Antony Flew
Antony Flew was a prominent English philosopher known primarily for his atheistic views, which he championed throughout much of his career. Born in London on February 11, 1923, he was educated at prestigious institutions, including St. John's College, Oxford. Flew gained significant recognition for his influential writings on atheism, particularly his 1950 article "Theology and Falsification," which argued that claims of God's existence are unverifiable and thus meaningless. However, in a surprising turn of events in 2004, Flew announced that he had re-evaluated his beliefs and came to accept the existence of a God, largely influenced by his interpretation of DNA evidence and perceived inconsistencies in Darwinian evolution. This shift culminated in the 2007 publication of "There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind," co-authored with Roy Abraham Varghese, which detailed his reasons for becoming a theist.
Flew's conversion sparked controversy and debate within philosophical and religious circles, with some critics questioning the authenticity of his new views, particularly due to his declining mental state in his later years. Despite the mixed reactions, Flew remained a respected figure in philosophical discussions until his death on April 8, 2010, at the age of 87. His life and work continue to provoke discussions about belief, reason, and the nature of existence.
Antony Flew
Philosopher, author, professor
- Born: February 11, 1923
- Place of Birth: London, England
- Died: April 8, 2010
- Place of Death: Reading, England
Education: St. John's College
Significance: Antony Flew was an English philosopher who was well-known for his atheistic principles. Flew shocked his contemporaries when he announced in 2004 that he had changed his mind and believed in the existence of God. In 2007, he published There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind with Roy Abraham Varghese.
Background
Antony Flew was born on February 11, 1923, in London, England. He was the son of Robert Newton Flew and Winifred née Garrard. Flew's father was a Methodist minister, but Flew did not share in his faith. At fifteen, Flew, claiming that it was scientifically impossible for a supreme being to exist yet alone create the universe, embraced atheism.
As a boy, Flew attended St. Faith's School in Cambridge and then Kingswood School in Bath. Then his studies were interrupted by World War II (1939–1945), during which he served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and studied Japanese in 1942 and 1943 as a state scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
After the war, Flew studied philosophy on his own and won an exhibition, which led to a scholarship to St. John's College in Oxford. Flew graduated "First in Greats" (with highest honors) and won the John Locke Scholarship in Mental Philosophy in 1948. He later earned a master's degree and a doctorate from St. John's.
Flew taught at colleges and universities until his retirement in 1983. He first worked as a lecturer in philosophy for two years (1949–1950) at Christ Church in Oxford. He then lectured at the University of Aberdeen from 1950 until 1954, when he became a professor of philosophy at the University of Calgary. He left Calgary in 1973 when he accepted a philosophy professorship at the University of Reading, where he worked until his retirement in 1983.
Life's Work
A prolific writer, Flew wrote about many subjects, including education, crime, ethics, psychic phenomena, and egalitarianism. However, he is most renowned for his writings about atheism—so much so that he was often dubbed "the world's leading atheist." In 1950, he penned the article "Theology and Falsification," in which he argues that claims about the existence of God are meaningless because they cannot be proven true or false. His article was widely read and discussed and is believed to be the most-often quoted philosophical work of the latter half of the twentieth century. Flew then published additional works in which he expanded his arguments against the existence of God. They included God and Philosophy (1966), The Presumption of Atheism (1976), and Atheistic Humanism (1993).
Beginning in 2001, rumors began to circulate among Flew's contemporaries that Flew was rethinking his atheistic principles and possibly converting from atheism to deism, a belief in a supreme being that does not intervene in the universe, or—more specifically—in human activity on Earth. At first, Flew vehemently denied the rumors and even published Sorry to Disappoint, but I'm Still an Atheist! (2001).
By 2004, however, when Flew was eighty-one years old, he began admitting publicly that he may have changed his mind about the existence of God. He announced on the DVD Has Science Discovered God? that he had reconsidered his atheistic principles based on DNA evidence that seemed to prove that intelligence must have been involved in the creation of the universe. Flew pointed to what he believed were inconsistencies in the Darwinian account of evolution as further support of God's existence.
Despite his admission, Flew shocked his peers in 2007 with There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, which he published with Roy Abraham Varghese. Flew presents biological information in the book and discusses the reasons for the turnaround in his beliefs, which ultimately resulted in his becoming a theist—one who believes in a god who is responsible for the universe, intervenes in the universe, and has personal relationships with its creatures. The book outraged his former contemporaries, who called Flew everything from stupid to senile.
Whether the views presented in the book were Flew's was also the subject of debate. The New York Times published an article by Mark Oppenheimer, a religious historian, who claimed that Flew's mental state was in severe decline and that Varghese had mainly written There Is a God. Other critics noted that the writing style in There Is a God distinctly differs from Flew's other works.
Flew admitted that because of his age, he needed Varghese's help writing the book but contended that the opinions expressed in the book were solely his. In 2010, in Flew's defense, Christian apologist Anthony Horvath published his correspondences with Flew, which took place before the publication of There Is a God. In his letters, Flew details what would later become the outline of the book and discusses his ideas about theism and the reasons for his conversion.
Suffering from dementia, Flew died on April 8, 2010, while in a nursing home in Reading, England. He was eighty-seven years old.
Impact
There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind has continued to incite debate about the existence of God. Flew received the prestigious Schlarbaum Prize from the Ludwig von Mises Institute in 2001. In 2006, he received the second Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University. Flew was an honorary associate of the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Flew served variously as vice president of the Rationalist Press Association, chair of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, and fellow of the Academy of Humanism.
Personal Life
Flew married Annis Harty in 1952. The couple had two daughters: Harriet and Joanna.
Bibliography
"Antony Flew." All About Philosophy, www.allaboutphilosophy.org/antony-flew.htm. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.
"The Death of a (Former) Atheist – Antony Flew, 1923–2010." Albert Mohler, 29 Apr. 2010, www.albertmohler.com/2010/04/29/the-death-of-a-former-atheist-anthony-flew-1923-2010/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.
Gottlieb, Anthony. "I'm a Believer." New York Times, 23 Dec. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/books/review/Gottlieb-t.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.
Grimes, William. "Antony Flew, Philosopher and Ex-Atheist, Dies at 87." New York Times, 16 Apr. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/arts/17flew.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.
Habermas, Gary. "Antony Flew's Deism Revisited." Evangelical Philosophical Society, www.epsociety.org/articles/antony-flews-deism-revisited/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.
Horvath, Anthony. A Defense of the Integrity of Antony Flew's "There Is a God" from His Own Letters. Athanatos Christian Ministries, 2011.
Law, Stephen. "Antony Flew on Religious Language." Think, vol. 22, no. 65, 2023, pp. 11-16, doi.org/10.1017/S1477175623000179. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.
"Professor Antony Flew." The Telegraph, 14 Apr. 2010, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7586929/Professor-Antony-Flew.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.
Wiker, Benjamin. "How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind." Strange Notions, strangenotions.com/flew/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.