140 - Does God Exist? A Believer and an Atheist Debate

Does God Exist?
A Believer and an Atheist Debate
By Terry Miethe and Antony Flew
San Francisco, Harper, 1992. 296 pp. $22.95.

Perhaps to attract people to purchase this book, an inconsequential foreword by Hans Kung is advertised on the cover and a disciple of Kung presents a summary of Kung's arguments for believing that God exists. The book also contains two essays by well-known Oxford atheist, A. J. Ayer, including a reprint of his fascinating account of his near death experience (the light was red, bright, and painful!). Finally, there is a semi-popular essay by the premier rational apologist for the Christian faith, Richard Swinburne, which presents the main arguments of his The Existence of God in a very accessible form. But the main antagonists are Flew, of Bowling Green State University who has made a cottage industry out of critiquing theism, and Miethe, Dean of the Oxford Study Center.

Flew is in the unenviable position of arguing that something does not exist. Imaging having to argue that unicorns do not exist; where would one begin? Since there are no nifty disproofs of the existence of unicorns and one has little time in this hectic day and age to perform the exhaustive search necessary to prove their non-existence, one might spend a great deal of time arguing that the burden of proof is on those who believe in unicorns. And this is precisely Flew's strategy; he begins the debate defending positions that should be familiar to those who have followed the contemporary discussion concerning the rationality of religious belief. He reasserts his presumption of atheismthat the inquiry concerning God's existence places the burden of proof on the theist. Furthermore, he goes on to argue in a brief analysis of theistic arguments, this burden of proof has not been satisfied. Flew also argues that belief in an incorporeal person is silly, tantamount to believing in the existence of nothing. Given our universal experience of persons, the term "person," he contends, is limited to creatures with bodies and "disembodied person" is a virtual contradiction in terms.

Miethe's first response is littered with extraneous issues and, for over ten pages, does not officially engage Flew's arguments. Miethe's criticism of Flew, that a section of his essay "has no bearing on an argument for the existence of God except (again) in the most secondary way," applies more precisely to his own essay. For example, he spends nearly five pages discussing the insidious influence of Greek philosophy on the doctrine of God (a topic that he has written on extensively but is scarcely relevant to the debate). He concludes this section with nearly a dozen superfluous pages paying tribute to a former mentor, in which he nearly defines God into existence by his

141 - Does God Exist? A Believer and an Atheist Debate

definition of metaphysics. The substantive case that he makes for the existence of God lasts barely seven pages and relies more on assertion than argument. His three basic ideas, which need much more development, are that the existence of life, intelligent life, and creativity cannot be accounted for on the basis of matter alone (here he briefly rejects "chance evolution"). But supposing that he is right here; he is a long way from establishing even the plausibility of the existence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob on the basis of these considerations. Miethe claims, but demurs for lack of space, that "precisely such a case can be made for Christianity." Indeed, he cites nine references where such a case has been made and then patronizingly chides Flew: "Tony, please check into these!" Many of these criticisms are also noted by Flew in his first reply. Much valuable space is given to refuting Flew's alleged reliance on the verification principle and Flew's contention that being a person implies being embodied, but the positive case for Christian theism is precious thin. And Miethe repeatedly, and to my mind strangely, insists that the problem of evil is only a secondary concern in this debate. Flew, by the way, is not unaware of these matters and raises them in great detail in his rambling rejoinder to Miethe's arguments.

In spite of Miethe's ad nauseum compliments of his "good friend" Tony, his tone is typically patronizing and condescending. For example, he compares a position held by Flew to one of Ronald Reagan's, he claims "that Flew's position lacks (perhaps as much as Reagan's) real scholarly erudition and empirical insight. . . ." On another occasion he remarks about Flew's "pleasant wrongheadedness." With friends like this, who needs atheists?

Miethe does not return to the central topic of the debate until late in his second essay. The discussion of Aquinas' Third Way, which he calls a tour de force, strangely ignores the logical (as opposed to causal) error evident in the original (see Plantinga's discussion of the cosmological argument in God, Freedom and Evil). He doesn't really engage the topic until he presents his own version of the cosmological argument in the final three pages of this section (if only the debate had started here). The argument and discussion of it are problematic, but Flew is unduly dismissive of it.

I am a theist who supports postmodern apologetics, and I was eager to see Flew get his comeuppance. Instead, I found a book that was poorly conceived and organized with discussions of mostly secondary concerns, specious and undeveloped arguments, regular misunderstandings (and much wasted space in clearing up the misunderstandings) and little engagement of a supremely important issue. Although I found this book mostly annoying and generally disagreeable, I enthusiastically agreed with Miethe when he proclaimed that "it is high time that this Great Debate be brought to an end" (emphasis added).

If one is interested in a worthy debate between theists and atheists, I

142 - Does God Exist? A Believer and an Atheist Debate

would recommend J. P. Moreland and Kai Nielsen's Does God Exist?: The Great Debate (Nelson, 1990).

Kelly James Clark
Calvin College
Grand Rapids, MI