Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Poison of Subjectivism

This piece of C.S. Lewis’ writing was the most difficult for me to understand yet. He went very deep, talking about morals and subjectivism. Lewis begins this piece of work by writing, “One cause of misery and vice is always present with us in the greed and pride of men…” He points out that the pride of men will cause them to be subjective, in which these men believe they are the source of knowledge and moral values. Man reasons with his own logic; therefore, there is no reason for supposing that his subjectivism yields truth.

Lewis writes about how our attitudes are produced in a community by the pressure of its environment and its traditions. Sometimes we do not know why we believe something, but we do it because we are socially conditioned to do so. I see this with people in my own church. They say they believe a certain doctrine, such as predestination, but they do not know why. They say they believe it because it is what the church believes. We have to be careful that we do not fall into this same error, but we must have good reasons behind our individual belief system.

The reason subjectivism is dangerous is because the human mind should not invent new values. Our moral values must be based according to the law of God. This is how we know what it right and wrong. Before we start going around and pointing the finger at others, we must look at our own sin. Romans 2:1 says, “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” Often times we judge people of other Christian denominations as being wrong on their views. I am guilty of this too because I often try to argue the truth, thinking that I am right, when really I should do so more respectfully and out of love for my neighbor.

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