Mere Christianity and the Moral Argumentfor the Existence of God

C. S. Lewis’s moral argument for the existence of God from Mere Christianity has been called the “most widely-convincing apologetic argument of the twentieth century.” It is concise and commonsensical. But Lewis’s argument has come under heavy fire in past decades, most notably from John Beversluis and Erik Wielenberg. This article offers an alternative reading on which the moral argument from the opening chapters of Mere Christianity is not only valid but also original and defensible. Unlike other moral arguments, Lewis deals in neither metaethics nor moral pragmatics. So he avoids prickly objections related to Divine Command Theory and accusations of wishful thinking. In Mere Christianity and other works, Lewis offers considerable justification for each of the argument’s premises and mounts an impressive case for God’s existence, one that warrants full and careful consideration.