Mere Christianity?

Mere Christianity was one of the most rational and clearly thought out apologetic writings I have ever read. Although certainly not a theologian, Lewis points, out with extraordinary logic, how we can be assured that there exists a Natural Law which we inherently expect our fellows to adhere to, even if we deny its being.

One very interesting distinction he points out is that unlike all other natural law, this “Law or Rule of Right and Wrong” Is not how things do act in actuality, but how they should act and do not. This is very important, because even though we have a standard of behavior we seem to try and hold others to, we never uphold it completely ourselves. He rightly says, “Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later.”

He then continues, addressing the skeptics of his premise, easily debunking each. One important question that was posed was as to whether we have simply learnt this standard of behavior in a social context. Lewis’s answer shows us that just because we are taught certain things does not mean they are not “real truths”, the way they are taught are merely conventions which may differ slightly but have the same grounding. Math for instance (what he parallels this to) is simply a way to understand concepts that actually exist.

What he points out in this chapter is also that if we believe that certain “reformers or pioneers” understood morality better than their neighbors did…you are measuring them by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to the standard more nearly than the other”. This was such a great point that has such practical application, in wars and invasions, there is always a similar justification, however you still hear the same people supporting this claiming that there is no “Real Morality.”

Lewis, in all his arguments presents us with a block of pure reason which we cannot try and circumvent without merely contradicting ourselves. I love the quote where he states that there is probably no argument that we are all breaking the Law of Nature, then saying “if there are any exceptions among you, I apologise to them…nothing I am going to say concerns them. And now turning to the ordinary human beings which are left.” His ironic wit was definitely intact.