C. S. Lewis: Anti-Darwinist

A Careful Examination of the Development of His Views on Darwinism

Jerry Bergman

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781532607738
• eBook ISBN: 9781532607745
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

It is commonly believed that C.S. Lewis was a theistic evolutionist, a conclusion based on a few statements that he made in The Problem of Pain and Mere Christianity. A careful study of his writings reveals, not only that for most of his life he was not a theistic evolutionist, but strongly opposed Darwinism, especially towards the end of his life.

1

Lewis the Man

Oxford University professor C. S. Lewis was one of the most important Christian apologists of the last century.1 He was also a major writer of fiction.2 Toward the end of his long career Lewis concluded that the modern theory of evolutionary naturalism, often called Darwinism in honor of the man who was one of the most important modern popularizers of evolution, is one of the most destructive ideas ever foisted on civilization.

Lewis called Darwinism “emergent evolution” to distinguish it from what scientists today refer to as microevolution, what creationists and others refer to as variation within the creation kind. He concluded emergent evolution was “pure hallucination.”3 Lewis explained that, for the practical experimental scientist, “evolution is purely a biological theorem,” which only attempts to explain certain changes in life or the environment, and

makes no cosmic statements, no metaphysical statements, no eschatological statements [as does Darwinism]. Granted that we now have minds we can trust, granted that organic life came to exist, it tries to explain, say, how a species that once had wings came to lose them. It explains this by the negative effect of environment operating on small variations. It does not in itself explain the origin of organic life, nor of the variations, nor does it discuss the origin and validity of reason.4

The form of evolution that taxonomists often called microevolution, and that creationists refer to as variation within the Genesis kinds, Lewis accepted. Evolutionary naturalism and macroevolution, as interpreted by leading scientists, such as those who are members of the National Academy of Science, do make cosmic, metaphysical, and eschatological statements, whereas microevolution limits itself to what biologists can study, such as epigenetic modifications and the loss of biological organs or functions as typified by blind cave fish. Lewis rejected the former, the macroevolution idea, and accepted the latter, the study of microevolution.

Some of the many reasons Lewis gave for rejecting evolutionary naturalism, many of which Lewis detailed extensively in his writings, are summarized in the following chapters in this book. It is also very clear that Lewis would be very supportive of the intelligent design movement today. We will document that claims, such as those by Professor Michael Peterson, that Lewis accepted “evolution as a highly confirmed scientific theory,”5 given the definition of orthodox evolution used by most scientists today, are powerfully refuted by Lewis’s own words.

Orthodox evolution is often called Darwinism to differentiate it from the term evolution, which can refer to anything from the differences between a son and a father, to scientism. The term Darwinism is often used instead of evolution to make this distinction clear. A major reason why, is because Darwin’s theory

required believing in philosophical materialism, the conviction that matter is the stuff of all existence and that all mental and spiritual phenomena are its by-products. Darwinian evolution was not only purposeless but also heartless—a process in which . . . nature ruthlessly eliminates the unfit. Suddenly, humanity was reduced to just one more species in a world that cared nothing for us. The great human mind was no more than a mass of evolving neurons. Worst of all, there was no divine plan to guide us.6

Darwin “was keenly aware that admitting any purposefulness whatsoever to the question of the origin of species would put his theory of natural selection on a very slippery slope” that would eventually lead to its rejection.7 Darwin concluded that his theory of natural selection replaced God and was actually a god: “I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity . . . it is difficult to avoid personifying the word Nature; but I mean by nature, only the aggregate action and product of many natural laws.”8 Furthermore,

Darwin realized that it would weaken his whole argument if he permitted his account of evolution to stop short of the highest forms of intelligence. Once he admitted that God might have intervened in an act of special creation to make man’s mind, others might argue. “In that case, why not also invoke the aid of God to explain the worm?”9

Darwin also clearly taught atheistic evolution, stressing, “I would give absolutely nothing for the theory of natural selection if it requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent” and makes “my Deity ‘Natural Selection’ superfluous” which would “hold the Deity—if such there be—accountable for phenomena which are rightly attributed only to” natural selection.10

1. At Oxford he taught from October 1924 to June 1954, at Cambridge from June 1954 until the summer of 1963, when he resigned due to health problems. He died in November 22, 1963. Wielenberg makes a persuasive argument that Lewis was one of the most important Christian apologists of the last century in his God and the Reach of Reason.

2. See Kilby, “Into the Land of Imagination.”

3. Lewis, They Asked for a Paper, 164; Lewis, Weight of Glory, 138.

4. Lewis, Christian Reflections, 107, emphasis added. This quote is part of the essay “The Funeral of a Great Myth.”

5. Peterson, “C. S. Lewis on Evolution,” 253. See also http://bio...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Lewis the Man
• Chapter 2: Darwinism and Creationism
• Chapter 3: Lewis’s Background
• Chapter 4: His Return to Christianity and Opposition to Darwinism
• Chapter 5: A Harvard Scholar’s View on Lewis
• Chapter 6: Lewis Opposes Evolution and Naturalism
• Chapter 7: The Argument for Darwinism from Evil
• Chapter 8: Lewis Rejects the Theistic Evolutionist Henri Bergson
• Chapter 9: Lewis Opposes the Theistic Evolution Theory of de Chardin
• Chapter 10: Lewis Teaches a Creation Worldview
• Chapter 11: Statements That Indicate Lewis Was a Theistic Evolutionist
• Chapter 12: Evolution Cannot Explain the Origin of Life or the Mind
• Chapter 13: The Fall Appears in His Novels
• Chapter 14: Lewis’s Clear Statements Against Darwinism
• Chapter 15: Lewis Becomes a Militant Anti-Darwinist
• Chapter 16: The Funeral of the Great Myth
• Chapter 17: Science Supports a Creation Worldview
• Chapter 18: Lewis’s Concern Fulfilled in the Movement Against Antievolutionists
• Chapter 19: Some Conclusions
• Bibliography