C.S. Lewis and Religion
Step Two- The Presence of Morality and Guilt
The next step in C.S. Lewis’s road to religion is morality. If you remember, Lewis observes that every major religion has three steps at its foundation. Then, Lewis goes on to say that Christianity has a fourth step that sets it apart and gives validity to Christianity that no other can claim.
But let’s get back to this second step. There is no connection between the first step of numinous awe and this second observation of morality. In fact, every people that has lived (religious or not) has possessed some sort of system within their being that is expressed in the sense of “I ought” or “I ought not.” Lewis is not concerned here if the laws among people are similar or different, the important thing is that there is some form of foundational sense of right or wrong that has characterized man from the beginning. Lewis also states that, “Morality, like numinous awe, is a jump [an unexplainable phenomenon in human existence]; in it, man goes beyond anything that can be given [deduced] from human experience.”
The last incredible observance of morality in mankind is that everybody sets the standard too high! We all experience a sense of guilt from failing to do the “I oughts” and accomplishing the acts of “I ought not.” One would think that at least one society would set a standard of morality that would render them guiltless, but they all without exception “prescribe a behavior that their adherents fail to practice.” If it is remarkable that every culture in every time sets a standard of morality, it is even more astonishing that everybody sets a standard that leads to guilt.
So, here we are two steps in. To recap, the fact that people of all time stand in awe of a numinous presence they cannot explain is observation one. The fact that people of all time set a standard of morals in which a characteristic of guilt is present is observation two. In the next step, we will see Lewis not simply make an observation but a connection…
