The long-bemoaned loss of central values through the disruptions of traditional religious society and the consequent value relativism in all fields, from science and the humanities to religion, from morals to the arts, as world cultures come into contact and clash with one another has blinded the humanities to the existence of common denominator values that have always existed and been practiced to various extents in great world cultures. All the social sciences, from history to social anthropology, have failed to discern clearly the common essence of religions, cultures and societies, with the consequent chronic inability to isolate which values are necessary to the good life, whatever the race or creed.