{"id":1583,"date":"2012-01-22T19:14:56","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T00:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2012-12-03T10:15:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T15:15:34","slug":"lewis-trounces-freud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/lewis-trounces-freud.html","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Trounces Freud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already blogged once<\/a> about reading Freud\u2019s Last Session<\/a><\/em>, a two person play that is an extended argument between C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud, but now I\u2019ve gotten the chance to see it performed. \u00a0(And it looks like it\u2019s running through May at the New World Stages<\/a> in NYC, if anyone fancies seeing it.)<\/p>\n

When I saw it, I tried to keep score in my head of who was winning or who had the upper hand, since I was particularly interesting in how the changing dynamics of the debate were mirrored in the staging, \u00a0However, there are a number of beats where I simply had no sympathy for the argument on either side. \u00a0As I wrote last time, I don\u2019t buy Lewis\u2019s argument that every desire we have must be satisfiable<\/a>, and I think Freud\u2019s problem-of-evil attacks aren\u2019t unanswerable.<\/p>\n

But there was one moment in the show where the balance seemed to shift suddenly and dramatically in favor of Lewis. \u00a0Lewis is trying to set to catch Freud in his Lunatic, Liar, Lord trilemma<\/a>, when Freud rejects the premise completely:<\/p>\n

FREUD: I don\u2019t claim Christ to be a great teacher. He failed at teaching as totally as he did at divinity, His teachings are naive and destructive\u2026 Which of Christ\u2019s \u201cteachings\u201d are even realistic? Love our neighbor as ourselves? It\u2019s a foolish impossibility! Turn the other cheek? Should Poland turn the other cheek to Hitler? Should they love their neighbors as German tanks crush their homes? Or maybe they should follow Christ\u2019s example and martyr themselves, since the meek will inherit the earth. Of course they will, they\u2019ll be buried beneath it! Do you think it coincidence that Jesus demands his followers must be like children to enter Heaven? It\u2019s because man has never matured to face that he is alone in the universe, and religion makes the world his nursery!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of all criticisms to make of Jesus\u2019s teachings, \u201cThey\u2019re too ambitious\u201d seems like a pointless one for an atheist to make. \u00a0And it\u2019s particularly baffling paired with \u201cChristianity is a security blanket.\u201d \u00a0Freud\u2019s objections fall right into a model Chesterton\u00a0described\u00a0\u2014 accusing Christianity of contradictory excesses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How can unachievable goals be the comfortable option? \u00a0And what does Freud propose instead \u2014 a\u00a0complacency\u00a0about our own failure? \u00a0If Jesus is teaching the correct things, but they\u2019re untenable in our secular world, then something needs to be radically reconfigured. \u00a0Freud (and I) don\u2019t have to bite the bullet and become Christians, but, if the world makes it impossible to be good, our primary goal should be getting the world back on track.<\/p>\n

Maybe you do that work through philosophy, so people can understand or amend their intuitions. \u00a0Maybe you work in cognitive-behavioral\u00a0therapy<\/a>, where the focus is on rewiring your behaviors, not just processing feelings. \u00a0Maybe you join up with the people at Less Wrong<\/a> and try and overclock the human mind. \u00a0Any of these options are better than despair or mocking the people who are pointing the world is not what it ought to be.<\/p>\n

Asking us to be more than we are is hard a teaching, but, especially in an atheist world view, it seems like a necessary one. \u00a0Any moral progress I make will be cut off at some arbitrary point by death. \u00a0I can\u2019t expect to progress to some moral\u00a0apotheosis\u00a0where all my bad habits are unlearned. \u00a0I will assuredly fall short of my telos<\/em>, so I like to approach the problem in the alcoholics do: one day, one choice at a time, trying to not let this moment be one of my failures.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve already blogged once about reading Freud\u2019s Last Session, a two person play that is an extended argument between C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud, but now I\u2019ve gotten the chance to see it performed. \u00a0(And it looks like it\u2019s running through May at the New World Stages in NYC, if anyone fancies seeing it.) When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,5,48,8],"tags":[42,135],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conversion-2","category-debatetactics","category-morality-in-practice","category-reviewsrecommendations","tag-cs-lewis","tag-may-i-kill-it"],"yoast_head":"\nLewis Trounces Freud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've already blogged once about reading Freud's Last Session, a two person play that is an extended argument between C.S. 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