{"id":5017,"date":"2018-06-30T11:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T19:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5017"},"modified":"2018-06-29T13:57:09","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T21:57:09","slug":"the-abolition-of-man-chapter-3-appendix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/06\/30\/the-abolition-of-man-chapter-3-appendix","title":{"rendered":"The Abolition of Man, Chapter 3 & Appendix"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Abo\u00adli\u00adtion of Man by C. S. Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2018<\/a>. The sched\u00adule is online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019re enjoy\u00ading the read\u00adings as much as I am. I had for\u00adgot\u00adten how prophet\u00adic Lewis is in this lit\u00adtle vol\u00adume.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve got\u00adten a lit\u00adtle behind, there is an excel\u00adlent short sum\u00adma\u00adry of all three chap\u00adters<\/a> by Arend Smilde at Lewisiana and a 13 page study guide<\/a> by Dr. David Nau\u00adgle at Dal\u00adlas Bap\u00adtist Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll con\u00adtent myself with three quotes that stood out to me:<\/p>\n

When all that says \u2018It is good\u2019 has been debunked, what says \u2018I want\u2019 remains\u2026. those who stand out\u00adside all judge\u00adments of val\u00adue can\u00adnot have any ground for pre\u00adfer\u00adring one of their own impuls\u00ades to anoth\u00ader except the emo\u00adtion\u00adal strength of that impulse. (pages 723\u2013724)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This insight alone explains SO MUCH about con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adrary soci\u00adety. Strength of feel\u00ading over\u00adwhelms every\u00adthing else in today\u2019s moral dis\u00adcourse. In fact, emo\u00adtion has become the new deter\u00admin\u00ader of moral val\u00adues for many peo\u00adple. Pick vir\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly any news sto\u00adry and you will see this play\u00ading out, espe\u00adcial\u00adly when it comes to the debates sur\u00adround\u00ading the sex\u00adu\u00adal rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion and its con\u00adse\u00adquences.<\/p>\n

It is not sur\u00adpris\u00ading that the sex\u00adu\u00adal norms preva\u00adlent in our soci\u00adety are in direct con\u00adtra\u00addic\u00adtion to the old ones, because one of the func\u00adtions of the Tao is to be a trel\u00adlis upon which our emo\u00adtions may grow. To revis\u00adit Lewis\u2019s phras\u00ading from the first chap\u00adter \u201cMen With\u00adout Chests\u201d, it used to be that the head (rea\u00adson) shaped the chest (emo\u00adtions trained by habit) and there\u00adby gov\u00aderned the bel\u00adly (desire). But in our time it often hap\u00adpens that the bel\u00adly shapes the chest and there\u00adby gov\u00aderns the head. Our wants have become self-authen\u00adti\u00adcat\u00ading and dom\u00adi\u00adneer\u00ading.<\/p>\n

My oth\u00ader favorite quote from this chap\u00adter address\u00ades the lim\u00adits of skep\u00adti\u00adcism:<\/p>\n

But you can\u00adnot go on \u2018explain\u00ading away\u2019 for ever: you will find that you have explained expla\u00adna\u00adtion itself away. You can\u00adnot go on \u2018see\u00ading through\u2019 things for ever. The whole point of see\u00ading through some\u00adthing is to see some\u00adthing through it. It is good that the win\u00addow should be trans\u00adpar\u00adent, because the street or gar\u00adden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the gar\u00adden too? It is no use try\u00ading to \u2018see through\u2019 first prin\u00adci\u00adples. If you see through every\u00adthing, then every\u00adthing is trans\u00adpar\u00adent. But a whol\u00adly trans\u00adpar\u00adent world is an invis\u00adi\u00adble world. To \u2018see through\u2019 all things is the same as not to see. (page 730)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This reminds me of some\u00adthing Lewis said in the pre\u00advi\u00adous chap\u00adter:<\/p>\n

The rebel\u00adlion of new ide\u00adolo\u00adgies against the Tao <\/i>is a rebel\u00adlion of the branch\u00ades against the tree: if the rebels could suc\u00adceed they would find that they had destroyed them\u00adselves. The human mind has no more pow\u00ader of invent\u00ading a new val\u00adue than of imag\u00adin\u00ading a new pri\u00adma\u00adry colour, or, indeed, of cre\u00adat\u00ading a new sun and a new sky for it to move in. (page 714)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rad\u00adi\u00adcal skep\u00adti\u00adcism is self-defeat\u00ading. If it suc\u00adceeds it fails.<\/p>\n

Some\u00adthing I often tell peo\u00adple is that they need to learn to doubt their doubts. Our aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic cul\u00adture con\u00addi\u00adtions us to place doubt in a priv\u00adi\u00adleged posi\u00adtion over trust, but doubt is not a neu\u00adtral thing. Doubt needs a jus\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion just as belief does, and when you are inclined to doubt (whether the word of a friend, a truth of a moral prin\u00adci\u00adple, or the accu\u00adra\u00adcy of a claim) it is worth ask\u00ading whether the rea\u00adsons for and costs of doubt\u00ading out\u00adweigh the rea\u00adsons for and costs of trust\u00ading. Some\u00adtimes they will, and some\u00adtimes they will not.<\/p>\n

Skep\u00adti\u00adcism, inci\u00adden\u00adtal\u00adly, is dif\u00adfer\u00adent from ask\u00ading ques\u00adtions. Skep\u00adti\u00adcism is an entire\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent thing than curios\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>\n

John 12:37 illus\u00adtrates the dif\u00adfer\u00adence: \u201cEven after Jesus had per\u00adformed so many signs in their pres\u00adence, they still would not believe in him.\u201d Unbe\u00adlief, in this sense, is a choice. It is not that they did not have rea\u00adson to believe in Jesus \u2014 it is that they did not want to believe in Jesus. Hebrews 3:12 warns us not to have \u201can evil, unbe\u00adliev\u00ading heart.\u201d But we must weigh that against Jude 1:22 which tells us to \u201cbe mer\u00adci\u00adful to those who doubt\u201d, against the praise giv\u00aden the Bere\u00adans for their \u201cnoble char\u00adac\u00adter\u201d in Acts 17:11 for inves\u00adti\u00adgat\u00ading the claims of the apos\u00adtle Paul, and against the fact that Thomas is not con\u00addemned for his hes\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion to believe in John 20:24\u201329. Putting them togeth\u00ader, we see that God is not both\u00adered by hon\u00adest ques\u00adtions but He is opposed to moti\u00advat\u00aded skep\u00adti\u00adcism.<\/p>\n

The lat\u00adter is famous\u00adly illus\u00adtrat\u00aded by Aldous Hux\u00adley in his book Ends and Means<\/em>, \u201cFor myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy of mean\u00ading\u00adless\u00adness was essen\u00adtial\u00adly an instru\u00adment of lib\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion from a cer\u00adtain sys\u00adtem of moral\u00adi\u00adty. We object\u00aded to the moral\u00adi\u00adty because it inter\u00adfered with our sex\u00adu\u00adal free\u00addom.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think there are many peo\u00adple in our cul\u00adture like Hux\u00adley. I pray they learn to doubt their doubts before it is too late.<\/p>\n

Side note: Hux\u00adley was a con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adrary of Lewis \u2014 they actu\u00adal\u00adly died with\u00adin hours of each oth\u00ader. There\u2019s a fun lit\u00adtle book premised upon this fact called Between Heav\u00aden and Hell<\/em><\/a> by phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy pro\u00adfes\u00adsor Peter Kreeft. It\u2019s a clever dia\u00adlog between Lewis, Hux\u00adley, and John F. Kennedy (who also died with\u00adin hours of these two) as they await the after\u00adlife and debate what is going to hap\u00adpen next.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for this week. Next week we begin read\u00ading The Four Loves<\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ad\u00ading-project-2018. The sched\u00adule is online. I hope you\u2019re enjoy\u00ading the read\u00adings as much \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cThe Abo\u00adli\u00adtion of Man, Chap\u00adter 3 & Appen\u00addix\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[229,231],"class_list":["post-5017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-summer-reading-project-2018","tag-the-abolition-of-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1iV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5017"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5025,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017\/revisions\/5025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}