Good and Evil
Mere Christianity, Book II, Chapter 2, The Invasion
We are actually going to talk about two other ideas about how the universe operates: Christianity-and-water and Dualism. Please remember I am not a philosophy or world religions expert. I am just doing my best to follow what Lewis is proposing here. If he is wrong, I wouldn't know, so please inform me if he is mistaken on his explanation of these philosophies.
He ended the last chapter by explaining how atheism is too simple. He also believes the "Christianity-and-water" view to be overly simple. This view says that God is good and everything is great, leaving out the stuff nobody likes to hear about sin and hell and the devil (and also, therefore, redemption). He calls atheism and this idea "boy's philosophies." Pretty harsh, huh?
Lewis then goes on to describe how real things are not simple. If something is too simple, we are often suspicious of it, are we not? He gives an example to show how things that appear simple are in fact very complex. "The table I am sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of -- all about the atoms and how the light waves rebound from them and hit my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain -- and, of course, you find that what we call 'seeing a table' lands you in mysteries and complications which you can hardly get to the end of." He also says that real things often turn out to be strange or unexpected. Real things are not neat and tidy and organized and predictable like we would want or expect. "Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed." So wanting a "simple" religion is asking for a fantasy. "The problem is not simple and the answer is not going to be simple either."
The problem is that the universe contains "much that is bad and apparently meaningless," but it also contains us, beings who are aware of the fact that much in the universe is bad and meaningless. Lewis proposes that there are two views that give reasonable answers to the problem, one being Christianity and the other Dualism. "Dualism means the belief that there are two equal and independent powers at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which they fight out an endless war." Sounds like the plot of a good sci-fi! So where does Dualism fall short? Well, you can be good for the sake of being good, but no one is bad just for the sake of being bad. People do cruel things either because they are sadists and they get pleasure from it, or because they get something out of it -- "money, or power, or safety." But those things are not bad in themselves. Pleasure is good, money is good, power and safety are good...but the wrongful pursuit or use of these things can be bad. "You can do a kind action when you are not feeling kind and when it gives you no pleasure, simply because kindness is right; but no one ever did a cruel action simply because cruelty is wrong -- only because cruelty was pleasant or useful to him. Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness." So these dual powers cannot really be independent from one another. The bad power must rely on the good for things to pervert into badness. And in order for this bad power to do bad it must exist and have intelligence and a will, none of which are bad things in themselves. So the bad power was either created by the good power, or by something else above them both, some standard good by which we judge the good and bad.
So what does Christianity say? If you read the New Testament, you will read a lot about a Dark Power behind all the bad things in world -- "a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin." This is where Christianity is distinct from Dualism. It does not believe the Good and Evil powers are independent and equal, but that the Dark Power was created by God as something good that ended up going wrong*. "And do you now begin to see why Christianity has always said that the devil is a fallen angel? That is not a mere story for the children. It is a real recognition of the fact that evil is a parasite, not an original thing." But this brings up another question. If God is good and all powerful and all knowing, why would he create something which could rebel against him and cause such calamity in the universe? We'll look at that next time!!!
Thanks as always for reading!
*For more on the idea of this evil power and what he does to keep us from doing good, you could read The Screwtape Letters, a fictional work by CS Lewis, letters written by a demon to his nephew. I am currently reading The Great Divorce, another fictional work by CS Lewis. It also has some pretty good illustrations of how good things (such as motherly-love) can be perverted to the point of leading us away from the truth.
We are actually going to talk about two other ideas about how the universe operates: Christianity-and-water and Dualism. Please remember I am not a philosophy or world religions expert. I am just doing my best to follow what Lewis is proposing here. If he is wrong, I wouldn't know, so please inform me if he is mistaken on his explanation of these philosophies.
He ended the last chapter by explaining how atheism is too simple. He also believes the "Christianity-and-water" view to be overly simple. This view says that God is good and everything is great, leaving out the stuff nobody likes to hear about sin and hell and the devil (and also, therefore, redemption). He calls atheism and this idea "boy's philosophies." Pretty harsh, huh?
Lewis then goes on to describe how real things are not simple. If something is too simple, we are often suspicious of it, are we not? He gives an example to show how things that appear simple are in fact very complex. "The table I am sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of -- all about the atoms and how the light waves rebound from them and hit my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain -- and, of course, you find that what we call 'seeing a table' lands you in mysteries and complications which you can hardly get to the end of." He also says that real things often turn out to be strange or unexpected. Real things are not neat and tidy and organized and predictable like we would want or expect. "Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed." So wanting a "simple" religion is asking for a fantasy. "The problem is not simple and the answer is not going to be simple either."
The problem is that the universe contains "much that is bad and apparently meaningless," but it also contains us, beings who are aware of the fact that much in the universe is bad and meaningless. Lewis proposes that there are two views that give reasonable answers to the problem, one being Christianity and the other Dualism. "Dualism means the belief that there are two equal and independent powers at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which they fight out an endless war." Sounds like the plot of a good sci-fi! So where does Dualism fall short? Well, you can be good for the sake of being good, but no one is bad just for the sake of being bad. People do cruel things either because they are sadists and they get pleasure from it, or because they get something out of it -- "money, or power, or safety." But those things are not bad in themselves. Pleasure is good, money is good, power and safety are good...but the wrongful pursuit or use of these things can be bad. "You can do a kind action when you are not feeling kind and when it gives you no pleasure, simply because kindness is right; but no one ever did a cruel action simply because cruelty is wrong -- only because cruelty was pleasant or useful to him. Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness." So these dual powers cannot really be independent from one another. The bad power must rely on the good for things to pervert into badness. And in order for this bad power to do bad it must exist and have intelligence and a will, none of which are bad things in themselves. So the bad power was either created by the good power, or by something else above them both, some standard good by which we judge the good and bad.
So what does Christianity say? If you read the New Testament, you will read a lot about a Dark Power behind all the bad things in world -- "a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin." This is where Christianity is distinct from Dualism. It does not believe the Good and Evil powers are independent and equal, but that the Dark Power was created by God as something good that ended up going wrong*. "And do you now begin to see why Christianity has always said that the devil is a fallen angel? That is not a mere story for the children. It is a real recognition of the fact that evil is a parasite, not an original thing." But this brings up another question. If God is good and all powerful and all knowing, why would he create something which could rebel against him and cause such calamity in the universe? We'll look at that next time!!!
Thanks as always for reading!
*For more on the idea of this evil power and what he does to keep us from doing good, you could read The Screwtape Letters, a fictional work by CS Lewis, letters written by a demon to his nephew. I am currently reading The Great Divorce, another fictional work by CS Lewis. It also has some pretty good illustrations of how good things (such as motherly-love) can be perverted to the point of leading us away from the truth.
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