C. S. Lewis:Anti-Darwinist
A Careful Examination of the Development of His Views on Darwinism
Jerry Bergman
Foreword by Ellen Myers
Preface by Karl Priest
C. S. Lewis: Anti-Darwinist
A Careful Examination of the Development of His Views on Darwinism
Copyright 2016 Jerry Bergman. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, W. th Ave., Suite , Eugene, OR 97401 .
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Table of Contents
This is absolutely first rate, the best thing Ive read on the subject! As I read it, several times I thought to myself, I hope Dr. Bergman quotes this passage. And almost every time I thought that, he soon quoted it. But he went beyond that, quoting many sources I have not seen myself. Bergmans research touches on every major issue related to Lewis and Darwinism.
A few things he does not mention include the character of Weston who, in Out of the Silent Planet , reminds one of the theistic evolutionist Henri Bergson, trusting in natural selection and what it implies. Science also runs amok in That Hideous Strength . And in chapter of my Lewis Agonistes I end the chapter by retelling a scene from the Silver Chair that offers a powerful argument against the evolutionary mindset. Also in that chapter I argue that in all of C. S. Lewiss best apologetics he identifies things that could not have evolved. An example is in his argument of the two meanings of fear in the introduction to The Problem of Pain , where Lewis shows that the leap from the fear of wild animals to the fear of the unknown is a qualitative (not a quantitative) leap. In many of my speeches I use this event as an analogy to those who attempt to confuse microevolution with macroevolution. Another example is the antievolution stance in the scene from Silver Chair . In short, I am very, very impressed by this work. Bergman has done something very important and timely, and I hope that this book will be read by many persons.
Professor Louis A. Markos, PhD
Internationally recognized Lewis scholar and author of four books on Lewis
What a happy surprise this book is! I was delighted to learn that C. S. Lewis rejected Darwinism in all its formscertainly not a given in his day, before the modern creation science movement had begun amassing evidence that the Genesis account of our origins is true. Dr. Bergman has done a masterful (and highly entertaining) job of documenting Lewiss unfolding thoughts on the subject and proving that he was indeed an increasingly belligerent opponent of evolution theory.
Kitty Foth-Regner
Author of Heaven Without Her: A Desperate Daughters Search for the Heart of Her Mothers Faith
Dr. Bergman, in his inimitable style, has surfaced otherwise suppressed or not-easily-attainable historical information regarding C. S. Lewiss personal stance on creation versus evolution. It is of tremendous importance where each of us, individually, hangs our hat in regards to these foundational questions and worldviews in life. C. S. Lewis opened many peoples eyes in his generation, and now beyond, to the tantamount urgency of taking the time to ponder and think on things of eternal significance. This new book by Dr. Bergman will help you understand how the great writer and theologian, C. S. Lewis, eventually came to his terms with hanging his hat on the truth that we are all accountable to a Divine Creator.
Bryce Gaudian
Hayward, Minnesota
Development Manager for Agilis Corporation
To my students who taught me so much during my almost half-century teaching career.
Foreword
by Ellen Myers
F or many years, I believed that C. S. Lewis had made an uneasy truce with modern evolutionism. My opinion was based on certain passages in Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain , in which he drew on evolutionist theories to illustrate Christian beliefs. It always seemed that one as committed to the gospel as C. S. Lewis could not have been neutral on the issue of creation ex nihilo versus evolutionism. As I studied Lewis, I realized that he debunked modern arrogant unbelief based on evolution and guesswork which masquerades as science in his largely autobiographical The Pilgrims Regress , the first book published after his conversion. He also made it clear that he had what he called emergent evolutionism, today called Darwinism, in mind when he put the following words in the mouth of foolish old Mr. Enlightenment: If you make the same guess often enough it ceases to be a guess and becomes a Scientific Fact. How appropriate these sarcastic words are now, over fifty years later, about evolutionist dogma.
Lewiss essay Two Lectures can only be called creationist apologetics. It contrasts an urbane lecture about Evolution, development, the slow struggle upwards and onwards from crude and inchoate beginnings towards ever-increasing perfection and elaboration that appears to be the very formula of the whole Universe with a Dream Lecturer pointing out that, as the acorn comes from a full-grown oak, the Rocket comes, not from a still crude engine, but from something much more perfect than itself and much more complex, the mind of a man, and a man of genius.
Lewiss most explicit antievolutionist writing is found in his essay The Funeral of a Great Myth , the bulk of which deals with the mythological implications of evolutionism in a manner devastating to believers of such myths. He makes it very clear that evolution is merely a hypothesis; and he speculates about the grounds for accepting the hypothesis as largely metaphysical and the fulfillment of an imaginative need. Lewis added sarcastically that probably every age gets, within certain limits, the science it desires.
No overview of Lewis and evolution would be complete without reference to Lewiss portraits of lost and evil men in his science fiction trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet , Perelandra , and That Hideous Strength . From the cold contempt and unscrupulous exploitation of feeble-minded Harry and Weston in Planet , to Filostratos experiment with a guillotined mans head and Withers trancelike senility in a demon-made void in Strength , exists a wealth of prophetic realism about the end result of the emergent evolutionist worldview for its practitioners-victims. Most horrible of them all is Weston, a convinced believer in emergent evolution... the goal towards which the whole cosmic process is moving. Call it a great, inscrutable Force, pouring up into us from the dark bases of being... your Devil and your God are both pictures of the same Force.
From these excerpts it is clear that Lewis was unalterably opposed to emergent evolutionism and would have gladly welcomed the rise of creation science in our own generation. Bergmans book has proved beyond question that my early conclusions about Lewis were correct.
Professor Ellen Myers, MA
Author and Teacher
