For Christians, by contrast, God is infinitely good and wants humans to behave in particular ways. It follows that, for Pantheists, God is both good and bad-or rather, that our understanding of good and bad is the byproduct of our own limitations, and that God is beyond such concepts. Whereas Pantheists believe that God is the universe, Christianity believes that God created the universe. In Book 2, Lewis moves on to consider various religious ideas of what this force might be in light of his earlier discussion of the existence of good and evil. Lewis concludes Book 1 by suggesting that while only a force similar to our own mind could provide us with a sense of what is good and right, our own behavior must put us at odds with that force a great deal of the time. However, while this moral law appears to be objective in a certain sense, it isn’t binding human beings have free will and can disobey it. Although Lewis acknowledges that cultural differences do exist, he believes that these are generally minor and superficial. Lewis begins by discussing morality, arguing that almost all humans have an innate sense of right and wrong, and that the content of this moral code is largely universal. Lewis seeks to restore unity to the Christian religion, focusing on the difference between Christian and non-Christian belief (as opposed to disputes between-and within-the various denominations of Christianity). At the book’s outset, Lewis states that that there are aspects of Christian thought that have become muddled, and that Christians themselves have been subject to internal strife.

Mere christianity study guide