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Home › Books › God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics › RELIGION AND SCIENCEMIRACLES', SAID MY FRIEND. 'OH, COME. SCIENCE HAS knocked the bottom out of all that. We know that NChapter 7 of 45
RELIGION AND SCIENCEMIRACLES', SAID MY FRIEND. 'OH, COME. SCIENCE HAS knocked the bottom out of all that. We know that N
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Contents
CONTENTSPreface by Walter Hooper 7 PART II Evil and God 21 2 Miracles 25 3 Dogma and the Universe 38 4 Answers to Questi 2MIRACLESI HAVE KNOWN ONLY ONE PERSON IN MY LIFE WHO CLAIMED to have seen aghost. It was awoman; and the interesting thi 3DOGMA AND THE UNIVERSEIT IS ACOMMON REPROACH AGAINST CHRISTIANITY THAT ITS dogmas are unchanging, while human knowledge 4ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON CHRISTIANITY[The answers to questions printed here were given by Lewis at a`One Man Brains Trus 5MYTH BECAME FACTMY FRIEND CORINEUS HAS ADVANCED THE CHARGE THAT none of us are in fact Christians at all. According to 6`HORRID RED THINGS'M ANY THEOLOGIANS AND SOME SCIENTISTS ARE NOW READY to proclaim that the nineteenth century `conflic RELIGION AND SCIENCEMIRACLES', SAID MY FRIEND. 'OH, COME. SCIENCE HAS knocked the bottom out of all that. We know that N 8THE LAWS OF NATUREPOOR WOMAN,' SAID MY FRIEND. `ONE HARDLY KNOWS WHAT to say when they talk like that. She thinks her s 9THE GRAND MIRACLEO NE IS VERY OFTEN ASKED AT PRESENT WHETHER WE could not have aChristianity stripped, or, as people wh 10CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICSSOME OF YOU ARE PRIESTS AND SOME ARE LEADERS OF youth organizations.' Ihave little right to addre 11WORK AND PRAYEREVEN IF IGRANT YOUR POINT AND ADMIT THAT ANSWERS to prayer are theoretically possible, Ishall still thi 12MAN OR RABBIT?C AN'T YOU LEAD AGOOD LIFE WITHOUT BELIEVING IN Christianity?' This is the question on which Ihave been 13On The Transmission Of Christianity 1 14`Miserable Offenders'An Interpretation Of Prayer Book Languageo Ne Of The Advantages Of Having Awritten And Printed Se 15The Founding Of The Oxford Socratic Club' 16Religion Without Dogma?' 17SOME THOUGHTSAT FIRST SIGHT NOTHING SEEMS MORE OBVIOUS THAN THAT religious persons should care for the sick; no Christ 18`THE TROUBLE WITH "X"...'I SUPPOSE IMAY ASSUME THAT SEVEN OUT OF TEN OF THOSE who read these lines are in some kind of 19WHAT ARE WE TO MAKE OF JESUS CHRIST?WHAT ARE WE TO MAKE OF JESUS CHRIST? THIS IS Aquestion which has, in asense, afran 20The Pains Of Animalsa Problem In Theology' 21Is Theism Important?' 22REJOINDER TO DR PITTENGERTONE OF THE CHARGES DR NORMAN PITTENGER MAKES in his `Critique' in the October 1 Christian Ce IDANGERS OF NATIONAL REPENTANCETHE IDEA OF NATIONAL REPENTANCE SEEMS AT FIRST SIGHT to provide such an edifying contrast 2TWO WAYS WITH THE SELFSELF-RENUNCIATION IS THOUGHT TO BE, AND INDEED IS, very near the core of Christian ethics. When A 3MEDITATION ON THE THIRD COMMANDMENTFROM MANY LETTERS TO The Guardian,' AND FROM MUCH that is printed elsewhere, we lear 4On The Reading Of Old Books' 5TWO LECTURESAND SO', SAID THE LECTURER, `I END WHERE IBEGAN. Evolution, development, the slow struggle upwards and onwa 6MEDITATION IN ATOOLSHEDI WAS STANDING TODAY IN THE DARK TOOLSHED. THE SUN was shining outside and through the crack at SCRAPS1YES,' MY FRIEND SAID. `I DON'T SEE WHY THERE SHOULDN'T be books in Heaven. But you will find that your library in 8THE DECLINE OF RELIGIONFROM WHAT ISEE OF JUNIOR OXFORD AT PRESENT IT would be quite easy to draw opposite conclusions a 9VIVISECTIONI TIS THE RAREST THING IN THE WORLD TO HEAR ARATIONAL discussion of vivisection. Those who disapprove of it 10MODERN TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLEI TIS POSSIBLE THAT THE READER WHO OPENS THIS VOLUME' on the counter of abookshop may 11PRIESTESSES IN THE CHURCH?I SHOULD LIKE BALLS INFINITELY BETTER', SAID CAROLINE Bingley, `if they were carried on in a 12GOD IN THE DOCKI HAVE BEEN ASKED TO WRITE ABOUT THE DIFFICULTIES which aman must face in trying to present the Christi 13BEHIND THE SCENESWHEN IWAS TAKEN TO THE THEATRE AS ASMALL BOY what interested me most of all was the stage scenery. Th 14REVIVAL OR DECAY?BUT WOULD YOU DENY', SAID THE HEADMASTER, `THAT there is, here in the West, agreat, even growing, int 15BEFORE WE CAN COMMUNICATEI HAVE BEEN ASKED TO WRITE ABOUT `THE PROBLEM OF COMmunication'; by which my inquirer meant ` 2FIRST AND SECOND THINGSWHEN IREAD IN Time and Tide ON JUNE 6 [1942] THAT the Germans have selected Hagen in preference 3THE SERMON AND THE LUNCHAND SO', SAID THE PREACHER, `THE HOME MUST BE THE foundation of our national life. It is there, 4THE HUMANITARIAN THEORY OF PUNISHMENTIN ENGLAND WE HAVE LATELY HAD ACONTROVERSY ABOUT Capital Punishment. Ido not know 6WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO METHREE THINGS GO BY THE NAME OF CHRISTMAS. ONE IS Areligious festival. This is important and o DELINQUENTS IN THE SNOWVOICES 'OFF', OUTSIDE THE FRONT DOOR, ANNUALLY REmind us (usually at the most inconvenient moment 8IS PROGRESS POSSIBLE?WILLING SLAVES OF THE WELFARE STATE[From the French Revolution to the outbreak of the First World LETTERS[Though Ihave reprinted only Lewis's own letters here, Ihave attempted to place them in their context by citing t Table of ContentsPART IPART IIPART IIIPART IVPreface by Walter HooperI Evil and God2 Miracles3 Dogma and the Universe4 A Bookmarks
RELIGION AND SCIENCEMIRACLES', SAID MY FRIEND. 'OH, COME. SCIENCE HAS knocked the bottom out of all that. We know that N
RELIGION AND SCIENCE
MIRACLES', SAID MY FRIEND. 'OH, COME. SCIENCE HAS knocked the bottom out of all that. We know that Nature is governed by fixed laws.'`Didn't people always know that?' said I.`Good Lord, no,' said he. `For instance, take a story like the Virgin Birth. We know now that such a thing couldn't happen. We know there must be a male spermatozoon.''But look here', said I, `St Joseph -'`Who's he?' asked my friend.`He was the husband of the Virgin Mary. If you'll read the story in the Bible you'll find that when he saw his fiancee was going to have a baby he decided to cry off the marriage. Why did he do that?T`Wouldn't most men?''Any man would', said I, `provided he knew the laws of Nature - in other words, provided he knew that a girl doesn't ordinarily have a baby unless she's been sleeping with a man. But according to your theory people in the old days didn't know that Nature was governed by fixed laws. I'm pointing out that the story shows that St Joseph knew that law just as well as you do.'`But he came to believe in the Virgin Birth afterwards, didn't he?T`Quite. But he didn't do so because he was under any illusion as to where babies came from in the ordinary course of Nature. He believed in the Virgin Birth as something supernatural. He knew Nature works in fixed, regular ways: but he also believed that there existed something beyond Nature which could interfere with her workings - from outside, so to speak.'
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