I read the intro to Dawkins's book

Jer -- I didn't realize you had taken this book. I'm leaving on a trip to Dallas this week, and thought I would Dawkins's book, "The God Delusion." One reason why is because I read into the intro to the paperback version, and he talked about the "I used to be an atheist" "trick" on the first page. Now, in just a few words, Dawkins has dismissed the thoughtful experiences of a whole bunch of people, including such thinkers as C.S. Lewis. It's true that Lewis was not a theologian, but he did address classic arguments for and agains the existence of God.

Here is just one story, however, of another individual -- a lifelong atheist and trained philosopher, who became a theist. Dr. Antony Flew said,

"In a recent interview, Flew stated, "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." Flew also renounced naturalistic theories of evolution:

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

In Flew’s own words, he simply "had to go where the evidence leads." According to Flew, "...it seems to me that the case for an Aristotelian God who has the characteristics of power and also intelligence, is now much stronger than it ever was before." Flew also indicated that he liked arguments that proceeded from big bang cosmology. However, Antony Flew does not believe in the existence of a good God who is involved in the lives of human beings, because of the problem of evil. He ascribes very much to the God of Einstein and Spinoza, who created the universe and life on earth and left the scene. He does not believe in an afterlife.

Well, at any rate, here is a professional philosopher who has thought about all of this from the point of view of science, who has considered all of the argements on both sides, and without interacting with the substance of his arguments, Dawkins throws him into the lump of "those who used to be atheists."

Somewhere, guys, there exists "the truth" about the universe. Why we are here. Why anything is here at all. How it got here. How it became the situation, "the human condition" that we have today. I am certainly less educated than these individuals, but I don't see anything other than God as the first cause of it all.

Hi Guys

I wanted to set this up because Jer, you have asked me to comment on Richard Dawkins's "The God Delusion," and Zach, you have said to me, "I think I'm losing my faith." I want to respond to each of you, and to give you a chance to respond to me, in a way that enables all of us to communicate with more depth than we could in a simple conversation in the car.

We should keep the personal stuff off of this blog, and keep it personal. But I think we are going to talk about issues that have a lot of meaning for a lot of people, and in doing it this (public) blog way, we can address such things and have an easy, on-line way of communicating, as well as putting our thoughts "out there" for public consumption as well.

I'll always be as honest as I possibly can with you.