S1E7 – MC B1C5 – “We Have Cause to Be Uneasy”

We finally come to the last chapter of Book I of “Mere Christianity”! The chapter bears the ominous title “We have cause to be uneasy”. Thus far, C.S. Lewis has demonstrated that there is a Moral Law which we did not create and that we violate this Law continually. Now Jack explains why this should give us cause for concern…

S1E7: “We Have Cause to Be Uneasy” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Chit-Chat

“Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.”

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

• As David’s mother pointed out, people should be calling him “Sir David”, not “Sir Bates”. You have been told…

Toast

• David drank a Blue Moon.
• Matt was working on a Heineken.

Discussion

01. “Religious Jaw”

• Once again, Jack begins with a review, and rather amusingly guesses the reactions of some of his readers.

I ended my last chapter with the idea that in the Moral Law somebody or something from beyond the material universe was actually getting at us. And I expect when I reached that point some of you felt a certain annoyance. You may even have thought that I had played a trick on you – that I had been carefully wrapping up to look like philosophy what turns out to be one more ‘religious jaw’.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• “Religious jaw” means “chatter”.
• This section reminded David of the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Paul goes to the Areopagus in Athens. Novelty is prized in the world.

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Acts 17:21

You may have felt you were ready to listen to me as long as you thought I had anything new to say; but if it turns out to be only religion, well, the world has tried that and you cannot put the clock back.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

02. “Putting the Clock Back”

• Sometimes to go forwards, one must go backwards (like a cha-cha!).

I would rather get away from that whole idea of clocks. We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back t the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• David and Matt shared a number of personal examples. Firstly, David mentioned how he missed a sign while walking the Camino De Santiago, and ended up heading in the wrong direction, forcing him to backtrack in order to ultimately arrive at his destination. Matt gave the example of making a mistake early in a mathematical calculation. He also explained how a small mistake early in a flight, a few degrees of difference, can result in a very different destination (San Diego vs Seattle).
• Lewis uses another example from mathematics.

When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• Is it really controversial to say that modern humanity is making a lot of mistakes? David mentioned same of the disturbing comments from Princeton Philosopher Peter Singer about killing young children. Matt told a story by Fr. Mike Schmitz about a member of his congregation who survived vicious persecution in China for his Christianity, only to then succumb to a slow fade in his faith after escaping to America. David also brought up the example of the sexual revolution and the damage which it has done to marriage, family and therefore society as a whole.

03. “A Something”

• Lewis hasn’t gotten as far as religion yet…

We have not yet got as far as the God of any actual religion, still less the God of that particular religion called Christianity. We have only got as far as a Somebody or Something behind the moral Law.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• Lewis then asks two questions.

1. What can we know about this “Something” from observing the universe?
2. What can we know about this “Something” from the Moral Law?

• He states that the Designer must be an artist – due to the beauty of the world we find ourselves in – but an unfriendly one.

… I think we should have to conclude that He was a great artist (for the universe is a very beautiful place), but also that He is quite merciless and no friend to man (for the universe is a very dangerous and terrifying place).

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• What can be learned about this Something from the Moral Law? Jack explains…

From this second bit of evidence we conclude that the Being behind the universe is intensely interested in right conduct – in fair play, unselfishness, courage, good faith, honesty and truthfulness … But do not let us go too fast here. The Moral Law does not give us any grounds for thinking that God is ‘good’ in the sense of being indulgent, or soft, or sympathetic. There is nothing indulgent about the Moral Law. It is as hard as nails … It is no use, at this stage, saying that what you mean by a ‘good’ God is a God who can forgive. You are going too quickly. Only a Person can forgive. And we have not yet got as far as a personal God – only as far as a power, behind the Moral Law, and more like a mind than it is like anything else.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• If God is not like a Person, then we can’t ask for forgiveness.

If it is pure impersonal mind, there may be no sense in asking it to make allowances for you or let you off, just as there is no sense in asking the multiplication table to let you off when you do your sums wrong.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• David was reminded of a particular quote from “The Chronicles of Narnia” as he read this…

“He is not a tame Lion”.

C. S. Lewis, Mr. Beaver, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies.

04. “Repentance and Forgiveness”

• According to Jack, Christianity wouldn’t make sense without this context. As David pointed out, when someone is sick, they go to the doctor for healing and advice. When they don’t think they’re sick, they have no need of a physician.

… Christianity simply does not make sense until you have faced the sort of facts I have been describing. Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. it is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken the law and put yourself wrong with that Power – it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

05. “Book One Summary”

• Jack wraps up the chapter and first section by explaining what he has been trying to do.

All I am doing is to ask people to face the facts – to understand the questions which Christianity claims to answer. And they are very terrifying facts. I wish it was possible to say something more agreeable. But I must say what I think true. Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• Then, Lewis offers some proverbial wisdom …

In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. 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. Most of us have got over the pre-war wishful thinking about international politics. It is time we did the same about religion.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy

• Lewis stated that he undertook the challenge of reciting these talks because he felt that the British people had never had the Christian faith explained to them.
• David and Matt both spoke about how Christianity makes sense of the reality which we experience.

I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but by it I see everything else.

C. S. Lewis

• David also paraphrased G.K. Chesterton who said that all his reasons for faith could be boiled down to one reason – it’s true.

Wrap Up

Concluding Thoughts

• For David’s Chapter 5 outline, click here.

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