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Summary Of C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

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C.S. Lewis raises many interesting points and topics in book one of his Christian apologetic novel titled, Mere Christianity. The main point Lewis discusses and continues to come back to is the idea of a ‘Law of Human Nature’. Lewis believes that we all have an innate set of morals and rules imbedded in our minds without being taught. Lewis states “...just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law — with this great difference, that a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature or to disobey it.” (Lewis, 1952, p. 4). Though we have these rules, humans often struggle …show more content…

This is where he first introduces the factor of religion, and as for the final chapter of book one, he exclusively discusses Christianity by saying, “We have not yet got as far as the God of any actual religion, still less the God of that particular religion called Christianity. We have only got as far as a Somebody or Something behind the Moral Law.” (Lewis, 1952, p. 20). Lewis is beginning to introduce the connection between the moral law and religion. He goes on to discuss factors that can be used to prove God’s existence. The first he mentions is our universe which God created, “If we used that as our only clue, then I think we should have to conclude that He was a great artist (for the universe is a very beautiful place), but also that He is quite merciless and no friend to man (for the universe is a very dangerous and terrifying place).” (Lewis, 1952, p. 21). The first point Lewis mentions is God’s great artistic ability. For skeptics of Christianity or religion in general, these two points don’t seem to be too convincing. However, Lewis carries on and says “ The other bit of evidence is that Moral Law which He has put into our minds. And this is a better bit of evidence than the other, because it is inside information. You find out more about God from the Moral Law than from the universe in general just as you find out more about a man by listening to his conversation than by looking at a house he has built.” (Lewis, 1952, p. 21). I believe this evidence almost definitely proves the existence of a higher power. As mentioned before, there is no reason a human should feel regret in not doing the ‘right’ thing according to herd instinct, yet the guilt is

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