Mere Christianity -- Book 3, Chap. 1

The Three Parts of Morality

Some people think God is "the sort of person who is always snooping around to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it."  This is what many people think of the term "morality."  It is something that interferes, something that stops you having a good time.

However, moral rules are directions for running the human machine.  Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of that machine.  That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations.

But should we call moral rules "ideals"?  What is meant is that morality is just based upon personal tastes and therefore everyone has their own moral ideals.  Morality becomes a private matter that the rest of us are free to do without.  This ends up being a disastrous mistake.  Why?

Because moral rules are prescribed to all men by the very nature of the human machine, which will not run properly without them. 

Also, it would be a dangerous mistake to suggest that you are a person of "high ideals" if you only follow the moral rules part of the time and merely shoot for the "ideal" of morality because even the smallest mistake now will cause you great trouble latter on probably to others and certainly to yourself (e.g. math calculations).  By speaking of moral "rules" instead of "ideals" we help remind ourselves of these facts.

Lewis argues that there are three crucial parts to morality:

1.  Morality between individuals (social).  Like ships in a fleet we can drift apart from one another or else collide with one another (or get in one another's way) and do one another damage.

2.  Morality within the individual himself or herself (personal).  Also, like ships in a fleet, we can go wrong inside ourselves when different parts inside either drift apart or interfere with one another.  Each ship should be seaworthy and have her engines in good order.

3.  Morality between the creation and Creator (cosmic), or in other words, the difference of worldviews (eg. between believers and unbelievers) will affect our morality.  Where is the whole fleet trying to get to?  The fleet would be in trouble if they were headed for New York and arrived in Calcutta instead.

Morality, then, seems to be concerned with three things.  Firstly, with fair play and harmony between individuals (between man and man).  Secondly, with what might be called tidying up or harmonizing the things inside each individual (things inside each man).  Thirdly, with the general purpose of human life as a whole (between man and the power that made him):  what man was made for:  what course the whole fleet ought to be on:  what tune the conductor of the band wants it to play.

Most modern people think of morality as consisting of only the first (kindness and fair play between people and nations) and not the other two.  You hear this when someone thinks it is ok for him to do it personally because its not hurting anyone else.  "He is thinking it does not matter what his ship is like inside provided that he does not run into the next ship." 

As long as you stick to the first idea of morality you usually find there is not much disagreement about morality.  But if we stop there we really are not thinking through morality clearly enough.  We have to move on to the others, esp. the tidying up inside of each human being, for morality to work.

A society will not work properly by just making rules affecting the relationships between people.  You must also have citizens who themselves are being ruled well from within.  If you don't change the individual, then you can rule against certain behavior but the broken individual will just find new ways to carry out their old selves.

You cannot make men good by law:  and without good men you cannot have a good society. 

But we have to go further.  We also must realize that different beliefs about the universe lead to different behavior.  If religion is based upon statements of fact, which must be either true or false, then one set of conclusions will follow from the true ones and another set will follow from the false ones.

For instance, if I believe I belong only to myself, will that not affect my actions in a different way than if I believe I belong to my Creator and I live according to his laws and for his purposes?

As Christians we believe that we are going to live forever.  Won't this have a huge effect on my behavior than if I believed I was only going to live 70 or so years and then just die and remain dead?    If I have a bad temper, it might only look a certain way after 70 years, but what will I look like after a million years?

It is in this last category that being a Christian has huge ramifications about morality.  It is through the lens of Christianity that we now take up the issue of morality.