Antony Flew, an 81 year-old British atheist-philosopher who for more than 50 years avidly denounced God, creationism, and Christianity--in defense of Darwin’s theory of evolution--has declared he is now a believer in God. His acknowledgment has staggered the scientific community. Flew is the author of scores of books and academic articles opposing God’s existence, including “Atheistic Humanism” and “Darwinian Evolution.” Renouncing his error, he now endorses science’s Intelligent Design Principle, “IDP,” as the explanation for the origin of the Universe. Dr. Flew has joined the ranks of numerous other world-class scientist-philosophers who believe that God is the Creator and master intelligence behind the cosmos. IDP, which, in another expression is known as the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, declares that the inter-working complexities of our Universe--and of life on our planet--are too numerous to co-exist by evolutionary chance. Instead, they have been deliberately designed by a Supreme Intelligence. That intelligent designer is God.

In his youth, Dr. Flew was a contemporary of C. S. Lewis at Oxford and, though remaining an atheist, regularly attended meetings of Lewis’ Socratic Club. While Dr. Flew and numerous others like him have not come to a Biblical understanding of God, they are now pointed in that direction. Flew said he is “open” to the possibility of divine revelation, believing that Christians are intellectually justified in holding to their religion and that the resurrection of Jesus has more evidential support than any other reported miracle in history. His conversion and that of other scientists who uphold the IDP claim, will rattle windows in God-rejecting organizations worldwide. In defense of creationism, Flew quoted Charles Darwin who admitted that his theory of evolution required a Creator to begin the process. “Darwin himself, in the fourteenth chapter of The Origin of Species,” Flew explained, “pointed out that his whole argument began with a being which already possessed reproductive powers.”

More than a decade ago one of Germany's most influential scientific magazines, GEO, published an article which publicly challenged the validity of Darwin's theory of evolution. The announcement which startled scientific minds around the world, made the following statement:

"Gradual evolution by natural selection, the key element of Darwin's theory, no longer stands up to the latest scientific results..." In referring to the origin of the Universe, the article also included this statement: "The idea of a preconceived plan instead of a succession of coincidences suggests itself."

The scientists admitted that mathematical perfection in the Universe excluded the idea of accidental evolution; rather, they acknowledged that Creation apparently resulted from a "Preconceived Plan." Where does this idea of a preconceived plan take us? We are back at Genesis 1:1. We must remember that "the world by wisdom, knows not God." Saving faith will never come through scientific discovery. Science can open the door of inquiry but saving faith results only when that inquiry leads to the person of Jesus. He is the one by whom the Father "made the worlds."

Science today is urgently seeking a “Unification Principle” which will reconcile the laws of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with Quantum Mechanics. Laws of relativity are mathematically precise while quantum mechanics seem to include probabilities. The first deals primarily with outer space; the second, with the inner-world of molecular study. It is my God-given expectation that the Unification search will end with a discovery of such overwhelming and irrefutable evidence that it brings scientists to the very feet of God. When--and if--this happens, it will fuel the end-times revival like gasoline on a fire. When Albert Einstein, a Jew, and one of the greatest geniuses in the past millennium, was asked by a reporter if he accepted the historical existence of Jesus, he replied, “Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”

THE JEWISH CONTRIBUTION

As an ethnic group, Jews, have been the greatest contributors to the fields of medicine and science. Albert Einstein is a primary example of a Jesus-believing Jew. The Israeli Astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who perished in the Challenger explosion was a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. Dr. David Block, current resident-professor of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, is another. Besides two Bachelor degrees, Dr. Block holds a Master of Science in relativistic astrophysics and a Doctor of Philosophy in Astronomy. He is a world-renowned scientist, a consultant at the European Southern Observatory near Munich, West Germany, the Institute of Astronomy, University of Hawaii, and a committed disciple of Jesus Christ. Dr. Block explained, “As a scientist, I always think logically and I reason things out. That was how my whole search for God began. I looked through my telescope at Saturn and said to myself, ‘Isn’t there a great God out there?’ And when I studied relativity, relativistic astrophysics, cosmology and all these beautiful areas of mathematics, they pointed me to the fact that this whole universe is masterfully made, finely-tuned and controlled by the Great Designer. The logical next step was to want to meet this Designer face-to-face ... To the person who is seriously seeking, I would say, read the gospels from an objective pont of view, as Albert Einstein did. As Isaac Newton did ... The ‘Big Bang’ was not a cosmological firecracker. As the physicist Freeman Dyson put it, the universe seemed to be acting in anticipation for the appearance of mankind. In fact, leading evolutionists, such as Theodosius Dobzhansky and others have agreed that there has not been enough time for mankind to have assembled spontaneously within the time span of our universe.” (Both Italics mine)

Other significant Jews agree with Einstein and Block’s acceptance of Jesus, and according to the Council of Jewish Federations, as far back as 1990, 14% of the 8.2 million American Jews had some kind of positive faith in Y’shua. Today, the number is much greater. More than 1,000,000 Jews in the U.S. are quasi-believers in Jesus as Messiah. Like Nicodemus, many are “disciples in secret.” Messianic Judaism is now the fastest growing religious movement among Jews. Once when I asked a Jewish Rabbi what he thought about ȁJews For Jesus,” he said, “I think they are more Jewish than the rest of us.” A few years ago in a Messianic Synagogue I met two elderly Jewish men who, as children, had survived the Nazi concentration camps. We visited briefly and then later when the music became lively they leaped into the aisle, locked arms, and broke into a spirited Jewish dance.

Their faces were rapturous. After the service I commended their dancing as a way of showing gratitude for having survived the holocaust. “Oh!, we are not dancing because we survived the holocaust!,” one of them corrected me, “We are dancing because we have found the Messiah!”

In the same unavoidable way Jews are finding the Messiah, scientists are finding God. For the past 100 years there has been a build-up toward the truth of creationism as an unavoidable, scientific conclusion. The biggest break-through came, in 1912 at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, when Vesto Melvin Slipher, an American astronomer, discovered that approximately a dozen galaxies were moving away from the earth at speeds of a million miles an hour. At the time, scientists did not know what the discovery meant but they knew it was of great importance. It was not until later that Edwin Hubble, another astronomer, used the information to formulate a new theory about the earth's origin. Basically, Hubble claimed that the Universe had a sudden, fixed point of beginning. (As described in Genesis 1:1.) According to Hubble, Creation had suddenly exploded from a central point from which the galaxies were still outwardly expanding. That point of beginning, he said, came from something no larger than the period at the end of this sentence (.) The idea was quickly dubbed the "Big Bang Theory.” The next question with which the scientists had to grapple was, "What existed before the beginning?" "Who was the Prime Mover?" To this, a British Scientist, Edward Milne, gave the reply, "The first cause of the Universe is left for the reader to insert. But our picture is incomplete without Him."

ALBERT EINSTEIN ACCEPTS

THE REALITY OF “CREATION.”

Interestingly, one of the last minds to accept the "Big Bang Theory" and by far the most influential was Albert Einstein. Einstein rejected the theory because "it implied Creation had a beginning." As a Jew, he accepted belief in God though he claimed the Universe and God had always co-existed. In 1930, however, he visited the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, looked at the evidence through the giant, 100 inch telescope and admitted the proof was there: The Universe had indeed originated in a single moment and everything was still flying outwardly from that incredible blast. In the middle 1970's, leading astronomers in England announced that they had discovered the galaxies farthest removed from the center point of that "explosion.” These galaxies were actually the "edge" of the Universe. The British scientists went on to make a mind-boggling statement: "Beyond these galaxies, nothing exists; not even space." At that point, human intelligence proceeds no farther. As one scientist put it, "We are waiting for someone to step out of the crowd and tell us what it all means." As to the time and place of that “Big Bang” we find both in the opening verse of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” When God said, “Light be!,” light was! One much-disputed theory of science claims that the most basic particle of the sub-atomic world, beyond which nothing can be reduced, is “sound.” True or not, we know that Creation came into being when God spoke and sound was released.

CHRISTIANS AND THE “BIG-BANG”

While I will not argue the point with anyone, I personally believe Edwin Hubble’s discovery is the most profound penetration which science has yet made into Genesis 1:1. Even though the Bible gives us no more clue than “God said ’Light be! ... Let the dry land appear,’ and it was so,” it is easy to believe that He, Himself, is the center point of that explosion. God’s Throne probably occupies the "O" degree from which everything shot outward. He is the "Original Light" from whom all other light sprang. To my satisfaction, the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation describe the Throne's Point-Of-Explosion. Jesus is seated in that Throne as the One by whom “All things were created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and by Him, all things consist." Colossians 1:16,17.

Robert Jastrow, in the New York Times Magazine, revealed years ago the scientists’ quandary when he wrote, "Consider the immensity of the problem. Science has proved that the Universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It then asks, "What cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter and energy into the Universe? Was the Universe created out of nothing, or was it gathered together out of pre-existing materials?" And science cannot answer these questions. Jastrow continues, "Now we would like to pursue that inquiry further back in time, but the barrier seems insurmountable. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as be pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

MATHEMATICS IS NOT ACCIDENTAL

Whether we are theologians or scientists, we can still prove by unwavering mathematical law that our universe was designed by engineering Intelligence. For example, take ten pennies and number them one to ten. Put them in your pocket and shuffle them. Mathematically, your chance of drawing out number one on the first draw is one in ten. Drawing out one and two in succession becomes one in 100. To draw out one, two, and three, in perfect order, your chance is one in one thousand. By fixed, mathematical law, your chance of drawing out all ten pennies in uninterrupted order is one in ten billion. These are the odds of chance. Now apply that law of chance to the multiplied billions of related complexities that are necessary for life to exist on our planet.

THE OUTER-SPACE OF STARS,

THE “INNER-SPACE” OF YOUR BODY

Let me illustrate another reason why scientists are converting to the Intelligent Design Principle: Science cannot explain how one “evolved” human brain can contain as many functioning synapsis as there are stars in the Universe. For example, if all 5,1/2 billion people on earth were all talking on the telephone at the same time, but using 18 different telephones, it would almost correspond to the electrical traffic your brain is handling--even when asleep.

One human DNA cell contains more than 3 billion genetic codes. If the DNA in one human cell could be unraveled and strung end to end, it would reach from earth to the sun, round trip, 400 times. At conception, the genetic code from mother and father merge into a perfect arrangement for the creation of a totally new, unique human being. Billions and billions of components exactly join. In the embryo, for example, 1,000,000 optic nerves grow separately from eye to brain, brain to eye, and join in the middle. Each nerve attaches to its counterpart without confusion. There are no mix-ups. Your entire human body could be reconstructed from information stored in just one brain-stem cell.

An adult body contains 75,000 miles of blood vessels, serving more than 60 billion body cells. During each blood cell’s 120 day life-span, it makes about 75,000 round trips from the heart to other parts of the body. That is a total distance of about 5 billion, 635 million miles traveled in its lifetime. In a quiet room, cup your hands tightly over your ears, like you have done with a sea shell at the beach, and listen to the roar of blood rushing through your body. That ocean-roar is literally the sound of life racing through your system. During that time, each cell carries out its individualized work for the body. Within four weeks after conception, a boy-baby already contains all the billions of male-sperm his body will ever produce. A female baby will contain her life-long supply of ovum within her first trimester. In exploring creation, the trip inward is as infinite as the trip outward. Next time you are outside looking at the stars, take a look inward. Creation's vastness may go just that deep inside of you. Accidental evolution? Can’t be. This is the kind of evidence that converted Antony Flew.

Today, we thank men like Flew, who, after a lifetime of fighting God, have the courage to stand up in the grandstand of science and loudly declare, “I was wrong! There is a God! He is the Creator!” Other scientists, like Albert Einstein and David Block, join theologians in saying to humanity, “It is possible for you to know this Creator-God and to have personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ!”

In my youth, while in a meditative mood, I wrote these lines:

“Fools we are! Had we eyes to see,
Into the realm of microscopic things;
To step inside the spider's egg,
With its own suns and galaxies,
Here we'd behold Creation in full display
And the flawless pearl of system find,
That touches every insect, leaf, or stone,
With the same brush-stroke of design.
Astonishment would seize our breath,
Silence us as quiet as death,
To behold Creation's chartless realm,
Compressed inside man’s tiniest cell.”

CCC

Charles Carin,