The Poison of Subjectivism

Subjectivism is the belief that one bases on their feelings, experiences, or tastes. They believe that there is no external or objective truth. C. S. Lewis argues against this. 

Every time I read something written by C. S. Lewis, I somehow get this strange feeling that he is writing to me. Though he wrote this a long time ago, it makes no difference. One thing that he writes on is how many feel about tying ourselves to a moral code. As I have seen today, many feel like it is the same as cutting off all progress and start to accept not developing or as he puts it, being stagnant. But how would tying oneself to a moral code stop them from developing? There are many things that have stuck around for a very long time that everyone can agree is a good thing. Take for example marriage. How good it is to see a beautiful couple that have been through heartache and pain but still are married to this day. C. S. Lewis gives other examples like space and how it has still been kept alive, the continuation of math and how one can still keep plugging in numbers and get the same answers, and even with the continuation of washing one’s hands. “If good is a fixed point, it is at least possible that we should get nearer and nearer to it, but if the terminus is as mobile as the train, how can the train progress towards it.” If a person believes that the way to base one’s morals is on their feelings of right and wrong and not have a moral standard, then there is no constant. We, as humans, need a constant. We need a law to keep us sane. I can not help but be reminded of the book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. Some choir boys are stranded on an island and have to make their own rules and form their own leader. Long story short, life becomes crazy on that island. Because there was no set of moral laws that were initiated and held the boys accountable, depravity became more apparent. How much more can this society become us. Many people would argue that having no moral law would create more progress in our society but I do not see how this is true. That would only create a world that is more chaotic then it is with people more disobedient, more selfish, more demanding. That sounds horrible. 

Another thing that I would like to touch on is C. S. Lewis’ cube analogy. When I read this, I loved it. It is hard to explain the mind of God and really who He is. We can only explain Him with what our puny minds can comprehend but God is more. As a Christian, I believe that He is part of a Deity. He is not human, just as a cube is different than a square. “Flatlanders, attempting to imagine a cube, would either imagine the six squares coinciding, and thus destroy their distinctness, or else imagine them set out side by side, and thus destroy the unity.” I once saw a lecture movie by Rob Bell where in it he mentions how we only know of seeing things in three dimensional but then goes on to ask “what if God is beyond this?” What if He is 5 or 13-dimensional and we can not understand or comprehend things to the degree and level that He does?