I just finished reading "The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud debate God, love, sex, and the meaning of life" (should be underlined but I can't figure out how to do it!) by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr. today. It was immensely informative. I have read many of C.S. Lewis' books, but found this book much more enlightening to his beliefs, arguments, thought processes, and conversion. I would highly recommend it to anyone seeking help/answers on the subjects listed in the title--covers just about everything, doesn't it?
Page 116 - Lewis speaking to an Oxford audience: "There are no ordinary people. [R]emember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you may talk to may one day be a creature which if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship." No one ever talks to "a mere mortal...it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors...your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."
I titled this blog after reading C.S. Lewis' explanation for his belief in God giving us free will (page 206): "This Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong. I cannot. If a thing is free to be good, it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible." "[F]ree will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata--of creatures that worked like machines--would hardly be worth creating." "Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk."
Z
