Home Page

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's Reviews page  

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's home page



Review by
Dr Pravin Thevathasan


The Evidence For God
by Keith Ward
D. L. T

Publisher's Book Information

Keith Ward, the Anglican theologian, has written a scholarly but readable work defending the case for the existence of the spiritual dimension. He supports all the classical arguments for the existence of God, but believes that they need to be re-stated. An examination of science,for instance, especially cosmology and quantum physics, points to a world that is far more profound than a purely material universe.

Ward notes that according to the Christian doctrine of creation, the whole of space and time depend on a reality beyond space and time. Christianity does not reveal how things begin. It is rather argued that the whole purpose of creation depends on God. Theology is more interested in why than how.
Apart from science, Ward examines the arts, morality, philosophy and personal experience and concludes that belief in God is reasonable. He writes that "our own beliefs (in the existence of God) will be provisional in many respects." Cardinal Newman would surely have approved of this approach. The arguments in favour of the existence of God are not knock down philosophical or scientific ones. Otherwise, the best believers are going to be scientists and logicians, which points towards an unjust God!


Art may be, but need not be, seen as evidence of transcendent meaning and value. Ward also notes that while secularist philosophers claim that moral values are subjective with no foundation in objective reality, there have been well known atheists like J. L Mackie who have admitted that for most people a sense of right and wrong appears to express some "truths which are not just about human states of mind."

The style of writing is calm and solid. There is no attempt at ridiculing the opposition. Dawkins will not be impressed. But those who are open to the truth will be.

This reviewer is not endorsing the works of Ward in general, much of which can only be described as liberal in tendency. But this work was certainly worth the effort.



Copyright ©; Dr Pravin Thevathasan 2014

Version: 23rd December 2014



Home Page

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's Reviews page  

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's home page