Natural Law, God, Human Nature

The point at which the two converge briefly is that of natural law. Lewis simply concludes, at least as far as this essay goes, that "Something," "a Director, a Power, a Guide" (Lewis 146), is the source of the "influence or . . . command" (Lewis 146) "pressing" (Lewis 144) upon one inside, inside one's mind, telling one to do good and making one feel "uncomfortable" (Lewis 146) when one does not do good and does bad. Lewis refers to this as "the Law of Human Nature" (Lewis 143) and goes on to "assume" that the "Something" behind this Law "is more like a mind than it is like anything else we know" (Lewis 146). Lewis does not even use the word "God" until the final paragraph, but it is clear that he believe God is the source of the Law and of the voice of that Law in human minds.

On the other hand, Russell does not deal at all with this "influence" or "command," unless one feels that his smug dismissal of the religious impulse as entirely "emotional" (Russell 156) is, in fact, his full view of the human conscience which everyone experiences. Russell also writes that "Most people believe in God because they have been

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g others to believe that He was! No person who believes that Jesus was "not divine" be considered a Christian. Russell dismisses any God- or Christ-based morality just as he dismisses Christ himself as a good, wise or humane person, much less divine. Morality, to Russell, is alone the purview of the thinking, human atheist who uses his reason to see that one should be kind, intelligent, free, self-respecting, courageous, and hopeful (Russell 158). However, Russell unfortunately leaves out the reason why one should practice such virtues. One could just as well look at the world, see how selfish, cruel, and ignorant most people are, as Russell does, and conclude that one might as well crush such unworthy beings and take from them whatever they desire. If there is no God, No Christ, no religion, no overriding force of goodness at work in the world, then why should one be good oneself, in apparent defiance of the general absence of goodness? It would seem to be at least just as reasonable to kill as many of these pitifully ignorant and uneducable Christians who are causing such damage in the world! While Russell is meanly and contemptuously trashing religion, especially Christianity, Lewis shows nothing but respect for science, ar
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Approximate Word count = 1743
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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