Session 1 - Our Sense of Right and Wrong

Reading Assignment.

Mere Christianity -

Preface

Book 1 - Chapter 1 “The Law of Human Nature”.

Book 1 - Chapter 2 “Some Objections”.

Unpacking Mere Christianity.

At the end of WW II and London needed a timeless true message of Hope and Stability.

The Kilns - Oxford England.

Eric Metaxas - Author.

As a relative unknown personality, Lewis was invited to speak on London Radio where he began to change the Nature of Religious Apologetics.

The BBC broadcasts were published separately.

Later to be combined into the book, Mere Christianity, where Lewis defended the “timeless true message of Hope and Stability” which he argued against as an Atheist years before.

The Law of Human Nature.

When two people argue they have a common agreement about a moral Standard (Code).

A shared value of “Right” and “Wrong” as a clue for the meaning of the universe.

Our Sense of Right and Wrong. Alister McGrath - Andreous Ideros Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University.

Mere Christianity (Chapter 1: The Law of Human Nature)

Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be called the Law of Nature. Nowadays, when we talk of the ‘laws of nature’ we usually mean things like gravitation, or heredity, or the laws of chemistry. But when the older thinkers called the Law of Right and Wrong ‘the Law of Nature’, they really meant the Law of Human Nature. The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation, and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law—with this great difference, that a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature or to disobey it.

This is the Christian way of thinking of things. It’s the “sun” by which we can things more clearly.

We need help to become the people we were meant to be by discerning the difference between Right and Wrong.

We don’t get to decide what’s right or wrong ourselves.

The meanings are “built-in” to us, grounded in and guaranteed by the God who made us in the first place. We get to discern the difference between them.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) (Discern)

dis•cern \di-ˈsərn, -ˈzərn\ verb[Middle English, from Middle French discerner, from Latin discernere to separate, distinguish between, from dis- apart + cernere to sift—more at DIS-, CERTAIN] verb transitive 14th century1 a: to detect with the eyes 〈discerned a figure approaching through the fog〉b: to detect with senses other than vision 〈discerned a strange odor〉2: to recognize or identify as separate and distinct: DISCRIMINATE 〈discern right from wrong〉3: to come to know or recognize mentally 〈unable to discern his motives〉 verb intransitive: to see or understand the difference—dis•cern•er noun—dis•cern•ible also dis•cern•able \-ˈsər-nə-bəl, -ˈzər-\ adjective—dis•cern•ibly \-blē\ adver

A Deeper Standard.

Masses have their ideas of right and wrong. How can we show there is a deeper standard? If there is no God there is no deeper standard upon which we can stand to say “You are Right.” or “You are Wrong.”

God’s is the transcendent of Good.

Is there something deeper than our deciding what is right?

Can I, on my own, become the person I want to be? Is there something more? A God given “vision”?

God helps us discover and live-out the good life.

Session 2 - The Origin of the “Deeper Standard”.