Mere Christianity 7: C. S. Lewis Faces Two Objections to his Logic

Professor Lewis has established that among humans there is a law that we all fully understand … that we should do the right thing in our actions with other people. Further, he states that some force outside of ourselves has saddled us with this notion; it is not something we have created. It exists even if we don’t want it to be there. He calls it the Law of Human Nature but I prefer to call it the Law of Right and Wrong since this label gets to the effect this law has on us. We always know what is the right thing and the wrong thing to do.

A law, be it Scientific or Human Nature, must pass the test of proof. There is a rigor that all Laws must pass. There are challengers who look for flaws -- as well they should; otherwise we could be convinced to believe just about any notion is a Law.

Professor Lewis had many critics to whom he had the responsibility to validate or give up his observation that human beings all are subject to the Law of Right and Wrong. That even though we break the rule constantly, the law still exists.

This is a place in “Mere Christianity” where readers have to dig in deeply to Lewis’ thought-process as he responds to the two objections that he most frequently had to answer. 

1. The law is simply herd instinct that creates a strong desire to act in a certain way
2. The law is simply social convention that we are taught from childhood

My next two posts will look at how Lewis responds to each of these challenges.

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