An Atheist No More 4th And Last

This is my forth and last post in this series, and, perhaps, the most important. One of the reasons theism is so frightening to an atheist is not so much the reality of God's existence, but the questions which logically follow belief in His existence. Antony Flew opens the next question in the second paragraph below. Has God revealed himself in ways other than physical creation? Has He spoken to us? Has He told us things we could not learn any other way? Yes... He has. My blog is not about atheism... it is about that revelation... that light. I try to follow it where ever it leads.

"Now, all this might sound abstract and impersonal. How, it might be asked, do I as a person respond to the discovery of an ultimate Reality that is an omnipresent and omniscient Spirit? I must say again that the journey to my discovery of the Divine has thus far been a pilgrimage of reason. I have followed the argument where it has led me. And it has led me to accept the existence of a self-existent, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, and omniscient Being."

"Where do I go from here? In the first place, I am entirely open to learning more about the divine Reality, especially in the light of what we know about the history of nature. Second, the question of whether the Divine has revealed itself in human history remains a valid topic of discussion. You cannot limit the possibilities of omnipotence except to produce the logically impossible. Everything else is open to omnipotence."

"As I have said more than once, no other religion enjoys anything like the combination of a charismatic figure like Jesus and a first-class intellectual like St. Paul. If you're wanting omnipotence to set up a religion, it seems to me that this is the one to beat!", [Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese, There is a God]

This book can be purchased at many book stores including Amazon.com, or as an e version at various sources including e-books. I own both. A hardback copy to keep, and an e copy for quoting.

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

An Atheist No More - Did Antony Flew Write Or Believe What Was Written In His Book?

One of the published arguments of Atheists against Antony Flew's book, There Is A God, is that he probably didn't write the book, and may not believe the contents of the book. Well... you can hear him discuss the contents of the book in this interview with Lee Strobel HERE This should leave no doubt that Antony Flew believes what he wrote in his book...

An Atheist No More 3

Here is my third offering this week in remembrance of my grandfather. Antony Flew, the famous former atheist, addresses the problem of the purpose and origin of life.

“Let us first look at the nature of life from a philosophical standpoint. Living matter possesses an inherent goal or end-centered organization that is nowhere present in the matter that preceded it.”

"The first challenge is to produce a materialistic explanation for "the very first emergence of living matter from non-living matter. In being alive, living matter possesses a teleological organization that is wholly absent from everything that preceded it." The second challenge is to produce an equally materialist explanation for "the emergence, from the very earliest life-forms which were incapable of reproducing themselves, of life-forms with a capacity for reproducing themselves. Without the existence of such a capacity, it would not have been possible for different species to emerge through random mutation and natural selection. Accordingly, such mechanism cannot be invoked in any explanation of how life-forms with this capacity first 'evolved' from those that lacked it." Conway concludes that these biological phenomena "provide us with reason for doubting that it is possible to account for existent life-forms in purely materialistic terms and without recourse to design.”

"Paul Davies observes that most theories of biogenesis have concentrated on the chemistry of life, but "life is more than just complex chemical reactions. The cell is also an information storing, processing and replicating system. We need to explain the origin of this information, and the way in which the information processing machinery came to exist." He emphasizes the fact that a gene is nothing but a set of coded instructions with a precise recipe for manufacturing proteins. Most important, these genetic instructions are not the kind of information you find in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics; rather, they constitute semantic information. In other words, they have a specific meaning. These instructions can be effective only in a molecular environment capable of interpreting the meaning in the genetic code. The origin question rises to the top at this point. 'The problem of how meaningful or semantic information can emerge spontaneously from a collection of mindless molecules subject to blind and purposeless forces presents a deep conceptual challenge.'”

"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:.. This, too, is my conclusion. The only satisfactory explanation for the origin of such "end-directed, self-replicating" life as we see on earth is an infinitely intelligent Mind.", [Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese, There is a God]

This book can be purchased at many book stores including Amazon.com, or as an e version at various sources including e-books. I own both. A hardback copy to keep, and an e copy for quoting.

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

An Atheist No More 2

In memory of my grandfather I continue with quotes from the book, There Is A God, by the famous former atheist Antony Flew.

"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.

Why do I believe this, given that I expounded and defended atheism for more than a half century? The short answer is this: this is the world picture, as I see it, that has emerged from modern science. Science spotlights three dimensions of nature that point to God. The first is the fact that nature obeys laws. The second is the dimension of life, of intelligently organized and purpose-driven beings, which arose from matter. The third is the very existence of nature.”

“The important point is not merely that there are regularities in nature, 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. This is certainly the question that scientists from Newton to Einstein to Heisenberg have asked—and answered. Their answer was the ‘Mind of God.’”

“Those scientists who point to the Mind of God do not merely advance a series of arguments or a process of syllogistic reasoning. Rather, they propound a vision of reality that emerges from the conceptual heart of modern science and imposes itself on the rational mind. It is a vision that I personally find compelling and irrefutable.”

“Oxford philosopher John Foster contends that regularities in nature, however you describe them, can be best explained by a divine Mind. If you accept the fact that there are laws, then something must impose that regularity on the universe. What agent (or agents) brings this about? He contends that the theistic option is the only serious option as the source, so that "we shall be rationally warranted in concluding that it is God—the God of the theistic account—who creates the laws by imposing the regularities on the world as regularities." Even if you deny the existence of laws, he argues, 'there is a strong case for explaining the regularities by appealing to the agency of God.'” [Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese, There is a God]

This book can be purchased at many book stores including Amazon.com, or as an e version at various sources including e-books.

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

An Atheist No More

As I mentioned in my post, An Atheist At Thanksgiving, I think about my grandfather, Thomas Russell Jones, and his atheism at this time of year.

Two of the words on Grandpa's gravestone are scholar, and philosopher. He wasn't either of these in the formal sense, but he was an avid reader of scholarly works in philosophy, religion, and other disciplines.

Most his life was spent without TV, so he read. I have no doubt he read the works of the great philosophical atheist Antony Flew. This saddens me... because Grandpa died long before the publication of Antony Flew's greatest work: There Is A God. A chronicle of perhaps the 20^th century's most influential atheist's journey into deism.

I have no doubt Mr. Flew's book would have had a major impact on Grandpa. Unlike many “couch atheists”, grandpa wasn't an atheist because he wanted to be, he said he was an atheist because that's where the evidence led him. There Is A God was written by an insider, and is devastatingly precise in crumbling the evidence supporting atheism.

In memory of my Grandfather, I plan to use some blog space this week to briefly quote Mr. Flew's major points. I begin with, what is for me, the most astounding quote in the book:

"I must say again that the journey to my discovery of the Divine has thus far been a pilgrimage of reason. I have followed the argument where it has led me. And it has led me to accept the existence of a self-existent, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, and omniscient Being.", [Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese, There is a God]

You can buy the book on Amazon.com. It should go without saying that I still have respectful disagreement with Mr. Flew on a number of points. Thanks to my friend Dr. Pat Briney for first informing me of Antony Flew's conversion to deism. God amazes me.