S1E9 – MC B2C4 – “The Invasion”

In today’s episode, we continue working our way through Book II of “Mere Christianity”. In the previous chapter, C.S. Lewis had examined “Rival Conceptions of God”, especially pantheism. In today’s episode he looks at another possible contender, dualism, the idea that there are two independent and opposing powers locked together in an eternal battle…

S1E9: “The Invasion” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Chit-Chat

–

Toast

• Today, David and Matt were drinking Shock Top, another Belgian white beer.

Discussion

01. “

• Jack begins by presenting two ideologies which he finds to be “too simple”. One is atheism, discussed in the previous chapter. The other is “Christianity and Water”, what we would call today “watered-down” or “diluted” Christianity. It is an ideology that provides meaning and comfort, without responsibility or obligations, much like “Creative Evolution”.

Very well then, atheism is too simple. And I will tell you another view that is also too simple. It is the view I call Christainity-and-water, the view which simply says there is a good God in Heaven and everything is all right – leaving out all the difficult and terrible doctrines about sin and hell and the devil, and the redemption.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• People who follow watered-down Christianity tend to think of religion as a hobby. In actuality, religion is reality.

02. “Unexpected”

• Christianity, on the other hand, is not simple.

It is no good asking for a simple religion. After all, real things are not simple. They look simple, but they are not. The table I am sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of – all about the atoms and how the light waves rebound from them and hit my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain – and, of course, you find that what we call ‘seeing a table’ lands you in mysteries and complications which you can hardly get to the end of.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• He gives another example about the planets, and how different they are from one another.

When you have grasped that the earth and the other planets all go round the sun, you would naturally expect that all the planets were made to match – all at equal distances from each other, say, or distances that regularly increased, or all the same size, or else getting bigger or smaller as you go further from the sun. In fact, you find no rhyme or reason (that we can see) about either the sizes or the distances; and some of them have one moon, one has four, one as two, some have none, and one has a ring.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed … It has just that queer twist about it that real things have.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• Jack then offers some advice to apologists talking with unbelievers.

Very often, however, this silly procedure is adopted by people who are not silly, but who, consciously or unconsciously, want to destroy Christianity … When you try to explain the Christian doctrine as it is really held by an instructed adult, they then complain that you are making their heads turn round and that it is all too complicated and that if there really were a God they are sure He would have made ‘religion’ simple, because simplicity is so beautiful, etc. You must be on your guard against these people for they will change their ground every minute and only waste your time. Notice, too, their idea of God ‘making religion simple’; as if ‘religion’ were something God invented, and not His statement to us of certain quite unalterable facts about His own nature …

… Let us leave behind all these boys’ philosophies – these over-simple answers. The problem is not simple and the answer is not going to be simple either.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• Christianity is the religion which brings faith and reason together. This is seen most clearly in St. John’s assertion that Jesus is the Logos (John 1:1).

03. “The Problem with Dualism”

• Having rejected atheism and “Christianity-and-water”, Lewis next tackles the problem which the universe presents to us – evil. One solution is the Christian worldview which says this is a good world which has gone bad. The second option is Dualism.

What is the problem? A universe that contains much that is obviously bad and apparently meaningless, but containing creatures like ourselves who know that it is bad and meaningless. There are only two views that face all the facts. One is the Christian view that this is a good world that has gone wrong, but still retains the memory of what it ought to have been The other is the view called Dualism. Dualism means the belief that there are two equal and independent powers at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which they fight out an endless war.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• An example of a dualistic religion is Zoroastrianism. Manichaeism, a belief system held by St. Augustine prior to his conversion, is also dualistic. You can also see elements of this idea in New Age beliefs as well, and in popular entertainment, such as Star Wars.

• Jack’s discussion of dualism is important for two reasons:

1. We get to test the truth claims of the system.
2. It allows our author to explain the fundamental nature of evil.

• If we assume dualism is true, we have to explain how we identify one “power” as “good” and the other “evil”. However, how do we make this distinction?
• The first concept is personal preference (much like a preference for Red Vines over Twizzlers). The problem here is that this makes it purely subjective.

Now what do we mean when we call one of them the Good Power and the other the Bad Power? Either we are merely saying that we happen to prefer the one to the other – like preferring beer to cider – or else we are saying that, whatever the two powers think about it, and whichever we humans, at the moment, happen to like, one of them is actually wrong, actually mistaken, it regarding itself as good.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• The second would be an objective standard, which necessitates a third “power” over and above the other two. This relates to the central argument of Book I.

We must mean that one of the two powers is actually wrong and the other actually right.

But the moment you say that, you are putting into the universe a third thing in addition to the two Powers: some law or standard or rule of good which one of the powers conforms to and the other fails to conform to. But since the two powers are judged by this standard, then this standard, or the Being who made this standard, is farther back and higher up than either of them, and He will be the real God.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• The second problem with dualism is that it must mean that the “bad” power like badness for its own sake, but we have no experience of this. Evil is always dependent upon goodness. It is not so much an entity in its own right, in the same way darkness is really an absence of light. Sin is seeking something good in the wrong way, at the wrong time or to the wrong degree.

In real life people are cruel for one of two reasons – either because they are sadists, that is because they have a sexual perversion which makes cruelty a cause of sensual pleasure to them, or else for the sake of something they are going to get out of it – money, or power, or safety. But pleasure, money, power, and safety are all, as far as they go, good things. The badness consists in pursuing them by the wrong method, or in the wrong way, or too much.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• Unlike evil, it is possible to pursue goodness for the sake of being good.

You can be good for the mere sake of goodness … You can do a kind action when you are not feeling kind and when it gives you no pleasure, simply because kindness is right …

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• David mentioned an article by the “Theology of the Body” expert, Christopher West, where he talks about the death of Hugh Hefner. Matt mentioned the book “The Holy Longing” by Ronald Rolheiser.

In order to be bad, [the Bad Power] must have good things to want and then to pursue in the wrong way: he must have impulses which were originally good in order to be able to pervert them. But if he is bad he cannot supply himself either with good things to desire or with good impulses to pervert. He must be getting both from the Good Power.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• Lewis makes the point that we explain sexual perversion in relation to true sexual expression, but we cannot do it the other way around.

Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. We call sadism a sexual perversion; but you must first have the idea of a normal sexuality before you can talk of its being perverted; and you can see which is the perversion, because you can explain the perverted fro the normal, and cannot explain the normal from the perverted.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

04. “Understanding the Christian Narrative”

• Why even talk about dualism? By understanding dualism better, we can understand the Christian story. It is with this understanding of evil, we can understand that the devil is a fallen angel.

And do you now begin to see why Christianity has always said that the devil is a fallen angel? That is not a mere story for children. It is a real recognition of the fact that evil is a parasite, not an original thing.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• Matt briefly mentioned how Christianity handles pain and suffering, referencing Lewis’ “The Problem of Pain”.

05. “

• Though Christians cannot be strictly dualistic, there are elements of dualism within the faith. Lewis outlines this with an analogy that must have resonated deeply with listeners at the time, for these talks were given at the height of WWII. It should also resonate with men in particular, who might be inclined to think that Christianity is all about “just being nice”. Rather, we are at war, and moreover, we are called to take part in the battle.

But I freely admit that real Christianity (as distinct from Christianity-and-water) goes much nearer to Dualism than people think … Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.

Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Invasion

• The enemy does not want us going to church. This point reminded David of another C.S. Lewis book, “The Screwtape Letters”.

Wrap-Up

Concluding Thoughts

• The outline for this chapter is available here.

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