People/L
The quotations of
British writer, lay theologian, and scholar
1898–1963
151 quotes, most often on God, Christianity and Morality. Part of the Writers collection.
If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents—the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else’s. But if their thoughts—i.e., of Materialism and Astronomy—are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It’s like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk-jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset.
No doubt those who really founded modern science were usually those whose love of truth exceeded their love of power.
For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.
Man’s conquest of Nature turns out, in the moment of its consummation, to be Nature’s conquest of Man.
Men became scientific because they expected law in Nature; and they expected law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963C. S. Lewis1898–1963C. S. Lewis1898–1963
