Pantheism vs. Theism |
This second book within Mere Christianity Lewis handled with special care to make sure the whole book lives up to its title, explaining in his preface, "The danger clearly was that I should put forward as common Christianity anything that was peculiar to the Church of England or (worse still) to myself. I tried to guard against this by sending the original script of what is now Book II to four clergymen (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic) and asking for their criticism. The Methodist thought I had not said enough about Faith, and the Roman Catholic thought I had gone rather too far about the comparative unimportance of theories in explanation of the Atonement. Otherwise all five of us were agreed." This is indeed mere Christianity.
Censorship Not Needed Here! |
"My argument against
God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this
idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z ... why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it?... In the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist ... that the whole of reality was senseless, I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality—namely, my idea of justice—was full of sense. Consequently, atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark." In the next chapter Lewis explains that religion is, in fact, God's "statement to us of certain quite unalterable facts about His own nature."
Highlights from chapter 1: The Rival Conceptions of God, book 2: What Christians Believe in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Click here for a clear view of how this chapter relates to the whole book.
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