“As a matter of fact, I am sure the opposite is the case and that materialist atheism is not merely an arid creed, but totally irrational. Materialist atheism says we are just a collection of chemicals. It has no answer whatsoever to the question of how we should be capable of love or heroism or poetry if we are simply animated pieces of meat.” -A.N. Wilson, “Religion of hatred”
Category Archives: Man in His Original State
In Glory, We Will Fulfill the Command
“The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.” -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The Problem with Dualism
“Actually, dualism turns evil into a metaphysical principle, equal ultimately with good. Dualism grants evil a place with good, within some kind of order. Indignation at its presence thus becomes pointless. Berkouwer makes the incisive comment: ‘Dualism is only a cosmic excuse in metaphysical garb.’ But sin in experience and in the doctrine of original sin is literally atopos–a word used in the New Testament for people who behave ‘out of order,’ with malignant motives (2 Thess. 3:2).” Henri Blocher, Original Sin: Illuminating the Riddle, pg. 93
BW COMMENT: What this means is that if one holds to a dualistic view of good and evil, as always eternally present, battle with evil becomes pointless because you can never defeat. All concern for justice is a fruitless waste of time and contrary to the very fabric of the universe, itself. For good to truly be a purposeful endeavor, evil must be an intruder in the world.
Illustrations: Value of Humanity
“However that may be, it is certain that the whole argument from size [the universe is too big and we are too small for us to be created and valued by God] ought to coincide with differences of value: for unless they do, there is, of course, no reason why the minute earth and the yet smaller human creatures upon it should not be the most important things in a universe that contains the spiral nebulae. Now, is this assumption rational or emotional? I feel, as well as anyone else, the absurdity of supposing that the galaxy could be of less moment in God’s eyes than such an atom or human being. But I notice that I feel no similar absurdity in supposing that a man of five-feet high may be more important than another man who is five-feet three and a half–nor that a man may matter more than a tree, or a brain more than a leg… If size and value had any real connexion, small differences in size would accompany small differences in value as surely as large differences in size accompany large differences value. But no sane man could suppose that this is so. I don’t think a taller man slightly more valuable than the shorter one. I don’t allow a slight superiority of trees over men, and then neglect it because it is too small to bother about. I perceive, as long as I am dealing with the small differences of size, that they have no connexion with value whatsoever. I therefore conclude that the importance attached to the great differences of size is an affair, not of reason but of emotion…” -CS Lewis, God in the Dock, pp. 41
A Pilgrim's Theology 