For those interested in rational theology, get a copy of There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind by Antony Flew. Unlike Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others who are not specialists in philosophy or religion, Antony Flew is -- he spent his career as an analytic philosopher, and a notorious defender of atheism. That is, until he changed his mind. This book explains what he calls his "pilgrimage of reason" that led to his philosophical acceptance of G-d. Some of the information that he found persuasive:
1) There is no scientific explanation that accounts for how non-living matter could ever generate life.
2) The laws of the universe reflect a sense of order and against all odds allow for human life. The greatest physicists (Einstein, Hawkings, etc.) all refer to a spiritual greater mind that they have a sense of unveiling in their discovery of these laws.
3) The universe had a beginning; there had to be an antecedent cause that brought it into existance.
4) There is an inescapable sense of human consciousness that we feel which cannot be explained by or reduced to physical processes alone.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, so please read the book if you are interested in more -- it is fascinating.
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While Flew is most certainly a trained philosopher, it is not at all clear that he authored this book.
ReplyDelete"Approved" it would be a better term (and that might be stretching things.)
See the NYT article on this.