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Does God Exist?: A Believer and an Atheist Debate
Theologian Terry Miethe and philosophical athiest Antony Flew dispute the most basic of questions--does God exist? This lively and enlightening debate covers every possible angle of this universal question.
224 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1991
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August 12, 2024
A WRITTEN DEBATE BETWEEN THE FAMED (and now "former") ATHEIST, AND A CHRISTIAN APOLOGIST
Antony Garrard Newton Flew (1923-2010) was a British philosopher, and formerly a noteworthy advocate of atheism, until his 2004 change of mind (see 'There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind'). He wrote such influential books as 'God & Philosophy' and 'The Presumption of Atheism and Other (Philosophical) Essays on God, Freedom and Immortality'; he also participated in debates/dialogues such as 'The Warren-Flew Debate on the Existence of God,' 'Does God Exist?: The Great Debate,' 'Does God Exist?: The Craig-Flew Debate,' 'Did the Resurrection Happen?: A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew,' 'Resurrected?: An Atheist and Theist Dialogue,' 'Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?: The Resurrection Debate,' etc. Terry Miethe is dean of the Oxford Study Centre in England, and author of books such as 'A Christian's Guide to Faith & Reason.'
This 1991 book contains a WRITTEN debate between Flew and Miethe, where they are allowed to comment at length on each other's essays. There are also appendices by A.J. Ayer (including his surprising essay, "What I saw When I Was Dead," where he recounts a Near-Death Experience, which "slightly weakened my conviction that genuine death... will be the end of me"; pg. 228), Richard Swinburne, and Hermann Häring.
Flew states, "I confess to myself entertaining, with some relish, the thought of the conceivable Creator who will thereafter punish... not all but only those prepared to persuade themselves that it would be perfectly just and proper for a Creator to sustain disfavored creatures in eternal torment." (Pg. 29) Later, he states, "In my younger days a favorite phrase among members of the Student Christian Movement was 'a God of the gaps'... It would, surely, be wiser... to try to develop a natural theology from the regularities and the wonders that scientists have discovered, rather than from some scratch collection of problems that, you believe, they never will or can solve?" (Pg. 101-102)
Miethe argues, "Another delicate balance is between electromagnetism and gravity. Electromagnetism provides the support that keeps a star from collapsing on itself from its own gravity. A minute shift in the balance would cause all stars to become either blue giants or red dwarfs... the universe is full of these very important 'coincidences.' This leads to the anthropic principle, the idea that life will arise only in those universes in which conditions are suitable and it is only in these universes that anything can be contemplated." (Pg. 165)
Flew says in his last statement, "Miethe asked, 'What evidence will you allow to count for God's existence?' This I shall not answer, because I have tried to show that it is the duty of proposers rather than of opposers of existential hypothesis to indicate, at least in principle, how the entities hypothesized might be identified." (Pg. 187) [Interestingly, he poses this very question to atheists in his later 'There is a God' book.]
This written debate is superior in content to Flew's purely "verbal" exchanges, even if Miethe is not as forceful as, say, a William Lane Craig or even Thomas Warren; and the commentaries in the appendices are also interesting. This volume will be "must reading" for anyone interested in the philosophy of religion, or debates such as these.
Antony Garrard Newton Flew (1923-2010) was a British philosopher, and formerly a noteworthy advocate of atheism, until his 2004 change of mind (see 'There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind'). He wrote such influential books as 'God & Philosophy' and 'The Presumption of Atheism and Other (Philosophical) Essays on God, Freedom and Immortality'; he also participated in debates/dialogues such as 'The Warren-Flew Debate on the Existence of God,' 'Does God Exist?: The Great Debate,' 'Does God Exist?: The Craig-Flew Debate,' 'Did the Resurrection Happen?: A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew,' 'Resurrected?: An Atheist and Theist Dialogue,' 'Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?: The Resurrection Debate,' etc. Terry Miethe is dean of the Oxford Study Centre in England, and author of books such as 'A Christian's Guide to Faith & Reason.'
This 1991 book contains a WRITTEN debate between Flew and Miethe, where they are allowed to comment at length on each other's essays. There are also appendices by A.J. Ayer (including his surprising essay, "What I saw When I Was Dead," where he recounts a Near-Death Experience, which "slightly weakened my conviction that genuine death... will be the end of me"; pg. 228), Richard Swinburne, and Hermann Häring.
Flew states, "I confess to myself entertaining, with some relish, the thought of the conceivable Creator who will thereafter punish... not all but only those prepared to persuade themselves that it would be perfectly just and proper for a Creator to sustain disfavored creatures in eternal torment." (Pg. 29) Later, he states, "In my younger days a favorite phrase among members of the Student Christian Movement was 'a God of the gaps'... It would, surely, be wiser... to try to develop a natural theology from the regularities and the wonders that scientists have discovered, rather than from some scratch collection of problems that, you believe, they never will or can solve?" (Pg. 101-102)
Miethe argues, "Another delicate balance is between electromagnetism and gravity. Electromagnetism provides the support that keeps a star from collapsing on itself from its own gravity. A minute shift in the balance would cause all stars to become either blue giants or red dwarfs... the universe is full of these very important 'coincidences.' This leads to the anthropic principle, the idea that life will arise only in those universes in which conditions are suitable and it is only in these universes that anything can be contemplated." (Pg. 165)
Flew says in his last statement, "Miethe asked, 'What evidence will you allow to count for God's existence?' This I shall not answer, because I have tried to show that it is the duty of proposers rather than of opposers of existential hypothesis to indicate, at least in principle, how the entities hypothesized might be identified." (Pg. 187) [Interestingly, he poses this very question to atheists in his later 'There is a God' book.]
This written debate is superior in content to Flew's purely "verbal" exchanges, even if Miethe is not as forceful as, say, a William Lane Craig or even Thomas Warren; and the commentaries in the appendices are also interesting. This volume will be "must reading" for anyone interested in the philosophy of religion, or debates such as these.
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