{"id":65680,"date":"2017-10-22T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=65680"},"modified":"2019-09-19T11:46:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T18:46:38","slug":"the-eagle-and-child-s1e5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2017\/10\/22\/the-eagle-and-child-s1e5\/","title":{"rendered":"PWJ: S1E5 – MC B1C3 – “The reality of the Law”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Moving on to Chapter 3 of “Mere Christianity”, Jack speaks further to “The reality of the Law”<\/em>. Do we imagine a Moral Law because it is convenient to us? Or does it arise due to its good for society? In today’s episode, together with some help from C.S. Lewis, we tackle these and other questions…<\/p>\n

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe using\u00a0iTunes<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Google Play<\/a>. As always, if you have any objections, comments or questions, please send us an email\u00a0through my website<\/a>\u00a0or tweet us\u00a0@pintswithjack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Episode 5: “The reality of the Law”<\/strong>\u00a0(Download<\/a>)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/TEAC-S1E5.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

<\/p>\n

— Show Notes —<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

*\u00a0My outline for the\u00a0Chapter 3\u00a0is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* This week, Matt and I were\u00a0finishing off some\u00a0Heineken<\/a>. If you’d like to suggest what we should drink in coming episodes, please tweet us\u00a0@pintswithjack<\/a>. Remember, Matt is a very cheap date!<\/p>\n

* According to Jack, the fact that there’s this Moral Law and that we don’t keep\u00a0it is “odd” and this has consequences. What does this tell us about the Moral Law and what does it tell us about reality itself?<\/p>\n

* Stones and trees aren’t “good” or “bad”. They are the way they are because they follow the laws of nature and could never have been otherwise. The laws of nature are only de<\/span>scriptive, not pre<\/span>scriptive. They describe what stones and trees do<\/span>\u00a0whereas the Moral Law describes what humans\u00a0should<\/span> do.<\/p>\n

* Stones and trees are only “good” or “bad” in the sense that they are\u00a0convenient\u00a0or inconvenient to us, in relation to a particular use we have in mind.\u00a0Is it the same with the Moral Law? Are “right” and “wrong” simply a question of convenience? No, because…<\/p>\n

(1)\u00a0Inconveniences can be identical,\u00a0yet\u00a0we regard one as “right” and another as “wrong”
\n(2) We might not be inconvenienced at all, yet still regard something as “wrong”
\n(3) Sometimes “bad” behaviour can be very convenient to us
\n(4) Sometimes our own “good” behaviour is immensely inconvenient<\/p>\n

* When talking about the inconvenience of the Christian life, Matt and I referred to the book The Cost of Discipleship<\/a> by the Dietrich Bonhoffer. When we make it to Book IV, in Chapter 8, Lewis will\u00a0discuss\u00a0the question “Is Christianity\u00a0hard or easy?”<\/p>\n

* Some people might say that the Moral Law is simply what pays society as a whole. While a “fair” society does indeed help people to flourish, this argument rather misses the point.\u00a0Unless it affects me directly, why should I care about what’s good for society?<\/p>\n

* Matt and I discuss Game Theory<\/a>\u00a0in relation to the idea of society good. Matt describes The Problem of the Commons<\/a> and I then I talk about\u00a0The Prisoner’s Dilemma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* Doesn’t it make sense that a good God would write on our hearts a Moral Law which would encourage our flourishing? (Aside from Aries in the movie Wonder Woman<\/a>, of course)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moving on to Chapter 3 of “Mere Christianity”, Jack speaks further to “The reality of the Law”. Do we imagine a Moral Law because it is convenient to us? Or does it arise due to its good for society? In today’s episode, together with some help from C.S. Lewis, we tackle these and other questions… If you enjoy this episode,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3111],"tags":[1914,2969,4365,4366,116,4438],"class_list":["post-65680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-featured","tag-mere-christianity","tag-moral-law","tag-podcast","tag-the-eagle-and-child-podcast"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Book1Featured.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65680"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73620,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65680\/revisions\/73620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}