Wednesday, December 22, 2021

day no. 15,766: natural and unreasonable

"A train of thought loses all rational credentials as soon as it can be shown to be wholly the result of non-rational causes. When Nature, so to speak, attempts to do things to rational thoughts she only succeeds in killing them. That is the peculiar state of affairs at the frontier. Nature can only raid Reason to kill; but Reason can invade Nature to take prisoners and even to colonise. Every object you see before you at this moment—the walls, ceiling, and furniture, the book, your own washed hands and cut fingernails, bears witness to the colonisation of Nature by Reason: for none of this matter would have been in these states if Nature had had her way." -- C.S. Lewis, Miracles

If you are trying to think through something with a headache, nature may murder reason and leave you to do your mental work without its assistance while nature is raping and pillaging your physiology. In other words, nature can riot and raid reason, but it cannot domesticate it because nature is unreasonable. Reason, however, can cultivate and colonize nature. It can make nature better than it was. It can make fruitful things more fruitful than they were and beautiful things more beautiful than they were. Nature can produce no reason to resist Reason. Reason has every reason to resist Nature.

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