Sproul Reviews Flew
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R.C. Sproul reviews Antony Flew's There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.
posted by JT at Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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10 Comments:
I realize that Flew's decision to embrace theism was a major shift. But I just don't understand why it's (at least in my opinion) being touted as such a big deal on this blog.
Flew basically made a move to deism. He denied any possibility of theism because all forms of theism are based on revelatory systems. It's not like he became a Christian, far from it.
Atheist,
Deism isn't a denial of theism, rather it is a sub-set of it (and one in which--I think we would agree--seems logically contradictory).
Flew's decision is being flouted as a big deal by ALL circles - atheistic and theistic. Some see it as a sad departure from logic by a elderly man (Dawkins), others as a welcome openness to the concept of God by an extremely influential former atheist.
True, while he clearly did not move into Christianity, he most certainly moved out of atheism.
atheist: line upon line, percept upon precept...
That means Flew doesn't have to become a Christian to go in the right direction.
Another thing (you read the article, right?): The ways used to "discover" the gardener in the Two Parables" discourse rightly ends up resulting in nothing, because you don't discover God using man's methods.
You use faith.
Then God shows Himself.
Great review! Kudos to Sproul. It was interesting to see both Classical and Van Tillian elements in the review from the worlds most famous classical apologist (granting that I'm no expert).
Steve
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I enjoyed reading the review. The only beef I have with it is when Sproul says, "Flew began his commitment to atheism at the young age of 15." This goes against Flew's whole theme for his life, which, as Sproul notes, was to follow the evidence regardless of where it leads. If you're commited to atheism or any particular ideology or religion, you are restrained in following the evidence wherever it leads, because this following can so often lead you to question your own beliefs where truth does not happen to fit your ideology perfectly. So I think it's better to say he began his commitment to finding the truth, and atheism was one stop along the way.
I read Sproul's review and was really intrigued by the whole thing, so I "Googled" Flew's name and this disturbing article the authorship of his book was one of the first sites. Someone may want to explore some the the statements made at the end to confirm this guy did his homework, but if he did, well it's kind of disappointing.
Info - Read the stuff from the NYT. That's the most balanced assessment I've come across.
Ultimately, I don't think we'll ever know the whole truth because the stories are so contradictory. That said, I do think some of what is said in the book might be helpful, even if it was actually written by someone else. (The whole thing is also a good lesson to Christians about how we engage with non-Christians.)
I thought that the Parable of the Gardener was originally constructed by John Wisdom? Does that seem right or am I just crazy. Or perhaps I am both right AND crazy, which would be interesting.
emcee,
maybe you are both right and crazy ;)
See link:
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/flew_falsification.html
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