Man or Rabbit

Like a lot of Lewis' work, I found this essay hard to understand the first time I read through it. As I read through it some more times, I began to find some points that I disagreed with. The first point I don't agree with was that people who ask whether or not non-Christians can live a good life either don't care about the truth or are ignorant. He implies that when people ask this question, they are actually wondering if they can live a good life without Christianity. I don't think that this is true most of the times that the question is asked. If I were to ask this question, it would be specifically about those who don't believe in Christianity, whether it is because they decided against it or because they never heard about it before. I think that this is a valid question when it is asked in this way.

One point from this chapter that I do agree with Lewis on is that we need to look for what is true, not what helps us most in life. I think that some people have a tendency to believe what is most convenient to them. This kind of goes to Lewis' essay on subjectivism, in which he says that there is an absolute right and wrong and that we can't decide what it is. Christianity is either right or wrong, and we need to make a completely objective decision of whether or not is right. We can't just pick whatever side is most convenient to us. While I do agree on this point, I don't see what it has to do with those who have decided that Christianity is wrong or those that haven't heard of it.

Another point that I really don't agree with is that people like Confucius and Socrates who hadn't heard of Christianity will be forgiven because they were ignorant. This is something that I would hope to be true, but I don't think that the Bible says anything about those ignorant of Christianity getting saved. I hope that I am missing something and that all those people that don't know Christianity could be saved, but I see no Biblical evidence to support it. If anyone thinks that they do, please put it as a comment to this post.

The question of whether or not non-Christians can live a good life still remains. Lewis does say that Christianity helps you live a better life, but he doesn't say how much worse that life is for non-Christians. My opinion is that non-Christians can live a good life on Earth in a sense of material possessions and even well-being, but they will eventually find that they are missing something. They will eventually find that their lives and all that they accomplished during them are meaningless if there is nothing else beyond the end of their lives. Also, there will obviously be a big difference between Christians and non-Christians after they die. This, at least, is my opinion.