Right and Wrong

In the first chapter of Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis launches into a discourse on right and wrong. The first building block in his treatise on the Christian faith is the argument that an objective morality is interwoven throughout the fabric of the world. Lewis points out that the very people who argue that there is no objective morality are often the first to cry “foul” when someone treats them unfairly. Lewis goes on to assert that there are certain tenets of decent conduct that are almost universal – that are replicated across cultures and throughout history. He concludes,

These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

It’s worth noting that as he sets the stage for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul makes almost the same argument. He says,

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
(Romans 1:18-21)

Do we have an innate sense of what’s right and what’s wrong? If so, what happens to it over the course of our lives? What factors either deaden or quicken this sense? And why, if we know the right, do we choose the wrong? These are questions Lewis probes in the next few chapters.