Learning In-War Time

Lewis brings up many different ideas and statements throughout this sermon that took place in World War II. One quote that I liked was this, "If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with normal life. Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of cries, alarms, difficulties, emergencies." This quote brings up the point that humans through history have always had their problems. Just because now a days we have more advanced technology, it does not mean that it rids people of their numerous obstacles. They are impossible to escape and Lewis is saying we cannot wait for our lives to be totally secure and without worry before we seek out knowledge. Even in war time life goes on and it does not change the outlook on knowledge and beauty.

Another point that Lewis made was about the enemies of humans. The one that I found was most interesting was fear. Lewis mentions that the main fear of humans is the fear of death. It is inevitable all human beings will die. This quote from Lewis explains it well, "But there is no question of death or life for any of us; only a question of this death or that -- of a machine gun bullet now or a cancer forty years later. What does war do to death? It certainly does not make it more frequent; 100 percent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased." This quote puts our lives in perspective and makes you really think about life and death. He also mentions how the war makes fear of death worse because you are always thinking about it. If you have cancer later in life it does not bother us before hand. It is a good point that War makes us prepare for death and this can bring people even closer to God. The preparations for death must be made and prayer and the acceptance of God become much more frequent. Humans greatest enemy is death and Christians know that this enemy has been defeated and the thought of death becomes less frightening. If I were fighting in a war I know that my greatest comfort would be to know that even though my death may be likely, it will not be the end.