Morality - Mere Christianity Book 3 Chapter 1 - Episode 14

This week we begin Book 3 of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, we begin to breakdown morality - what it means, what it affects, and why it matters. 

...Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who ask you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...

1 Peter 3:15

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Transcript

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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Reason Why podcast. I'm Dana, your host, and this is where we learn what Christians believe, why, and how to know whether it's true or not. We are working our way through C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, one chapter at a time. To quickly recap the book thus far, C.S. Lewis, known to his friends as Jack, was a strong atheist well into his adulthood, but he was also a strong thinker and questioner. Lewis begins by pointing out something all humans experience: an inner sense of right and wrong, what he calls the moral law. Then he argues that if this moral law really exists, it points to a mind behind the universe that cares about how we behave. He then picks up in the second section of the book, going through the inevitable conclusions of who and what that being might be. Through the process of elimination, Christianity becomes the most reasonable choice. And if that is the case, then the historical man, Jesus, deserves a serious investigation. By the end of this section, Lewis presents his readers with a decision point. Was Jesus a liar, a lunatic, or Lord? So the first half of the book answers what is true about reality. And now Lewis turns to the question: if Christianity is true, how should we live? Last time we dug a little deeper into the reliability of the Bible. Trust me, we just scratched the surface of that topic, but hopefully you came away with more confidence in the trustworthiness of that historical text. It's not just a book of fairy tales. And now we're gonna keep moving forward. Lewis devotes the third section of his book to Christian behavior. Now, before anyone panics and thinks the next section is just a list of rules, Lewis actually attempts to make something very clear. Christianity is not about trying harder to be good and giving all the rules to do that. There is a transformation that happens. This in no way is now only for Christians to listen to, but Lewis does make it clear that for the rest of the book, he is taking the position of assuming Christianity is true. And I encourage you to stay curious and stay open-minded and let's hear what he has to say. Because Lewis isn't forcing belief, because Lewis isn't forcing belief here. What he's doing is something thinkers often do. He's saying, let's assume for the moment that Christianity is true and see what kind of picture of humanity it gives us. Even if you're not convinced Christianity is true yet, it's okay. Lewis thinks its view of human nature is still worth examining. This first chapter of book three starts off with morality. Exciting stuff, I know. Seriously, though, I have personally found this chapter presenting morality in ways I hadn't thought of before. I love a good breakdown. A few weeks ago, a commenter told me that she had three different conversations with Christians in a 48-hour period, asked each one of them to define morality, and none of them could. Okay, while blanking when being put on the spot is understandable, this is one of the things that I hope and pray this podcast and any other content I put out will help change. It's my heart that everyone would be able to share what they believe confidently, clearly, and respectfully. So let's break down morality, C.S. Lewis style. He first makes the distinction between moral ideals, idealism, and moral rules, obedience. An ideal is a person or thing regarded as perfect, a standard of perfection, while acknowledging that there is such a thing as moral ideals, a standard of perfect behavior. He says we tend to talk about ideals more so in regards to personal taste or motives. For example, my ideal car is a 1970 Corvette. They're gorgeous. I love them, I wouldn't mind having one. But that doesn't mean everyone's ideal car should be the same as mine. On the contrary, though, there is an ideal standard of perfection when it comes to behavior. They use the same word ideal, but one is set and universal. The other speaks of preference. Highest standard versus a highest desire. So Lewis utilizes the words rules and facts and obedience when talking about morality to help avoid the misconception of this being about our opinion or subjective. These are set parameters for the human machine, the conditions that keep it running properly. Just as an engine has precise and set things that it needs in order to function properly and correctly, we too have parameters and we call them good morality. And he chooses those words because he describes morality as being what keeps the human machine from going wrong. He's not saying we're robots. It's it just paints a good mental picture. Morality is not God being mean or no fun or boring. It's simply what is in fact best for us. So let's talk about how and why. Lewis says morality is concerned with three things: relations between man and fellow man, things inside each man, and relations between man and the power that made him. Let's break that down using Lewis's example of a fleet of ships. First, relations between man and his fellow man matter in the same sense that ships in a fleet need to not collide into each other or get in each other's way while also staying in formation. The same is true for humans. The ideal goal is that we don't hurt or hinder one another, and that we also don't drift apart from each other. Secondly, morals are concerned with the inner man, just as a ship in a fleet needs to be seaworthy, otherwise, it will sink or collide into another ship and not be able to steer correctly. So, to a person not functioning correctly on the inside will cause a variety of issues, inside and out. And thirdly, morals takes the big picture into account. Where is the whole fleet going? They could all be seaworthy vessels, sailing in perfect formation, but if their destination was one place and they ended up on the wrong continent, it's a disaster. They must be in contact with the authority guiding them and the map telling them where to go. So too do we as humans need to be connected with the power that made us so that we can truly understand our purpose and meaning and how we are supposed to be living this human life. And here's something Lewis points out that I thought was really interesting. Most moral discussions only focus on one of these three things. Some people focus entirely on the first, making sure society runs smoothly and people don't harm each other. Others focus mainly on the second, becoming better people internally, developing character and discipline. And religion tends to emphasize the third, where humanity ultimately came from and where we are going. But Lewis says true morality actually has to include all three. If you leave any one of them out, the whole fleet eventually runs into trouble. Now, this first thing is pretty easy to get the masses to agree on. Definitely not the particulars, but overall most people agree that it is good and desirable that we all live in harmony together. As we all know, it's extremely difficult to achieve, but we do, on the whole, agree that we should be good to one another. The second point, however, is where things start to get dicey. Because we want good and safe societies, but we all have different ideas about how to do that. And at the end of the day, you can't make people good through laws. Now, don't get me wrong, please, we need laws. We can disagree on the amount in particulars, but laws are necessary. But just because most people will obey laws doesn't mean that they're good people. And going back to the ship analogy, Lewis says, What's the point in telling them how to steer so to avoid collisions, if in fact they are all such crazy old tubs that they cannot be steered at all? Lewis's point here is that laws and systems alone can't fix humanity. If the humans inside those systems are still selfish, greedy, or dishonest, you can build the best society imaginable on paper. But if the people running it are broken on the inside, eventually the system breaks too. And we see that all throughout history. This brings us to the third thing. And this is where walls go up. Because we can mostly all easily agree on the first. A lot of us would at least understand the second point. But the third is where we have to dive into beliefs about the universe. And a lot of people would like to leave that out of the equation, but it will be incomplete if we do. Lewis told us several chapters back that religion is not a list or treatise about how uptight God is. It's simply a series of statements about facts which either must be true or false. And what he wants us to understand here is that if those statements are true, then a set of conclusions will follow. Whereas if they are false, then another set of conclusions will follow. Lewis takes us back to the fleet of ships and asks us to consider what if the ship each of us is sailing is not our own property, but in fact belongs to someone else. If that's the case, then it really matters what rules I follow because it's not mine. We're going to get into this into much more detail in future episodes, but for now, that is the logical conclusion that follows the claim of God created the universe and everything in it. The last point I want to share that Lewis made in this introduction to morality is that if Christianity is true, then that means we will all live forever. And forever is a really long time. Our bad morals like temper or jealousy get worse over time, not better, not if you're not dealing with it. Have you ever met a really mean old person who doesn't care about anyone? They've developed those bad morals in only 70, 80 years, maybe a hundred. Imagine how bad someone would become after thousands or millions of years. Lewis says that can give a pretty good idea of what hell is like. Next time, guys, we are going to start to look at some specific morals known as the cardinal virtues. Fancy name, but you know, I'll keep it simple. I really appreciate you listening and watching. I hope this was helpful. Please share it if it was, or if you know someone who might be interested. As always, you can find more resources and content at my website and on Facebook and Instagram at Seek Truth here. And don't forget, the truth is worth knowing and sharing. I'll see you next time. God bless.