C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity

@kellyjay said
Who do you think Jesus is?

The person in revelation who is described as overseeing in his presence the burning alive of billions of people?

@kellyjay said
“If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe -no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house. The only way in which we could expect it to show itself would be inside us as an influence or a command trying to get us to behave in a certain way. And that's just what we do find inside us.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity

Just when I thought we'd heard the last of C.S. Lewis when GB stopped posting.

@kellyjay said
I believe that you will see that he was referring to the house. Without an encounter with the builder/creator, you only see the work, not the builder/creator. You can read Tolkien and not find him in his writings.

I find it an extremely bad analogy.

Any student of architecture (as I was, for a time) can easily see Frank Lloyd Wright in all of his creations.

@suzianne said
I find it an extremely bad analogy.

Any student of architecture (as I was, for a time) can easily see Frank Lloyd Wright in all of his creations.

You can test for Frank Lloyd Wright or simply see patterns of his style?

@kellyjay said
You can test for Frank Lloyd Wright or simply see patterns of his style?

No more than you can test for a divine creator...

@suzianne said
I find it an extremely bad analogy.

Any student of architecture (as I was, for a time) can easily see Frank Lloyd Wright in all of his creations.

Or a painter from the painting. Especially those with more distinctive styles.

@suzianne said
Just when I thought we'd heard the last of C.S. Lewis when GB stopped posting.

And yet you never once complained when GB quoted him....

Interesting.

@divegeester said
And yet you never once complained when GB quoted him....

Interesting.

Would it have had any effect?

Look, as it was, too many people on this forum put a target on his back. I was comfortable agreeing to disagree with him. There is a difference between disagreeing and making his presence here a kind of hell.

@suzianne said
Would it have had any effect?

The effect might have been an interesting debate and discussion about the shortcomings of C.S. Lewis.

@suzianne said
Look, as it was, too many people on this forum put a target on his back. I was comfortable agreeing to disagree with him.

Why have you treated KellyJay's quoting of C.S. Lewis differently?

@bigdoggproblem said
Oh, I see. I misread OP. My bad.

The example is still a little weird, since Christianity also wants us to listen to other apostles and prophets. Those guys aren't just "bits of the wall", are they?

I think Tolkein did well to leave religious allegory out of LOTR. Made it more of a "different" world. that being said, Tolkein was a devout Christian. It would be a mistake to judge him less sincere than Lewis because of this one artistic choice.

With the exception of us in the universe since we were made in the image of God, there is a divine nature to us, fallen but there nonetheless. We can communicate with God in prayer, prompted to walk this way and not that. What we cannot do is look at the sky, the water, the earth, fire, stars, rocks, cows, rabbits, goats, trees, flowers and find God only His handy work.

@hakima said
No more than you can test for a divine creator...

Our tests are limited to the playing in and with the universe itself, our seeking God personally since He is a personal God, is something beyond the realm of the material world.

@suzianne said
Just when I thought we'd heard the last of C.S. Lewis when GB stopped posting.

I love Lewis.
There something about him or some of the things he said you dislike?

@kellyjay said
I love Lewis.
There something about him or some of the things he said you dislike?

Well, you must have looked into the criticism of his writing on Christianity.

What did you find?

In your 10+ years here, criticism of his writing on Christianity has come up time and time again in detail, on threads where you were involved.

What did you think of that analysis?

@kellyjay said
Our tests are limited to the playing in and with the universe itself, our seeking God personally since He is a personal God, is something beyond the realm of the material world.

All supernatural beings perceived and worshipped by humans are beyond the realm of the material world.