The Poison of Subjectivism

In his essay, "The Poison of Subjectivism," Lewis gives another proof for a natural moral law just as he did in the first chapters of Mere Christianity. Lewis claims that we all are born with the same moral law and that we just interpret it differently based on our culture and social position. He then gives the two main objections to this statement and then his arguments against them. The first is that if we say that there is a never changing moral code that we all judge and act by, we are cutting off  all progress. "The square on the hypotenuse has not gone moldy by continuing to equal the sum of the square on the other two sides." This goes to show that just because something stays the same, it doesn't mean that it becomes worse. Also, if the point we are trying to progress towards (good), is always changing, we can never get closer to it, just as a train wouldn't be able to get closer to its destination if that destination was moving as well. The second argument against natural law is that "morality is different in different times and places." He refutes this by saying it is just purely false and then gives examples of how throughout time and cultures the morals have the same basics although they have their differences.

Then Lewis describes what God's relation to the natural law is. "Are these things right because God commands them or does God command them because they are right?" Neither of these options are acceptable because if God commands goodness, then God's goodness means nothing because he would be defining himself as good. But if they are right without God making them right then that means they would not be controlled by God. "God neither obeys nor creates the moral law." The best explanation for this is just that we cannot comprehend God, just as people in a 2D world would not be able to imagine what a cube would look like even if it was being described by someone from a 3D world. We have to learn what we can about God but understand that we can't know everything. We all have morals that we are born with and we have to try to interpret them in the correct way in order to align ourselves with God's will, which can be hard because that may mean going against the flow of culture.