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C. S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument From Reason. By Victor Reppert. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Paper. 132 p. $13.
As both a defender and proponent for belief in God, the twentieth-century British writer, C. S. Lewis, was unwavering in his devotion to Christianity. However, in 1948, Lewis' argument that naturalism is self-refuting, from his Miracles, was challenged in a debate at the Oxford University Socratic Club by a young Somerville College graduate student, Elizabeth Anscombe, who responded that Lewis' argument against naturalism was flawed. Following Anscombe's critique, Lewis revised the 1960 edition of Miracles. However, Victor Reppert maintains in C. S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea that Lewis' original argument was not flawed. Lewis' first objection to naturalism is that it is self-refuting. While naturalism holds that nothing can transgress nature, Lewis argues that man does transgress nature by thinking about it. Lewis' second objection concerns what are called "firsts" and "seconds." Worldview theories are first position theories that can negate secondary beliefs. For example, as naturalism operates by cause and effect, any other process is discarded for not pertaining to that worldview. Lewis argues that naturalism as a first position theory...