We learn in science class that there is a difference between a “law” and a “theory.” Laws are theories that have been proven over and over again from multiple different angles and have held firm. A classic example that Lewis mentions several times throughout the first book is the Law of Universal Gravitation. I found it interesting that he describes the Law of Human Nature as a law and claims that we have confused it with other laws such as the Law of Universal Gravitation. I wondered throughout this reading whether it would’ve been more appropriate to refer to it as the “Theory of Human Nature?’ He spends a lot of time in this reading making a stance for why the LOHM does exist and should be believed. Substituting “theory” for “law” in almost all instances the LOHM was mentioned helped me better understand what Lewis was trying to say.
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I agree with Lewis’s idea that we all essentially understand the LOHM, but, for whatever reason, choose not to follow it. This, to me, spoke about human integrity. Choosing “good” or “right” isn’t always easy. It likely isn’t easy even a fraction of the time, much less the majority. Many people claim to have integrity, and they certainly do when it comes to others. They would never miss a lunch date or fail to turn in an assignment at work. But, much like the idea that we make concessions and excuses for ourselves, we also lack integrity when it comes to ourselves. We break the promises we make to ourselves — “I’ll start going to the gym next month. Okay, this week, the diet starts for real. I’m going to go back to school this fall and finish my degree.” Over time, this behavior becomes habitual. Failures and broken promises multiply, which then diminishes the trust and confidence we have in ourselves and the validity of our own word with ourselves.
I think this damaged self-image feeds in to some of the interactions Lewis was referring to in Book 3. With our own wounded and mistrusting view of ourselves, we start trying to label the behavior of other humans and determine their intent. Was their offense to you purposeful or accidental? Then, we base our reactions accordingly. Stack on a culture that feeds on distraction through clickbait or ragebait and an economy whose hottest commodity is your time and attention, and you have a vicious feedback loop that makes it extremely challenging to follow the LOHM, even if you want to. It is easy and feels normalized to develop and opinion on every single issue, almost as if you’re wrong if you aren’t mad about something. We are set up to forget that everyone is more alike than different and that most people are not acting out of malice or hatred.
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The herd instinct Lewis mentions in Book 2 was an idea I hadn’t encountered before. This idea interested me because the USA is typically considered an individualistic society (vs a pluralistic one). I think this ties into another common issue we see in today’s world — everyone wants to have a village, but (speaking in broad strokes) nobody wants to be a villager. It feels good to be the helper or the hero in any given situation, but we freeze and shy away when the roles are reversed and it is our turn to seek and accept assistance. This deficiency, I think, plays into the instinctual dilemma Lewis described in this chapter, and a greater willingness to “be a villager” would go a long way to bolster the instincts related to the LOHM.
How I understood the Law of Human Morality in the way he described it was that it was similar to other Laws like Gravitation in that it was pressing down on us, the Law of Human Morality is bearing down on us, but unlike our inability to rebel against the Law of Gravitation, we have the ability to rebel against the Law of Human Morality. It is a Law in that it is universally imposed upon all humans, but we have this unique ability to choose not to obey it. But I agree it can be a little hard to follow Lewis semantically, especially because of our modern education and the gap in language/influences.
And I really liked his relating it to the herd instinct, establishing that even if the LOHM encouraged some some of those herd instincts, that it could not itself BE an instinct. The LOHM is what guides us in how to wield our instincts properly. The instincts are notes on the piano, the LOHM is the sheet music directing you when and how to play them.
It was a great read and I don't have much to add to what you said, Ty. I just love that what he wrote all those years ago is still as relevant today as it was then. But thus is truth...unchanging and forever relevant.
Was discussing that idea with a couple guys at church today! When he is unpacking the two views to explain the universe, Materialism and Religion, he tells his readers not to think that one of these views is old and the other is new. "Wherever there have been thinking men both views turn up," he says in chapter 4. The ideas Lewis is bringing to light are persistently a part of the human experience and nature. And like you said, the truths he touches on are timeless.
Once you read the old testament enough times, you realize exactly how cyclical our sinfulness is. It is like a pendulum swinging back and forth. We get almost too good (and judge excessively), then it swings to the middle where we are exactly where God wants us, then we continue the swing to the evil side when we require a severe push (and often times punishment is involved) to send the pendulum back towards the middle. That happened over and over throughout the old testament. So when we think we are being unique in our sins, we are really just repeating what has happened over and over throughout history. Which makes CS Lewis still so relevant almost 80 years later. I sometimes wonder how frustrating that must be to God. 🙃
C.S. Lewis blows my mind (or just goes over my head 😉) with his amazing tidbits of wisdom. I would love to witness Solomon in all his God-given wisdom have a conversation with Lewis 😁 I doubt I'd comprehend even a quarter of the convo.
Anyway! I underlined this quote at the end of chapter one: "For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations ... we put our good temper down to ourselves."
How humbling and true! And, misery does love company, because I'm glad I'm not alone in this. My fellow human beings are inclined to do the same as I 🙃
I underlined some more things throughout, but don't want to bore anyone 😅
It posted my comment before I was done (I should take that as a sign to stop while I'm ahead 😅), but here I go 🤷♀️
It was already mentioned the almost chilling quote from chapter 5: "God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from."
I was reminded of Revelation 6:16. Everyone hid themselves in the mountains and cried out to the mountains and rocks "fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne."
Ahh, yes we are so willing to take credit for our virtuous behavior and so quick to make excuses for the less than virtuous things we do! That is a really funny thing about human nature. But it is a part of our nature we must resist, taking responsibility for our shortcomings and living in repentance. Easy to say, hard to do.
And thanks for sharing that reference from Revelation! That draws me to such gratitude for the grace He has show to me and His people, that we don't have to live in fear. We can look forward to His coming and rejoice when we meet with Him, for He has made us His friends! What a thing to be a friend of God.
Thanks for sharing, Shalisa. Your thoughts edifying, definitely not boring!
I've studied Revelations many times and the thing that just struck me reading your quote was how full circle it is. They hid in the Garden of Eden after biting the apple and having their eyes opened, and then hid again at the end when they realize their sinfulness and the coming judgment. I'll have to think about that some more. Thank you!!
That would definitely be an interesting conversation to hear between Solomon and Lewis. 😁
You hit on several of the ideas I highlighted while reading. I thought he did an amazing job of setting the stage for the God conversation.
The first section that really struck a cord for me was on page 11. "Think once again of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the 'right' notes and the 'wrong' ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts." This likely struck me because I played an instrument for years. And while a wrong note played can cause an error within that particular song, that note played correctly within another song is perfection. Directly before that quote they talk of a mother's love. Being a mother and now grandmother makes me want to take away all the ails that come with growing up. But I recognized that by doing that all of the time, I was hindering growth. Sometimes we learn the most in the painful moments.
Looking at it from that perspective, we have to look at our instinctual feeling and determine if this is something we should act on (is this the appropriate time for this particular action) or should we hold off and allow what should happen to happen. That ties into your quote from page 30 about Moral Law being hard as nails. Sometimes, doing the right thing, is really tough. I believe that in those moments, God is pushing us to grow in our relationship with him. He never said being a believer would be all lollipops and gum drops. Sometimes, we must experience strife and suffering to gain the perspectives he needs us to have. He very well could be preparing us for something in the future and we need that experience to help us process it. This quote from page 31 ties into that thought for me. "God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies." I have found that the more I work on my relationship with God, the more terrified I become. Because now I know what sin is and what the ramifications can be for my eternity.
There was a lot to unpack with this first Book. So this is my initial thoughts. I am excited to see where he goes from here.
He gets to this at the end of chapter 5 as well, that God's answer to all of these questions is God becoming man in Christ, dying, and rising! And so, the paradox of God being the thing we most need and also the thing we most want to hide from is solved perfectly in Jesus: He takes the punishment for our guilt upon himself and gives us himself and his righteousness. We no longer have to fear God because He has secured our salvation and we get what we most need by God adopting us as His children through faith in His Son.
I also found very helpful his imagery of the piano with notes as instincts and the Moral Law as the music directing which notes to be played at what time. We have to grow in wisdom through meditation on His word to better discern when to play what notes, how to implement the Moral Law.
A few ideas that stuck out to me:
We learn in science class that there is a difference between a “law” and a “theory.” Laws are theories that have been proven over and over again from multiple different angles and have held firm. A classic example that Lewis mentions several times throughout the first book is the Law of Universal Gravitation. I found it interesting that he describes the Law of Human Nature as a law and claims that we have confused it with other laws such as the Law of Universal Gravitation. I wondered throughout this reading whether it would’ve been more appropriate to refer to it as the “Theory of Human Nature?’ He spends a lot of time in this reading making a stance for why the LOHM does exist and should be believed. Substituting “theory” for “law” in almost all instances the LOHM was mentioned helped me better understand what Lewis was trying to say.
—————————
I agree with Lewis’s idea that we all essentially understand the LOHM, but, for whatever reason, choose not to follow it. This, to me, spoke about human integrity. Choosing “good” or “right” isn’t always easy. It likely isn’t easy even a fraction of the time, much less the majority. Many people claim to have integrity, and they certainly do when it comes to others. They would never miss a lunch date or fail to turn in an assignment at work. But, much like the idea that we make concessions and excuses for ourselves, we also lack integrity when it comes to ourselves. We break the promises we make to ourselves — “I’ll start going to the gym next month. Okay, this week, the diet starts for real. I’m going to go back to school this fall and finish my degree.” Over time, this behavior becomes habitual. Failures and broken promises multiply, which then diminishes the trust and confidence we have in ourselves and the validity of our own word with ourselves.
I think this damaged self-image feeds in to some of the interactions Lewis was referring to in Book 3. With our own wounded and mistrusting view of ourselves, we start trying to label the behavior of other humans and determine their intent. Was their offense to you purposeful or accidental? Then, we base our reactions accordingly. Stack on a culture that feeds on distraction through clickbait or ragebait and an economy whose hottest commodity is your time and attention, and you have a vicious feedback loop that makes it extremely challenging to follow the LOHM, even if you want to. It is easy and feels normalized to develop and opinion on every single issue, almost as if you’re wrong if you aren’t mad about something. We are set up to forget that everyone is more alike than different and that most people are not acting out of malice or hatred.
—————————
The herd instinct Lewis mentions in Book 2 was an idea I hadn’t encountered before. This idea interested me because the USA is typically considered an individualistic society (vs a pluralistic one). I think this ties into another common issue we see in today’s world — everyone wants to have a village, but (speaking in broad strokes) nobody wants to be a villager. It feels good to be the helper or the hero in any given situation, but we freeze and shy away when the roles are reversed and it is our turn to seek and accept assistance. This deficiency, I think, plays into the instinctual dilemma Lewis described in this chapter, and a greater willingness to “be a villager” would go a long way to bolster the instincts related to the LOHM.
How I understood the Law of Human Morality in the way he described it was that it was similar to other Laws like Gravitation in that it was pressing down on us, the Law of Human Morality is bearing down on us, but unlike our inability to rebel against the Law of Gravitation, we have the ability to rebel against the Law of Human Morality. It is a Law in that it is universally imposed upon all humans, but we have this unique ability to choose not to obey it. But I agree it can be a little hard to follow Lewis semantically, especially because of our modern education and the gap in language/influences.
And I really liked his relating it to the herd instinct, establishing that even if the LOHM encouraged some some of those herd instincts, that it could not itself BE an instinct. The LOHM is what guides us in how to wield our instincts properly. The instincts are notes on the piano, the LOHM is the sheet music directing you when and how to play them.
Love how deep you dug into this section, Alyssa!
It was a great read and I don't have much to add to what you said, Ty. I just love that what he wrote all those years ago is still as relevant today as it was then. But thus is truth...unchanging and forever relevant.
Was discussing that idea with a couple guys at church today! When he is unpacking the two views to explain the universe, Materialism and Religion, he tells his readers not to think that one of these views is old and the other is new. "Wherever there have been thinking men both views turn up," he says in chapter 4. The ideas Lewis is bringing to light are persistently a part of the human experience and nature. And like you said, the truths he touches on are timeless.
Once you read the old testament enough times, you realize exactly how cyclical our sinfulness is. It is like a pendulum swinging back and forth. We get almost too good (and judge excessively), then it swings to the middle where we are exactly where God wants us, then we continue the swing to the evil side when we require a severe push (and often times punishment is involved) to send the pendulum back towards the middle. That happened over and over throughout the old testament. So when we think we are being unique in our sins, we are really just repeating what has happened over and over throughout history. Which makes CS Lewis still so relevant almost 80 years later. I sometimes wonder how frustrating that must be to God. 🙃
C.S. Lewis blows my mind (or just goes over my head 😉) with his amazing tidbits of wisdom. I would love to witness Solomon in all his God-given wisdom have a conversation with Lewis 😁 I doubt I'd comprehend even a quarter of the convo.
Anyway! I underlined this quote at the end of chapter one: "For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations ... we put our good temper down to ourselves."
How humbling and true! And, misery does love company, because I'm glad I'm not alone in this. My fellow human beings are inclined to do the same as I 🙃
I underlined some more things throughout, but don't want to bore anyone 😅
I'll say
It posted my comment before I was done (I should take that as a sign to stop while I'm ahead 😅), but here I go 🤷♀️
It was already mentioned the almost chilling quote from chapter 5: "God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from."
I was reminded of Revelation 6:16. Everyone hid themselves in the mountains and cried out to the mountains and rocks "fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne."
May we run with fervor to our Savior's arms 🙌
Ahh, yes we are so willing to take credit for our virtuous behavior and so quick to make excuses for the less than virtuous things we do! That is a really funny thing about human nature. But it is a part of our nature we must resist, taking responsibility for our shortcomings and living in repentance. Easy to say, hard to do.
And thanks for sharing that reference from Revelation! That draws me to such gratitude for the grace He has show to me and His people, that we don't have to live in fear. We can look forward to His coming and rejoice when we meet with Him, for He has made us His friends! What a thing to be a friend of God.
Thanks for sharing, Shalisa. Your thoughts edifying, definitely not boring!
I've studied Revelations many times and the thing that just struck me reading your quote was how full circle it is. They hid in the Garden of Eden after biting the apple and having their eyes opened, and then hid again at the end when they realize their sinfulness and the coming judgment. I'll have to think about that some more. Thank you!!
That would definitely be an interesting conversation to hear between Solomon and Lewis. 😁
You hit on several of the ideas I highlighted while reading. I thought he did an amazing job of setting the stage for the God conversation.
The first section that really struck a cord for me was on page 11. "Think once again of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the 'right' notes and the 'wrong' ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts." This likely struck me because I played an instrument for years. And while a wrong note played can cause an error within that particular song, that note played correctly within another song is perfection. Directly before that quote they talk of a mother's love. Being a mother and now grandmother makes me want to take away all the ails that come with growing up. But I recognized that by doing that all of the time, I was hindering growth. Sometimes we learn the most in the painful moments.
Looking at it from that perspective, we have to look at our instinctual feeling and determine if this is something we should act on (is this the appropriate time for this particular action) or should we hold off and allow what should happen to happen. That ties into your quote from page 30 about Moral Law being hard as nails. Sometimes, doing the right thing, is really tough. I believe that in those moments, God is pushing us to grow in our relationship with him. He never said being a believer would be all lollipops and gum drops. Sometimes, we must experience strife and suffering to gain the perspectives he needs us to have. He very well could be preparing us for something in the future and we need that experience to help us process it. This quote from page 31 ties into that thought for me. "God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies." I have found that the more I work on my relationship with God, the more terrified I become. Because now I know what sin is and what the ramifications can be for my eternity.
There was a lot to unpack with this first Book. So this is my initial thoughts. I am excited to see where he goes from here.
He gets to this at the end of chapter 5 as well, that God's answer to all of these questions is God becoming man in Christ, dying, and rising! And so, the paradox of God being the thing we most need and also the thing we most want to hide from is solved perfectly in Jesus: He takes the punishment for our guilt upon himself and gives us himself and his righteousness. We no longer have to fear God because He has secured our salvation and we get what we most need by God adopting us as His children through faith in His Son.
I also found very helpful his imagery of the piano with notes as instincts and the Moral Law as the music directing which notes to be played at what time. We have to grow in wisdom through meditation on His word to better discern when to play what notes, how to implement the Moral Law.
Loved hearing your thoughts, Cynthia!