Lewis' Dangerous Idea

C.S. Lewis has always been popular among evangelicals, and with the recent release of the Narnia movie, he has hit another peak in his popularity. This is a good thing. But how thorough is our understanding of Lewis’ other writings and teachings? We know about Narnia, and we know his Mere Christianity, but there are depths in his writings that maybe we haven’t plunged to yet.

One of those depths occurs in his book Miracles, when Lewis constructs an argument that is intended to strengthen the case for theism and weaken the case for naturalism. The argument, sometimes called the argument from reason, is the subject of a recent book by Victor Reppert called, “C.S. Lewis’ Dangerous Idea.” The dangerous idea is that the very process of thinking and coming to true or false conclusions is a reason to believe that the Christian worldview is the right one. In short, the crux of Lewis’ argument is that if the universe is nothing but physical matter, we shouldn’t be able to reason, because reasoning is a non-physical activity. But because we clearly can reason, there must be more to the universe, like minds, souls, and even a God.

Think of it this way. You are on a trip to southern California, and you wake up in the back seat of a car to see the word “Hollywood” spelled out on the side of a hill. You rightly assume you have actually reached Hollywood because reasoning people put those letters there for a reason. If “Hollywood” happened to be a word spelled out in leaves blown there by the wind, you would have no good reason to believe you were at your destination. It took a mind to communicate truth to you, and that means that naturalism is probably false.

Lewis is not just a devotional treasure; he stands as a wonderful Christian apologist whose writings continue to stand as a solid defense of Christianity.