CS Lewis is the grandfather of Christian apologists. Learned, winsome, and epically good at writing children’s fantasy books. Like many people who grew up in Christian families, I read through the Narnia Chronicles at least three times (The Magician’s Nephew is my favorite, FYI). When you get older, you can graduate to the heavier stuff, like Mere Christianity, Miracles, or The Great Divorce. These, though, can be surprisingly dense for the average reader, and in that case one just puts the volume aside and rests in the reassurance that a wise looking bald scholar from the smart land of Oxford had some very sophisticated reasons for being a Christian. However, as much as I still like and appreciate CS Lewis, his arguments now seem too simplistic, even if they are wrapped in the authoritative sounding lexicon of philosophical discourse. So today I want to look at a very well-known statement by Lewis, which he delivered in a paper to the Oxford Socratic club in a paper called “Is Theology Poetry?” It was later included in the book The Weight of Glory. “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” The Analogy The first point I want to make is that the analogy is imprecise. In an analogy you compare something known or obvious (the source) to something that is less known or obvious (the target) in order to make a point of comparison. In this case, the sun is the source and Christianity is the target. The general idea that Lewis is conveying is that just like the rising of the sun can be seen by the light that it shines all around, so with Christianity: since it sheds light, metaphorically speaking, on everything it is also “there”. But notice the imprecision: the target has two reasons for believing that the sun is rising: (a) because I see it (b) because by it I see everything else. But the case of Christianity is unlike the case of the sun in an important way: you can’t “see” the truth of Christianity. That’s why Lewis is making the argument in the first place. If you could see Christianity directly, in the same way that you can see the sun rising on the horizon, no one would be arguing about this. So why didn’t Lewis just say, I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun, not so much because I can look at it directly, but because by its light I can see everything else.” Well, that is a less punchy version for sure, and far be it from me to tell Lewis how he should write! It seems to me that “because I see it” is just there as rhetorical filler. But I think that it tends to sneak in the idea that Christianity is as completely obvious as the sun, rising in the sky, and that is manifestly not the case. Side note: the use of the term “Christianity” here is a bit confusing. Because, clearly, there is such a thing as a religion called Christianity. This is about as obvious as the existence of the sun. But of course, by “Christianity” Lewis means the truth of, or the metaphysical reality of the teachings of Christianity. Maybe this ambiguity is why there are many misquotations out there that replace “Christianity” with “God.” The Claim But Lewis’s real point, and the part that captures the religious imagination, is the claim that “by it I see everything else.” When I shine the light of Christianity on the world, says Lewis, everything makes sense. Just like when the sun shines off a tree, a mountain, or a house. With this, we get to the core of Lewis’s claim and the key problem as well: this is nothing short of blatant confirmation bias. Lewis is literally saying that when he accepts that Christianity is true, he sees that truth confirmed everywhere: “by it I see everything else.” Perhaps Lewis should be forgiven for this misstep. After all, the idea of confirmation bias was first articulated explicitly in 1960, the term itself began to circulate in 1977 (source), and our culture is arguably much more, perhaps even painfully, aware of the problem of confirmation bias. Everyone except religious apologists, it seems. Perhaps they conveniently avoid the notion of confirmation bias because of their confirmation bias. I’m not claiming to be above such cognitive tomfoolery myself. We are all to some extent subject to these sorts of cognitive biases. But there’s confirmation bias and there’s confirmation bias. Arguing for your position by explicitly and whole heartedly embracing confirmation bias is blatantly fallacious and it is just begging to be called out. Of course adherents of every religion think that by its truth they see everything else. Not to mention members of political parties. Or people united for any cause or under any banner. This proves nothing. It only proves that when you accept a system of thinking, you will always be able to find reasons to believe it, regardless of reasons to disbelieve it. Lewis might just as well have said, “I believe in Christianity because I really want to believe it.” Or, “I believe in Christianity because I like the picture of the world that it paints.” Or, “I believe in Christianity because it feels very satisfying to me to imagine that things are this way.” None of these amount to anything more than subjective preferences, and they say nothing about the state of the world outside of the individual who is thinking such thoughts. The other side of this coin is that there are famously many things about the world upon which the light of Christianity does not shine so kindly. (Everyone knows what these are, so I’ll not get into them here.) That is the entire reason for questioning its veracity. So, in conclusion, while this quotation of Lewis’s is rhetorically attractive, it is an imprecise analogy, and it only encourages people to double down on their biases.