Mere Christianity

I had difficulty believing that it could be proved that a natural law exists. But Lewis’s highly distilled version of a moral law proved quite difficult to deny. The fact that all men have an idea of what they “ought” to do, a feeling independent of personal desires indicates a moral standard higher than one that humans can uphold. Lewis points out that the only way we can blame people for anything is if we believe there is a common moral standard shared by all. We must believe that there is something beyond our own perceptions that dictates truth. Even the possibility of argument is grounded in an objective moral standard.

C.S. Lewis went on to point out that our moral sense cannot be simple instinct because we know, or at least recognize in others, that instincts can be taken too far. As Lewis points out, even innocent impulses like mothering instincts, can turn quite cruel, and cause a parent to treat other children unfairly. We would do well to heed Lewis’s warning that we must not let impulses become confused with the moral law. Just because we entertain a loyalty to our friends, we must not let that loyalty guide us into extremes. In fact, loyalty can be deadly. It was Hitler’s fierce loyalty to Germany that led him to seek its revival and make a scapegoat of the Jews for Germany’s problems.

So, if this moral law cannot be explained as an impulse (which, I think, is how it is generally explained away today), then we face a real problem. We face a moral law that is undeniable, because each one of us has experienced it, yet cannot be explained within this natural world. We are left with little choice except to acknowledge that there must be something beyond.