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Bruce K.'s avatar

I don't understand Lewis's point. Why should the human called Jesus be reviled as a lunatic for merely repeating widely-accepted moral platitudes? Lewis got pretty worked up about this.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

Agreed. I think he was coming to a point -- and Hitchens posited this, too -- where Lewis was on the precipice of knowing the whole concept of Jesus and heaven and God and original sin was impossible for a thinking, rational human being to accept, but ultimately decided he kind of liked the story anyway.

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GL Dryfoos's avatar

"That is the one thing we must not say."

We can say all the other things, though? All the other things? I hardly know where to start. Maybe... "Jeepers! What a cartload o' crap!"

That's one thing I can say, right?

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Barry Friedman's avatar

Yeah, that's a good place. I'd start there.

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June Butler's avatar

Balderdash, Lewis! Can you hear me? I expect not.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

You tell him, June

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Jack Mahoney's avatar

Thank you. I needed this for my collection, which includes The Brothers Grimm on Odin's omnipotence and Hans Christian Andersen on clockwork Calvinism and how to use your own predestination as an affirmative defense at the Last Judgment. Good stuff.

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Andrew Kirkaldy's avatar

Hmm, how do I sum up my opinion of this passage .... Got it: Bullshit.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

Yeah, it's a dodge for sure, but I do think if he had stopped somewhere in the middle it wouldn't have been so infuriating.

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Andrew Kirkaldy's avatar

Evangelists: Known for stopping in the middle. Sure they are.

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Robert Tetrault's avatar

Absolutism. There are those who happily jump on that rock and claim the high ground. Stridently with torches or eloquently as with this gentleman.

TL;DR, I seem to lack this particular DNA.

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Mark C. Abbott's avatar

This week's series is my first exposure to Lewis's writings. And it shall be my last. I have a limited mental budget for codswallop.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

Don't blame you, but I thought it was worth sharing him.

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GL Dryfoos's avatar

"What the hell, Stapes? What the hell have you been smoking? What are you hiding in that big cabinet there?"

-- "Narnia business!"

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