Mere Christianity: my reactions [long]

Cafe Society
1

I have just finished reading “Mere Christianity”, by C.S. Lewis, and would like to share my reactions.

First non-analytic reaction: “Hah! I call Godwin. You lose…Oh, wait, when was this written? Nevermind.”

Other reactions: CS claims that being a Christian will make you a better person. And yet, there are Christian jerks. But, he counters, they would be far worse jerks had Christ not entered their lives. To which I say, “No.” I mean, Christains show no statistical lowering in their jerk quotiont. You can’t argue that a treatment isn’t showing up because everyone who takes it was statistically below average and only brought up through said treatment. Well, you can, as he did, but you sound like a right fool.

My big one was when he sideswiped homosexuality. It more or less expressed my feelings on the whole thing. I’ll put up with fallacious logic* for a universal moral imulse, a God, said God caring about us, and said God being Judeo-Christian, but when you demonstrate that for all your soul-searching**, you are less moral and forgiving then my amoral ass, then I lose interest.

  • C.S. feels an impulse to do the right thing. He therefore believes that everyone everywhere everywhen feels/felt that same impulse, but some supress it. I don’t. End proof, end logical progression, MC goes bye-bye.
    ** Possibly my ambivialnce to religion is showing, but I believe that the people who quote that “if a man lieth with a man and haveth hot sweaty mansex with him, iteth is an abomination” would find another justification if not presented with one. I haven’t met any people who would be completely OK with homosexuality, but for said verse.

That being said, it’s an interesting read. I learned a great deal about some premises in Christianity that seemed silly from my perspective.* I do recommend it: just because C.S. flubs the big stuff doen’t mean that there isn’t loads of insight, advice, and decent anthropology.
*An example: One of the big stumbling blocks for us heathens is that if God is all-powerful, he could have created a better universe, and because he didn’t, doesn’t love us. C.S. starts from the premise that God loves us, and so did build the best possible universe. We just aren’t using it right yet.
Along with the homophobia is Robert’s Second Favorite Logical Trap for the Religious (first being the problem of evil): C.S. believes in a literal deceving devil. So, how does one know that, f’rinstance, the Bible isn’t a Satanic lie? How does one know that one isn’t being decevied as to the very nature of God?

I know that this is kind of GDish, but if anyone has input, I’d appreciate it.

2

I’ve always felt that Lewis was a pompous, overrated ass. The Screwtape Letters could have been an entertaining idea if Lewis had been a little less humorless about it, but Mere Christianity is just a smug pile of crap.

3

If you were troubled by the whole deceiving devil bit, you should either run right out and read, or carefully avoid, The Screwtape Letters (depending on your personality. :slight_smile: ) That book disturbed me profoundly. I found the basic message to be: Satan is constantly trying to tempt you into evil acts by whispering clever justifications into your ear. Therefore, you cannot rely on your ability to reason. Just stop thinking, and do what the Bible says.

shiver

4

I did a thread on this a while back. What would keep Satan from screwing with our interpretation of the Bible? Or even from whispering important misprints into the ears (eyes? hands?) of the printers?

Fortunately, there’s no evidence for a great decevier.

Of course, that’s just what he wants us to think…!

5

No, the biggest stumbling block for this heathen is that is no evidence for the existance of any god or gods. If this is the sort of logic that Lewis uses, then I’m glad I removed him from my “to-read list” when I was just a wee little spawn and feeling nauseous from his fictional works.

6

Podkayne and others: I had the exact same impression after finishing The Screwtape Letters - that there’s this army of demons tempting us in incredibly tricky, sophisticated ways, and we might as well forget it. But read the preface - I can’t remember if the original preface, or the re-published edition preface. Lewis goes into how there needed to be an equal and opposite book, about angels guiding and helping us constantly, but the problem was such a book couldn’t be written by a human.

Unfortunately enough is known about evil, from personal experience, to imagine the things in SL. But ultimate good is so far above us, no one could conceive of the angels’ conversations. Plus every sentence would have to “smell of Heaven” and it couldn’t be done.

Even with this justification, the onesidedness of The Screwtape Letters is a serious flaw. Just remember there is an opposite side with a superior source of power and inspiration than Screwtape’s.

7

The thing you have to remember about M.C. is that it’s meant to be a lightweight, popular-level book. I mean, I’m a Christian, so I agree with a lot of what he says, but in some places his logic is full of holes. Some of his other works are much more logically rigorous (though I’m sure still not perfect).

Cite? :slight_smile:

And re. the homosexuality issue: look again at the publication date. Lewis presumably didn’t see any need to justify a position that almost everybody back then would have taken for granted and (at least publicly) agreed with.

8

Well, you could google for prison statistics and religion, but all that proves is that they teach us how to hide the bodies and misc. leftover parts at the Evil Atheist Conspiracies. :slight_smile:

I’m not conversant with the rules of debates, but wouldn’t the one wanting to assert that Christians were different than the norm be the one required to prove themselves?

And so what about the publication date? Barbarism then is as bad as barbarism now.

9

In “Mere Christianity” Lewis prevents a very scary sort of Christiany, which as far as I could see meant giving of any self (will, independence, choice, etc) and more or less commiting suicide. What’s the point of having your soul being saved if it isn’t you?

10

That’s very interesting, masonite. The question to my mind is, would the angels would be urging us to think for ourselves? Would they be recommending that we examine Christianity critically? I imagine they’d be telling us that thinking is okay, as long as you don’t come to any conclusion that’s contrary to the tenets of Christianity.

What’s that? A whiff of brimstone . . . :slight_smile: