Saturday, April 4, 2009

C. S. Lewis: God in the Dock, 1945

C.S. Lewis in his book, God in the Dock, 1945 made this excellent statement:

"One of he great difficulties is to keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true but because it is good.

And in the discussion they will at every moment try to escape from the issue 'True or False' into stuff about a good society, or morals, or the incomes of Bishops, or the Spanish Inquisition, or France, or Poland -- or anything whatever. You have to keep forcing them back, and again back to the real point. Only thus will you be able to undermine ... their belief that a certain amount of 'religion' is desirable but one musn't carry it too far. One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important."