There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind - Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese

Antony Flew writes of his conversion to deism in 2004. He speaks disparagingly of the new atheists - the “high priests” of atheism who go beyond science education by “deciding what it is permissible for the scientific faithful to believe on matters metaphysical” (xxiii).

Some suppose that in his old age, he is hedging his bets, but this is not true because he still doesn’t believe in the existence of an afterlife (2). He simply has followed his life’s paradigm, “as Plato in his Republic scripted his Socrates to insist: ‘We must follow the argument wherever it leads’” (89).

He confesses, “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” (88).

He asks his former atheists one simple central question: “What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a reason to at least consider the existence of a superior Mind?” (88)

Flew argues that atheists have not dealt adequately with who wrote the laws of nature and a universe fine-tuned for life. He writes, “The philosophical question that has not been answered in origin-of-life studies is this: How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self-replication capabilities, and “coded chemistry”?” (124) Atheists have a difficult time explaining the existence of the self, consciousness – even natural laws (for the existence of objective natural laws implies a lawgiver).

At the end of the book, Flew interacts with N. T. Wright, and suggests that he offers “by far the best case for accepting Christian belief that I have ever seen.” (3)