Antony Flew Quotes

• 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. 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.

  Antony Flew

  Believe, Infinite Intelligence, Law

  79 Copy quote

• I now believe there is a God...I now think it [the evidence] does point to a creative Intelligence 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 which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together.

  Antony Flew

  Believe, Thinking, Dna

  78 Copy quote

• The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It's outstandingly different in quality and quantity.

  Antony Flew

  Christian, Religious, Miracle

  Gary R. Habermas, Antony Flew, David J. Baggett (2009). “Did the Resurrection Happen?: A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew”, p.85, InterVarsity Press

  73 Copy quote

• 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.

  Antony Flew

  Philosophical, Law, Three

  "One Flew out of the atheists’ nest" by William West, www.mercatornet.com. April 1, 2009.

  60 Copy quote

• I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins.

  Antony Flew

  Christian, Thinking, Islam

  "Leading Atheist Philosopher Concludes God's Real". www.foxnews.com. December 9, 2004.

  36 Copy quote

• Someone tells us that God loves us as a father loves his children. We are reassured. But then something awful happens. Some qualification is made.... We are reassured again. But then perhaps we ask: what is this assurance of God's (appropriately qualified) love worth, what is this apparent guarantee really a guarantee against? Just what would have to happen not merely (morally and wrongly) to tempt but also (logically and rightly) to entitle us to say "God does not love us" or even "God does not exist"?

  Antony Flew

  Children, Father, Atheism

  38 Copy quote

• It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design.

  Antony Flew

  Powerful, Dna, Years

  Gary R. Habermas, Antony Flew, David J. Baggett (2009). “Did the Resurrection Happen?: A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew”, p.75, InterVarsity Press

  29 Copy quote

• If it is to be established that there is a God, then we have to have good grounds for believing that this is indeed so. Until and unless some such grounds are produced we have literally no reason at all for believing; and in that situation the only reasonable posture must be that of either the negative atheist or the agnostic. So the onus of proof has to rest on the proposition of theism.

  Antony Flew

  Atheist, Believe, Atheism

  Antony Flew, John Shosky (1998). “Philosophical Essays”, p.6, Rowman & Littlefield

  36 Copy quote

• So multiverse or not, we still have to come to terms with the origin of the laws of nature. And the only viable explanation here is the divine Mind.

  Antony Flew

  Law, Mind, Divine

  Gary R. Habermas, Antony Flew, David J. Baggett (2009). “Did the Resurrection Happen?: A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew”, p.100, InterVarsity Press

  30 Copy quote

• Although I was once sharply critical of the argument to design, I have since come to see that, when correctly formatted, this argument constitutes a persuasive case for the existence of God.

  Antony Flew

  Design, Argument, Persuasive

  21 Copy quote

• I am open to [the notion of theistic revelation], but not enthusiastic about potential revelation from God. On the positive side, for example, I am very much impressed with physicist Gerald Schroeder's comments on Genesis 1. That this biblical account might be scientifically accurate raises the possibility that it is revelation.

  Antony Flew

  Biblical, Example, Might

  28 Copy quote

• What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or the existence of, God?

  Antony Flew

  Flew, Existence, Existence Of God

  Antony Flew, John Shosky (1998). “Philosophical Essays”, p.43, Rowman & Littlefield

  24 Copy quote

• My one and only piece of relevant evidence [for an Aristotelian God] is the apparent impossibility of providing a naturalistic theory of the origin from DNA of the first reproducing species ... [In fact] the only reason which I have for beginning to think of believing in a First Cause god is the impossibility of providing a naturalistic account of the origin of the first reproducing organisms.

  Antony Flew

  Believe, Thinking, Dna

  29 Copy quote

• The Koran calls for belief and consequent obedience. It is, surely, calculated to inspire fear, indeed abject terror, rather than love.

  Antony Flew

  Love Is, Inspire, Islam

  "The Terrors of Islam". Atheist Notes, No. 6, 2004.

  31 Copy quote

• Now, if anything at all can be known to be wrong, it seems to me to be unshakably certain that it would be wrong to make any sentient being suffer eternally for any offence whatever.

  Antony Flew

  Fear, Suffering, Atheism

  Antony Flew (1984). “God, freedom, and immortality: a critical analysis”

  18 Copy quote

• Flew concluded that research into DNA had 'shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved'.

  Antony Flew

  Dna, Research, Flew

  18 Copy quote

• It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism.

  Antony Flew

  Thinking, Firsts, Evolution

  "Atheist finds 'God' after 50 years" by Laura Smith, www.theguardian.com. December 10, 2004.

  16 Copy quote

• You cannot ... transmute some incoherent mixture of words into sense merely by introducing the three-letter word "God" to be its grammatical subject.

  Antony Flew

  Atheism, Three, Mixtures

  18 Copy quote

• In the ordinary, everyday understandings of the words involved, to say that someone survived death is to contradict yourself; while to assert that all of us live forever is to assert a manifest falsehood, the flat contrary of a universally known truth: namely, the truth that all human beings are mortal. For when, after some disaster, the 'dead' and the 'survivors' have both been listed, what logical space remains for a third category?

  Antony Flew

  Space, Forever, Understanding

  Antony Flew (2000). “Merely Mortal?: Can You Survive Your Own Death?”

  20 Copy quote

• Pascal makes no attempt in this most famous argument to show that his Roman Catholicism is true or probably true. The reasons which he suggests for making the recommended bet on his particular faith are reasons in the sense of motives rather than reasons in the sense of grounds. Conceding, if only for the sake of the present argument, that we can have no knowledge here, Pascal tries to justify as prudent a policy of systematic self-persuasion, rather than to provide grounds for thinking that the beliefs recommended are actually true.

  Antony Flew

  Thinking, Self, Atheism

  18 Copy quote

• However far back we may be able to trace the - so to speak - internal history of the Universe, there can be no question of arguing that this or that external origin is either probable or improbable. We do not have, and we necessarily could not have, experience of other Universes to tell us that Universes, or Universes with these particular features, are the work of Gods, or of Gods of this or that particular sort.

  Antony Flew

  Atheism, May, Able

  Antony Flew (1984). “God, freedom, and immortality: a critical analysis”

  12 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

David Hume

William Lane Craig

Alasdair MacIntyre

Gilbert Ryle

Richard Dawkins

A.J. Ayer

Thomas Malthus

Rudolf Bultmann