A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
C. S. LewisRead
Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that discovering the lack of meaning in the universe implies that there is, in fact, a deeper meaning to explore.
C. S. Lewis presents an argument against atheism by noting that the very act of recognizing the universe's lack of inherent meaning suggests a paradox. If everything were truly meaningless, we would not possess the consciousness or insight to question meaning itself, indicating that there might be a greater significance behind our existence and experiences.
In practice
In a debate about the meaning of life, I could quote Lewis to highlight the complexity of belief.
A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
I enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred
Weapons are ominous tools. They are abhorred by all creatures. Anyone who follows the Way shuns them.
But thus I counsel you, my friends: Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. They are people of a low sort and stock; the hangmen and the bloodhound look out of their faces. Mistrust all who talk much of their justice! Verily, their souls lack more than honey. And when they call themselves the good and the just, do not forget that they would be pharisees, if only they had-power.
All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.
Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action. It is not adopted in criticism of others in the slightest degree, but solely for the purpose of protecting ourselves. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American.
The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain.
Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect, from which all the passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal glory.
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