Mere Christianity Reviewer

1. What is the difference/s of the Law of Nature and the Law of Human Nature?

- Law of Nature: laws that we (our bodies) have to follow, like law of gravity, biological laws; we share these laws with any other organisms; we have no choice in whether or not we follow these laws ("what nature, in fact, does"); dictates how people behave;

- Law of Human Nature: not shared with any other organism or anything; we have a choice in whether or not we follow; the law that dictates the choices we make and pushes us towards being good and righteous; dictates how people ought to behave;

2. Why can we say that the Law of Human Nature is a universal truth? Give a concrete example to prove that it is a universal truth.

- Universal because it is known by nature and need not be taught

- Differences between cultures and countries and the like have never been great or total

o In all cultures, it's bad to steal, to kill, to turn your back on someone who needs help

o Humans in general have a sense of good and bad, right and wrong

o Helps push us towards being righteous, being fair, being good

3. "Isn't what you call the Moral Law simply our herd instinct, and hasn't it been developed just like all our other instincts?" Give one of the answers of CS Lewis to this question.

- Instinct is driven by the desire to do something

o Ex. A mother's desire to keep her baby healthy and happy drives her to her motherly instinct to feed him and care for him properly

o Moral law is not something we desire to do

 On the contrary, sometimes, we may not want to do it

 But it's what we ought to do, what we are pushed to do

- Moral Law is completely separate from our instincts; it's what allows us to pick between two instincts that are warring inside us

o Ex. Armageddon, Bruce Willis' character was faced with a predicament: the man his daughter is supposed to marry (the same man he promised his daughter he'd bring back safely) was tasked to do something that would undoubtedly kill him. So Bruce Willis' character had two automatic instincts: the "herd instinct" to help his daughter's fiancé and sacrifice himself and the "self-preservation instinct" to keep himself out of harm.

o Ex. There is also a case of this one time, when a girl get off of a jeep and I saw that she'd left her phone behind. There was the instinct that said I could pocket that phone and maybe sell it and make money, and the instinct that said text someone the girl knows so she can get her phone back.

o In both of these cases, Moral Law is the thing pushing us towards the good and righteous, towards the weaker instinct. In Bruce Willis' character's case, Moral Law is what pushed him to sacrifice himself. In my case, it's what pushed me to give the phone back to the girl.

4. "Isn't what you call the Moral Law just a social convention, something that is put into us by education?" CS Lewis concluded that it (Moral Law) is not a social convention. Give reasons.

- People have a notion that just because something is taught, it is human invention, convention

o Multiplication taught to a kid at school. But it is not taught to a kid thousands of miles away, living in a secluded community. Thus, multiplication isn't necessarily a human convention.

- We learn decent behavior from the teachings and examples of those around us, especially elders

- Social conventions are also dependent on the society. Filipino society has much different social conventions from American society.

- Moral law is not a social convention because it is universal

o Conventions, such as traffic laws, can differ from society to society or country to country, etc.

- Another reason is that one cannot judge another's morality to be better or worse than what they believe in. By saying that something is better or worse, that