He adds: “We need to emphasize strongly that they are wrong.” The question, therefore, is this: Which faith stands up under test-that of the atheist or that of the religious believer? Consider, for example, the origin of life.Įvolutionists readily acknowledge that the origin of life remains a mystery-although there are many conflicting theories.
The new atheists promote the notion that “all religious faith is blind faith,” writes John Lennox, professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, England. Both involve faith-atheism in purposeless blind chance theism in an intelligent First Cause. Everyday experience tells us that design-especially highly sophisticated design-calls for a designer.Īlthough the new atheists like to wave the banner of science over their camp, the fact is that neither atheism nor theism rest purely on science. On the other hand, to say that the universe, its laws, and life just happened is intellectually unsatisfying. Indeed, many highly respected scientists do not consider it unscientific to believe in an intelligent First Cause. This is certainly the question that scientists from Newton to Einstein to Heisenberg have asked-and answered. “The important point is not merely that there are regularities in nature,” wrote Flew in 2007, “but that these regularities are mathematically precise, universal, and ‘tied together.’ Einstein spoke of them as ‘reason incarnate.’ The question we should ask is how nature came packaged in this fashion. These sorts of questions are not much affected by specific scientific discoveries: many of the really big questions have remained unchanged since the birth of civilization and still vex us today.” questions such as ‘Why are there laws of nature?’ the situation is less clear. Physicist and author Paul Davies points out that science does a wonderful job of explaining physical phenomena such as rain. He became convinced that the universe, the laws of nature, and life itself could not have arisen merely by chance.
What made Flew change his mind? In a word, science.
So it came as a great shock to many when, in 2004, Flew announced that he had changed his viewpoint. “Theology and Falsification,” his 1950 paper, “became the most widely reprinted philosophical publication of the century.” In 1986 Flew was called “the most profound of the contemporary critics of theism” (the belief in God or gods). FOR 50 years, British philosopher Antony Flew was highly respected as an atheist by his peers.
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