CSLewisDoodle | The Laws of Nature by C. S. Lewis Doodle @CSLewisDoodle | Uploaded January 2023 | Updated October 2024, 4 days ago.
C.S. Lewis reaches a dazzling conclusion: *In the whole history of the universe, the laws of nature have never produced a single event!* The laws of nature are the pattern to which events conform: the source of events must be sought elsewhere. Notes below:
A live-action illustration of a C.S. Lewis essay in the 1920-1940's style of 'Art Deco'.
This article is part of a series of five, fantastic newspaper articles, written for the Coventry Evening Telegraph from January to May 1945, which closed out the final months of the European theatre of war for Britain and addressed typical, usually scoffing, atheist arguments:
‘Religion and Science’ (3 January 1945);
’Who was Right? Dream Lecturer or Real Lecturer’ (21 Feb. 1945 - youtu.be/rUV2A5G7QEs );
‘The Laws of Nature' (4 April 1945 - youtu.be/ahskyQCRmZo);
‘Work and Prayer’ (28 May 1945 - youtu.be/xJ6Nho6LC6A) &
‘Meditation in a Toolshed’ (17 July 1945 - youtu.be/htIt8ENZ6F8 );
(1:24) An 'amalgam' is a mixture, or blend, or alloy of mercury & another metal.
(2:20) A bullet trajectory is affected by side wind and gravity, but also many other relevant factors as Lewis alludes to. For instance, a bullet path is also affected by humidity and air resistance, the angle of the gun, air pressure, altitude, air temperature, muzzle velocity, bullet shape & drag.
(2:51) Newton’s 3rd law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.
(4:00) "We are in the habit of talking as if the laws of nature caused events to happen; but they have never caused any event at all. The laws of motion do not set billiard balls moving: they analyse the motion after something else (say, a man with a cue, or a lurch of the liner, or, perhaps, supernatural power) has provided it...For every law of nature, in the last resort, says ‘If you have A, then you will get B’. But first catch your A: the laws won’t do it for you. (Chp. 9 'Miracle and the Laws of Nature', in 'Miracles').
(6:35) Lewis: '[The historical incarnation of Jesus Christ] has the seemingly arbitrary and idiosyncratic character which modern science is slowly teaching us to put up with in this wilful universe... where irreversible entropy gives time a real direction & the cosmos, *no longer static or cyclic, moves like a drama from a real beginning to a real end.* If any message from the core of reality ever were to reach us, we should expect to find in it just that unexpectedness, that wilful, dramatic anfractuosity [winding path] which we find in the Christian faith. It has the master touch—the rough, male taste of reality, not made by us, or, indeed, for us, but hitting us in the face ('The problem of Pain', Introduction).'
(8:31) The unabridged essay ended with this paragraph: 'In [Shakespeare's] Hamlet, a branch breaks and Ophelia is drowned. Did she die because the branch broke [i.e. because of the laws of nature] or because Shakespeare wanted her to die at that point in the play [i.e. because of the influence of the author on the character]? Either - both - whichever you please. The alternative suggested by the question is not a real alternative at all - once you have grasped that Shakespeare is making the whole play.'
The original article had the following words italicised which add to understanding (shown in CAPS): “I had been thinking (vaguely enough) that the bullet's flight was CAUSED by the laws of Nature”, “But then the pressing of the trigger, the side wind, and even the earth, are not exactly LAWS”, “This is a LAW. That is, this is the pattern to which the movement of the two billiard balls must conform", "And here comes the snag. The LAW won't set it in motion”, “And that wave, though it certainly moved ACCORDING to the laws of physics, was not moved by them”, “The dazzlingly obvious conclusion now arose in my mind: IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE THE LAWS OF NATURE HAVE NEVER PRODUCED A SINGLE EVENT”, ”The LAWS are the pattern to which events conform: the source of events must be sought elsewhere”, “To ask this is not exactly the same as to ask where THINGS come from”.
C.S. Lewis reaches a dazzling conclusion: *In the whole history of the universe, the laws of nature have never produced a single event!* The laws of nature are the pattern to which events conform: the source of events must be sought elsewhere. Notes below:
A live-action illustration of a C.S. Lewis essay in the 1920-1940's style of 'Art Deco'.
This article is part of a series of five, fantastic newspaper articles, written for the Coventry Evening Telegraph from January to May 1945, which closed out the final months of the European theatre of war for Britain and addressed typical, usually scoffing, atheist arguments:
‘Religion and Science’ (3 January 1945);
’Who was Right? Dream Lecturer or Real Lecturer’ (21 Feb. 1945 - youtu.be/rUV2A5G7QEs );
‘The Laws of Nature' (4 April 1945 - youtu.be/ahskyQCRmZo);
‘Work and Prayer’ (28 May 1945 - youtu.be/xJ6Nho6LC6A) &
‘Meditation in a Toolshed’ (17 July 1945 - youtu.be/htIt8ENZ6F8 );
(1:24) An 'amalgam' is a mixture, or blend, or alloy of mercury & another metal.
(2:20) A bullet trajectory is affected by side wind and gravity, but also many other relevant factors as Lewis alludes to. For instance, a bullet path is also affected by humidity and air resistance, the angle of the gun, air pressure, altitude, air temperature, muzzle velocity, bullet shape & drag.
(2:51) Newton’s 3rd law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.
(4:00) "We are in the habit of talking as if the laws of nature caused events to happen; but they have never caused any event at all. The laws of motion do not set billiard balls moving: they analyse the motion after something else (say, a man with a cue, or a lurch of the liner, or, perhaps, supernatural power) has provided it...For every law of nature, in the last resort, says ‘If you have A, then you will get B’. But first catch your A: the laws won’t do it for you. (Chp. 9 'Miracle and the Laws of Nature', in 'Miracles').
(6:35) Lewis: '[The historical incarnation of Jesus Christ] has the seemingly arbitrary and idiosyncratic character which modern science is slowly teaching us to put up with in this wilful universe... where irreversible entropy gives time a real direction & the cosmos, *no longer static or cyclic, moves like a drama from a real beginning to a real end.* If any message from the core of reality ever were to reach us, we should expect to find in it just that unexpectedness, that wilful, dramatic anfractuosity [winding path] which we find in the Christian faith. It has the master touch—the rough, male taste of reality, not made by us, or, indeed, for us, but hitting us in the face ('The problem of Pain', Introduction).'
(8:31) The unabridged essay ended with this paragraph: 'In [Shakespeare's] Hamlet, a branch breaks and Ophelia is drowned. Did she die because the branch broke [i.e. because of the laws of nature] or because Shakespeare wanted her to die at that point in the play [i.e. because of the influence of the author on the character]? Either - both - whichever you please. The alternative suggested by the question is not a real alternative at all - once you have grasped that Shakespeare is making the whole play.'
The original article had the following words italicised which add to understanding (shown in CAPS): “I had been thinking (vaguely enough) that the bullet's flight was CAUSED by the laws of Nature”, “But then the pressing of the trigger, the side wind, and even the earth, are not exactly LAWS”, “This is a LAW. That is, this is the pattern to which the movement of the two billiard balls must conform", "And here comes the snag. The LAW won't set it in motion”, “And that wave, though it certainly moved ACCORDING to the laws of physics, was not moved by them”, “The dazzlingly obvious conclusion now arose in my mind: IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE THE LAWS OF NATURE HAVE NEVER PRODUCED A SINGLE EVENT”, ”The LAWS are the pattern to which events conform: the source of events must be sought elsewhere”, “To ask this is not exactly the same as to ask where THINGS come from”.
