C.S. Lewis...The Presuppositionalist?

Even though I strongly disagree with C.S. Lewis in many areas, I find myself strongly attracted to his ability to display the truth in powerful and beautiful words all at once. I have pulled some quotes from the works of C.S. Lewis that I most certainly agree with and could never dream of improving upon. Some of these thoughts are representative of the presuppositional method of apologetics, which I cannot imagine anyone ascribing to C.S. Lewis. If the claims of this method of apologetics are true though, we should expect to find it resting at the bottom of apologists' arguments.

I pray that you will read closely, slowly, and savor every word. Afterall, "100 per cent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased". These are serious matters, and no one could make certain that we understood this more than Lewis could.


Atheism

"The notion that everyone would like Christianity to be true, and therefore all atheists are brave men who have accepted the defeat of all their deepest desires, is simply impudent nonsense."

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere—'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous."

"Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side."


Presuppositionalism

"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."

"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. ... Of course, I could have given up my idea of justice by saying that it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too--for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist--in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless--I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality--namely my idea of justice--was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."

"If naturalism were true then all thoughts whatever would be wholly the result of irrational causes...it cuts its own throat."

"When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all."


Evidence of God

"The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it."

"'Something of God...flows into us from the blue of the sky, the taste of honey, the delicious embrace of water whether cold or hot, and even from sleep itself.'"

"If the universe is so bad...how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?"


Morality

"Whenever you find a man who says he doesn't believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later."

"This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people."

"Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and can't really get rid of it."


Redemption

"We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin."

"Every uncorrected error and unrepented sin is, in its own right, a fountain of fresh error and fresh sin flowing on to the end of time."




"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."