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apologist, C. S. Lewis, Christian, Christian apologetics, Christianity, Clive Staples Lewis, CS Lewis, Evolution, God, Holy Spirit, John G. West, Lewis, Mere Christianity, Religion and Spirituality, scientism, scientocracy, The Discovery Institute, The Magician's Twin, Theism to Christianity
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“C.S. Lewis and Evolution” is the second of three short documentaries inspired by the book The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society. It examines the evolution of Lewis’s views on orthodox Darwinian theory from his time as a college undergraduate to his death in 1963.
Lewis’s first exception to human evolution was his insistence on an actual Fall of Man from an original state of innocence. The creation story (or cosmogonical myths) is similar in ancient cultures. In these, it is suggested that there was a finished creation from which we were fallen into sin, and therefore, we needed a divine presence to restore us to what God had originally created us to be. Lewis emphasized that man prior to the Fall had unimpeded fellowship with God.
At his time, archaeological discoveries could not tell us whether prehistoric peoples were kind, or courageous, or noble, or just. Nor do they tell us about their capacity for poetry or song. We know today that there was a great deal of evidence of advances that are impossible to explain if evolution of mankind were to have originated from lower animals. I may delve more into the ancient evidence; probably not though since it is a huge mystery.
Lewis foresaw that science could be twisted by greed and self-aggrandizement in order to attack religion, undermine ethics, and limit human freedom. The description of Transhumanism (the human enhancement movement) is written in Lewis’s predictions in The Abolition of Man and is seemingly frighteningly accurate as today, technology advances rapidly while moral knowledge declines.
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C.S. Lewis and Evolution examines Lewis’s growing doubts about parts of Darwinian evolution, beginning with his views while still an atheist. NOTE: Lewis believed in the common descent of all human beings from one non-human ancestor, although he was skeptical of unguided natural selection.
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More than a half century ago, famed writer C.S. Lewis warned about how science (a good thing) could be twisted in order to attack religion, undermine ethics, and limit human freedom. Throughout his life, C.S. Lewis struggled with what he called the “argument from undesign,” the reality that nature exhibits cruelty and imperfection as well as purpose and beauty. In this documentary “The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism,” leading scholars explore Lewis’s prophetic warnings about the abuse of science and how Lewis’s concerns are increasingly relevant for us today.
The Discovery Institute released the book The Magician’s Twin, edited by John G. West in 2012. West was a senior Fellow of the Institute and one of the editors of the highly C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia. The Magician’s Twin is actually a collection of essays written by contemporary writers about Lewis’s warnings of how dehumanizing scientism would take us in ethics, politics, education, faith, reason, and even in science itself.
The book explores Lewis’s views on bioethics, eugenics, evolution, intelligent design, and what he called “scientocracy.” The book is divided into four sections: Science and Scientism, Origins, Reason, and Society. I previously posted about the first section here.
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C. S. Lewis and Intelligent Design explores Lewis’s personal struggle to find evidence of intelligent design in a world filled with cruelty, imperfection, and injustice.
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In That Hideous Strength, Lewis observes, “The physical sciences, good and innocent in themselves, had already… begun to be warped, had been subtly maneuvered in a certain direction. Despair of objective truth had been increasingly insinuated into the scientists; indifference to it, and a concentration upon mere power, had been the result… The very experiences of the dissecting room and the pathological laboratory were breeding a conviction that the stifling of all deep-set repugnances was the first essential for progress.”
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For more information visit http://www.cslewisweb.com.
There is a main page for “The Magician’s Twin” video series.
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I hope you’ll come back often — there is more to be discovered.
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Need help or want to collaborate with me?
Just e-mail me at thehunt4truth@yahoo.com
Thanks for learning with me.
Eric
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RELATED:
C. S. Lewis – why he still matters so much today
C. S. Lewis: The Magician’s Twin
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perfect wisdom nestled in every cell
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theory of mind… evolving spirituality
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the Hunt for Truth 
Reblogged this on theperfectprescription2014 and commented:
Reblogged from The Hunt For Truth
Science, like statistics, can be manipulated to support a theory either for or against, depending on which side you choose…there is always two sides to a story and somewhere in the middle lies the truth. Good post!
Thanks… I mostly posted the CS Lewis topics because he’s a cool guy and he was an inspiration when I was young… glad you liked it Bev.
Lewis had an amazing mind…I find it interesting that he and JR Tolkien were friends and both had a history at Oxford U…it is quite likely that they inspired one another with their uniquely creative minds.
This is a great post, especially for those of us who greatly admire C.S. Lewis as both a private person and an author. The trilogy, ending with “That Hideous Strength,” is a powerhouse of reflection on Christianity.
I like to post alternatives to the widespread science… evolution is much tighter in this era with less of the grandiose Darwinian influence… Darwin himself would have not have liked how some of his work was sometime linked to claims. Its come to finally that the debates are cooling off and settling into matches that are widely followed and that scientists are often being called to task when they publish work that misses the scientific proof. Still, I find enough to make my challenges and I have fun at it… just trying to keep them honest. CS Lewis was a remarkable man. His youth put him into situations often that made his inner life strong although at the time he didn’t sometime feel at all strong. I enjoyed lots of his books including the hideous strength although most of his books are for me more than 40 years old in my memories.
glad you enjoyed the post…
Blessings,
~ Eric