Argument analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Argument analysis - Essay Example Throughout the book Lewis uses very persuasive and precise arguments to make his case. At the beginning of Chapter Two, Lewis examines the problem of pain. The argument is based on some contradictory premises: 1. Because God is good and all powerful, he would want to create a good world 2. The world is not good 3. God is therefore either not good or not all powerful Lewis examines these premises throughout Chapter two and decides the issue is more nuanced. Words like â€Å"omnipotence† are problematic, as is the word â€Å"goodness.† Our words and terms do not really fit God, in all his glory. We cannot be expected to understand the mysterious ways of the universe, Lewis argues. Essentially this is an argument about faith. Lewis seems to be saying: If you don't really understand things, just trust the priests to understand it for you. These premises rely on a number of logical leaps that Lewis uses throughout his argument. For example, he looks back over history and con cludes that religious feeling has always been with us. From the dawn of humanity people have believed in something larger than themselves. At first their knowledge of these phenomena was far from perfect and they mistook all sort of occurrences as signs of divine power. Now nothing is more certain than that man, from a very early period, began to believe that the universe was haunted by spirits . . . It is therefore theoretically possible that there was a time when men regarded these spirits simply as dangerous and felt towards them just as they felt towards tigers. What is certain is that now, at any rate, the numinous experience exists and that if we start from ourselves we can trace it a long way back (15). This is an interesting observation, but it would have been best to explore what a numinous experience really is. Is it an actually transaction with the supernatural? Or is it something physiological? Without an understanding about the reality of mystical experiences it is hard to go much further with this. There are for example, studies which suggest the commonly observed phenomenon in near-death experiences—a white light at a tunnel—is a physiological reaction that can be replicated by cutting off oxygen to the brain. Is this too a numinous experience? He asks us to expand on our definitions of goodness and omnipotence while narrowing the possible explanations for phenomena in the world. Indeed, as Lewis explains: The problem of pain is a problem about the order of the universe. As Lewis puts it, Christianity is not a solution to the problem, but in fact brings the problem into question as it promises something better than pain: â€Å"for pain would be no problem unless, side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think a good assurance that ultimate reality is righteous and loving† (21). So how has Christianity promised any of this? Those who believe pain dominates all, argue that it cannot and that it is a sham. But Lewis does not believe this. The argument Lewis makes can be generalized by saying that humans do have a power over their lives and are not part of a clockwork universe. They choose how to live and who to obey. If they wish to turn their backs on God and ignore him they are entirely capable of doing so. If they wish to behave in a bad manner and injure their fellows and disrespect authority, again they can do so. But this will not make them happy or fulfil them in any way. They have