An Ex-atheist and an Ex-priest Embrace Deism

An Essay of Raymond Fontaine, Ph.D.

   On December 9, 2004, the Associated Press announced that the famous British atheist, Antony Flew, is now a deist. The Press also provided a thumbnail sketch of Flew's life. Reading it, I learned that, for an entire half century, Antony Flew and I were poles apart on the subject of God. Now, both of us philosophers in our eighties have reached a common ground in Deism.

    According to the Press, Antony Flew's father was a Methodist minister. From him, Flew must have heard about God, Jesus and the Bible. Yet, despite that early exposure to God, Flew became an atheist at 15." So states the Press.

   It adds that  "over the years, Flew proclaimed the lack of evidence for God while teaching at Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele and Reading universities in Britain, in visits to numerous U.S. and Canadian campuses and in books, articles, lectures and debates." God held no place in Antony Flew's mind and heart.

    As for myself, I first learned about God from my father, a humble carpenter, then from nuns in elementary school and finally from priests in the seminary. I became a Catholic priest in 1945. I accepted whatever my teachers said about God. They got the truth from the Pope whom they considered infallible.

    Later in life, however, especially during five years of missionary work in Africa, I questioned the teaching authority of the Church. I reviewed the crimes and hypocrisy of the medieval Popes. I checked the Bible texts on which the Church based its dogmas and regulations. One by one, the Church's dogmas collapsed. I was left with only one - God's existence. For this truth, however, I relied not on the Church but on nature. Its designs and structures presuppose a supremely intelligent Creator. So in 1967, I left Africa no longer a priest but a deist. I completed that metamorphosis at fifty years old

    Apparently Antony Flew accomplished his transformation from atheist to deist only this year. During December, "Flew finished writing the first formal account of his new outlook for the introduction to a new edition of his 'God and Philosophy' scheduled for release in 2005." So states the Associated Press.

    From various sources, the Press garnered a few statements from Flew. In a new video entitled "Has Science Discovered God?" Flew gives his answer. "The biologist's investigation of DNA has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved." And in a telephone interview from England, Flew said that "a superior intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature." That is the core of Deism. Flew believes that and so do I.

   Again according to the Press, Flew said, "He's best labeled a deist like Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives." Therefore Jefferson, Flew and I agree that the supreme intelligent Being responsible for the designs in nature does not intervene in its normal course. Nothing in nature presupposes that He does. Just this week, when a tsunami killed 155,000 people, one third of them children, God of nature did not intervene to prevent this disaster. If God ever intervenes in nature and in human affairs, this was one time when He should and would have. But God did not stop the killer tsunami.

   The Press also reports that "Flew still does not believe in an afterlife." Nor do I. Nature reveals that all living beings die. Nothing in nature indicates that humans continue to exist without their bodies somewhere else. From the designs in nature, our reason concludes with certainty that God exists but not that humans exist after death. Afterlife for humans is simply a wish, a desire of ours to prolong our existence forever.

   The report of the Associated Press about Antony Flew's recent conversion from atheist to deist brought me comfort and joy. My change from priest to deist occurred 37 years ago. Despite those many years, I still feel a certain aloneness in my thoughts about Nature's God. I am surrounded by Catholics and other Christians. Their recent Christmas cards depicting the Virgin Mary and her Divine Son reminded me that, despite our family and friendly ties, we are poles apart in our thoughts about God and his interventions in human affairs and in the afterlife.

   Knowing that Antony Flew shares my concept of God, I feel less isolated. And my dream of a world with billions of deists seems less hopeless. The odds against enlightening the world about Nature's God are staggering. But Antony Flew's arrival in our midst enkindles the hope that someday millions of children will be born and bred in families who believe that the designs in nature presuppose an intelligent Creator who reveals nothing else about His Being, location and actions. To return to the list of essays, click here.