Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books (mostly)

Because They Are Right

Because They Are Right

Are things right because they are right?

Or are they right by sovereign decree?

This is an interesting point.

And I think it might be a bit like two sides of the same coin, for you can never have one, absent the other.

Does that make sense?

Lying is wrong because it is wrong. And at the same time – a just God could never say that lying was right.

A moral lawgiver is righteous and just – because it is in his very nature.

Understand: Stopping your child from lying is simple, but not easy.

It has sometimes been asked whether God commands certain things because they are right, or whether certain things are right because God commands them. With Hooker, and against Dr Johnson, I emphatically embrace the first alternative.

-C.S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain (Amazon)

How Philosophy Is About Meaning, Not Comfort

How Philosophy Is About Meaning, Not Comfort

The reason that theology is often only there for emergencies is the same fundamental reason that philosophy is only worried about in times of both suffering and hedonism.

It has nothing to do with a person’s relative level of pleasure or pain. It’s about meaning and purpose – not comfort.

Understand: Purposelessness is found in both extreme pain and pleasure.

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us. We ‘have all we want’ is a terrible saying when ‘all’ does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St Augustine says somewhere, ‘God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there’s nowhere for Him to put it.’ Or as a friend of mine said, ‘We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; its there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.’

-C.S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain (Amazon)

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