{"id":66031,"date":"2017-11-19T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=66031"},"modified":"2020-01-06T22:44:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T05:44:21","slug":"the-eagle-and-child-s1e9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2017\/11\/19\/the-eagle-and-child-s1e9\/","title":{"rendered":"PWJ: S1E9 – MC B2C4 – “The Invasion”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dualism\"<\/p>\n

In today’s episode, we continue working our way through Book II of “Mere Christianity”. In the previous chapter, C.S. Lewis had examined “Rival Conceptions of God”<\/em>, especially pantheism. In today’s episode he looks at another possible contender, dualism, the idea that there are two independent and opposing powers\u00a0locked together in an eternal battle…<\/p>\n

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe\u00a0manually<\/a>, or through a service like\u00a0iTunes<\/a>,\u00a0Google Play<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Podbean<\/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 9: “The Invasion”<\/strong>\u00a0(Download<\/a>)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/TEAC-S1E9.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

<\/p>\n

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

\u2022\u00a0My outline for this chapter is available\u00a0here<\/a>. Unfortunately, there’s no C.S. Lewis Doodle this week<\/del>. The C.S. Lewis Doodle is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the previous chapter, Jack said that atheism was “too simple”. When he was an atheist, his case against God was that the universe was unjust…but without God it wasn’t\u00a0possible to make such an argument!<\/p>\n

\u2022 In this chapter, Jack says that another worldview is also “too simple”. He refers to it as “Christianity and Water”, which I think today we’d just call “watered-down Christianity”. Matt and I suggested that this worldview is attractive for the same reason as “Creative Evolution” which was mentioned in an earlier episode – it offers some sense of meaning and comfort, without the demands of the Christian life.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Religion isn’t a hobby. Religion is reality.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Matt refers to\u00a0another C.S. Lewis book, The Weight of Glory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Simple things are not always simple when you really dig into them. Lewis gives the examples of “looking at a table” or the configuration of the planets. He says, therefore, that the very fact that Christianity is not what we might have expected is actually a motive of credibility! Real things are complicated!<\/p>\n

\u2022 In response to those who claim that, if God existed, religion would have to be simple betrays a misconception of religion.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Christianity is the religion which brings faith and reason together. This is seen most clearly in St. John’s assertion that Jesus is the Logos (John 1:1<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Having rejected atheism and “Christianity” and water, Lewis now tackles the problem which the universe presents to us – evil. One option is the Christian worldview which says this is a good world which has gone bad. The second option is Dualism.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dualism believes that there are two equal and independent powers behind the universe, one good, one evil. An example of a dualistic religion is Zoroastrianism<\/a>. Manichaeism<\/a>, a belief system held by St. Augustine<\/a>\u00a0prior to his conversion, is also dualistic. You can also see elements of this idea in New Age beliefs as well.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Jack’s discussion of dualism is important for two reasons:<\/p>\n

1. We get to\u00a0test the truth claims\u00a0of the system
\n2. It\u00a0allows our author to\u00a0explain the fundamental nature of evil<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0If we assume dualism is true, we have to explain how we identify one “power” as “good” and the other “evil”. However, how do we make this distinction?<\/p>\n

1. Personal preference (much like a preference for Red Vines<\/a> over Twizzlers<\/a>). The problem here is that this makes it purely subjective.
\n2. An objective standard, which necessitates a\u00a0third<\/span> “power” over and above the other two. This relates to the central argument of Book I.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The second problem with dualism is that it must mean that the “bad” power like badness for its own sake, but we have no experience of this.\u00a0Evil is always dependent upon goodness. It is not so much an entity in its own right, in the same way darkness is really an absence of light. Sin is seeking something good in the wrong way, at the wrong time or to the wrong degree. Lewis makes the point that we explain sexual perversion in relation to true sexual expression, but we cannot do it the other way around.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I mentioned an article<\/a> by the “Theology of the Body”<\/a> expert, Christopher West<\/a>, where he talks about the death of Hugh Hefner<\/a>. Matt mentioned the book The Holy Longing<\/a> by\u00a0Ronald Rolheiser.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It is with this understanding of evil, we can understand that the devil is a fallen angel.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I mentioned another C.S. Lewis book, The Screwtape Letters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Christianity does have some elements of dualism in it, without the problems of full-blown dualism. There is a war, but it is a civil war in which we are invited to take a part. This is a message I think Christian men (in particular) need to hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today’s episode he looks at another possible contender, dualism, the idea that there are two independent and opposing powers\u00a0locked together in an eternal battle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3111],"tags":[5012,4559,4561,4397,2969,701,4560,4365,4375,4438],"class_list":["post-66031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-c-s-lewis-2","tag-christianity-and-water","tag-christopher-west","tag-dualism","tag-featured","tag-gnosticism","tag-hugh-hefner","tag-mere-christianity","tag-the-eagle-and-child","tag-the-eagle-and-child-podcast"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Dualism-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66031","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=66031"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73845,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66031\/revisions\/73845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}