Carl wonders whether the gods are not just a story. Tom thinks that:
"'Someone must have made the world...'" (p. 96)
Why? Someone making things is part of a world. The universe has not been made by anyone but has developed from the simplest of elements by natural processes. I was brought up on arguments for the existence of God. People tried to rationalize a received belief in every way that they could think of. CS Lewis reasoned his way to theism but I disagree with his reasoning. Essentially: if rational mental processes are effects of non-rational material processes, then there is no basis for their rationality. But reasoning is a valid process. Therefore, reason has always existed, in God before He imparted it to men. (This is my summary of an argument that I used to accept because I wanted to. Anyone who would like to discuss it further can read Lewis' Surprised By Joy and Miracles and get back to me.) Lewis' linear causality is an inadequate explanatory framework. Organisms interacting with their environments became conscious and manipulative. Reason emerged as a way to think about and act on the environment. Sometimes it works. People learned how to make and control fire. But reason remains surrounded by irrationalities as we realize as soon as we start to argue about anything important!
Carl says that he could believe in the great God of the time vault but not in the small, childish gods of the stories. I question whether a centuries-old monotheism would recede before primitive polytheism even in post-nuclear war conditions. However, when Carl gets as far as believing in his "great God," philosophical discussion can begin.
1 comment:
It depends on your viewpoint. If you think the universe is small, the Earth is at its center, and not too old, it encourages the "someone must have made it". As does the human tendency to overemphasize intentionality. If you realize the Earth is just a flyspeck in an unimaginably huge universe, this becomes less convincing.
Post a Comment