Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe

Mere Christianity -  Preface, Book 1: Ch. 1-4

I really liked Lewis's analogy between Christianity and a house, how becoming a Christian is like entering the hall, while the rooms, where one can eat and sit by a warm fire in, are the different denominations: "Mere" Christianity is "like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms.  If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted.  But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals.  The Hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in."  I think I can relate to Lewis's view that the hall is not some place to live in because in junior high and high school, I went to a different church during different parts of the year due to soccer games on Sundays, and it was sometimes difficult because I couldn't connect consistently with the same people to have fellowship with them and to grow. 


When approaching a "room", Lewis says to ask these questions: "'Are these doctrines true; is holiness here?  Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular doorkeeper?'" I found this particularly relevant to students new to this area, looking for a church, and also as a reminder to everyone in general.  So often we get distracted but non-essential things but I think Lewis really lays out what is important. 

"When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall.   If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are you enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them.  That is one of the rules common to the whole house."

Two points Lewis makes is that all human beings have a common idea of how they ought to live and that they don't behave in that way.  "The truth is, we believe in decency so much -- we feel the Rule or Law pressing on us so--that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility."

Lewis refutes arguments people may have against the existence of a Moral law common to all human beings.  Some say we it is only our impulses.  But Lewis argues no impulse is inherently good or bad; they can be both, depending on the situation.  The moral law For example, you see someone getting mugged.  You are pulled in two opposite directions: either help defend them or run away in order to protect yourself.  The moral law tells you what you "ought" to do.   I really like Lewis's metaphor: "The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys."

Lewis says the moral law  is beyond the facts/"laws" of nature because the laws of nature "only mean ' what Nature, in fact, does,'" - for example, with falling rocks, the law of gravitation describes what happens and cannot describe what ought to happen separately from that - while the moral law does not describe how humans behave actually behave; only how they should.  "It begins to look as if we shall have to admit that there is more than one kind of reality; that, in this particular case, there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men's behaviour, and yet quite definitely real-- a real law, which none of us made, but which we find pressing on us." He goes on to say "anyone studying Man from the outside as we study electricity or cabbages, not knowing our language and consequently not able to get any inside knowledge from us, but merely observing what we did, would never get the slightest evidence that we had this moral law.  How could he? for his observations would only show what we did, and the moral law is about what we ought to do."  In the same way, we can't examine the universe to see if there is a power behind it or if it is there for no reason, but we can examine ourselves. And since we experience this other outside thing that tells how we ought to behave, this law, it tells us there is something greater above the facts, "a Director, a Guide."  

This made me think of "Meditations in a Toolshed" where Lewis compares looking along and looking at something.  This seems to be a case where you can get a truer view of things while looking along it.  I agree with Lewis that science is observations and, in itself, cannot tell  the reason for the universe or else it would be a philosophy, and yet all of creation is a testament to  God.  As it says in Romans 1, "for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."  So I'm still thinking about this and trying to figure how to wrap my mind around this.

NOTE: In Lewis's note at the end, he talks about a "Life-Force" as a force but with out morals or a mind.  He says people like this because it gives "one much of the emotional comfort of believing in God and none of the less pleasant consequences" and refers to it as "a sort of tame God.  You an switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you."  A common remark about Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia  is  that "he's not a tame lion" which may refer to this.