Science, Mind, Religion, and Reality - Keith Ward (Full Interview)

Keith Ward is Emeritus Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy, and currently Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College in London. He is the author of numerous books in philosophy and theology, including More Than Matter?, In Defense of the Soul, The Big Questions in Science and Religion, and his five-volume Comparative Theology.

[triangularplanet]

Let me take a wild guess. All these people coming here and saying how stupid this man is and how backward his ideas are (although they never give specifics) think Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris are profound thinkers. The irony wouldn't surprise me one bit.

[WgWilliams]

Great gentleman, wise but humble. Love to meet him and have long talks... Thanks for posting!

[colinpurssey]

This theologian is the real deal ! True to the platonic dictum of "The truly wise man is he who knows he doesn't know". Too many philosophers and theologians, especially those of a partisan bent, presumptuously claim to know too much. Many of Keith Ward's speculations and ideas do seem plausible to me.

[eddyg]

This artsy fartzy camerawork is annoying. Can' t concentrate.

[chaoukimachreki]

quite interesting man ! The Camera man could do a better job though ;)

[Killane]

Really enjoyed listening to Keith
I hope he knows of Bernardo Kastrup and would love to hear a conversation about Idealism between both these great minds.

[Mike-mmmx]

very good, very clear thinker. Find his books difficult but now having heard him express his ideas I feel I understand him and his views much better and will encourage me to go back to reading his books!

[kotarak]

Out of body experiences could be a clue for existence of consciousness. Eternal life is a new level of existence of that consciousness

[cuddywifter]

Caterpillar metamorphosis to butterfly, liqufied, destroys and then reconstructs its brain, yet maintains the memory of the Caterpillar

[sergiocamacho]

Buen Día
Ojalá y agradezco que tenga subtítulos en español gracias por su atención y tiempo
México te saluda

[puddleglumswager]

I listened with great interest but found it impossible to watch.

[MarcosBetancort]

Would you also mention Jonathan Edwards? He held the idealist view too and is acknowledged as the most original American thinker and obviously was a theologian and pastor.

[Kenji]

Very wise and kind man ❤ I wish he was my teacher

[whoami]

The "new atheists" don't exist if you're not looking at them. Their books don't either.

[davidevans]

That music was a terrible editing choice.. My 2¢

[TheWayandWordofLife]

~ Nearly EVERYTHING within REALITY, CLEARLY shows INTENT/ PURPOSE, PURPOSEFUL DESIGN & A REASON for ITSELF EXISTING AT ALL! + REALITY, also REVEALS the two OBVIOUS, polarized opposites of that which is GOOD ( = Love, Goodness, Unselfish, Moral, Gentle, Peace, Healthy, Life, Honest, Safe, Whole, Order, Beauty, Right, etc.).
And that which is EVIL ( = Hate, Wickedness, Selfish, Immoral,
Aggressive, War, Unhealthy, Death, Deceitful, Danger, Broken, Disorder, Ugly, Wrong, Etc. ). The REALITY of GOOD + EVIL, FREE WILL, CONSCIOUSNESS, LOVE, DESIGN, BEAUTY + COUNTLESS OTHER ASPECTS WITHIN LIFE, DO NOT FIT WITHIN A PURELY MATERIALISTIC PARADIGM < But, CLEARLY REVEAL A REALITY, WHICH REFLECTS The CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW!! <3

[mangottwo]

You "believe" in absolute truth? And believe in something and someone you have never seen from a book so riddled with plain falsehoods it takes quite a leap of imagination to believe it reveals "the truth"?

I see

[garyjaensch]

AJ saying you can’t have a sense experience of God is just His Opinion, read 1 Corinthians 2:14

1 Corinthians 2:14
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

God clearly tells us that he wants you to pick up your Cross, bear your burdens, believe him by Loving him with all your heart mind and soul, by following his commandments, like don’t even get angry at your brother, and treat everyone as you would like to be treated,
Philosophy and debates are not Truth ! There is only a minuscule amount of historical documents that lead to University’s saying this happen, that happened, there is a huge amount of historical documents that show the Bible is far more accurate than history taught, but it gets totally denied, Listen to Dr Daniel Wallace for more “ scholary information, and consider that so many modern Bibles deny Jesus is God by adding the words “ nor the Son” to Matthew 24:36, but Matthew 1:18 -23 makes it absolutely clear Jesus is God, as there is only one Son of a Virgin Born in the Bible, so Jesus would know the last day, God speaks to his servants in the Spirit in the Bible, so if you are not perceiving him, try believing in him and do his commandments, ask God for understanding, not men, God gives the “ increase” men “just sow and water “. Don’t believe philosophy, believe God!! Remember we don’t have the original texts, so it is most likely there have been much “ antichrist” activity, that’s just logical .

1 Corinthians 3:7
“So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”

Well worth reading the sower parable again, and if you don’t do Gods Commandments and just say you Love Jesus, that’s what the Pharisees did,

[myopenmind]

He's seriously guilty of what he says he strives to avoid. He makes category errors suggesting that Newtonian mechanics could ever describe consciousness. That's why we have a science of neuroscience. He is guilty of oversimplification and I suspect he is displaying wilful ignorance which is disingenuous to science.

I'm confused as to why he anything more than a theologian. A philosopher who ignores and misrepresents science isn't trying to seek out truth. He promotes a claim of truth based on mere subjectivity. Utter nonsense.

[paddydiddles]

In summary - deeply sophisticated but in a bad way - instead of challenging the foundation of his Christian Faith, he took the wrong turn into obscurantism and 'nuanced reinterpretation' of scripture, in order to preserve the 'wisdom' of his faith - in point blank opposition to evidence and reason. No surprise that he tries to take refuge in the more useless branches of 'philosophy'