Morality vs. Divinity

                Of all of the readings that we have done in class thus far, “Man or Rabbit?” seems to have produced the most dissention in my class. Lewis sets out to answer the question “Can’t you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?” (108). In order to answer this question, Lewis first outlines what it is asking. It is clear that Lewis feels this question is a little pointless. The person asking this question does not seem to care whether Christianity is true; he only wants to know if it will help him be a better person. This would seem to go against human nature because, Lewis argues, one of the things that distinguishes humans from animals is humanity’s thirst to know the facts. By asking the aforementioned question, a human would be simply ignoring the facts. The facts, it turns out, make all the difference. Lewis then changes the question to ‘Can I lead a good life without Christianity?’ No one who thought Christianity was wrong would ask this question, because humans look at the facts and accept what is true. As such, a person asking this question is simply asking if they can get away with trying not to figure out if Christianity is true. This is cowardly says Lewis. “He is deliberately trying not to know whether Christianity is true or false, because he foresees endless trouble if it should turn out to be true” (111). Someone who does this is running away from God and not using their intellect. In order to ignore the facts, one has to shut off parts of their brain. Besides, “the idea of reaching ‘a good life’ without Christ is based on a double error. Firstly, we cannot do it; secondly, in setting up ‘a good life’ as our final goal, we have missed the very point of our existence” (112-113).

                While this reading did not produce in me the same confused emotions that were verbalized by some of my fellow classmates, this essay did give me a lot to think about. Lewis, as we know, was an atheist until his early thirties, and he acknowledges that he was a very reluctant convert. I feel that this essay is addressed to the people in the world who are like Lewis; ignoring God because they don’t want him to exist. Knowing this, what can established Christians take from this reading? I believe the moral of the story comes towards the end for us. Lewis says that “mere morality is not the end of life” (112). We are not put here to be “good”. We cannot, in fact, be good. The reason that we are on this earth is to glorify God. The Divine Life for which God intends us will swallow up morality (112). If we keep this as our focus, our tendency to stray towards legalism in our lives will fall away. We will simply wish to be nearer to God.