The question at hand if you’ve clicked on this page is: “Will Christianity make me a good or a better person?”
As C.S. Lewis points out in his letter in the below video, if you must have an answer than yes, and more good than you ever wanted, but the person who asks this kind of question:
A. Does not understand what Christianity is, and
B. Does not understand what the purpose of life is.
Christianity claims to be historical facts concerning the truth of the universe and life, from how it all got here, to why we’re in the state that we’re currently in, and what God did about it. But a person who asks a questions like the one above isn’t interested in searching out truth, their interested in making themselves happy and comfortable. Enjoy the video:
Man or Rabbit? ~ By C.S. Lewis:
https://youtu.be/X9fR1vSxNEQ
YouTube Video Transcript (slightly corrected – may not be 100% correct, watch the video):
Can’t you lead a good life without living in Christianity, this is the question on which I’ve been asked to write, and straight away before I begin trying to answer it I have a comment to make, the question sounds as if it were asked by a person who said to himself:
“I don’t care whether Christianity is in fact true or not, I’m not interested in finding out whether the real universe is more like what the Christians say or what the materialists say, all I’m interested in is leading a good life. I’m going to choose beliefs not because I think them true, but because I find them helpful.”
Now, frankly I find it hard to sympathize with this state of mind. One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely
quenched in any one I think he has become something less than human. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe any of you have really lost that desire, more probably foolish preachers by always telling of how much Christianity will help you and how good it is for society, that actually led her to forget that Christianity is not a patent medicine. Christianity claims to give an account of facts to tell you what the real universe is like. Its account of the universe may be true or it may not, and once the question is really before you then your natural inquisitiveness must make you want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be, if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it even if it gives him no help at all. As soon as we have realized this, we realize something else, if Christianity should happen to be true, and it is quite impossible but those who know this truth and those who don’t should be equally well equipped for leading a good life. Knowledge of the
facts must make a difference to one’s actions. To those who found a man on the
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point of starvation who wanted to do the
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right thing if you had no knowledge of
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medical science you would probably give
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him a large solid meal and as a result
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to a man would die that is what comes of
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working in the dark in the same way a
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Christian and a non-christian may both
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wish to do good to their fellow man the
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one believes that man are going to live
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forever but they were created by God and
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so built they can find their true and
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lasting happiness only by being United
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to God that they have gone badly off the
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rails and that obedient faith in Christ
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is the only way back the other believes
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that men are an accidental result of the
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blind workings of matter but they
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started as mere animals and more or less
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steadily improved but they are going to
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live for about 70 years but their
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happiness is fully attainable by good
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social services and political
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organizations and that everything else
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eg vivisection birth control the
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judicial system education is to be
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judged to be good for
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at simply insofar as it helps or hinders
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that kind of happiness now there are
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quite a lot of things which these two
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men could agree in doing for their
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fellow citizens both would approve of
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efficient sewers and hospitals and a
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healthy diet but sooner or later a
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difference of their beliefs will produce
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differences in their practical proposals
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both for example might be very keen
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about education but the kinds of
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education they wanted people to have
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would obviously be very different again
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where the materialist would simply ask
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about their proposed action will it
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increase the happiness of the majority
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the Christian might have to say even if
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it does increase the happiness of the
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majority we can’t do it it is unjust and
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all the time
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one great difference would run through
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their whole policy to the materialist
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things like nations classes
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civilizations must be more important
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than individuals because the individuals
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live only 70 odd years each and the
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group may last for centuries but the
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Christian individuals are more important
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they live eternally and races
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civilizations on the like are in
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comparison the creatures of a day the
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Christian and the materialist held
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different beliefs about the universe
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they can’t both be right the one who is
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wrong will act in a way which simply
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doesn’t fit the real universe
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consequently with the best will in the
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world he will be helping his fellow
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creatures to their destruction with the
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best will in the world
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then it won’t be his fault surely God if
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there is a God will not punish a man for
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honest mistakes but was that all you
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were thinking about are we read it
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around the risk of working in the dark
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all our lives and doing infinite harm
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provided only someone will assure us
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that our own skins will be safe that no
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one will punish us or blame us I will
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not believe that the reader is quite on
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that level even if you were there is
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something to be said to him the question
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before each of us is not can someone
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lead a good life without Christianity
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the question is can i we all know there
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have been good man who were not
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Christians men like Socrates and
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Confucius who had never heard of it or
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men like JS Mill who quite honestly
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couldn’t believe it supposing
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Christianity to be true these men were
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in a state of honest ignorance or honest
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error if their intentions were as good
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as I suppose them to have been for a
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course I can’t read their secret hearts
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I hope and believe that the skill and
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mercy of God will remedy the evils which
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their ignorant
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left to itself would naturally produce
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both for them and for those whom they
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influenced but the man who asks me can’t
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I lead a good life without believing in
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Christianity is clearly not in the same
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position if he hadn’t heard of
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Christianity he would not be asking this
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question if having heard of it and
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having seriously considered it he had
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decided that it was untrue and once more
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he would not be asking the question the
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man who asks this question has heard of
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Christianity and is by no means certain
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that it may not be true he is really
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asking need I bother about his
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mayn’t I just evade the issue just let
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sleeping dogs lie and get on with being
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good aren’t good intentions enough to
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keep me safe and blameless without
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knocking on that dreadful door and
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making sure whether there is or isn’t
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someone inside – such a man it might be
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enough to reply that he is really asking
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to be allowed to get on with being good
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before he has done his best to discover
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what good means but that is not the
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whole story
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we need not inquire whether God will
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punish him for his cowardice and
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laziness they will punish themselves
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the man is shirking he is deliberately
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trying not to know where the
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Christianity is true or false because he
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foresees endless trouble if it should
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turn out to be true he is like the man
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who deliberately forgets to look at the
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noticeboard because if he did he might
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find his name down for some unpleasant
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duty he is like the man who won’t look
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at his bank account because he’s afraid
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of what he might find that he is like
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the man who won’t go to the doctor when
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he first feels a mysterious pain because
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he is afraid of what the doctor might
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tell him the man who remains an
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unbeliever for such reasons is not in a
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state of honest error he is in a state
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of dishonest era and that dishonesty
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will spread through all his thoughts and
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actions a certain shiftiness a vague War
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II in the background a blunting of his
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whole mental edge war was out he has
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lost his intellectual virginity honest
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rejection of Christ
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however mistaken will be forgiven and
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healed whosoever shall speak a word
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against the Son of man it shall be
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forgiven him but to evade the son of man
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to look the other way to pretend you
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have noticed to become suddenly absorbed
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in something on the other side of the
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street to leave the receiver off the
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telephone because it might be he who was
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ringing up Cleavon open certain letters
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in a strange handwriting because they
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might be from him
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this is a different matter you may not
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be certain yet whether you ought to be a
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Christian but you do know you ought to
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be a man not an ostrich hiding its head
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in the sand but still for intellectual
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honor sunk very low in our age I hear
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someone whimpering on with his question
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will it help me will it make me happy do
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you really think I’d be better if I
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became a Christian well if you must have
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it my answer is yes but I don’t like
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giving an answer at all at this stage
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here is a door behind which according to
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some people the secret of the universe
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is waiting for you either that’s true or
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it isn’t and if it isn’t and what the
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door really conceals is simply the
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greatest fraud the most colossal cell on
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record isn’t it obviously the job of
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every man that is a man and not a rabbit
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to try and to find out which and then to
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devote his full energies either to
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serving this tremendous secret water
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exposing and destroying this gigantic
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humbug faced with such an issue
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can you really remain wholly absorbed in
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your own blessed moral development all
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right Christianity will do you good a
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great deal more good than you ever
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wanted or expected and the first bit of
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good it will do you is to hammer into
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your head
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you won’t enjoy that the fact that what
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you have hitherto called good all that
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about leading a decent life and being
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kind isn’t quite the magnificent and
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all-important affair you supposed it
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will teach you that in fact you can’t be
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good
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not for 24 hours on your own moral
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efforts then it will teach you that even
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if you were who still wouldn’t have
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achieved the purpose for which you were
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created mere morality is not the end of
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life you were made for something quite
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different from that
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jeaious Mill and Confucius Socrates was
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much nearer the reality simply didn’t
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know what life is about the people who
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keep on asking if they can’t lead a
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decent life without Christ don’t know
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what life was about if they did they
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would know that a decent life is
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machinery compared with the thing we men
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are really made for morality is
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indispensable but the divine life which
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gives itself to us and which calls us to
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be God’s intends for us something in
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which morality will be swallowed up we
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are to be you remade all the rabbit in
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us is to disappear the worried
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conscientious ethical rabbit as well as
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the Cowardly and sensual rabbit
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we shall bleed and squeal as the
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handfuls of fur come out then
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surprisingly we shall find underneath it
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all the thing we have never yet imagined
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a real man an ageless God a son of God
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strong radiant why is beautiful and
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drenched in joy when that which is
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perfect is come then that which is in
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part shall be done away the idea of
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reaching a good life without Christ is
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based on a double error firstly we
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cannot do it and secondly in setting up
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a good life as our final goal we have
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missed the very point of our existence
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morality is a mountain which we cannot
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climb by out there and efforts and if we
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could we should only perish in the ice
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and unbreathable air of the summit
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lacking those wings with which the rest
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of the journey has to be accomplished
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for it is from there that the real
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ascent begins the ropes and axes are
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done away
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and the rest is a matter of flying
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