An
eminent British philosopher—a key champion of atheism for more than fifty
years—announced late last year that he has come to believe that there really
is a God, on account of the intelligent design of the universe and life forms.
Antony
Flew, who became an atheist at 15, debated at Oxford in the 1950s. He promoted
atheism through prestigious works such as his landmark 1984 book, The
Presumption of Atheism.
His
thesis was disarmingly simple: Most people assume that God exists, and therefore
that the atheist must prove otherwise. Flew reversed the onus. He claimed that
there is no evidence that God exists. Therefore, the religious believer must
prove that there is a God.
Over
time, Flew became a very successful atheist. Overall, he wrote ten books against
belief in God, as well as many other works. His works were among the most widely
reprinted in all of philosophy. One thing that helped him was that many people
assumed, without really looking into it, that science evidence suggested that
God does not exist.
So
why did he change his mind when he was eighty-one years old? Not because he
fears the eternal consequences of a lifetime spent promoting atheism. He insists
that he still doesn’t believe in heaven or hell.
Rather,
Flew was convinced by modern science findings. He was amazed by the language
that is written into the DNA of every cell of each of our bodies. He
said, “What I think the DNA material has done is show that intelligence
must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements
together. The enormous complexity by which the results were achieved look to me
like the work of intelligence.”
Flew
discovered that a number of scientists and philosophers believe that the
universe and life forms show scientific evidence of intelligent design—this is
called the intelligent design hypothesis. At any rate, Flew began to think
seriously about intelligent design in 2000. By 2003, he was actively
corresponding with other philosophers about it.
Darwinism
or Design?
The
alternative to intelligent design is Darwinian evolution or Darwinism. According
to Darwinism, life forms develop from amoeba to man by chance mutations, without
any design or any need for God.
Flew
put all the design arguments to Oxford scientist Richard Dawkins, who is well
known not only for his defence of Darwinism but for the promotion of atheism on
account of Darwinism.
And,
according to Flew, Dawkins—an expert in Darwinian evolution—was not able to
answer his objections based on intelligent design. Finally, in early 2004, Flew
admitted to American Christian philosopher Gary Habermas that there must be a
God. His change of mind became public later in the year, as the result of an interview
released by the philosophy journal Philosophia Christi.
Flew
makes very clear that he has not become a religious believer in any conventional
sense. He thinks that God “… could be a person in the sense of a being that
has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose.” In reality, he believes only that
God created the universe.
But
let’s not discount the importance of that admission. It means that Flew’s
life—and yours and mine—have a meaning and purpose that go beyond our own
feelings at any given time. We are here because God intended us to be here. That
makes a difference as we confront the tangled problems of our lives.
The
best-known Muslim author who writes on this fiercely controversial topic is Dr.
Harun Yahya. He has written several books that address divine design in nature,
notably Evolution Deceit (Istanbul: Arastirma, 2002) and Signs of God: Design in
Nature (Istanbul: Global Publishing, 2001). As Yahya notes in his works, modern
science knows vastly more today than in past centuries about the intricate
details of life. And the more we know, the less likely any atheistic explanation
seems.
Turkish
Philosopher: Atheism “Mere Irrationality and Ignorance”
 |
|
“The 21st
century will be a historical-turning point when people will generally
comprehend the divine realities…” Harun Yahya |
Do
you have enough faith to be an atheist? Can you look at the marvelous designs of
nature and conclude that it all happened by chance? If so, you are part of a
shrinking, if stubborn, minority. There has been a steep, widely reported,
decline in atheism worldwide.
According
to Paul M. Zulehner, a European sociologist of religion, “True atheists in
Europe have become an infinitesimally small group. There are not enough of them
to be used for sociological research.” And Europe, after all, is hardly noted
for its piety. A key reason given is precisely the one that convinced Flew, the
growing evidence from science that makes atheism unlikely.
Another
reason he gives is that many people embraced atheism in the twentieth century
because they hoped for a humanly-based system that would prevent the wrongs
often done in the name of religion. But atheistic regimes like communism and
Nazism outdid, in every category of wrong, the regimes where most rulers or
leaders were religious.
Harun
Yahya recently
told United Press International, “Atheism, which people have
tried for hundreds of years as ‘the ways of reason and science,’ is proving
to be mere irrationality and ignorance.” For example, evolution alone, without
intelligence, can hardly account for the fact that “a single cell can carry
more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica put together” (Insight
on the News, March 14, 2005).
Yahya
even predicts, in Evolution Deceit, that “…the 21st
century will be a historical-turning point when people will generally
comprehend the divine realities and be led in crowds to God, the only Absolute
Being” (p. 248).
**
Denyse O’Leary (www.designorchance.com) is a freelance journalist based in
Toronto, Canada. Her latest book is By Design or By Chance? The Growing
Controversy Over the Origin of Life in the Universe (Augsburg Fortress, 2004).
Your emails will be forwarded to her by contacting the science editor at: sciencetech@islam-online.net.
