the intellectual damage done by #CSLewis and the cult of #Christian #apologetics that he unwittingly founded is becoming clearer to me. the situation is a bad one.
it's easy to explain: a large fraction of Western intellectuals have, without admitting it, rejected #doubt.
(1/x)
it's easy to explain: a large fraction of Western intellectuals have, without admitting it, rejected #doubt.
(1/x)
Jack Lewis taught a whole lot of clever, sophistical #Christians how to talk as if they were absolutely certain of themselves even though they were on uncertain ground—which is roughly how Lewis carried himself in the intellectual arena. the bad habits spread from there.
(2/x)
(2/x)
but I contend the problem is endemic to #Christianity. this isn't just Jack Lewis's problem, or Mr. @dalepartridge's problem; this is a fundamental *fault* in Christianity.
Christianity is intellectually incoherent because it has refused to deal with its own doubts.
(3/x)
Christianity is intellectually incoherent because it has refused to deal with its own doubts.
(3/x)
Christians everywhere in the West, everywhere in the world, demand special privileges to order society as they see fit, as if their specific #faith were a settled thing, a proved thing, fit not merely for human belief but for human law and regulation.
but this is not so.
(4/x)
but this is not so.
(4/x)
the central issue: was the Incarnation *real*?
we have a book, the #Bible, that purports to describe a certain event of spiritual importance. an enormous body of #Christian tradition and law and literature has been erected on the premise that this book is literal truth.
(5/x)
we have a book, the #Bible, that purports to describe a certain event of spiritual importance. an enormous body of #Christian tradition and law and literature has been erected on the premise that this book is literal truth.
(5/x)
yet hardly any two Christian sects agree on Biblical canon. the Torah and the Quran are both well-specified texts, compared to the #Bible. we are far more certain about the Jewish and Muslim canons, than we are certain about the #Christian canon, which is *still disputed*.
(6/x)
(6/x)
how can Christianity pretend to have any intellectual substance, when no two Christian factions can agree even on which of their texts is sacred or not?
the situation is an appalling one, and #CSLewis was not intellectually equipped to deal with its intricacies.
(7/x)
the situation is an appalling one, and #CSLewis was not intellectually equipped to deal with its intricacies.
(7/x)
(I feel a wince, from the direction of the @Oddest_Inkling.
I do not know Professor Charles Williams very well myself; we have a certain aversion to reading his writing that has nothing to do with the writing's *quality*, because we know Williams to be a superb writer.)
(8/x)
I do not know Professor Charles Williams very well myself; we have a certain aversion to reading his writing that has nothing to do with the writing's *quality*, because we know Williams to be a superb writer.)
(8/x)
(hence our difficulties with reading his work are a matter of some importance to us. we do not like mental obstacles of this sort. in any case...I am certain that there were thunderous intellectual disputes between Jack Lewis and his friends, about his...preachiness.)
(9/x)
(9/x)
oh dear... I feel that this situation is actually rather a tragic one. and I must for the moment stop writing.
~Mona Drafter of Pnictogen
~Mona Drafter of Pnictogen
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