In summation, nature behaves a certain way and this is what we refer to as “the laws of nature.” These are not anything real, nothing more than actual facts we observe. Right and Wrong – Moral Law – is above actual fact. Besides fact, we have something else. We have a law we didn’t invent but know we should obey.
What does this tell us about the universe in which we live? We know the two schools of thought.* There’s what Lewis calls “materialist” and there’s the religious. In the former, the idea is that matter existed (no one knows why) and behaved in certain ways (no one knows why) to, by a fluke, produce creatures who can think. That would be us. This viewpoint says that astronomical chances resulted in the Sun, further astronomical chances resulted in the planets – including a perfect one where we live – and one last astronomical chance brought about chemicals needed for life on this one perfect planet. The perfect planet had the perfect temperature, and, after a long series of astronomical chances, living things developed into the complex thinking organisms we are. The latter is different. The religious view says that something like a mind is behind the universe. It is conscious. It has purposes. It prefers one thing to another. This mind preferred to create creatures that have minds and in that respect resemble itself. Both of these views have been present wherever thinking men have been found throughout all of history. Neither is new. And here’s the shocker: science cannot tell you which is correct.
Science is based on experiments and experiences. Science’s job is to say what it has viewed, recorded, and repeated. The more scientific a person, the more they will agree with Lewis on this point. This job is useful and necessary. But why anything exists is not a scientific question. If science knew all the facts there is to know about the universe, it still could not tell us why there is a universe and whether it has any meaning.
In the whole universe, on thing exists that we know more about than any other thing. Everything in the universe except this one thing allows only external observation. We can only look at it from the outside. One thing, however, lets us look at it from the inside. That’s us. Man. We don’t just observe men, we ARE men. We have inside info. Because of this we know we have Moral Law. We know we didn’t create this Moral Law. We cannot forget this law even when we try. We know we ought to obey it.
If someone from the outside were studying us and knew nothing of our languages – much in the same way we might study rocks or cabbages or anything else in the universe – the outsider would never realize we have this Moral Law. The outsider would only observe what we do, not what we should do. We, in the same way, would never uncover what lies behind the universe by simply observing it.
We still want to know if the universe just is for no reason or if there is a power behind it, making it what it is. The power would not be an observed fact. It would be a reality behind the facts. Observing the universe would never produce the power itself. Only in our own case can we find out if there is anything more. If there were a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself as a fact inside the universe. An architect cannot be a wall or a fireplace. The architect would have to show itself in the creation. The only way we can see the power behind the universe is in ourselves. It would be an influence or a command trying to get us to behave in a certain way. That is exactly what we find inside ourselves. Suspicious, isn’t it?
The only place you can expect to get an answer, the answer turns out to be yes.
The other places where you don’t get an answer, you can see why you do not. You don’t wonder what the postman brings to other houses, even though you can’t open their mail. You know. Because you can open your own mail. You get junk mail, bills, reminders, and sometimes a letter or invitation, maybe an occasional check. If I said, “but how do you KNOW that’s what they’re getting?” You’re pretty certain. And you don’t have to open the packages to make sure. The only package we’re allowed to open is Man; ourselves. When I open it, I find Myself. I find I do not exist on my own. I discover I’m under a law. Someone or something wants me to behave in a certain way. I don’t think I’d find the same thing in a tree or a cabbage just like I don’t think everyone on my street get the same bills or invitations or checks I do. Yet someone sent the letters in both cases. There is a Power behind the facts, a Director, a Guide.
Lewis isn’t within “a hundred miles” of the Christian God. There is simply Something that directs the universe. This something urges us to do right, makes us feel responsible and uncomfortable with doing wrong. It is more like a mind than anything we know. We can’t imagine a plank giving instructions. Lewis says it doesn’t have to be just like a mind though. It is less like a person, even. Lewis gives one word of warning: “There has been a great deal of soft soap talked about God for the last hundred years. That is not what I am offering. You can cut all that out.”
*Lewis gave these two on air, but in the book included a third, in-between view. Creative Evolution. Bernard Shaw is witty with it while Bergson is profound. This viewpoint says the varying degrees that life evolves is purposed by a Life-force. Some mean a mind, and that is God and are therefore identical with the religious view. If they do not mean a mind by “Life-force” then their argument falls. Without a mind, nothing can “purpose” anything. Creative Evolution is attractive because it gives emotional comfort. One can believe in God with none of the less pleasant consequences. On a perfect day, one doesn’t want to believe the whole universe is a “mere mechanical dance of atoms.” However, if one does something shabby, the Life-Force won’t interfere with you the way “that troublesome God” will. The Life-Force is a tame God. Switch it on and off when you like. Thrills of religion, none of the cost. The Life-force may be the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has ever seen.