Over the past couple of weeks I have not written any posts on C.S. Lewis and Mere Christianity. A friend of mine suggested I get back to it, and so since someone who takes the time to read my blog made a request, your wish is my command.
In Book 3 of Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis addresses the topic of Christian behavior and that whole topic of morality in general: How is a Christian to live? What constitutes living morally? What about a host of “moral issues” that people wrestle with every day? Well, Lewis shares quite a few thoughts in this section of Mere Christianity, and they no doubt should provoke a lot of thought and discussion. So let’s dive in…
What is Morality?
When you think of morality, what do you think of? Most people, as Lewis rightly points out, tend to think of morality in two ways: first, having to do things you really don’t want to do; and second, not doing the things you really want to do. Isn’t that true? Isn’t that how we often think morality basically is—the way God makes sure we don’t have any fun? Don’t we view morality as the stuff that interferes with what we naturally want to do?
Well, to a certain extent that’s true. But Lewis points out that human beings in their current state are broken. I would add that human beings are, if you will, “sin addicts”—there are things we “naturally” want to do that are actually bad for us, and addict us further to despair and brokenness. Our “natural” inclinations are actually wrong. Morality, therefore, provides the rules that tell us how things are supposed to work. At first, these rules seem “unnatural” to us—and they are, just like not drinking that bottle of whiskey seems “unnatural” to an alcoholic. It is hard and painful and frustrating at first, but in the long run you’ll be better off for it. Besides, if we’re honest, that alcoholic downing the bottle of whiskey isn’t really happy or having a good time anyway.
Similarly, much of what we do doesn’t make us happy. We hide behind a façade of lightheartedness and pop culture shallowness, but inside we are bound to despair. Maybe we need to admit that whatever we are doing really doesn’t make us happy. Maybe living morally, although hard at first, really is the way to go.
Now no one can really live a perfect moral life. That isn’t an excuse not to try though. A Hall of Fame baseball player might have a .300 batting average, which means he failed 70% of the time. Still, the commitment and dedication he put into baseball throughout his career has (hopefully) made him a much better and more disciplined person. In a similar way, we should all try to live a perfect moral life because, strangely enough, even in our failings there is something we can learn from that will make us better people.
Three Parts of Morality
In order to understand “morality,” and how human beings have gone wrong, Lewis provides an excellent analogy of a fleet of ships. The first way things go wrong is when people (like ships) collide and run into each other, be it through cheating, bullying, or whatever—people’s actions affect (and often hurt) other people. The second way things go wrong is when things get mixed up inside the individual person.
Now it should be easy to see how these first two ways relate to each other. If you are screwed up inside (like a leaky, broken down boat with a bad rudder), it is only a matter of time until you collide with and damage someone else. And if someone collides into you, even if your own boat is in relative “ship shape,” that collision is going to damage you. Therefore, if we are to understand morality, we have to realize that individual decisions do eventually affect others. The whole “It’s okay as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else” is a crock: eventually, your bad choices will hurt someone else. Thus, we find there is an inevitable connection between “private” and “public” morality.
The third part of morality, to continue with the ship analogy, deals with where the fleet is going. This is what Lewis calls the general purpose of human life: What is humankind made for? Where is the fleet going? If individuals have different ideas regarding the direction society should go (we can see this in our politics), those individual boats (which are broken in and of themselves) are going to go off in different directions, and that will lead to collisions, which will lead to further damage to the fleet.
Can You See the Problem Now?
If we understand these three parts of morality, it gives us a clearer picture of our society, both on an individual level and a larger societal level—it helps explain the reason why we are so screwed up. And that is why purely political solutions will never work by themselves. As Lewis correctly says, what good is it telling all the ships how to steer and avoid collisions, if many of them are so broken that they can’t steer properly in the first place? What is the good for making laws (or international agreements) when the greed, cowardice, pride, and lust of individuals will make it impossible to keep them?
We need to realize, as Lewis says, “You cannot make men good by law; and without good men you cannot have a good society.” In addition, we need to realize that different beliefs about the universe will inevitably lead to different behavior. This is where “religion” comes in to play. Lewis therefore ends this chapter by stating that Christianity asserts that every person is going to live forever—this is either true or false. If it is true, then we are going to see that there are a whole bunch of things in this life that take on more importance, and a whole bunch of things that will be seen as not so important.
Simply put, that fact will affect how you live and will affect our understanding of moral living. We are not in a position to discuss the specifics of Christian morality. Tomorrow: the Cardinal Virtues. In the mean time, let me suggest a thought experiment. Assess your own moral life. Be honest. Where are you doing pretty well? Where do you find yourself screwing up? What parts of your life do you struggle with, but that you think you are up to the challenge? How have your actions and choices affected the lives of others? And finally, what do you think the purpose of life is?
Chew on those questions a bit.
