The Reality Of The Law

This chapter explains how the moral law is an actual thing instead of something just made up by ourselves. CS Lewis writes that each man considers others to be doing decent things when it benefits himself. He shows how when you go to the train station and someone else takes the seat you wanted you are irritated by that because the action did not benefit you. Here he establishes that we consider good things that benefit ourselves. He goes on to say that what would be good is something that benefits the society as a whole. If it benefits everyone it is good. From here he goes on to explain how this shows that the moral law is an actual thing because it is something that doesn't simply model behavior. When you drop a rock it falls. That is called gravity. CS Lewis states that the rock can't simply think, "Oh I have to fall because those are my orders!" He states that the law of gravity is just simply something it does. When it comes to the moral law we know that men should be unselfish, for example, but this can't be based off of something we simply do because a lot of men don't. there are a lot of people that disobey this law everyday, but it is still included in the moral law. This shows that the moral law is not something made by man off of his observations like the law of nature is. It is something more that comes from something greater rooted within us. That is how we know it is good to be unselfish even though so many people are not. The goodness of the moral law is above human creation and observation.