Sunday, December 21, 2008

Progress

I'm on a C.S. Lewis kick now. I went to the library here in town yesterday and picked up a copy of The Complete C.S. Lewis which includes seven of his classic works. I've read the Narnia books before and have heard alot about some of his non-ficition works, but have not read any of them myself before. A part of me figured the writing style would be old school and I would find it dry or hard to understand.

Last night I started reading Mere Christianity. I must say, I wish I had picked this up sooner. This is wonderful. It is divided into four "books", of which I read the first last night. In it he talks about how we can know that there is something greater than us out there, that there is absolute morality, right and wrong.

Below is a quote I found interesting.

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. . . There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistakes. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.

For some reason I tend to think at times that the world has just started going downhill recently. However, C.S. Lewis wrote this in 1952. And as he mentions in this "book" there have been those who have been determined to deny God's existence every since the beginning. We may be getting a bit more creative about it and pushing it a bit more, but there really is nothing new under the sun. Until we are willing to admit there is absolute truth and morality and are willing to deal with those consequences; admit there is a real God who is all-powerful and all-knowing; then we are on the wrong road in need of a U-Turn.

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