Henke 2022ar
Lundahl (2022j): C.S. Lewis’ Miracles Doesn’t Demonstrate the Reality of Miracles
Kevin R. Henke
September 15, 2022
In Henke (2022b), I quote Lundahl (2022a) and comment on how ineffective his primary source, Lewis (1960), really is:
“Lundahl (2022a) also makes the following statement to me about nature and our consciousness:
“Other takeaway in CSL's [C.S. Lewis’] Miracles, you carry around yourself two very clear indications that nature is not all there is - neither reason nor morality can be reduced to matter and energy affected by each other in accordance with laws of physics and chemistry. The ‘hard problem of consciousness’ - to take it from a somewhat different angle - remains hard. We don't just need an intelligent designer who arranged our brains for optimal consciousness, we need (for purposes we take for granted, like refuting or like blaming) something other than just brain arrangements in our consciousness.”
I fully admit that I’m no expert on consciousness. Contrary to what Lundahl (2022a) and Lewis (1960, his chapter 3, etc.) indicate in this quotation, our thoughts are electrical and our brains are matter. Lewis (1960, chapter 3, etc.) questioned the ability of humans to rationally understand our surroundings through naturalism and he argued that we should seriously consider that miracles occur. However, Lewis (1960) had the burden of evidence to demonstrate his claims for miracles and he failed to do so. Now, investigators are still looking for miracles at revival meetings, among psychics, at supposedly haunted houses, and elsewhere, and not finding any evidence for them.
Who we are, including our reason and moral values, arise from interactions between our brains and our surroundings. We observe, test and confirm with the help of others our conclusions about events in nature. Our brains, thoughts and surroundings are all ultimately controlled by the laws of chemistry and physics. That is, we can imagine what it would be like to be able to magically levitate objects only using our thoughts, but the laws of chemistry and physics don’t actually allow us to do it. Nevertheless, there is a danger that when we recognize that our brains are nothing but matter and energy that we might be tempted to trivialize this electrical activity and think that it has no serious consequences. That is, considering how much damage the electrical activity in Putin’s brain is doing to millions of people in the Ukraine, we cannot underestimate the power of a single human brain to manipulate other humans and weapons in his/her environment. This is why millions of people hope that Putin’s brain soon ceases to function and that more rational and empathetic brains will replace him.
Our morals and reasoning abilities arise in response to our surroundings, including how we interact with other humans. By getting confirmation from our fellow humans and doing experimental testing, we can make reliable discoveries about our environment. We can send spacecraft to Moon, understand why severe earthquakes occur in certain areas and not others, and we understand what causes influenza, etc. The supernatural is not needed to explain these discoveries. Because of the power of the human brain and our ability to adequately understand what’s going on in our surroundings, we can have a huge impact on our surroundings. Unfortunately, humans can also do extensive damage to our environment.
No gods, angels, demons or a Bible are also needed to figure out how people should try to function in our environments. We should develop rules (morality) through reason and not Biblical dogma so that we can live peacefully with each other and our environment. No sane person wants to live in poverty, misery and violence. Ukrainian soldiers are the only sane individuals wanting to move to eastern Ukraine.
We should also recognize that not all brains function well. Mental illness and deficiency are real. As rational research shows, chemicals, traumatic experiences and genetics can certainly cause mental illness. Demons aren’t required.”
Using his usual messy line-by-line responses, Lundahl (2022j) then comments on the bolded section of Henke (2022b):
“Kevin R. Henke: ‘Lewis (1960, chapter 3, etc.) questioned the ability of humans to rationally understand our surroundings through naturalism …’
Hans Georg Lundahl: No, he totally refuted the ability of humans to rationally understand anything beyond our surroundings, if naturalism is true about what the human understanders are. It is not a question about an understander being hampered by naturalism as a method he uses. It's about an understander, beyond surroundings and survival necessities, being hampered by being mere nature.
Kevin R. Henke: ‘… and he argued that we should seriously consider that miracles occur.’
Hans Georg Lundahl: Not in chapter three, no.
Kevin R. Henke: ‘However, Lewis (1960) had the burden of evidence to demonstrate his claims for miracles and he failed to do so.’
Hans Georg Lundahl: Oh, he failed to present a case for the Gospels and the Resurrection? Those were actually his claims for miracles, in the end chapters of the book. Let's see what Henke has to say about that.”
Physicists, chemists, and other scientists certainly do not know everything about our Universe or “Nature”, but we definitely do know some things so well that we can use the laws of physics and chemistry to readily predict how some of these things will behave. For example, that’s why we have successfully landed men on the Moon and safely returned them to Earth.
The existence of anything beyond our Universe, such as Heaven or Hell, are entirely undemonstrated. Nevertheless, both Lewis (1960) and Mr. Lundahl are convinced that there is a Heavenly realm beyond our physical Universe. Yet, they can’t provide any evidence that this Heavenly realm with God, Jesus and angels actually exists. They provide zero evidence for their claims of a spiritual realm and that includes the poorly argued claims about miracles in general in Lewis (1960), as well as the particular claims about the Gospels and the Resurrection in the back of Lewis (1960). For example, when discussing the Resurrection, Lewis (1960, pp. 233-234) just starts citing the book of Acts without first demonstrating that any of its claims are even true. In contrast, Carrier (2014, pp. 359-386) argues that Acts is a work of fiction.
So, Lewis (1960) just expects us to accept whatever the Bible says. Lewis’ assumptions about the reliability of the Bible in Miracles are decades out of date and totally unjustified as also shown by Loftus (2010), Loftus (2011) and Price (2007), just to name a few resources.
C.S. Lewis’ famous quotation from Mere Christianity on the nature of Jesus is a prime example of how Lewis just uncritically assumes that the New Testament is a reliable source of information about Jesus. Yet, what if Jesus never actually said any of the far-fetched claims about himself that were assigned to him in the four gospels? Why should Lewis, Mr. Lundahl or anyone else trust what the Gospels say about Jesus? Besides the Lord, Lunatic or Liar options for Jesus given by C.S. Lewis, there’s a fourth and more probable one – Legend. Now, I’m not a mythicist. I think that Jesus actually existed, but beyond him being crucified by the Romans, I’m not convinced that he said or did anything else contributed to him.
C.S. Lewis is a great hero to most conservative Christians, like Mr. Lundahl. They can’t avoid the temptation of citing his works, even though his works, such as Lewis (1960), are actually ineffective, outdated, and often badly argued. For example, the discussions in Lewis (1960, p. 18-19 in his chapter 3) are especially vague and outdated descriptions of the behavior of subatomic particles and radioactive decay, and his attempt to downplay the effectiveness of human reasoning is completely unconvincing. Even some of the one- to three-star reviewers at Amazon.com admit that the writing in Lewis (1960) is often vague and hard to follow, and I agree with them. For example:
References:
Carrier, R. 2014. On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt, Sheffield Phoenix Press: Sheffield, UK, 696pp.
Lewis, C.S. 1952. Mere Christianity, 2nd ed., printed 2015: Harper One: HarperCollinsPublishers, 227pp.
Lewis, C.S. 1960. Miracles, 2nd ed., printed 1974: Harper One: HarperCollinsPublishers, 294pp.
Loftus, J.W. (ed.). 2010. The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, 422pp.
Loftus, J.W. (ed.). 2011. The End of Christianity, Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, 435pp.
Price, R.M. 2007. Jesus is Dead, American Atheist Press: Cranford, NJ, USA, 279pp.