God Is God

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) was born in Belfast, Ireland, on November 29, 1898. Although raised in a Christian home, Lewis became an atheist in 1929 and was paradoxically “angry with God for not existing.” One night, he had a long discussion with two Oxford colleagues who were Christians. The next day, September 22, 1931, he went with his brother, Warnie, to the zoo. Lewis recalled, “When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.” So, he “gave in, and admitted that God was God.”60 Lewis became one of the most influential Christian thinkers ever. Against evolutionism, he argued, If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too.

If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents —the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms.

And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else’s. But if their thoughts—i.e. of materialism and astronomy —are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It’s like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milkjug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset.61 About God, Lewis suggested, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’” Regarding the Christian hope, he declared, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next... It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”63 Keep praying for the atheists and unbelievers that you know, for they, too, can become friends of God!