Why is the world so intent on techno-fascism or medical Nazism and control? Why the lust for power and totalitarian management? How did modern man (and woman) become so distorted, evil, psychotic, and anti-scientific? C. S. Lewis predicted the abolition of man in 1943. The ‘Abolition of Man’ is the deconstruction of reason, through the surgical removal of imagination and faith. Man becomes a machine.
Lewis was arguably the most important Christian apologist in the 20th century. A medieval and Renaissance scholar, the creator of important and popular works of fiction (The Chronicles of Narnia, the Ransom Trilogy), Lewis was a convert to Christianity who combined reason with faith and never saw a conflict between the two. Lewis in fact would have surmised that faith emboldens true reason.
Lewis wrote several famous works of Christian apologia including The Problem of Pain (1940), Miracles (1947), and Mere Christianity (1952). Lewis believed that the rational soundness of Christianity was based on claims that were philosophically and historically valid, and that the imagination, as espoused in his works of non-fiction, was the key element to truly understand both reality and true faith. He espoused that ‘rationalism’ can contribute to an understanding of truth, as long as it is shaped by a healthy imagination and faith. The imagination is thus supra-rational, transcending mere rationalism, or arguments based on reason.
Lewis knew the truth that ‘naturalism’, or ‘evolution’ was a self-defeating and illogical materialism. How, he asked, could an organ such as the brain, self-develop through chance and ‘survival instincts’ to reason, believe and discern say a truth or a lie? Our trust in reason to discover a truth or scientific ‘law’ is predicated on a belief that such a truth participates in the Divine Logos. In other words, the law or truth was made to confirm the greater truth of creation and from that, to confirm a purpose in this world, tenets rejected by naturalism.
Given the general paucity of our own rationality, and the weakness of much of what is termed ‘rational thought’, Lewis knew that the imagination was the differentiating factor to grasp real experiences in life. Imagination or how we view the world obviously impacts our ‘reason’ or our reaction to stimuli and our interpretations of what the stimuli mean and what the next course of action should be. Lewis’ ‘chest’ is the Platonic siting of the soul and heart, the filter through which the rational mind will be employed. The rationalist devaluation of the imagination demolishes the ‘chest’ the very essence of humanity, and quite ironically, reason itself.
Lewis converted to Christianity simply because he believed that it was the best explanation for what he experienced in life. Lewis’ non-fiction writing is an expression of Christianity, not directly stated or advertised, but set in a world that could be realised if Christianity were true and followed. This imaginative world is the backdrop not only for books, but for life. Reason must be deployed against a background, built on assumptions and perceptions which will filter, sort and inform ‘reason’. Far from being antithetical, reason and imagination are co-joined and interactive.
As a medievalist Lewis knew that for medieval man, morality and theology were built into the foundations of the universe. Each sphere of the universe was bound by its love of God, not of the base material of the Earth or man. All higher intelligence and purpose was oriented toward God, not man, or beastly desires. When medieval man looked up into the sky, he viewed a stairway to heaven and God, a towering spectacle of unlimited power and love, a construction of infinite complexity and purpose. Contrast the medieval mind with that of the modern, in which space is cold, lonely, the Earth unimportant, God non-existent and life just a collection of molecules and accidents.
This theme of modern nihilism and its eventual self-annihilation is found in Lewis’ ‘The Abolition of Man’, which discussed the abdication of imagination, God, and reason, leading to the eradication of being human, and of joy in life to find the Logos of God, the truth of creation. No light, no faith, no reason to exist other than self-aggrandizement, 15 minutes of fame, wealth, power or control, informs modern man. Machines and technology in place of imagination and truth. It is not hard to see how modern man can coldly plan the murders of millions or billions or negate the natural law free will of men and women. In modern philosophy you don’t exist. You are nothing. You are in fact worse than a virus.