#读书写字24 –Mere Christianity” – Book1 Chapter 3, The Reality of the Law关于人类法则的一些现实

【背景】四月份收到的礼物--这本C.S.Lewis的经典合集，惊喜地发现身边居然不少C.S.Lewis的粉丝；七月份组织了一个英文读书会BookClub，计划从第一本MereChristianity开始慢慢读。于是就有了这个 “Daily Post”系列。

Book1 Chapter 3, The Reality of the Law, 关于人类法则的一些现实

In this Chapter, Lewis picks up where he  left off in Chapter 1, discussing thefoundations of us and the universe we inhabit. First, humans are aware of-- and can not escape from -- the idea of how they ought to behave --the Law of Human Nature, or decent behavior; second, humans often break this law.  在本章中，Lewis继续第一章的讨论，探讨人类和我们所居住的宇宙的两个基本点：首先，人类意识到，并且无法逃避“他们应该如何体面行为的观念”——即人类天性法则；其次，人类经常违反这一法则。

Lewis called  this"odd," although it may seem natural to most people. After all, humans are imperfect. However, Lewis emphasizes that his delving into the "reality"of the Law of Human Nature is not to blame humanity but to seek the truth. He states that acknowledging "something being imperfect" or "not what it ought to be" has certain consequences. Lewis称这种现象为“奇怪”，尽管对大多数人来说可能看起来很自然。毕竟，人类不是完美的嘛。然而，Lewis强调，他深入探讨人类天性法则的“现实”并不是为了责备人类，而是为了寻求真理。他指出，承认“人类不完美”或“不是应有的样子”具有一定的后果。

Lewis then thoroughly compares the difference between the Law of Gravity and the Law of Human Nature. He points out that the former provides facts—what stones do if you drop them—while the latter tells you whathuman beings ought to do but often do not. He counters the argument that when you say a man should not act as he does, you are merely expressing personalinconvenience, using down-to-earth examples from everyday life—a man who gets aseat on the train, one who unsuccessfully tries to trip another, one whoaccidentally trips someone, and a man caught by the enemy and betrays. Lewis,calling himself a layman rather than a theologian, clarifies these ideasthrough these clear and vivid examples. I love this approach, I’ve always believed that the best teachers are those who can explain complex concepts with simplicity.  然后，Lewis详细比较了重力法则和人类天性法则的区别。他指出，前者提供的是事实——比如你把石头扔下去会发生什么——而后者告诉你人类应该做什么，但往往没有做到。他反驳了这样一种观点，即‘当你说一个人不应该那样行事时，只是在表达对你个人的不便’，他使用日常生活中的具体例子来说明这一点——一个人在火车上先占到一个座位，一个试图绊倒别人的人，一个意外绊倒别人的人，以及一个被敌人抓住后背叛的人。Lewis自称为外行人，而非神学家，他擅长通过这些清晰生动的例子来阐明观点。我特别喜欢这种方法，我一直认为最好的老师是那些深入简出，能够用简单的方式解释复杂概念的人。

He also uses the analogy of "why playing football"to question "why man should be unselfish." In both cases, the answers simply circle back to the original questions. I speculate that Lewis must have had a group of friends who loved to argue and debate with him, possibly at the Pub of "Child and Eagle," as he seems to know exactly what people would say and counters each point accurately.他还使用了“为什么要踢足球？”这个问题来类比“为什么人应该无私？”这个问题。在这两种情况下，答案都只是绕回到了原始问题上。我推测，Lewis一定有一群喜欢与他争论和辩论的朋友，可能在“孩子与鹰”酒吧，因为他似乎准确地知道人们会说什么，并且准确地反驳每一个观点。

In conclusion, Lewis argues that unlike the Law of Gravity, the Law of Human Nature is not a fact about human behavior;In the meantime, it is not a mere fancy that we can dismiss; nor is it simply a statement about how we expect others to behave for our own convenience; Consequently,the Rule of Right and Wrong must be a real thing , not made up by ourselves, above and beyond the ordinary facts of men's behavior; It is an external force none of us created, yet all of us feel pressing on us. 总结一下，Lewis认为，人类天性法则与重力法则不同，它不是关于人类行为的事实；同时，它也不是我们可以忽略的幻想；它也不仅仅是关于我们为了自身便利而期望他人行为的陈述；因此，对与错的规则必须是真实存在的，而不是我们自己编造的，它超越了人类行为的普通事实；它是一种外在的力量，不是我们任何人创造的，但我们所有人都感受到它的压力。

Then the question we are faced with is: what is it?那我们面临的问题就是：它（这种外在的力量）究竟是什么？