reminder to self

[piranha]

The real test is this. Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils.

c.s.lewis in mere christianity.

thanks, hilzoy. i needed to read that again today.

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I keep forgetting just how theologically astute Lewis was. And I read The Screwtape Letters.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i don't exactly keep forgetting that on the whole (it's part of my "gestalt" for him), but i don't remember specifics. which is rather a pity, because there's a lot of wisdom, as in this quote, and the sort of wisdom that's useful to me, regardless of him having been a christian.

i read a whole cactusload of his writings, but i read them way back, and haven't re-read anything since because i am no longer very interested in christianity. and so it has fallen by the wayside.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I've never been that interested in Christianity, being Jewish and all, but you've got a couple really, really good Christian theologians whose stuff is applicable to all sorts of religions and ethical systems. Lewis is one of those folks. I mean, his specifically Christian stuff isn't useful to me, but then you've got the stuff like this that very is.

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

I am no longer amazed that writers of past generations -- some long past -- wrote observations of their times that match so closely observations of our times.

We like to think we have become more civilized, but it seems we have only changed our technologies. Underneath it all, we are pretty much the same humans have been for the last several thousands of years.

My "first feeling" isn't about the veracity of the story, but the compentence of the reporter.

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

I really need to settle down and reread Mere Christianity It's just one of those books that one wishes that everyone would read and agree that it is a consensus framework on Christian ethics and that people are on the moral fringe to the degree that they deviate from it. Plus he's got a great section there where he writes an essay about each of the Virtues; it is the only time that I have read someone speaking sympathetically about Temperance and Prudence in our age.

Of course, you've got to skip over the Trilemma and the chapter about how women have to suck it up and submit to their husbands.