Mr. Lundahl Needs to Understand that Some of Us Have Studied C.S. Lewis’ Works and Find Them Outdated and Substandard
Kevin R. Henke
October 1, 2022
In Henke (2022b), Henke (2022t), Henke (2022u), Henke (2022ar) and some of my other essays, I have been very critical of the arguments and writing style of C.S. Lewis, especially Miracles (Lewis 1960). In Henke (2022ar), I said the following in response to Lundahl (2022j):
“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 Lewis’ assumptions about the reliability of the Bible in Miracles are decades out of date and totally unjustified as also shown by Loftus (2010), Loftus (2011) and Price (2007), just to name a few resources.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can’t avoid the temptation of citing his works, even though his works, such as Lewis (1960), are actually ineffective, outdated, and often badly argued.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:
https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B002BY77FY/ref=acr_dpx_hist_3?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=three_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar “ [original emphasis in bold; my emphasis in bold and italics]
In response to only the title of Henke (2022ar), which is “C.S. Lewis’ Miracles Doesn’t Demonstrate the Reality of Miracles”, Lundahl (2022r) states:
“First of all, the book [Lewis 1960] actually does. We have mainly been discussing chapter 3. And some of the chapter (8, I think) of the Pool Table Analogy. But there is in fact a series of chapters that starts with a broad claim of what the Incarnation is, and goes on to analyse : 1) how the miracles of the Gospels fit it; 2) and how they are historically well evidenced.”
Lewis (1960) fails to provide any external evidence for the Incarnation or other Biblical miracles. He just wants his readers to assume that the claims in the New Testament are true. There’s no reason to accept those assumptions as I stated in the above bolded and italicized section from Henke (2022ar):
“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.”
No wonder atheists, like Stenger (2012, pp. 257-258), have such a low opinion of C.S. Lewis.
Also, as I clearly explained in Henke (2022b) and Henke (2022co), miracles cannot be “historically well evidenced.” They have to be demonstrated under strict present-day laboratory conditions. Most of all, Mr. Lundahl doesn’t even understand C.S. Lewis’ arguments on history and miracles as discussed in Lewis (1960, p. 2) and Henke (2022ch).
Lundahl (2022r) continues:
“In counter-references to a book he has nearly obviously not read, since he doesn't see how it deals with historical claims for miracles in the Gospels, except on his own words, he has read it, he gives :
Carrier, R. 2014. On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt, Sheffield Phoenix Press: Sheffield, UK, 696pp.
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.”
Mr. Lundahl obviously can’t imagine that someone would read a “classic of Christian apologetics”, Lewis (1960), and actually find it to be poorly written and awfully argued. So, instead, Mr. Lundahl tries to convince himself and our readers that I must not have actually read it. Mr. Lundahl actually needs to reread my essay, Henke (2022ar), where I explain why the arguments in Lewis (1960), as well as the “poached egg” argument in Mere Christianity (Lewis 1952), which I have also read, are absolutely bogus. Lewis (1960) just groundlessly quotes the Bible as if it’s been demonstrated to be reliable history. In the next essay, Henke (2022gn), I’ll discuss the invalid excuses that Lundahl (2022r) gives for not reading Carrier (2014) and the articles on the Gospels in Loftus (2010; 2011) that I have recommended in a number of my essays.
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. 2003. The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition?, Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, 389pp.
Price, R.M. 2007. Jesus is Dead, American Atheist Press: Cranford, NJ, USA, 279pp.
Stenger, V.J. 2012. God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion: Prometheus Books: Amherst, New York, USA, 408pp.