Ben Pearce: Outside Reading 1 Blog 6

Arguments from Mere Christianity

            Mere Christianity is possibly Lewis’ most famous book written in Christian circles. It is based off radio broadcasts which he did to discuss the Christian faith. Lewis has three parts of this book: Evidence for Christianity, Christian Doctrine, and Christian Behavior. For this blog post, I will be discussing his evidence for Christianity.

            C.S. Lewis seems to mostly go with the evidence given in the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. This argument is found in verses 19 and 20,

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

This argument has been called Natural Revelation. This is the argument that Man should know that God exists just because of the evidence of creation. In the past, I did not like this argument. I thought that it was tedious at best. Now, I believe that it is good and sufficient to convince a person that, at least, a god exists. It may not be sufficient, however, to convince someone that YHWH of the Christian Scriptures is the supreme creator.

            When one argues with natural revelation, they most commonly say, “Well then, who created God”? This would be a good argument if the very essence of God did not include eternal existence. Because of this, there is no need for a creator to have been created. This argument will, of course, not work on someone so resistant upon believing in a Creator. One could argue, though, that is the same way with any piece of evidence. If someone is not willing to believe the proposed conclusion, then no piece of evidence will be sufficient for that person.

            C.S. Lewis mainly argues from a morality stand-point. This has been one of my favorite arguments too. He argues that there is a standard morality on the earth. Every tribe, tongue, and nation has a similar set of rules that could not have possibly all been similar if Man had just come from different sources. Every person (with a few exceptions) has a standard morality: do not murder, do not steal, do not lie, etc. This standard morality wouldn’t make sense from a random cause worldview. These morals would not necessarily be required for self-preservation (as the non-believer claims they are). There would be no reason for these morals unless they were first written upon the hearts of mankind. The Scriptures say in the book of Hebrews, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds”.