Breakfast With Mr. Lewis, Part 1

The Scene: A Saturday breakfast meeting between C.S. Lewis, the tutor, and one of his students, the week following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.  Quotes from “Mere Christianity.”

Student: Good morning Mr. Lewis! Finally, some spring weather, thank God.                    

Lewis: Ah my young friend, so you have come to believe in God!

Student: No, but good try, professor.  You know that I doubt there is a God. In fact, after the news of the Boston Marathon bombing I am more persuaded that there is not a God. The whole world seems to have just gone spinning out of control.  Whatever religion there is seems to be of a sort which drives people to kill each other more than love each other.  But, I hope they bring justice to the bombers!

Lewis:  Well, on that happy note, shall we order breakfast? Not sure where our server is though…Young man, why does the Boston bombing persuade you of anything about God?

Student: Well, how can you say there is a God, Mr. Lewis, when all around us there is chaos and confusion and senseless murder and destruction?  A world this mixed up cannot prove there is a God.

Lewis: Actually, it does, in a way.  Let me ask you this: would you say that the bomb-making brothers were committing an act of evil?

Student: It certainly wasn’t “good”, so I guess it must be evil. Unless of course there is no such thing as “good” or “evil.” But, yes, I suppose I would agree that putting a bomb in crowd is a picture of “evil” at work. And doesn’t that prove the point I have been trying to make this semester…if there is a God who is good, then how can there be evil?  Answer that one, if you can!

Lewis: “A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line…If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out  that it has no meaning…”  You see, the fact that you can describe the placing of a bomb in a crowd as an evil act does not prove there is no God. It proves instead that you know there is a difference between good and evil. And where would you get this idea, that there is a difference between straight and crooked, between good and evil, unless there is some source of good, of justice, of light, outside of this world? “If there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”  And this, my young friend, is why I keep saying to you “atheism is too simple.” If there is no God, then from where would spring your idea of good and evil, of justice for the bomber?  But, let’s continue our conversation after we place our order, shall we?