Mere Christianity

Chapter 2 of Mere Christianity deals with Moral Law and the Law of Decent Behaviour. This part of the essay really grabbed me by the ankles and swung me around. "The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys." This quote compares Moral Law and our instincts to to a piano composition. I agree with this because Moral Law really does gives us the guidelines for which we should follow but ultimately we as people are the ones who choose whether or not to follow them. The essays of Lewis that we have read so far have had a way of getting me to really sit down and think about my life. This piece, especially chapter 2 has already has already got me thinking about how I make decisions.

Another point brought up in chapter 2 is, in essence, dealing with "putting all of your eggs in one basket" when it comes to making decisions. Lewis states "The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thingyou ought to follow at all costs." It is not safe or good to 100% committ to a decision until you have analyzed all of the angles and gone over it like ten times. You need to leave room for error and be able to avoid any obstacles that come up.

I agree that we learnt the Rule of Decent Behaviour (Decent not Descent, Mary) from the people around us. As we go through life we learn what is socially acceptable and what is not, this helps to shape us as Christians and adults. We learn simple things like how to interact with our elders or how we should act at the dinner table. I would go out on a limb and say that shaping ideal behavior is a case of trial and error. Oftens times we fail before we learn how to correctly do or act upon something. I know I have failed many times to correctly answer a math problem or a chemistry problem. Through failing we learn what is correct and believe that it is a stepping stone in life, accepting failure.