Again, Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. . . . And immortality makes this other difference, which, by the by, has a connection with the difference between totalitarianism and democracy. If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of the state or civilisation, compared with his, is only a moment.
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 74-75
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February 11, 2010 at 4:42 pm
I don’t agree with the reasoning, but I do completely agree with the conclusion – the individual is more important than the state.
February 14, 2010 at 5:21 pm
What’s wrong with the reasoning? His logic is perfectly valid: If individual souls last forever, then the human individual is more important than the construct of the state, which is temporal.
April 10, 2010 at 5:58 pm
[...] Sarah Palin has said publicly that she loves to read C.S. Lewis. Lewis, a believer, posited the state and the individual through a lens of Christianity. He wrote, “… Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. . . . And immortality makes this other difference, which, by the by, has a connection with the difference between totalitarianism and democracy. If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more im… [...]
October 8, 2010 at 2:41 pm
[...] Sarah Palin has said publicly that she loves to read C.S. Lewis. Lewis, a believer, posited the state and the individual through a lens of Christianity. He wrote, “…Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. . . . And immortality makes this other difference, which, by the by, has a connection with the difference between totalitarianism and democracy. If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more im… [...]
January 12, 2011 at 8:09 pm
[...] Sarah Palin has said publicly that she loves to read C.S. Lewis. Lewis, a believer, posited the state and the individual through a lens of Christianity. He wrote, “…Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. . . . And immortality makes this other difference, which, by the by, has a connection with the difference between totalitarianism and democracy. If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more i…” [...]
December 9, 2011 at 1:18 am
[...] "…Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. . . . And immortality makes this other difference, which, by the by, has a connection with the difference between totalitarianism and democracy. If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more im… [...]
May 25, 2012 at 5:32 am
There’s a leap in logic from “ives longer” to “is more important” that Lewis hasn’t justified.