REASONABLE FAITH:

One Flew out of the atheists’ nest: How DNA investigations led a philosopher to affirm a ‘creative intelligence’ at the origin of life.: a review of There is A God – How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed his Mind by Antony Flew (William West, 1 April 2009, MercatorNet)

In his book, Flew does not simply outline his own arguments for God’s existence, he also addresses the views of many of the major scientists and philosophers with strong views about the “God question”. In the process, he examines the rise and fall of the philosophical school of logical positivism, philosopher David Hume’s attack on the principle of causation, and the arguments of leading scientists like Richard Dawkins, Paul Davies and Stephen Hawking. He also looks at Albert Einstein’s views on God, arguing that Einstein was clearly a believer in God (contrary to the claims of atheists like Dawkins). [...]

So why has Flew changed his mind? The main reason, he says, is recent scientific work on the origin of life which he believes points to the activity of a “creative Intelligence”. As he explained to the 2004 symposium at which he announced his new beliefs to the world, his change of heart was “almost entirely because of the DNA investigations”.

“What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together. It’s the enormous complexity of the number of elements and the enormous subtlety of the ways they work together. The meeting of these two parts at the right time by chance is simply minute. It is all a matter of the enormous complexity by which the results were achieved, which looked to me like the work of intelligence.” [...]

Outlining his own views he goes on:

“I now believe that the universe was brought into existence by an infinite Intelligence and 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. But it is not science alone that has guided me. I have also been helped by a renewed study of the classical philosophical arguments.

“My departure from atheism was not occasioned by any new phenomenon or argument. Over the last two decades, my whole framework of thought has been in a state of migration. This was a consequence of my continuing assessment of the evidence of nature. When I finally came to recognize the existence of a God, it was not a paradigm shift, because my paradigm remains, as Plato in his Republic scripted his Socrates to insist: ‘We must follow the argument wherever it leads.’”

Flew points out that he is primarily a philosopher applying philosophical reasoning to the findings of science. Along with Einstein he laments that many scientists (like Dawkins) make poor philosophers. At the same time, he says his views are based purely on reason, not on faith.

To believe that the wave functions collapsed is to believe in the supernatural, by definition.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 4, 2009 7:45 AM