Man or Rabbit

“Can’t you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?” 

C. S. Lewis starts his essay called “Man or Rabbit” with this one question. It is very possible to do good in life if one is not a Christian. One can just look at all the good things that are going on in our society today. Many fight for the environment, not just Christians. Many build wells in Africa so that others can have clean water, not just Christians. Many tutor underprivileged students, not just Christians. Many do such good things that they believe this makes them have a good life. But Christians also do good things too and sooner or later one will be able to see that there is a difference. “To the materialist things like nations, classes, civilizations must be more important than individuals, because the individuals live only seventy odd years each and the group may last for centuries. But to the Christian, individuals are more important, for they live eternally.” Christians believe that there is a God who is love and who desires that His children be redeemed and show love to others because of Him. To Christians, good works are the fruit of their faith. How one can tell that an apple tree is what it is because of its fruit, so one can tell more about a person through their works. I, as a Christian, am reminded that I can not do good works on my own efforts though. C. S. Lewis says that “the people who keep on asking if they can’t lead a decent life without Christ, don’t know what life is about; if they did they would know that ‘a decent life‘ is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are really made for.” 

My favorite part in this whole essay is his comparison of morality and a mountain. I personally love mountains. My second home is pretty much Colorado so every year I go skiing or simply just hiking in the mountains. There is nothing more beautiful then standing on the mountain at night with an array of stars laid out to look at or standing on the top of the mountain and you see other mountains off in the distance that are just begging for you to climb or ski down them. C. S. Lewis makes a connection with mountains and morality at the very end of his essay. If we want to be more moral, it is not something that is possible through one’s own efforts and if this was really true, the summit of the mountain is where we would be stuck. There would be no moving onward because the cold air would make us freeze and what would be the point of skiing back down when nobody wants to regress but only make progress. When one believes in Christ and is progressing up the mountain with His help, He will not leave them stuck to die on the summit of the mountain. Christ gives us wings at the summit and “it is from there that the real ascent begins. The ropes and axes are ‘done away’ and the rest is a matter of flying.”