The Human Machine & Our Destiny

Book Club | Mere Christianity: Book 3 (chap. 1-4)

Welcome back, friend!

You made it to week 3 of Book Club.

Your ideas and insights have been a joy to engage with in the comments. And we’ve also been able to share dialogue with a bunch of you in person over the weeks, which has been especially fun.

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Before we begin chewing on the meat of this section, I’d like to highlight a couple ideas Lewis mentions that ought to guide our thinking through this book—and in our pursuit of wisdom, generally.

The first idea:

“Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party.” (p. 87)

This is a dangerous pitfall, and we will do well to avoid it. It is a temptation that people on both sides of every spectrum face while investigating the doctrines of Christianity—wishful thinking, confirmation bias, and inappropriately weaponizing Truth.

We cannot approach Christianity simply looking for it to support our own already established views. We must approach it seeking Truth—open to how it might confirm our current beliefs, and especially to how it might require changing our beliefs.

We are the ones that ought to bend to the Word—not the other way around.

Search your heart. Examine your self. Make sure you’re seeking with a right spirit.

The second idea:

“when Freud is talking about how to cure neurotics he is speaking as a specialist on his own subject, but when he goes on to talk general philosophy he is speaking as an amateur. It is therefore quite sensible to attend to him with respect in the one case and not in the other” (p. 89)

This advice from Lewis applies less to our study of this book, and more generally to our navigating the events, ideas, movements, and teachings of the world.

It’s in our nature to regard highly the opinions of a person who is intelligent and “educated.”

We will entertain the opinion of an astrophysicist on English literature analysis.

We will trust the hot-take of a civil engineer on the intersection of psychology and biology as it relates to Dissociative Identity Disorder.

We do this because we don’t value expertise enough. We think that if a person is smart and highly educated in one field, they have some authority in every other field. But this is simply not the case, and we have to keep that in the forefront of our minds as we’re constantly bombarded with 15 second “News” clips, hot-takes, and easily-digestible propaganda.

This is not to say we cannot listen to anyone speaking outside their area of expertise, or that we are not allowed to hold opinions on topics we are less educated in. This is to say we should use discernment when listening to people’s opinions and teachings. We should ask ourselves if their opinions can be trusted, and ultimately if they align with Truth.

I know those are less related to the material of Book 3, but they felt worth mentioning.

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Now, to the meat:

Book 3 is concerned with Christian Morality and our putting it into practice—what it means to behave as a Christian properly and improperly.

“every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before… all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself.” (p. 92)

This is quite the description of life, and the consequences of our myriad choices—each decision pushing us incrementally toward one state of being or another. There is no neutral—only progress toward heavenly-ness or regress toward hellish-ness.

This is why Lewis so insists on practicing virtue, or Christian Morality. Not that simply doing virtuous and moral things is the end in itself—for what God really wants is not mere obedience, but “people of a particular sort.” (p. 80)

God cares about our becoming.

He cares about what we are, not simply what we look to be. He is interested in our inmost self, which truthfully is a rather terrifying fact. Because, when I take a real look at the deepest parts of myself, I tend to find some rotten things I’d rather no one—especially God—know about. But thankfully, God is out to transform those parts of me, and of everyone who clings to Christ. As Lewis says,

“Each of them, if he seriously turns to God, can have that twist in the central man straightened out again” (p. 93)

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Then in Romans 8, “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…”

If you’re in Christ, friend, your destiny is fixed—your grand purpose and calling revealed: be conformed to the image of Christ.

Lewis says “morality” is concerned with three things:

1. harmony between individuals (playing nice with others)

2. harmony in the individuals (having ourselves in order)

3. the purpose of human life (acting according to the design of our Maker)

“moral rules are directions for running the human machine.” (p. 69)

We are to understand morality and the Laws disclosed to us in His Word as the parameters and operational instructions for the optimal performance and longevity of the “human machine.” They are not an arbitrary set of rules to blindly obey, they are the directions for how to use the machine as it was designed—so that it doesn’t break down or burst into flames.

But why run the human machine? What’s its purpose?

Image bearing.

We’re made in the image of God—to reflect His character and nature in the world: a frighteningly high calling.

And we might think we have the right to run the machine any way we like, but this is not the case:

“If somebody else made me, for his own purposes, then I shall have a lot of duties which I should not have if I simply belonged to myself.” (p. 74)

Lewis speaks in terms of duty. It is our duty to run the human machine according to the design specifications—to follow the Law of Christian Morality. And, as Lewis points out, this is a call to perfection and an ideal that every one of us must aim for when operating the human machine.

But, when we are confronted with an ideal, our inability to meet the standard of that ideal becomes immediately and alarmingly apparent. We fall short. We are not perfect. We make decision after decision into the great Regression—into Hell.

The human machine sputters to a stop. And like a car on the side of the road, broken down, the human machine cannot fix itself. It must be fixed by someone else.

We are not our own, have fallen short of the purpose given to us, and will bear the consequences of our error.

But One has come to our aid.

God became a man. He kept the Moral Law; and instead of enjoying the benefit of his righteousness, he endured the penalty for Man’s unrighteousness. He rose from the dead, defeating Death. He raises to Life all those who’s faith is in him. He is transforming them into the Humanity they were destined to be.

He fixes the human machine. He even transforms it into something better than it was before—total conformity to the Image—like turning my 2003 Toyota Matrix with a blown transmission in the mountains of Wyoming into a 2025 Ferrari F80. Unfortunately, he didn’t turn my broken Toyota into a Ferrari, but he has done something immeasurably greater.

He creates harmony within me. He teaches and empowers me to have harmony with those around me. He has restored me to harmony with the human purpose—guiding me towards my destiny of being like Him and with Him forever.

The greatest news in all the world. The Gospel, which we so delight in.

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That feels like the right place for me to stop. The floor is open to you now:

• what ideas from this section stood out to you?

• did anything challenge or change beliefs you previously held?

• how does Lewis’ description of the high calling of Christian Morality move you to change and develop? to become a truly virtuous person?

• did his description of the relationship between Christianity and psychoanalysis make sense? why do you think he brought this into Book 3?

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Next week’s reading: Book 3, part 5-7 (p. 94-120 in most copies)