Posts Tagged ‘c.-s.-lewis’

How does "the universe exists" imply Christianity?

Monday, July 30th, 2007

C. S. Lewis wrote, in 1945:

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

Now, I perfectly understand that, if natural science isn’t among your interests, then the fact that the world around you seems so complex, sometimes so beautiful, and “just made for us”, the fact that there is both a) a universe, and b) life, can be interpreted as evidence of a creator deity. As I said, this is understandable.

What isn’t understandable is to see all that as proof of Christianity. Why not Islam? Judaism? Hinduism? Native American creation myths? How on earth does the fact that the universe exists become evidence that, for instance, there was a Jew called Jesus about 2000 years ago who was the son of the Old Testament god and “died for our sins”? How does one follow the other?

Lewis is guilty of the same error as Pascal when the latter invented his famous wager: “it’s Christianity or nothing”. It’s a pity when you can’t see further than the limits of your own education and traditions…