Does nature point to a Creator? The Scriptures teach that we should expect it to:

“The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1-3 NIV)

“What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20 ESV)

Last year, prominent atheist philosopher Antony Flew “converted” to to theism. His reasons for doing so? He was convinced by the arguments put forth by advocates of Intelligent Design (ID). Specifically, he found two ID arguments to be compelling:

• The argument that the universe is fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life. There are long lists of physical constants (such as the relative strengths of the four fundamental forces, the ratio of the masses of electrons and protons, and so on) which have the exact values they need to have for life to exist in the universe. How did nature end up so perfectly tuned?
• The argument that it is impossible that life could have originated by natural means. Flew seemed especially concerned about the complexity of the DNA-based inheritance system shared by almost all organisms.

I have seen a number of reports that dismiss ID as interesting philosophy, but not science. I reply that it is impossible to separate science from the philosophy that undergirds it, and that here is at least one example of a deep-thinker who was convinced by the evidence from creation.

Antony Flew has not converted to Christianity. At best he can be described as a deist—one who believes that the Creator set things in motion but takes a hands-off approach to what has been created. Let’s pray that he would come to faith in Christ.

Grace and Peace