On An Idea Put Forth in C.S. Lewis’ Essay, “The Funeral of a Great Myth”

On An Idea Put Forth in C.S. Lewis’ Essay, “The Funeral of a Great Myth”

 

The theory of evolution is a wonderful fantasy as well as a very popular conviction, and for good reason.  It is tragic and satisfying, comfortable and touching, perfectly “unified” and keenly interesting.  With its charm, romantic characteristics, and brick-like confidence, it has won over the hearts and minds of many willing followers.  “It is one of the most moving and satisfying world dramas which have ever been imagined.” (Lewis).  In the rhythmical tragedy referred to as “evolution”, man consistently emerges as the hero of the day, becoming better and better as time ticks on, this image of humanity is, of course, quite attractive to those belonging to the human race.  The satisfying knowledge that against “millionth, millionth” chances, the race of man has grown, thrived, created, conquered, explored, united, cultivated, believed, and so on, is undeniably gratifying (Lewis).  And this fairy tale’s ending adds an almost delicious tension to the thing: “Nature, the old enemy who only seemed to be defeated, has been gnawing away, silently, unceasingly, out of the reach of human power.  The Sun will cool—all suns will cool—the whole universe will run down.  Life (every form of life) will be banished without hope of return from every cubic inch of infinite space.  All ends in nothingness.  ‘Universal darkness covers all.’ . . . the hero has swiftly fallen from the glory to which he slowly climbed: we are dismissed ‘in calm of mind, all passion spent’.   . . .  it has . . . complete finality. It brings us to the end not of a story, but of all possible stories . . . “ (Lewis).  Still, superbly catastrophic endings and unfortunate heroes are not all this grand delusion has to offer the “open-minded”, it also promotes genuinely convincing ideas.  Lewis says this of evolution, that the “odd idea commends itself to the imagination by the help of what seem to be two instances of it within everyone’s knowledge.  Everyone has seen . . . Acorns become oaks, grubs become insects, eggs become birds, every man was once an embryo.  . . . secondly . . . everyone has seen Evolution really happening in the history of machines. We all remember when locomotives were smaller and less efficient than they are now.  These two apparent instances are quite enough to convince the imagination that Evolution in a cosmic sense is the most natural thing in the world.”  And as if all this was not enough, it gives yet one more confirmation, that “art and civilization as we now know them are only the crude or embryonic beginnings of far better things” and humankind is growing together as one unified movement, improving, civilizing, and enlightening as it goes along.  It’s a more or less “sing-song” way of viewing existence, who wouldn’t want to perceive such a thing as being true? “Let no one say we are an unimaginative age: neither the Greeks nor the Norsemen ever invented a better story.”  (Lewis).  Over the ages, mankind’s search for his origin has been laid to rest upon finding this quaint fabrication, making it one of the most riveting, mesmeric and popular tales ever to be told, ever to be re-told, ever to be taken hold of.