David J. Theroux Founder and President, The Independent Institute; Founder and President, C.S. Lewis...

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Lewis Is as Influential as Ever? David J. Theroux Founder and President, The Independent Institute; Founder and President, C.S. Lewis Society of California

Transcript of David J. Theroux Founder and President, The Independent Institute; Founder and President, C.S. Lewis...

Why C.S. Lewis Is as

Influentialas Ever?

David J. TherouxFounder and President,

The Independent Institute;Founder and President,

C.S. Lewis Society of California

C.S. Lewis Memorial Stone, Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

1. Lewis showed that reason is the anchor of faith.2. Lewis punctured the pomposity and the pretension of modern elite intellectuals.3. Lewis noted that “Reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”4. Lewis restored a Christian vision of humanity—the eternal destiny of every human being.

C.S. Lewis at Age 8 (1906)

Albert Lewis and son C.S. Lewis

PhantastesGeorge MacDonald

J.R.R. TolkienG.K. Chesterton

“I believe in Christianity as

I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see

it,but because by it

I see everything else.”—C.S. Lewis

The Abolition of Man

Rodney Stark

“Tao” (natural law)

“Indeed when Gentiles do by nature things required by

the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they

do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of

the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also

bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now

even defending them.”

—Romans 2:14-15 Apostle Paul

Moral Relativism and Utilitarianism

Scientism

“The universe we observe has precisely the

properties we should expectif there is, at bottom,

no design, no purpose,no evil and no good,

nothing but blind,pitiless indifference.”

—Richard Dawkins

“If my mental processes are determined

wholly by the motion of atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that

my beliefs are true . . . and hence I have no reason for

supposing my brain to be composed of atoms.”

—J.B.S. Haldane

Collectivism and Statism

Individual Liberty

Conclusion