Any idea why Lewis left out this AfR passage from The Case for Christianity in Mere Christianity?
Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It's like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course I can't trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God."
I think Lewis came to believe that simplistic versions of the AFR were not adequate, in response to the Anscombe incident. In opposing the Anscombe Legend I am not saying it had no effect on his apologetic career. What I am saying is that he did not lose confidence in rational apologetics in general, or the Argument from Reason in particular, based on his experience with Anscombe.
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Any idea why Lewis left out this AfR passage from The Case for Christianity in Mere Christianity?
Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It's like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course I can't trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God."
I think Lewis came to believe that simplistic versions of the AFR were not adequate, in response to the Anscombe incident. In opposing the Anscombe Legend I am not saying it had no effect on his apologetic career. What I am saying is that he did not lose confidence in rational apologetics in general, or the Argument from Reason in particular, based on his experience with Anscombe.
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