The "great myth" whose funeral Lewis here announces never in fact died. It is alive and well, indeed flourishing and dominant among us, as our podcast, The Christian Atheist, has repeatedly argued.
"The central idea of the Myth is what its believers would call 'Evolution' or 'Development' or 'Emergence' ... I do not mean that the doctrine of Evolution as held by practising biologists is a Myth.... we must sharply distinguish between Evolution as a biological theorem and popular Evolutionism or Developmentalism which ...
The "great myth" whose funeral Lewis here announces never in fact died. It is alive and well, indeed flourishing and dominant among us, as our podcast, The Christian Atheist, has repeatedly argued.
"The central idea of the Myth is what its believers would call 'Evolution' or 'Development' or 'Emergence' ... I do not mean that the doctrine of Evolution as held by practising biologists is a Myth.... we must sharply distinguish between Evolution as a biological theorem and popular Evolutionism or Developmentalism which is certainly a Myth."
Lewis argues that the Myth originates not logically but imaginatively and emotionally well in advance of the scientific doctrine of biological evolution. I certainly agree with him on the timetable - the myth preceded the science, it did not result from science.
"In making" the Myth, Lewis says, "Imagination runs ahead of scientific evidence. 'The prophetic soul of the big world' was already pregnant with the Myth: if science has not met the imaginative need, science would not have been so popular. But probably every age gets, within certain limits, the science it desires."
"In the science, Evolution is a theory about changes: in the Myth it is a fact about improvements.... In the popular mind the word 'Evolution' conjures up a picture of things moving 'onwards and upwards,' and of nothing else whatsoever.... Already, before science had spoken, the mythical imagination knew the kind of 'Evolution' it wanted. It wanted ... the young, joyous, careless, amorous Siegfried superseding the care-worn, anxious, treaty-entangled Wotan. If science offers any instances to satisfy that demand, they will be eagerly accepted. If it offers any instances that frustrate it, they will simply be ignored."
"For the scientist Evolution is a purely biological theorem. It takes over organic life on this planet as a going concern and tries to explain certain changes within that field. It makes no cosmic statements, no metaphysical statements, no eschatological statements.... But the Myth .., having first turned what was a theory of change into a theory of improvement, it then makes this a cosmic theory. Not merely terrestrial organisms but everything is moving 'upwards and onwards.' Reason has 'evolved' out of instinct, virtue out of complexes, poetry out of erotic howls and grunts, civilization out of savagery, the organic out of the inorganic, the solar system out of some sidereal soup or traffic block. And conversely, reason, virtue, art and civilization as we now know them are only the crude or embryonic beginnings of far better things - perhaps Deity itself - in the remote future. For in the Myth, 'Evolution' (as the Myth understands it) is the formula of all existence.... To those brought up on the Myth nothing seems more normal, more natural, more plausible, than that chaos should turn into order, death into life, ignorance into knowledge. And with this we reach the full-blown Myth. It is one of the most moving and satisfying world dramas which have ever been imagined."
Truly understanding the depth of Lewis's thought here requires serious study, as there is far more than meets the eye. I find this essay one of Lewis's most suggestive, but least satisfying. I would love to hear what you think!
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