I am truly amazed as I enter the diatribe of Lewis's piece Man or Rabbit. The thing that I enjoy thoroughly about the essay is that he makes is so personal. I say this not meaning solely that it applies to me per say, but that Lewis in fact applies the ideas in this writing to the individual and not on a cooperate level. His gives the profound idea that an individual should not ask, and cannot really ask can someone live a good life without Christianity, but must instead as can I? This is fascinating as I find that I notice that people especially non-believers will make extreme effort distance themselves personally from any aspect of questioning of logic. I believe the idea Lewis gives about human nature is powerfully incite full. Lewis states, as he has in previous pieces, that one thing that separates humanity from the animals is our desire to know. He stands so much behind this idea that he goes as far as to say that someone who has lost this desire, has in fact become less than human.
I was thoroughly intrigued with Lewis idea about individual doing good or trying to good, and the simple logic used to emphasize such a powerful conclusion. The idea of individuals trying to help one another in a society. Lewis states that there are really two types of people. One group exercises his helpfulness our of christian obligation, while the other does his help for a belief in a societal happiness. The interesting idea is that these groups can coexist on some small level, but when it comes to making practical proposals the groups would greatly differ. Those whose end desire is happiness may be willing to sacrifice something like justice or honesty for the sake of the end happiness in the whole society, while a christian would simply deny such proposals as immoral.
As Christians we constantly strive to make the right choices, and live a "good" life, but as Lewis states this undertaking is so much more that we could have imagined. We can only constantly pray for the grace of God and his continual guidance.
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This is a good summary of Lewis' main points. I like how you pointed out the emphasis on the individual that Lewis is so clear about. My thought about this is that if we see our efforts to live a "good life" as such a big undertaking, what is our motivation for doing it? I think that we can and should continue to pray for God's grace and guidance, but I think that so often people use this as an excuse. It connects to Plantinga's chapter on vocation where he cites frustration as one thing that keeps us from doing God's will. We have to be careful that we don't succumb to the "let's just give up" attitude.
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