed his deism: "Since the beginning of my philosophical life I have followed the policy of Plato's
Socrates Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
: We must follow the argument wherever it leads."
In late 2006, Flew joined 11 other academics in urging the British government to teach
intelligent designIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
in the state schools.
In 2007, in an interview with
Benjamin Wiker-Biography:He obtained his PhD in ethics from Vanderbilt University and then came to teach at a variety of institutions including Marquette University, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, Thomas Aquinas College, and the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Wiker came to attention in 2002 with...
, Flew 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." He also restated that he was not a Christian theist.
Book with Varghese
In 2007, Flew published a book titled
There is a God, which was listed as having Roy Abraham Varghese as its co-author. Shortly after the book was released, the New York Times published an article by religious historian Mark Oppenheimer, who stated that Varghese had been almost entirely responsible for writing the book, and that Flew was in a serious state of mental decline, having great difficulty remembering key figures, ideas, and events relating to the debate covered in the book. His book praises several philosophers (like
Brian LeftowBrian Leftow is the Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oriel College, Oxford, succeeding Richard Swinburne, who retired in 2002. Leftow's research interests include metaphysics, medieval philosophy, and philosophical theology. He is a graduate of Grove City College,...
,
John LeslieJohn Leslie may refer to:* Sir John Leslie , Scottish mathematician and physicist* John Leslie , Scottish television presenter of Blue Peter , Wheel of Fortune and This Morning * John Leslie , Church of Scotland and Church of Ireland bishop* John Leslie John Leslie may refer to:* Sir John Leslie...
and
Paul DaviesPaul Charles William Davies, AM is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, currently a professor at Arizona State University as well as the Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science...
), but Flew failed to remember their work during Oppenheimer's interview. The article provoked a public outcry, in which atheist
PZ MyersPaul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
called Varghese "a contemptible manipulator."
A further article by Anthony Gottlieb noted a strong difference in style between the passages giving Flew's biography, and those laying out the case for a god, with the latter including Americanisms such as "beverages", "vacation" and "candy". He came to the same conclusion as Oppenheimer, and stated that "Far from strengthening the case for the existence of God, [the book] rather weakens the case for the existence of Antony Flew". Varghese replied with a letter disputing this view. Flew released a statement through his publisher stating that although Varghese did the actual writing, the book belonged to him and represented his thinking. An audio commentary by
William Lane CraigWilliam Lane Craig is an American analytic philosopher, philosophical theologian, and Christian apologist. He is known for his work on the philosophy of time and the philosophy of religion, specifically the existence of God and the defense of Christian theism...
concurs with this position, but
Richard CarrierRichard Cevantis Carrier is an American historian. He is best known for his writings on Internet Infidels, otherwise known as the Secular Web, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for several years....
disputes this view. In June 2008, Flew stated his position once again, in a letter to a fellow of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship.
Christian writer Regis Nicoll claims that "Moreover, in a signed, handwritten letter (a copy of which I now have) sent to Roy Varghese, the legendary philosopher reaffirmed his conversion while criticising Oppenheimer for drawing attention away from the book’s central argument: the collapse of rationalism." He argues that "Even Mark Oppenheimer described the ex-atheist 'flaunt[ing] his allegiance to deism' in May 2006 to a Christian audience at Biola University."
Awards
Flew was awarded the Schlarbaum Prize by the
Ludwig von Mises InstituteThe Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Its scholarship is inspired by the work of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises...
for his "outstanding lifetime achievement in the cause of liberty." Upon acceptance of the award in Auburn, Alabama, in September 2001, Flew delivered an address entitled "Locke versus Rawls on Equality." Of his choice of topics, he stated "I am the first Englishman and the first professional philosopher to receive the Schlarbaum Prize. So it seems appropriate to begin by talking about the greatest English philosopher, John Locke."
On 11 May 2006, Antony Flew accepted the second "
Phillip E. JohnsonPhillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...
Award for Liberty and Truth" from
evangelicalEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Biola UniversityBiola University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located near Los Angeles. Biola's main campus is in La Mirada in Los Angeles County, California. In addition, the university has several satellite campuses in Chino Hills, Inglewood, San Diego, and Laguna Hills.-...
. The award, named for its first recipient, was given to Flew "for his lifelong commitment to free and open inquiry and to standing fast against intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression". When informed of his award, Flew remarked, "In light of my work and publications in this area and the criticism I’ve received for changing my position, I appreciate receiving this award".
Honorary Associate of the
New Zealand Association of Rationalists and HumanistsNew Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists is an organisation, established in 1927 in New Zealand for the promotion of rationalism and secular humanism.The principal aims are stated as:...
Works
- A New Approach to Psychical Research (1953)
- New Essays in Philosophical Theology (1955) editor with Alasdair Macintyre
Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre is a British philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology...
- Essays in Conceptual Analysis (1956)
- Hume's Philosophy of Belief (1961)
- Logic And Language (1961) editor
- God and Philosophy (1966)
- Logic & Language (Second Series) (1966) editor
- Evolutionary Ethics (1967)
- An Introduction to Western Philosophy - Ideas and Argument from Plato to Sartre (1971)
- Body, Mind and Death (1973)
- Crime or Disease (1973)
- Thinking About Thinking (1975)
- Sociology, Equality and Education: Philosophical Essays In Defence Of A Variety Of Differences (1976)
- Thinking Straight (1977) (ISBN 978-0-87975-088-6)
- A Dictionary of Philosophy (1979) editor, later edition with Stephen Priest
- Philosophy, an Introduction (1979)
- Libertarians versus Egalitarians (c.1980) pamphlet
- The Politics of Procrustes: contradictions of enforced equality (1981)
- Darwinian Evolution (1984)
- * The Presumption of Atheism (1976). reprinted as God, Freedom and Immortality: A Critical Analysis. (1984)
- Examination not Attempted in Right Ahead, newspaper of the Conservative Monday Club
The Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure group "on the right-wing" of the Conservative Party.-Overview:...
, Conservative Party Conference edition, October 1985.
- God: A Critical Inquiry (1986) - reprint of God and Philosophy (1966) with new introduction
- David Hume: Philosopher of Moral Science (1986) Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
- Agency and Necessity (Great Debates in Philosophy) (1987) with Godfrey Norman Agmondis Vesey
- Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? The Resurrection Debate (1987) with Gary Habermas
Gary Robert Habermas is an American evangelical Christian apologist, historian, and philosopher of religion. He is a prolific author, lecturer, and debater on the topic of the Resurrection of Jesus...
- Power to the Parents: Reversing Educational Decline (1987)
- Prophesy or Philosophy? Historicism or History? in Marx Refuted, edited by Ronald Duncan and Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism.- Early biography:Born and...
, Bath, (UK), 1987, ISBN 0-906798-71-X
- Readings in the Philosophical Problems of Parapsychology (1987) editor
- God, A Critical Inquiry (1988)
- Does God Exist?: A Believer and an Atheist Debate (1991) with Terry L. Miethe
- A Future for Anti-Racism? (Social Affairs Unit
The Social Affairs Unit is a right-leaning think tank in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1980 as an offshoot of the Institute of Economic Affairs, it publishes books on a variety of social issues...
1992) pamphlet
- Atheistic Humanism (1993) (ISBN 978-0-87975-847-9)
- Thinking About Social Thinking (1995)
- Education for Citizenship (Studies in Education No. 10) (Institute of Economic Affairs
The Institute of Economic Affairs , founded in 1955, styles itself the UK's pre-eminent free-market think-tank. Its mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social...
, 2000)
- Merely Mortal? (2000)
- Equality in Liberty and Justice (2001) Transaction Publishers.
- Does God Exist: The Craig-Flew Debate (2003) with William Lane Craig
William Lane Craig is an American analytic philosopher, philosophical theologian, and Christian apologist. He is known for his work on the philosophy of time and the philosophy of religion, specifically the existence of God and the defense of Christian theism...
(ISBN 978-0-7546-3190-3)
- Social Life and Moral Judgment (2003)
- God and Philosophy (2005) - another reprint of God and Philosophy (1966) with another new introduction
- There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (2007) with Roy Abraham Varghese (ISBN 978-0-06-133529-7)
External links
- From Madalyn Murray O'Hair to Antony Flew From Madalyn Murray O'Hair to Antony Flew: My Own Intellectual Journey in Unbelief by Jorge Reyes.
- From Atheist to Deist Antony Flew's evolution from an Atheist to a Deist.
- The Warren/Flew Debate on the Existence of God Debate between Thomas Bratton Warren
Thomas Bratton Warren was a professor of philosophy of religion and apologetics at the Harding University Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, Tennessee, USA and was an important philosopher and theologian in the Churches of Christ in the latter half of the twentieth century.Warren had been in...
and Antony Garrard Newton Flew, Denton, TexasThe city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
20–23 September 1976.
- "The Presumption of Atheism." Antony Flew, chapter in God, Freedom and Immortality: A Critical Analysis. 1984.
- Letter from Antony Flew on Darwinism and Theology by Antony Flew, Philosophy Now
Philosophy Now is a philosophy magazine, published every two months and sold from news-stands and bookstores in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada. It aims to appeal to the general educated public, as well as to students and philosophy teachers. It was founded in 1991...
, #47, August/September 2004.
- Joan Bakewell interview with Antony Flew, conducted for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
broadcast, March 2005: text or Real Audio
- Freedom for Universities by Antony Flew, The Freedom Association
The Freedom Association is a pressure group in the United Kingdom that describes itself as non-partisan, centre-right and libertarian, which has links to the Conservative Party. TFA was founded in 1975 as the National Association for Freedom and gained public prominence through its anti-trade...
(undated document).
- Excerpts from Antony Flew's Thinking Straight (1977)
- Interview discussing Flew's belief in the existence of an Aristotelian God
- Interview with Lee Strobel (former atheist turned christian apologist)