Works Cited

Dynamic Schedule - DCM Lewis Syllabus. Paulo and Adriana Ribeiro. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

Jr., Cornelius Plantinga. ENGAGING GOD'S WORLD A REFORMED VISION OF FAITH, LEARNING, AND LIVING. Boston: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2002. Print.

Lewis, C.S. "God in the Dock: Bulverism." (1941): 1-5. Print.

Lewis, C.S. "Have No ‘Right To Happiness." 1-3. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. Geoffrey Bles, 1942. Print.

Final Integration Essay

Finding My Calling

On the first day of class when asked why we had chosen this class, the only thing I could think of was that I wanted to know what “C.S.” stood for (which I eventually found out to be Clive Staples). If I remember correctly, I was the only person who had not actually read at least one of Lewis’ works. However, I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of our class discussions and have always taken away something of value. Also, at the beginning of class, when we took our first look at his writing I worried that I would not be able to keep up, especially in a class where the professor seemed a little too obsessed with Lewis, but now I see why he loves Lewis so much. Lewis’ writing was unlike anything I had ever read before; so complex and unbelievably deep, yet so simple and clear at the same time; though that is not to say that some things he says were way over my head. In this class I have connected with three of Lewis’ writings, those being Bulverism, We Have no Right to Happiness, and The Screwtape Letters; as well as Plantinga’s chapter titled Longing and Hope in his book Engaging God’s World. In this essay I will discuss the meaning of each, and what they have taught me.

The first essay that caught my eye was God in the Dock: Bulverism. The idea of “bulverism” is to attack the person, and not the facts someone presents in an argument. This is what we like to call the easy way out because it requires no intelligent thinking or reasoning. Lewis wrote that “You must find out on purely logical grounds which of them do, in fact, break down as arguments. Afterwards, if you like, go on and discover the psychological causes of the error.” (2) This is a huge problem because of the enormous number of uneducated people in society today; they are everywhere. At least to me, these people can be so infuriating at times that I just wonder how in the world they get by. Our job is to learn from our mistakes and encourage a culture of reason. His reason for “bulverism” being the incorrect way to argue he says that, “But thought has no father but thought.” (4) That statement in itself proves Lewis’ argument against “bulverism,” which does not use “bulverism” itself. Our thoughts cannot prove anything, for there is no way to prove that they themselves are correct. We must use the facts, and anyone who pretends to be correct on a matter with real proof is lying to themselves, as well as making a fool of them.

This changed me significantly. Never had I heard someone so boldly call out everyone who merely put others down to prove themselves right. No doubt I have found myself among that group before, and thinking about that makes me not only feel guilty, but like a cheater and dishonest as well. I have taken things from people that were not mine and gotten undeserved glory. However, because of our study of this, I now feel a bit of conviction to be legitimate in how I converse with others. Now when I find myself about to attack someone in instead of their arguments I more often stop myself from doing so and look for legitimate solutions. It’s nice to have had someone like Lewis with the courage necessary to challenge all of society.

Now let’s take a look at another one of Lewis’ works: Have No ‘Right To Happiness.’ In this essay, Lewis tries to prove why no man has any rightful claim to happiness, in this case defined as “a freedom guaranteed me by the laws of society I live in” (1), and then narrows his focus to sexual happiness because of it’s transcendence. He says that, “A society in which conjugal infidelity is tolerated must always be in the long run a society adverse to women.” (3) What he is saying is that by seeking our own happiness, it is possible that we take away someone else’s happiness. Under that logic it is impossible for every person to get their own happiness, for people have no obligation to give what is necessary for someone else to find happiness. The only other thing to be said is that God wants us to be happy in Him.

I learned a couple very valuable things about this from taking this class. First, we have a right to pursue happiness, but not to happiness. There were times in class when I would have liked for things to go a different way, but I realized that there is no valid reason for me to choose how things go. Collectively, every subject we talked about showed me how we have no right to anything, including happiness and life itself because of sin. I learned to be grateful for life, to take it serious, and remember that it is a gift. As a result of that, it only makes sense to conclude that we should praise God for giving us life.

Lastly, I greatly appreciated the twelfth letter of The Screwtape Letters. Before I elaborate on this, I just want to say that I think it was very brave of Lewis to try to put himself in the position of an experienced demon. The part of this that scared me the most was when Screwtape speaking about the “patient” says, “I am almost glad to hear that he is still a churchgoer and a communicant.” (1) That made me realize that going to church does not protect me from anything the devil may want to do to me. You must stay on your guard at all times. Screwtape concludes this letter by saying that, “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” (2) This is a warning against small sins. Too often, we can convince ourselves to believe that one small sin even if repeated over and over again will have no consequence in the end. People need to know that the devil is crafty, and never gives up.

Out of this came my realization that every sin is meaningful and is not to be ignored. Even the smallest of sins need to be repented for and forgiveness needs to be asked for. I saw myself as the “patient” all throughout and it made me feel very uncomfortable because it showed me all the problems I deal with every day that I like to think I don’t when I look at non-Christians. It made me be brutally honest with myself. The band Switchfoot has one song that states “We were meant to live for so much more,” in their song “Meant to Live” that I listened to recently. This song perfectly exemplifies how I feel every time I slip up and convince myself some small sin doesn’t mean anything. Another song by them called “Twenty-Four” is about how we learn from our mistakes, and finding truth in Christ as we grow older. I wish I could have the courage at all times to do what I know is right, because I know I could be living a life always in the light, instead of sometimes hiding in the shadows.

The first chapter of Engaging God’s World titled Longing and Hope encourages the reader to yearn for knowledge and God’s kingdom. He quotes Augustine as saying, “O Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” (6) This demonstrates that because we are God’s workmanship we feel in our hearts the need to be close to God. We feel unfulfilled until we have found God in our lives. Plantinga goes on to say that, “To hope for your future is to affirm the life God gave you and the range of possibilities that it generates.” (11) No doubt hope is a very serious issue. If we want to honor God, we absolutely must have hope for our lives. This chapter shows the serious of longing and hope, as well as clearly defining what it is that we truly want in life.

Before reading this I had always just thought of hope as merely something that can make me happier with my life, but never had I considered that it was a way of praising God. Now I have more hope and I feel somewhat of a sense of joyfulness. Also, I have found that it is easier for me to be hopeful in things and it is not a strain for me to hope for things that I had at one point thought to be unattainable. Plantinga showed me that I need to seek out God and not be content to live a mediocre life, for there are far greater things for me in God’s world.

The three works of C.S. Lewis as well as the one by Plantinga that I really invested myself in came together to show me something that has changed me. First, Bulverism showed me how I need to be strong in my faith and not waver when people try to challenge it. Have No Right To Happiness without a doubt explained to me that though I do not deserve earthly happiness, there is no reason that I should not find true happiness in Christ and nobody can take that from me. The Screwtape Letters illustrated the dangers of not protecting myself, but they more reiterated that I am in control of my life, not the devil. Finally, Longing and Hope challenged me to look for God everywhere and believe in Him at all times. Knowing these four things I know I am much more prepared to seek out God’s kingdom as well as live the life that God created me to live. The only thing left to say is that in finishing this class I truly hope that C.S. Lewis lived everything he wrote in his own life, and I trust that he did.

Works Cited

Dynamic Schedule - DCM Lewis Syllabus. Paulo and Adriana Ribeiro. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

Jr., Cornelius Plantinga. ENGAGING GOD'S WORLD A REFORMED VISION OF FAITH, LEARNING, AND LIVING. Boston: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2002. Print.

Lewis, C.S. "God in the Dock: Bulverism." (1941): 1-5. Print.

Lewis, C.S. "Have No ‘Right To Happiness." 1-3. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. Geoffrey Bles, 1942. Print.

The Problem of Pain

First off, I wish we had the opportunity to discuss this as a class because it would have greatly aided me in my understanding of the text. Nevertheless I will try to dissect the meaning myself.

What is this problem exactly, and what causes it? According to Lewis, "Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt." (90) It is so very important to keep in mind that pain is not something God wanted for us to experience, it is the in a sense the presence of evil in our world. Lewis follows that up by saying that, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain..." (91) Not only is this one of the most beautiful and poetic things I have ever read, it is something I had never noticed and thought about before. When we feel pain, whether it be emotional, physical, or spiritual, God takes the opportunity to speak to us because our attention has been grabbed. We must be careful to listen for God.

Pain is the face of evil. Wherever there is pain, there is evil, but that does not mean the one who feels the pain is one doing evil as seen in the Holocaust for example. The one question about this I have is war. If two men (who are enemies) are ordered to shoot at each other or else be shot themselves and they both do obey commands, are they both filled with evil at that point? Where does the evil lie, and who is at fault? It seems to me that it would have to trace back all the way to the top, but does that mean for the United States for example that our President and other leaders are bad people. I have no clue where the evil is found, even though evil can be found anywhere. I think that there is no real answer, but it is just the result of the fall of man.

Some people would say that pain is God punishing us, but that is about as far from the truth as you can possibly get. God does not make us pull the trigger, throw a punch, drop bombs (not in the baseball sense of the phrase of course), or draw blood with a knife. In fact, God tells us to turn the other cheek, not to get selfish revenge by striking back only to make matters worse. So, next time you feel pain, don't be quick to blame, but instead forgive the one who brought it on you and maybe even say a prayer.

Man or Rabbit?

In this short essay, Lewis addresses the question which I think is seen very often in society today: "Can't you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?" In a sense of doing good on earth I would say yes, but in a good life that honors God, I would say no. He writes about Christianity that, "...if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all...If Christianity should happen to be true, then it is quite impossible that those who know this truth and those who don't should be equally equipped for leading a good life. Knowledge of the facts must make a difference to one's actions." (109) What I believe Lewis is trying to say much more elaborately than I could ever say is that if we do not believe what is right, what is just, and what is in fact good, how can we possibly be able to live out a life that exemplifies those characteristics. It's essentially like not being able to drive a car or play a sport correctly under its rules without the proper knowledge. You will certainly fail, at least at first, in whatever the task may be. Lewis calls this phenomena, "working in the dark."
Lewis turns his attention to the motive of the people who ask this question, to find out if they simply do not believe because they are afraid of the truth "like the man who won't look at his bank account because he's afraid of what he might find there." (111) Instead of being in a state of honest error, Lewis writes that, "He is in a state of dishonest error, and that dishonesty will spread though all his thoughts and actions..." (111) Again, Lewis is stating that you cannot do good if you choose to not know good, which I would have to agree with. God does not forgive those who turn a blind eye to Him, or "conveniently" ignore any sign of him. As Lewis reminds us, we cannot live "a good life" without Christ, and if that is our final goal, "we have missed the very point of our existence." After reading this, I now take pity on the people who ask this question, because they are asking the wrong question. Instead, they should be asking "Will Christianity help me to live the life I was created to live?" However, you may have a problem convincing them that they in fact were created (instead of being the result of chance) and have a purpose. In the Bible, Jeremiah 29:11 tells us "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." That is the answer to the question.

Paradise Now

I had previously seen this film in my high school English class. This time was different though, because it was dubbed, or not in its original language. The English voice overs completely ruined the movie for me. Going into watching it this time I had a very good feeling about the movie, but after I thought to myself, Wow that movie was not as good as I remember." The voice overs took away the credibility of the characters, setting, and general idea being presented. So, let this be a lesson that you should avoid dubbed movies at all cost.
This movie gives a good representation of Islamic extremists turned martyrs. The only problem is that the movie does not have much development and there is a lack of a story line. It simply drags on forever what could have been just as good if it was condensed to about 45 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half. It caused me to get distracted and get irritated with the very slow parts of the film.
The part that interested me most was how one of the bombers changed his mind but the other went ahead with the mission. One of them receives advice from a friend and realizes that his bombing of some innocent people will not really stop anything at all, but in fact only fuel the fire. The other bomber goes through with the mission and chooses to ignore his partner's change of heart. He remains convinced that his retaliation will bring them closer to victory.
As Christians it is very easy for us to say how ridiculous it is for these people to do this. But honestly if I were raised in that faith and culture whose to say I would not find myself in that same situation, although I think I am easily sane enough to know that blowing up other people and myself cannot possibly solve any problem. Finally, it is important to keep in mind that these people are just like us, no better and no worse in God's eyes.

Vocation in the Kingdom of God (Plantinga Ch. 5)

Just what is our vocation and what does it mean? Some people would say that their vocation, or calling, is to be do what it is that they are passionate for. That needs to be taken a step further. It should be to bring us closer to the kingdom of God. This needs to be done in all that you do, no matter when or where you may find yourself, including doing what you are passionate about. It all comes down to being conscious that each and every decision we make either brings us closer to or pushes us away from God. Now I know some things may seem so minimal and inconsequential that we think to ourselves, "In the end, is this really going to have an affect on God's kingdom or whether or not I get into heaven?" The answer is yes, because as I said in a previous blog, it indicates whether or not you take God seriously, which is kind of a big deal; I don't know if you realize that (but hopefully you do). Also, if you do not practice your faith, you're in trouble, because the Bible tells us that faith without works is dead; although I cannot remember the exact verse that is from.
In the midst of all this we need to keep in mind who the glory is for. People are selfish creatures and naturally like to take all the credit for good deeds and accomplishments, even if on the surface they say "Oh ya, and I couldn't have done it without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I mean, I know some people actually do mean that, but there are others who I just think are flat our lying and everyone knows it. You can tell by the life they live. All they have accomplished is blemishing the name for those who take it seriously and truly believe. Sorry to be so cynical, but it's true. So, I would like to ask that those people just say "Ya this was all on me and I super amazing and nobody else could have done it better," I think that would be much better even though they would completely tarnish their reputations.

The Inner Ring & the C.C.C.

It would be a lie for someone to exclaim that they have never been involved in or observed an inner ring. They are everywhere, and come about naturally just from being social creatures. The thing is, not all people are aware of every one of them and as Lewis says, "There are no formal admissions or expulsions. People think they are in it after they have in fact been pushed out of it, or before they have been allowed in: this provides great amusement for those who are really inside it." (2) This is no doubt the sole reason for all middle school and high school drama: especially among girls. These inner rings completely determine all peoples' social lives and relationships.
The perfect example of this is a high school "clique" or a gang, because of the value individuals place on being part of the "in crowd" and the insecurity and need for acceptance. Like Lewis said, it can be extremely entertaining to watch happen. But the thing to remember is that we have those same experiences. These happen at school, on sports teams, at work, and even at church. For me, my main experience with this was my high school cross country team. For anyone who has observed this, they are familiar with the C.C.C., also known as the Cross Country Cult. This is cult like team bonding is much more apparent in cross country than in any other sport that I have observed. Because of the demands of the sport: running everyday in the summer and at practice in secluded areas, and because of the sheer size of my team, you have no choice but to be a very tightly knit group. The result of this is that cross country kids ONLY hang out with other cross country kids, well at least %90 of the time. The few traitors that there are may go down to about %50, which is still a significant number. That explains why, at least for me, all of my closest friends from my cross country running days were members of my team, even the younger kids. Running simply has a very significant effect on relationships and needless to say some intense team and individual bonding takes place. The example of my experience with the inner ring tells us that they are not necessarily a bad thing and Lewis even states that in themselves, they are a good thing. (3) It turns into something bad when it is manipulative and has bad objectives at the core.
There is simply no way to avoid them. Lewis writes that "Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things." (4) This parallels the Screwtape Letters in that it can be a tool of the devil in slowly corrupting us we must keep our guard up at all times. Also, we need to remember that we cannot blame these Inner Rings, because we did in fact create them ourselves. Finally, I'd like to close with a provocative thought presented in class: If Christianity does not make you better, it makes you much worse, and very cynical and aggressive as well.

The Four Loves

This recording of Lewis reading us one of his essays was interesting at first, but it seemed to drag on for an infinite amount of time. I could not concentrate throughout it since I just found myself looking around getting distracted by random people and things in the classroom. However, in the few moments when I was able to momentarily refocus before drifting off I heard a few good points. Lewis said that "No passion is self-preservative." He beautifully illustrated that by saying how the feeling of diving into a lake does not last and you must eventually start swimming to get out or keep yourself afloat. This is much like love because many people become overwhelmed by the feeling of falling in love and before they realize it they get themselves into a situation that is not easy to get out of. They wind up in a relationship that is unhealthy and they cannot figure out where that original feeling went. The funny, yet tragic, thing is that no matter how many times someone may go through this, they still continue to make the same mistakes. However, for the people who realize this, this phenomena can be very frightening. Often these are the people who may never marry in their lifetimes, because they are either scared of getting hurt or they do not know how to keep their relationships alive. I'm no expert, but I think that the best way to deal with love is to go into it with an aggressive approach while still guarding your heart. That means that dating is perfectly fine and is encouraged, but taking it slow is a good idea. People need to take a step back and not let their initial emotions lead them into something stupid. I think that is also another good reason for not having sex out of marriage. Suppose someone were to say that they want to know if they are sexually compatible with another person before marriage, and they did in fact go ahead and have sex...That creates unrealistic expectations for married life, especially if you are still being overwhelmed by falling in love. Married life becomes somewhat of a let down and will breed unhappiness. So, don't be stupid about love and be deceived by your mind.

Redemption (Plantinga Ch. 4)

When I think of the idea of redemption, I think of God's grace, because that is the only way to be redeemed. There is no effort we can make to get it. I often wonder what it would be like to live before the fall of man. The strangest thing to me is that as Plantinga points out, Genesis 3:7 says, "The eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked." Just that alone would completely change our world today. Clothes seem to be a given in life, although that is probably just because our parents clothed us as children. It would be weird to think nudity was normal today (unless you live in a nudist colony of course). That world seems so far away today; it just doesn't seem possible that everything and everyone could live in harmony and everything would be perfect. Would we need any education? Would we live in houses? Would we have an economy? Would we have any technology at all? I have absolutely no idea how any of that is possible while still living in perfect harmony.
Thankfully, even though our world is fallen, we have a Creator who loves us enough to save us from our sins. In my opinion, people think that they have to earn God's grace. We think that by doing a certain number of good deeds and "working for the Lord" will somehow punch our ticket into Heaven. Although we can convince ourselves that we are worthy of God's grace by that thinking, we are dead wrong. The only way to do that is to accept Christ as your Lord and savior (even though that sounds very cliche). We all need to forget about keeping track of our spiritual lives and think about what actually matters, after all Christ did say that nobody comes to the Father except through me.

Learning in War-Time

I was not present for the class discussion on this reading today, but I still think have few good insights to offer. Early on in the essay Lewis writes that "But to a Christian the true tragedy of Nero must be not that he fiddles while the city was on fire but that he fiddles on the brink of hell." (1) At first this is a somewhat confusing statement, but we need to understand it. While both situations are the same, it is our focus that matters. We need not be concerned with earthly things or situations, even though it would be hard not to focus on a burning city around you. We should not be thinking about the end of life as we know it, but instead we should think about what's next. Hopefully, when that time comes we have no doubt and not be afraid. However, in Nero's case, I wonder if he had any thoughts about what his final destination would be.
Later on Lewis states that "The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable." (4) That is so true, and everyone knows it simply from observation of successful people we know. You cannot just sit around on your but and expect some grand opportunity to fall into your lap eventually. Sure that works out for some people, but that approach to life does not work out for the vast majority of those who use it. People need to remember that they do not deserve anything, and that there is no situation that can be used as an excuse for poor circumstances. It's time for everyone to wake up and realize that sometimes life isn't fair and give up their egos. You get out of life and relationships what you put into them. If you work hard enough for something, you will likely get what you desire.

The Fall (Plantinga Ch. 3)

Towards the beginning of the chapter, Plantinga writes that, "To see human decay, all you have to do is look around town, look around the world." (48) I liked that passage because it was brutally honest,but not in the sense that I liked the idea. I think that for most people, when they look at the world around them, they see it as constantly improving and getting better in many ways. But that is not the case. Like I discussed in my previous blog, there really is no true progress. When you really observe your surroundings, it is not hard to see that no matter where you go, there are always going to be people going through hard times and relationships being broken. There is no escaping it.
The next thing I was struck by was when he said that, "In fact, evil needs good in order to be evil...Here we can see that evil is a kind of parasite on goodness." (52) Never before had I grouped good and evil together, I had always put them in separate "boxes" if you will. However, after our discussion in class, I was convinced that they go hand in hand, but that does not mean God wanted it to be that way. I think that this is consistent with the Screwtape Letters, because the advice given to Wormwood by his uncle Screwtape is basically to play off the patients idea of goodness and to distort it. Never does he tell Wormwood to create evil by itself, he simply makes evil look like goodness. It is important that we all remember that there is infact goodness in everything, especially in people, even the ones that we like to think of as "pure evil," even if we are only joking. Evil is no laughing matter, and it is not something to be casually tossed around.

The Poison of Subjectivism

This reading was the most confusing for me so far. I had some serious trouble following his thought processes, but I still found a few things that made a great deal of sense to me. Early on in the essay he says that "Unless the measuring rod is independent of the things measured, we can do no measuring." I thought it was great that he said that before his real argument, because while it is so obvious and fundamental, it is so easily forgotten. Once he gets into the essay he writes that "Except on the supposition of a changeless standard, progress is impossible." That jumped out to me because it made me realize the general meaningless of the lives we lead. We need to wake up and realize that the path we are on really is not leading us anywhere, and not get caught up with the things in life that amount to absolutely nothing. We need to completely throw out the idea and importance in progress. Though, that is not to say that I condone advances in health and science and the things that improve our lives and help to take care of our world. We are just to obsessed with making so called progress.
Another thing that caught my eye was when he said that "If we once admit that what God means by "goodness" is sheerly different from what we judge to be good, there is no difference left between pure religion and devil worship." This made me wonder if what we know to be goodness is infact true goodness. I decided that it is not, which is kind of a saddening thought, because it is harder to say that we are doing the work of God when we don't know exactly what that may be in a given situation. Also, it somewhat scared me to think that we may be confusing God's work with the work of the devil. His conclusion to this essay was the thing I most want to remember. He said, "But give me a man who will do a day's work for a day's pay, who will refuse bribes, who will not make up his facts, and who has learned his job." I think that is the best advice anyone can have, when applied to themselves. Just imagine what the world would be like if everyone held themselves to some moral standard and did not waver.

BBC Program on C.S. Lewis

Before listening to this program in class today, we had never truly understood C.S. Lewis.We did not know exactly where he was coming from, or anything significant about his life. All we knew was that he was maybe the most gifted writer that any of us have ever read the works of. His style is truly unique, and each time I read anything written by him come away wondering how he does what he does and why in the world I cant even come close to his level. He describes things in ways they haven't been talked about before, and does it with such precision and clearness. Also, it is nearly impossible to find any flaw in his logic. I guess I can only dream of being a shadow of him as a writer.
This program taught us several interesting and comical things about Lewis' life. First of all, apparently he did not like women, and would do anything in his power to avoid engaging with them. I thought that was pretty extreme, and funny, but it is not that surprising given the aggressive and hard nosed yet somehow reserved attitude displayed in each of his works.
The other thing that caught my attention was that Lewis had a bad sense of humor, and had an extreme seriousness about him. That seriousness reminded me of my brother, who does not share anything close to my idea of humor. Lastly, I was extremely confused why someone of his nature decided to marry a complete stranger; no doubt she was a very lucky woman to be around him as much as she was. I felt that by listening to this somewhat brief program featuring people who actually knew him allowed us to connect with him just a little bit more. Now I think we can gain even more understanding when we work our way through his writings.

Mere Christianity

For this post I'd like to look at the second chapter because that was my group's focus of discussion. Chapter two talks a lot about the Moral Law and different interpretations of it. The first definition of it is, as Lewis puts it, "The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys." (7) I think that this is mostly accurate, but there is a problem. The problem with this approach is that our instincts are sometimes wrong and can deceive us. That is not to say that we should disregard our instincts and just toss them aside, for our instincts and conscience if you will can be very helpful in keeping us on a mostly straight path. The next possible definition is that Moral Law "usually seems to be telling us to side with weaker of the two impulses." (7) This has a similar flaw in that quite often, our strongest impulse is the right choice. If this were what we were supposed to do than we can go ahead and dispense with the idea of going with you're gut, or following your heart. Also, taking this stance doesn't seem like a very happy way to live, especially because you don't really trust yourself. That is not to say that there are not times when your weaker instinct is correct, but that is why we need people in our lives who we know will be honest with us to keep us safe from disillusions.
The last definition is that there are no good or bad instincts. While we can have good and bad instincts at times, that does not mean that in other situations that same instinct would not be the right choice. I love how Lewis said this in terms of a piano when he wrote that "Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral Law is not any one instinct or any set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts...The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs." That is something that each of us has to be careful of. For me, that might simply be ignoring anything that I need to get done when the New York Yankees are playing or my favorite show Sports Nation is on ESPN. If I were to watch those every time they were on (unfortunately, like all sports, baseball has an off season so the Yankees wont be on for a while), I would fall behind on my schoolwork and likely miss out on countless other opportunities. I think the thing to remember in all of this is the need to consider if something is in your best interest (without impeding someone else's best interest), even when you may not like to admit it.

The Screwtape Letters, Letter XII

In my mind, I think that this collection of letters is the most interesting composition by C.S. Lewis because it is not from any humans' point of view. It is from the perspective of an experienced devil, Screwtape, who is giving tips to his nephew Wormwood and it shows the impressive creativity that Lewis possesses. Each letter focuses on a different area of our lives and the world we live in. In this one Lewis touches on some very true things that happen in our internal struggles with the devil and in the process presents some advice on how to prevent giving in to sin. This is unlike any other piece of literature I have ever read, and every one of us can relate to the thought processes that Screwtape talks about.
The first striking thing is that uncle Screwtape is glad to hear that Wormwood's "patient" (the Christian he is working on corrupting) is still regularly going to church and taking part in church activities. We cannot be half-hearted Christians. When we are, it is far to easy to convince ourselves that we Christians. This is why I believe that the Bible tells us that God wants ALL of us, and nothing less. I think a lot of people struggle with that, and many do not even know how to do that or what it means. I don't think I have figured that out yet, but hopefully I will move closer and closer to that.
As Screwtape explains, upon arriving in hell one of his own "patients" said, "I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked." We cannot allow the devil to distract us with meaningless activities and distract us from God. If we do not recognize that that is happening immediately, we may have missed our only opportunity. This is no doubt a very serious and dangerous situation.
The letter concludes with Screwtape saying "It odes not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." We need to remember that every sin is equal in God's eyes, even though we would like to think that murder is worse than a little white lie. That thought can make you feel terrible, and that is because sin is no laughing matter. The thought that the safest road to Hell is the gradual one is absolutely terrifying to me because it is so incredibly easy to get started on that path. It must be understood how careful we need to be, which is why we have to do everything in our power to protect ourselves. Do not turn a blind eye to that road and process!

Creation

I liked this chapter of Plantinga's book because it tells us what creation means, not just what creation is. It does that by presenting 8 different meanings of the Christian Doctrine of Creation. My idea of creation has in a nutshell been that God simply created man in his image and gave us a world to take care of (which we are not doing), but I had never really considered the implications. The first thing I had not considered is that God created the heavens and the earth out of his own "enthusiasm for being." I do not think we can really explain it any other way. We know that God is love, and this would be my best guess as to why he created us. The other thing that I found interesting was that "St. Francis of Assisi and his kin show us how to love the natural world without worshipping it." (37) This is where idolatry comes into play. I'm sure we all have some things in our lives that we give too much of ourselves too, myself included. This is something we really have to watch ourselves on because it is extremely easy to convince ourselves that we have not made something an idol.
However, for some reason the question that came to me while reading and discussing this was whether or not God knew man would fall to sin, or if he in fact intended for us to. On one hand, God knows everything before it happens and knows us better than we know ourselves. On the other hand, why would God create us in his image if he knew we would fall. I do not understand why God would do that. I know that God wants us to come to him and accept his gift of everlasting life, but if God "hates" sin, why would he create us with the ability to fall to sin at all. I know he loves us more than we can imagine, but why would he let that happen? I know the Devil is extremely powerful and deceptive, but the fact remains that God is more powerful than all else.

The Weight of Glory

I am not going to address the weight of glory, because I think there are more practical things to be learned and acknowledged in this writing. Early on this sermon written by C.S. Lewis, he states that "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures...like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (1) I would like to focus on that last sentence. Can any one of us say that they truly give their best effort in even one area of their life? No, because we are distracted by sin, whether we want to admit it or not. We can deny it no longer. I mean, who are we kidding? What is the point of pretending like we are something that we are not just to please or keep up a certain reputation with the people around us. We need to stop that and realize that none of that matters at all. Really no earthly thing matters. When it comes down to it, the only thing that matters is if we accept God as our Lord and Savior. Even though we cannot escape sin, we still need to make every effort push Satan away and be honest with God. It all comes down to, as my brother told me, whether or not you take God seriously, and it's as simple as that.
The other thing that I want to briefly touch on is that as Lewis says, "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal." (9) That idea just seemed to contrary to how we view other people. For me, there are a ton of people that just drive me absolutely crazy. I do not give them even two seconds of my time, although some of that is due to the fact that I do associate with them. However, if what Lewis said is true, we are in a sense disrespecting God. I had never really thought of them as anything more than a nuisance in my life. Needless to say, I have a hard time accepting Lewis' statement, but that is because our human nature makes us arrogant and we do not like to admit when we are wrong.

Our English Syllabus

Several things in this note to the English Society at Oxford jumped out at me. First, Lewis writes that "You see at once that education is essentially for freemen and vocational training for slaves." (82) It made me think about the stages of my education more intensely. Sometimes I feel like a slave to my school work when I find myself sitting in my room for hours on end, which thankfully has not happened during interim. However, I think it is safe to say that most everyone else would agree with me that busy work is not very enjoyable at all. According to Lewis, I am not a slave, but I am free. But what exactly does that mean, and is it really a big deal? The answer is that it absolutely does matter, because the ability to explore many different subjects and find out what you enjoy. Without that ability you may end up spending your entire working life doing some unfulfilling task. He later solidifies that thinking by stating that "The proper question for a freshman is not 'What will do me most good?' but 'What do I most want to know?" (87) We need to make every effort and take advantage of every opportunity we get to find out what we are passionate about.

The next thing that stuck out to me when Lewis says that "A perfect study of English would involve all this...a perfect study of everything requires a knowledge of everything." (89-90) This passage seems to question the value of a liberal arts education. The whole idea of a liberal arts education is that a well rounded education as well as a focus on your chosen field better prepares you for your chosen career. But according to Lewis' statement, it is not worth it because he says we need to have knowledge about everything, which is impossible. One can spend their whole life as a student and still have countless questions to be answered. However, I think that this also acknowledges the need for a well rounded education because he says that a perfect study of a subject, in this case english, involves other subjects. None of us can deny that all things are interconnected.

The last thing that was interesting to me was when Lewis wrote that "Again, tihngs are understood by what precedes them rather than by what follows them." (91) I think that this is important for everyone to understand because so often when we are confronted with a difficult situation, we spend all of our time trying to figure out what the result will be. We need to not worry about that because that's in God's hands, not ours. All we can do, and should do, is learn from our mistakes in the past, improve on them, and try not to make them again. What I mean may be unclear, but I hope I got the general idea.

Longing and Hope

I thought this was an interesting chapter because he talks about a lot of things that many people are familiar with, including the novel A Separate Peace, C.S. Lewis, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech in Washington, D.C. In the section about Lewis, I think Plantinga was spot on when he said that human longings are unfulfillable. He then quotes Lewis as saying, "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us..." Because of the fall of man, we must carry that burden. It is something that every one of us much struggle with every second of every day, and there is nothing we can do about it. Sadly, the vast majority of us do not handle this well, be it because we do not hold ourselves accountable or because we lack to courage to try to set ourselves apart from sinful man and accept God's gift.
The focus turns to longing for satisfaction, or a sense of completion in one's life. Plantinga writes that "our final joy 'lies beyond the walls of the world." (6) I like the way he stated that because it eliminates the value of all superficial things. With that in mind, you can take a long, hard look at yourself and what you value in life.
On page 7 he gives some advice that I think needs to be considered by everyone who is a student. He says that we should not only try to study a few subjects in depth, but that we should try to find more subjects to get excited about. However, I think that is easier said than done. Too often, I think we simply fall into a routine and just accept the way things are.
The last thing that grabbed my interest from this section was when he wrote that "To hope for your future is to affirm the life God gave you and the range of possibilities that it generates." (11) I'd never really thought of it like that before. I think that most people just think of hope of something that it good to have, something that gives you a greater outlook on life. But I think that this is how we need to think about it. Hope is really something that we need to have in order to have a healthy relationship with God.

We Have No Right To Happiness

The introduction to this essay was pretty confusing and I did not completely follow his thinking of defining our happiness as solely sexual. However, I still think I got the gist of Lewis' message. On this very controversial topic, I would argue like the majority of our class that we do not have any right to happiness in life, whether that be sexual happiness or just enjoying the sunshine.
First off, let me say that I think that we have the right to the pursuit of happiness, but not to happiness itself. To say that we have that right places an obligation on everyone else around you to give you that happiness, which is neither fair or realistic. How would you like it if you had to, at all times, make every effort without failiing to do everything in your power to make EVERYONE else happpy. Something tells me that there is no living person who wants any part of that. Although we are supposed to love our enemies, I do not think anyone wants to makes those said efforts to please the people in our lives that really grind our gears.
To take that one step further, I would argue that we do not have the right to ANYTHING, including happiness and life itself. Life is a gift from God. If God wanted to, he could end it all at any moment; we have no say in the matter. I believe that God created us with the right to happiness, and being in the Garden of Eden it would be pretty hard not to. However, from the moment sin entered the world I believe we lost all rights. God said that it is by grace that we have been saved. Everything we have has been given to us, and not because we deserve it. Like Will said in class, God wants us to be happy in Him, but I do not that means we deserve it. What have we done for God that would make us deserve anything at all from him.
In the Bible it says that we find our joy in the Lord. Nobody is stopping us from being happy (or joyful). The question I would like to consider is what is real happiness? Knowing that true happiness, like other things, comes from God, I would argue that what we believe to be "happiness," is not happiness at all but something comepletely different. So, if what I've sated is true and that happiness is only found in the Lord, and everything is a gift from God, I am confident in stating that we have no right to happiness.

Bulverism

To be honest, i did not really understand anything from the first page of this essay other than ideas that we already know to be true that C.S. Lewis presents as "givens." His opening thoughts in this discussion appeared to me to be just a big bowl of mumbo jumbo an scrambled ideas. I only got the slightest idea of what this essay was trying to say and what in the world "bulverism" even meant when he gave an extended example beginning at the end of the first page. Regarding reason Lewis states that, "Yu must find out on purely logical grounds which of them do, in fact, break down as arguments. Afterwards, if you like, go on and discover the psychological causes of the error." Never would I have thought that perhaps reason is the only that matters in arguments, and that cause or motive is meaningless until reason is justly thrown out. However, that does not mean that I had never realized that causes and motivations can be way overvalued. That explains why biases are a problem.

I was completely dumbfounded when i read that "you must show that a man is wrong before you tsart explaining why he is wrong." I knew that there was some very important meaning behind that statement, but I could not immediately unpackage it because of the simple yet complex way that Lewis writes with.

Lewis goes on to say that "the proof that all proofs are invalid must be invalid itself." For that statement in particular I was not able to see the relevance or affect that it had on the argument against bulverism. Nonetheless, at the end of the first part of this essay I came to the conclusion that you cannot infact prove something wrong simply by questioning someone's motives. That must be true because as Lewis later says, "But thought has no father but thought." I think it is utterly insane that so much of today's world - which is largely politically based - places the emphasis on motive rather than reason, as seen in today's justice system. We, as a society need to reevaluate the simple basics of what upholds the world we live in, especially our justice system and relationships where we are too quick to make even the smallest judgements.

"Meditation in a Toolshe"

When first asked to read this little bit of writing by C.S. Lewis I did not know what to expect as I had never read the smallest bit of his writing before. However, right from the start I was able to see his writing style and the depth at which he wrote with. I found myself extremely confused and not understanding what he was saying; only getting a general idea. Perhaps as I read more of his writing on an array of topics I’ll be able to understand his ideas and get to know him.

On the second page of “Meditation in a Toolshed,” I finally understood the importance and relevance of looking along something and looking at something when he wrote that, “In other words, you can step outside one experience only by stepping inside another.” I interpreted that to mean that you can never only look along or look at something, but you must do both to find true meaning in whatever you are dealing with. I do not know whether or not that’s how he intended that to be read, but that’s how I read it and I think that was consistent with the overall message. This is key because as he explained with his example of interpretations of love by a boyfriend and a scientist, we know that there is no one truth to anything. I found that to be very consistent with the idea that Calvin is a liberal arts college and that we need to be educated in not just our field of choice, but many diverse fields to be successful in life.

In our discussion I really liked how Will Montei said that C.S. Lewis “intends on relating it to Christianity, but never does.” I never would have thought of his writing in that way, but then again I have not been immersed in his writing before now. For the most part it seemed as if everyone in the class interpreted the passage in the same way, although there was some variation in the importance people thought should be placed on looking at and looking along something. Finally, I loved the example Mrs. Ribeiro gave with Christ’s life and how he gave us a chance to actually look at him as Christians rather than solely looking along and experiencing faith.