Posted by Sam [66.73.179.72 - adsl-66-73-179-72.dsl.sfldmi.ameritech.net] on 06 May 2002 at 12.15.24 ZuluTime:
To quote C.S.Lewis, a former atheist, "My arguement 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. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my arguement against God collapsed too - for the arguement 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 that 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 have never found out that it has no menaing: 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."