Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Keith Ward

British Theologian, Philosopher and Scholar

"A human life can have meaning without an objective purpose, value or pattern. We can construct our own values in a morally patternless world."

"Religion is not necessary to give meaning to life, thought it is necessary to any claim that there is one state or being of supreme intrinsic value, and there is one overridingly important human purpose and that is an objective, morally ordered pattern."

"Some people complain that they will not live forever, but cannot think of things to do on a wet Sunday afternoon."

"Religious beliefs cannot remain what they were before the rise of modern science any more than ancient scientific beliefs can. It would be absurd to insist that ancient religious beliefs should remain unchanged when our whole view of the universe has changed radically."