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Antony Flew obituary

Humean philosopher and atheist who ultimately came to
believe in intelligent design

Piers Benn
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 19.04 BST

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Antony Flew's conservatism had a libertarian streak

The chief intellectual influence on the philosopher Antony Flew, who has died

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aged 87, was the leading Enlightenment figure David Hume, whom he
followed both in his empiricist critique of natural theology and also, to some
extent, his political sympathies. His second book, Hume's Philosophy of Belief
(1961), was a major contribution to Hume scholarship.

It was preceded by A New Approach to Psychical Research (1953). For Flew,

the language and logic approach of the analytical philosopher did not preclude
examination of the most speculative questions. However, his last book, There
Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (with
Roy Abraham Varghese, 2007), pointed to the change in his outlook over the
last decade, undercutting the position he had maintained while holding
university posts in England, Scotland and North America.

Flew had become well known to a generation of students as an official atheist

philosopher, much to the chagrin of his father, a Methodist minister, who is
said to have prayed for him every day. In an early, seminal essay, Theology
and Falsification (1950), Flew tried to show that the hypothesis of an almighty
and loving God was unfalsifiable and therefore empty. He claimed the
"endemic evil" in theology was that, however terrible the world, religious folk
continued to believe in an all-powerful, benevolent deity. For them, no horror
was, even in principle, allowed to count against this. But then, how could there
be meaningful evidence for God's existence? Thus, theism suffered a "death by
a thousand qualifications".

These ideas were developed in God and Philosophy (1966), which contained
an attempted demolition of revelation, and particularly miracles.

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Nevertheless, Flew seemed fascinated by the possibility of empirical evidence

for theological claims, and maintained a sceptical interest not only in alleged
miracles but paranormal phenomena in general. He was especially known as
a sustained critic of the belief in life after death, arguing in many works that
post-mortem survival was impossible.

Thus, it came as shock to some of his humanist friends when in 2004, he

confessed to a change of mind concerning God. He announced in a video
entitled Has Science Discovered God? that aspects of biological order,
especially in DNA, had led him to believe in intelligent design after all.
Commentators seized on this, but the revelation was less dramatic than it
appeared. He still disbelieved in revealed religion and immortality. He did,
however, express concern about the damage his writings on the subject could
have done.

Flew wrote prolifically, producing both scholarly and general works, including
his Introduction to Western Philosophy: Ideas and Argument from Plato to
Popper (1971), two shorter books on critical thinking and many other works
that often combined a polemical with a philosophical style. Among the last of
these were Crime or Disease? (1973), an attack on fashionable conceptions of
crime, and The Politics of Procrustes (1981), a trenchant critique of egalitarian
political theory. He adamantly defended human free agency, though he
eventually gave up his earlier Humean conviction that free will was compatible
with determinism.

Born in London, Flew was educated at St Faith's school, Cambridge, and

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Kingswood school, Bath. During the second world war, he studied Japanese at
the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and did intelligence
work with the RAF. His study of classics at St John's College, Oxford, included
classical philosophy, and contact with the Christian apologist CS Lewis helped
him maintain his interest in the philosophy of religion, despite the loss of his
own faith during his teens. He taught briefly at Christ Church (1949-50), and,
after a stint at Aberdeen (1950-54), was one of the pioneers who went to the
University College of North Staffordshire (now Keele), staying as professor of
philosophy until 1971. After a year at the University of Calgary, Alberta
(1972-73), he became professor at Reading University, with part-time
appointments at York University, Toronto, and Bowling Green State
University, Ohio, after his retirement as emeritus professor in 1983.

Flew's work was partly influenced by his early teachers, in particular Gilbert
Ryle. His longstanding humanism was reflected in his involvement with
organisations such as the Rationalist Press Association. He had various
hobbyhorses, and many found him obsessional. He detested the progressive,
egalitarian ethos of the late 1960s and 70s, supported the cold war and
lamented the state of education.

A former colleague at Keele described how he was once expressly forbidden

from turning his seminars into political rallies. In the 1970s he wrote in
defence of an American psychologist, Arthur Jensen, who had been accused of
racism for claiming that genetic factors might partially account for IQ
differences between black and white people. Flew opposed racism but often

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wrote condemning the intolerant and illogical features that he saw in much
anti-racist and multicultural ideology. Paradoxically, much of what he
courageously said then has now become fairly respectable.

Many former colleagues and students remembered him with great respect.
One acknowledged him as having high principles and high standards, always
following arguments where they led him. Another, then a novice lecturer at
Keele, noted his helpfulness, in spite of political differences. A former student
recalled how, in 1962, he boomed at a bemused philosophy class that "sex ... is
a very dangerous thing", fearing that it would interfere with studying. But his
views on abortion and homosexual law reform were liberal, and he was
a trenchant critic of the Roman Catholic church's teaching on contraception.

Indeed his conservatism had a strongly libertarian streak, though perhaps he

later regretted some of the resulting social effects. He was also a passionate
opponent of European integration, proudly declaring himself a "subject of Her
Majesty, not a citizen of Europe".

His dogged pursuit of reason to reach truth, and his willingness to change his
mind (as well as altering his beliefs about God, in his early youth he had
briefly been a communist sympathiser before becoming a Conservative)
marked him out as having a deep integrity and innocence. Moreover, he had
an excellent reputation as a teacher. Old-fashioned to the last, he was one of a
generation at odds with the climate of bureaucracy, managerialism, "research
assessment" and audits now besetting the university world.

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Flew was fond of walking, climbing and, according to Who's Who, house
maintenance. He is survived by his wife, Annis, whom he married in 1952, and
two daughters.

Francis Beckett writes: For students brought up to accept without

question the assertions of ministers of religion, or inclined to be taken in by
the mystics of the 1960s or 70s, or tempted by Marxist historicism, a session
with Tony Flew was always a little like having a bucket of ice-cold water
thrown over you. He had a grand contempt for vague, metaphysical
statements, and loved stripping arguments down to their skeletons. "Can you
hit it with a hammer?" he would ask when confronted with a particularly
nebulous concept.

When Flew deserted a lifetime's atheism at the age of 81, he ought, in Richard
Dawkins's view, to have found a more respectable argument to cling to than
that of intelligent design, and of course Dawkins is right. But Flew enabled me
to abandon the faith of the priests who educated me while understanding what
I was doing, and therefore not being frightened of it. I, for one, will always be
grateful to him.• Antony Garrard Newton Flew, philosopher, born 11 February
1923; died 8 April 2010

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