Friday, May 07, 2004
Because you can never have too much C.S. Lewis
I'd like to continue the discussion Kevin and Vincent are having here on The Divine Command Theory of Ethics.
I agree with everything Kevin's said so far. But I'd kind of like to branch off on a little side topic, and give one more reason why sin is sin.
Sin is bad because it hurts people. C.S. Lewis manages to say it with much bigger words in one of his apologies, but I can't seem to find the quote, so the following is my paraphrase. Anything that God has outlawed, is outlawed because it is harmful to us. For example, hunger is a perfectly natural impulse. Food is one of my favorite gifts from God. (Oooh, chocolate...) But sin takes that hunger and twists it into gluttony or into eating disorders. Lewis has a wonderful sentence that goes something like, "Sin is doing a good thing at the wrong time or place, in the wrong quantity, to or with the wrong person." Sexual sin, likewise, is having a perfectly wonderful experience (see where Paul commands married couples to have lots and lots of hot, wild sex in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5), but having it at the wrong time or place, in the wrong quantity, with the wrong person.
Just as our existence is contingent, so is sin's. Sin creates nothing new; sin takes God's creation and warps it. Satan was created by God and ultimately subservient to Him. After all, the devil is a genius at manipulating people; where did that intelligence come from? He is the most beautiful and terrible of all the angels; where did that power come from? Existence, in and of itself, is a good thing. Therefore, there is no such thing as 'pure evil'. In order for evil to exist, it must have some good in it.
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I agree with everything Kevin's said so far. But I'd kind of like to branch off on a little side topic, and give one more reason why sin is sin.
Sin is bad because it hurts people. C.S. Lewis manages to say it with much bigger words in one of his apologies, but I can't seem to find the quote, so the following is my paraphrase. Anything that God has outlawed, is outlawed because it is harmful to us. For example, hunger is a perfectly natural impulse. Food is one of my favorite gifts from God. (Oooh, chocolate...) But sin takes that hunger and twists it into gluttony or into eating disorders. Lewis has a wonderful sentence that goes something like, "Sin is doing a good thing at the wrong time or place, in the wrong quantity, to or with the wrong person." Sexual sin, likewise, is having a perfectly wonderful experience (see where Paul commands married couples to have lots and lots of hot, wild sex in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5), but having it at the wrong time or place, in the wrong quantity, with the wrong person.
Just as our existence is contingent, so is sin's. Sin creates nothing new; sin takes God's creation and warps it. Satan was created by God and ultimately subservient to Him. After all, the devil is a genius at manipulating people; where did that intelligence come from? He is the most beautiful and terrible of all the angels; where did that power come from? Existence, in and of itself, is a good thing. Therefore, there is no such thing as 'pure evil'. In order for evil to exist, it must have some good in it.
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