And Who Sez We “Ought” To Care….?
“There is no escape… If we are to continue to make moral judgments (and whatever we say we shall in fact continue) then we must believe that the conscience of man is not a product of Nature. It can be valid only if it is an offshoot of some absolute moral wisdom, a moral wisdom which exists absolutely “on its own” and is not a product of non-moral, non-rational Nature.”
—C.S. Lewis
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And Who Sez We “Ought” To Care….?
What is man1?....And why, I wonder
Do we care what’s “right” or “wrong”?
Why be bothered by a “conscience”?
Why this longing to belong?
Where does conscience really come from?
Did it bubble up from goo?
Or, perhaps, it’s just delusion
From a neo-pagan brew?
* * *
What is man, and why, I wonder,
Does man care about these things?
Why this yearning for The Answer?
Why this endless questioning?
Why this need to understand, sir?
Why this curiosity?
What deep down might man be missing
In his Proud Autonomy?
* * *
Why are mountains there for climbing?
Why does Moral Law exist?
Why’s Eternity intrinsic2
In the heart?.......(What have we missed?)
What’s behind this mindless matter?
And Who Sez we “ought” to care?
Why be bothered by “injustice”?
What is “truth”3?....And why is prayer?
And why doesn’t dark indifference
Simply drag us to the ground?
Why does guilt creep in to haunt us?
Why does shame, sir, bring us down?
How and why should matter matter?
Indeed, why this dust at all?
Is there really any Reason
Why that writing’s on the wall4?
See the Book of Daniel (Chapter 5)
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3 John 18:38 and John 14:6
C.S. Lewis, Conscience, Guilt, Moral Law, Shame