Mere Christianity

i must say i rather like this book. the book is divide into four "books" which makes it easier to follow. i just finished first "book" and it was really basic. like i felt like Lewis started out as basic as you could get in these first five chapters.

the first chapter really just talks about a "Moral Law" or as he calls it "The Law of Nature". like we talked about it was basically saying how there's some unwritten underlying standard that every human appeals to. i thought it was interesting how he pointed out that even though there is this "Law" or "Standard", people break it. and this is the only such "Law of Nature" that we can choose to break. (like gravity is a "Law of Nature" and we can't break that)...

...which brings us to the second chapter, which differentiates between ("herd") instincts and this "Law of Nature". basically it's saying how instinct are just impulses that we get to do something, but this "Law" tells us which instincts to follow. i liked his analogy of how instincts are just like individual music notes but the Moral Law is like the sheet music, directing the way the music is played. this was pretty straightforward (:

the third chapter basically just reinforces the fact that this Law of Nature or Moral Law actually exists. dunno what else to say about it really...this is so much more rewarding just to read haha.

the fourth chapter is titled "what lies behind the law" and it talks about since we humans all seem to have this standard instilled in us, then there must've been someone/something behind it. like how an architect builds a house or something. each piece is meant to do something and it's clear if it's not doing what it's supposed to or if it's "wrong" like how we know if we're doing something "wrong". however he also mentions how the only way we can know this is if we take a behind the scenes sort of look. like if something who wasn't human and didn't understand any human language was observing us, it wouldn't be able to identify that there is a "Moral Law" guiding us because it can't read our minds. i never thought of it like that. that just because there is a "Moral Law" or some unsaid standard that we go by that that means that there's something behind it. although once he points this out it seems rather obvious -_- same story for the rest of the chapters...

the fifth chapter basically says that since there is something behind our "Moral Law," then that thing must believe in that Law, and since we break it....then we should PANIC (ok not really) but more like be uneasy and acknowledge the fact that we do break it.

aaannnd that's the end of book one. it moves pretty slow but it covers everything VERY thoroughly, which is why my summaries don't do it justice. i just wrote the basic gist. the was Lewis starts this off makes it seem like it has nothing to do with Christianity at all, but slowly you realize that there is a direction and it isn't just all mindless philosophy haha