“Unless we return to the crude and nursery-like belief in objective values, we perish.”
This is C.S. Lewis writing as WW2 was on the horizon, in the 1930s. As people in England nervously watched Hitler’s rise, many in England were pushing to move away from their historic values, usually connected to Christianity. Lewis was often in academic debates on this point. The above quote was connected to a feud he had with F. R. Leavis. To summarize his point, Lewis said “Leavis demands moral earnestness; I prefer morality.”
I think this gets exactly to the point that I have tried to make here that to Live Well demands a return to historic moral values. Some of my friends have contended against this, usually because they don’t like Christianity in specific. I get that, but in their pursuit to avoid that faith, they go where Leavis went, to some form of “moral earnestness.” In other words, they argue that people can be morally good without having any sort of firm objective values connected to something beyond themselves.
Lacking that, they fail to admit that if they are allowed to hold their own personal, human-determined moral values, then so must everyone else. Thus, if someone believes in death to a certain group because of their race or sexuality, then such must be admitted…at least logically.
I stand with Lewis in the need for an objective truth values that are not human, above us, of which we must be held accountable. Thus, like Lewis, you can keep your “moral earnestness”….it’s a nice enough concept, but I would prefer morality bounded and built upon objective truth from God above.