Before his death, renowned atheist philosopher and co-author of There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, Antony Flew did change his views on theism somewhat; though evidence suggests that it bears little resemblance to the pronouncements of those who sought to advance a well-worn, if seldom true, narrative of the deathbed convert.
The Enlightenment was not, as is often assumed, exclusively secular. In fact, religious Protestants, Jews and Catholics played a key role in imagining a tolerant, but believing, society.
In a recent interview with a Unitarian minister, the Vanity Fair columnist seemed to be nibbling at the edges of what can only be described as spirituality, leading our author to wonder whether Christopher Hitchens isn’t the best of the New Atheists for his willingness to reject atheistic dogmas.
The argument between science and theology is as old as ancient Greece, where scientific rationalism first flourished, but it was revived with the advent of Darwinism.
A century and a half after the publication of Darwin’s foundational work, attacks on his ideas continue—including evangelicals distributing a newly altered version. But it will take more than banana-wielding fundamentalism to undermine the validity of evolutionary theory.
You have to look long and hard in the public-square discussion today to find bilateral calls for complementarity and partnership. Yet why should the relations between evolution and creation constitute a zero-sum game?
