tweetsdaa.blogg.se - Cs lewis book the problem of pain

So where does awe come from? Either awe is a random artifact of the human mind, or it is a real experience - a revelation. One could not explain why an object is beautiful to a creature without aesthetic experience, even if he explained all the facts of the object to him. Nothing about the natural world would lead man to fear this type of supernatural being but the feeling comes from man's interpretation of the universe. Lewis argues that it is impossible to infer such a feeling from the facts of the universe. The feeling you felt, that is the awe and dread, and the spirit would be the Numinous. Suppose you believed a mighty spirit were in the room with you. He defines Numinous, an object which brings about a sense of dread within us. When he uses these words, he means something different than fear. Now Lewis is breaking down religion into its various components, and examining them. Remember, we're discussing the origin of religion here. Lewis ponders the source of human awe and dread, which are elements of religion.

Three aspects of religion that cannot be explained by facts of the natural world.

So it is obvious that man was aware of pain and suffering, before our present day. But Lewis argues that old writings demonstrate prehistoric man's fascination and fear of the universe.

Perhaps religion came from the minds of simpler humans, whose ignorance produced a non-negative, pleasing conception of the world and thus led to the idea of a benevolent creator.

Why would man have ever conceived of such a God in the first place? Who, living in a fallen world like ours, one destined to extinguish with all life erased from memory, would posit that it was made by an all-loving God? He argues it is unreasonable to think that such a conception simply emerged out of the minds of men.

He then notes the difficulty of squaring this fact with man's conceiving of an all-loving, benevolent God. The Problem: Lewis identifies 'the problem' - the fact that everyone recognizes there is evil in the world.