lexy
07-23-2008, 01:17 PM
I blogged this today... it's sort of a book report, or a synopsis of what I'm learning from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. I thought I'd share it here and see if any of you have insight. Thanks!
Every one of us has within us a basic moral law. We can recognize actions as 'right' or 'wrong'. When talking about the other laws of nature (gravity, time, biological laws) we know that these laws cannot be disobeyed, but moral law can. You can know that you should do something, but choose not to do it. So there's right, wrong, our impulses and desires that sway our decision, and the power and ability to decide, in and of itself.
This is not a biological law. It is not something that man created, but something that man finds himself subject to. It's like mathematics or music... It's just there. We can get the wrong answer to a math problem and hit a sour note on an instrument, just like we can stumble in moral law.
Throughout history, civilizations have been built up and then have crumbled, and in every case, some defiance of this moral law has spurred the decline. Greed, mostly. But greed starts as desire and ambition, good instincts and urges, until they are perverted by pride.
I think it's very interesting that bad can come of good, but good cannot come of bad. (I'm not talking about good coming out of bad situations, because surely that happens everyday, but being able to explain a good action from a bad one.) Take sexual perversion, for instance. Sex is good, humans were meant to have it and desire it, just like food in a way, though food is surely more vital. But if you eat too much, if your desire for food overcomes your desire for a healthy lifestyle, you get something bad. Also with sex, if you have an unhealthy appetite for it and sacrifice your health and well-being to get it, there's where your troubles start. You can explain the bad from the good, but not the other way around. You have to have an idea of what good sex is before you can know that bad sex is bad.
This gratifies our mindset that good is truly better and superior to bad. Not that we just happen to prefer goodness, but that it truly is the standard that everyone should strive for.
The problem is, we get it wrong daily. Personally, I know that I can't go half an hour without doing something I know is beneath this supreme moral law, and that doesn't take into account the glaring faults I have that I am blissfully ignorant of.
What can this teach us about the universe? Why do we have this collective mind to do good, no matter how badly we actually carry it out? It seems that if it were not something eternal and truly intent on residing in each human, that we would have snuffed this moral law out centuries, possibly even millennia ago.
Yet, it continues to live in our minds, in our souls.
I am a fan of science, progress, etc... but as of today, there's no scientific way to evaluate this collective concience. We have this thing that is trying to get us to behave in a certain way... It strives and has urges and purpose... And we cannot see it. It must be something outside this universe, outside the limiting three dimensions. Logic would even tell us that this mind has created us, since we each have been given a piece of this supernatural DNA. The only way it could make itself known to us is to put this into our heads, into our hearts, so that it is such a part of us that we deal with it always.
So this thing is what we all want, and what we also fear. We want everyone to be 'good' and even talk about how much better life/America/the World would be if some people did a better job of it. But do we really want this tough moral standard applied to our own lives? Don't we think we're all entitled to a little badness? In the face of pure goodness, we all would tremble. Not one would be able to stand. We have put ourselves at odds with this Power though we love it. Our situation seems hopeless when we view it this way.
When you look at religious history, there is a repeating theme in the religions of many different cultures. There is a God who comes to earth and is put to death to rise again, thus making an atonement, or restitution for the wrongs of His beloved creation. With His sacrifice, the people can boldly commune with Him without fear of His goodness and power.
Now, we have a historical figure who actually lived and claimed to be that God. Maybe God could have made it more 'simple' or obvious, but how much more perfect could you get than this plan... That the only thing one must do to be one with Goodness in the end is simply believe that He had enough love and interest in us to come here and experience life and all it's misery and joy, and open a door that cannot be shut so that we can reign with Him in the end.
Favorite quotes so far:
"The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free."
"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: If you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth - only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with, and in the end, despair."
C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity
Every one of us has within us a basic moral law. We can recognize actions as 'right' or 'wrong'. When talking about the other laws of nature (gravity, time, biological laws) we know that these laws cannot be disobeyed, but moral law can. You can know that you should do something, but choose not to do it. So there's right, wrong, our impulses and desires that sway our decision, and the power and ability to decide, in and of itself.
This is not a biological law. It is not something that man created, but something that man finds himself subject to. It's like mathematics or music... It's just there. We can get the wrong answer to a math problem and hit a sour note on an instrument, just like we can stumble in moral law.
Throughout history, civilizations have been built up and then have crumbled, and in every case, some defiance of this moral law has spurred the decline. Greed, mostly. But greed starts as desire and ambition, good instincts and urges, until they are perverted by pride.
I think it's very interesting that bad can come of good, but good cannot come of bad. (I'm not talking about good coming out of bad situations, because surely that happens everyday, but being able to explain a good action from a bad one.) Take sexual perversion, for instance. Sex is good, humans were meant to have it and desire it, just like food in a way, though food is surely more vital. But if you eat too much, if your desire for food overcomes your desire for a healthy lifestyle, you get something bad. Also with sex, if you have an unhealthy appetite for it and sacrifice your health and well-being to get it, there's where your troubles start. You can explain the bad from the good, but not the other way around. You have to have an idea of what good sex is before you can know that bad sex is bad.
This gratifies our mindset that good is truly better and superior to bad. Not that we just happen to prefer goodness, but that it truly is the standard that everyone should strive for.
The problem is, we get it wrong daily. Personally, I know that I can't go half an hour without doing something I know is beneath this supreme moral law, and that doesn't take into account the glaring faults I have that I am blissfully ignorant of.
What can this teach us about the universe? Why do we have this collective mind to do good, no matter how badly we actually carry it out? It seems that if it were not something eternal and truly intent on residing in each human, that we would have snuffed this moral law out centuries, possibly even millennia ago.
Yet, it continues to live in our minds, in our souls.
I am a fan of science, progress, etc... but as of today, there's no scientific way to evaluate this collective concience. We have this thing that is trying to get us to behave in a certain way... It strives and has urges and purpose... And we cannot see it. It must be something outside this universe, outside the limiting three dimensions. Logic would even tell us that this mind has created us, since we each have been given a piece of this supernatural DNA. The only way it could make itself known to us is to put this into our heads, into our hearts, so that it is such a part of us that we deal with it always.
So this thing is what we all want, and what we also fear. We want everyone to be 'good' and even talk about how much better life/America/the World would be if some people did a better job of it. But do we really want this tough moral standard applied to our own lives? Don't we think we're all entitled to a little badness? In the face of pure goodness, we all would tremble. Not one would be able to stand. We have put ourselves at odds with this Power though we love it. Our situation seems hopeless when we view it this way.
When you look at religious history, there is a repeating theme in the religions of many different cultures. There is a God who comes to earth and is put to death to rise again, thus making an atonement, or restitution for the wrongs of His beloved creation. With His sacrifice, the people can boldly commune with Him without fear of His goodness and power.
Now, we have a historical figure who actually lived and claimed to be that God. Maybe God could have made it more 'simple' or obvious, but how much more perfect could you get than this plan... That the only thing one must do to be one with Goodness in the end is simply believe that He had enough love and interest in us to come here and experience life and all it's misery and joy, and open a door that cannot be shut so that we can reign with Him in the end.
Favorite quotes so far:
"The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free."
"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: If you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth - only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with, and in the end, despair."
C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity