Book 2: Chapter 1: What Christians believe

I really want us to get to the meat of this book. There are some really great chapters to discuss. The beginning is a little slow because Lewis is building a logical argument for the existence of God piece by piece describing how he made the leap from being an atheist to becoming a Christian. I find it very interesting the journey that brought him to faith.

This section gets us to some new ideas. 

So, his first idea is that atheists have to strongly believe that all religions are wrong for believing in God. But that Christians can be more liberal in saying that religions have at least some small piece of the truth because they recognize the existence of God. And that we can agree with them on the aspects that are in agreement with Christianity. This has been a way that I've been able to build common ground with people from other religions. I think it helps demonstrate light and grace. I also don't apologize for my beliefs that are different. 

Second idea is that there are two camps - God made the world and that there is good and bad (christian, jews, islam) God is the universe and all things are good if seen from God's point of view (hindu, buddhist) This is one of the most concise descriptions to categorize religious beliefs that I've read and I found it useful as a way of understanding the similarities and differences between religions.

Chapter 3 & 4: What lies behind the law

To get us jump started again, I'm going to post about chapters 3 and 4 together....

Chapter 3: 

First point, that there is a difference between how we act and how we should act.

Second point, moral law is more than just what is convenient. We get mad at someone who cuts in front of us in line but not at someone who is rightfully ahead of us in line, though both are equally inconvenient.

I don't have much comment on these points.

Chapter 4: 
Lewis makes an interesting jump from the assertion that there exists a universal moral law to the idea that there is a creator. He states that we can't see the meaning behind creation by observing it. Only be being part of the creation and recognizing that there is a pull to some law which is bigger than ourselves do we begin to recognize the nature of God.

I like Lewis's observation that science can't teach us the answers to faith. Being married to a scientist, I think that is very true. But I will let flex post his reflections on that.

An interesting thing that I have been reminded of recently is how deeply wired the need to believe in something is in us. I went to this "future of medicine" conference with Greg to pitch our business and there were a lot of cool ideas about innovations in medicine that will improve outcomes -- wearable exoskeletons that will help paralyzed people walk and what not. The stuff was really amazing but some of it was really far fetched -- like 3-D printers that could print organs for transplant -- not gonna happen. What was interesting is that people didn't have a real critical eye towards what was really possible and what wasn't. They were all so hopeful. They wanted to believe that we could solve the human condition of suffering and death. They actually used the word "eternal life" in one of the presentations. I realized that no one is immune from needing to believe and needing to find answers to the difficult questions of life. I felt bad that they were pouring all their faith into science, into work, and were missing the beautiful life and love that comes with connecting to God and living with gratitude.

We are fortunate to be on a faith journey and to be able to share that journey with each other.