C.S. Lewis’ On Living in an Atomic Age Quote written by the Hobbit on November 29th, 2021. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog.
What is C.S. Lewis’ On Living in an Atomic Age?
‘On Living in an Atomic Age’ is an essay by Lewis (You can find a collection of those essays here) that has recently been taken out of context and applied to living through a pandemic.
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
-C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns
Why A Quote’s Context Matters
The sharing of quotes has been around for a long time – Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations first came out over 150 years ago, and it was not the first compilation of quotations. Today, we live in a meme-happy society. Even if you are not on social media, you probably have shared some. And one of the popular forms for memes is a quote (the online version of Bartlett’s will help you create this, in fact). Many of these are inspirational. Some are used to make a point. And, to repeat, just about everyone has shared one.
These quotes can give us great insights into many things, including the thoughts of the authors. We all see great-sounding quotes and we are tempted to reuse them (especially on social media). However, using a quote always runs the risk of taking that quote out of context. There are two methods that I can think of to avoid this.
One is to know enough about the author, to have read enough of their works or studies of their life, to form an opinion of how well the quote, by itself, expresses the author’s thoughts. The other is to read the work the quote is from. And I will be the first to admit that I do not always do the necessary work to make sure I am using quotes correctly. Getting better – but it is not easy, especially when a quote supports your position.
Comparing the fear of humanity being entirely wiped out in an instant with a bomb to a viral pandemic is vastly misunderstanding the historical and social context. Much like comparing pandemic prevention points to anything relating to the holocaust is a misrepresentation of the levels of the atrocities during world war 2. (Modern historians take on that here)
C.S. Lewis’ Context for On Living in an Atomic Age
Being a blog that takes its name from hobbits, it is not surprising that the work of the Inklings – J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their friends – is of importance to us. And that is why we want to address the use over the past year or so of a couple of Lewis quotes from an essay in Present Concerns, “On Living in an Atomic Age”. Summarized, this essay first briefly deals with the individual fear of dying, but quickly moves to its main point, which is that the primary fear associated with nuclear weapons is that they will destroy civilization, Lewis uses this as a stepping stone to examine the failures of naturalism.
However, some of the opening material has been used to support the idea that Lewis would have supported the “right” to not wear a mask or get a vaccine – that we should live our lives normally as if a pandemic were not happening. And, while I am not blaming people for this – as I noted, I have done similar things with quotes – the people doing so are neither familiar with Lewis or the essay.
Knowing the life of Lewis, one thing is clear almost immediately. In calling us to live our life normally, he cites examples of ills we already have. One of those cited is “living in an age of cancer”. Anyone familiar with Lewis knows that he married late, to Joy Davidman, who had cancer. They would also know that Jack (as Lewis was known) and Joy used every medical means available to them to fight her cancer (it did go into remission for a time).
He did note a plague in this essay, but it’s a small note. He did not unpack exactly how people dealt with the plague only that it was a frequent concern that you just had to deal with. And that people continued to live. While researching how people in London dealt with The Great Plague it was interesting to see what restrictions they put in place even when they did not understand where the illness came from or how it spread. There were quarantines, the rich fled the cities, and at one point it was ordered that people kept their fireplaces burning day and night to rid the air of the illness. The people did not just ignore the fact that there was a transmittable illness spreading- it decimated the people and their way of life. You can read a short summary here on Wikipedia about the bigger London plague, or check out ‘A Year of Wonders‘ or ‘A Parcel of Patterns‘ which are both inspiring novel about a town that quarantined itself to save surrounding communities. Gracious doing research like that makes me thankful to be living in the times we are now.
To use his essay to advocate for not following the best medical advice (which is to get a vaccine and wear masks in indoor places) simply ignores how Lewis lived. I could spend more time on the life of C.S. Lewis and his other writings (for instance, Lewis did not have a high opinion of what we call our “rights”). And we may come back to those in the future – there is a lot to learn. But for now let’s just look at the essay, “On Living in an Atomic Age”.
What is Lewis Really Saying with the On Living in an Atomic Age?
The essay was written in 1948, and there was a widespread fear (which persisted for many years) that all of humanity, or at least a significant portion, would be wiped out by atomic warfare. Everything just wiped off the surface of the earth. And this is especially frightening because we have no agency, no choices – an individual has absolutely no control over whether an atomic weapon would be detonated over their house or work or school. Given that we are faced with a threat to not just ourselves but to all of civilization, and possibly the end of humanity, how do we react? Lewis says that not only is death inevitable, but civilizations ending is also. And if you are a materialist, this is not a comforting thought:
“Nature does not, in the long run, favour life. If Nature is all that exists—in other words, if there is no God and no life of some quite different sort somewhere outside Nature—then all stories will end in the same way: in a universe from which all life is banished without possibility of return.”
The purpose of this essay is quite plainly stated:
“We see at once… that the important question is not whether an atomic bomb is going to obliterate ‘civilisation’. The important question is whether ‘Nature’—the thing studied by the sciences—is the only thing in existence. Because if you answer yes to the second question, then the first question only amounts to asking whether the inevitable frustration of all human activities may be hurried on by our own action instead of coming at its natural time.”
The purpose of the essay is to discuss the futility of naturalism, and how that is seen when we have no agency. To discuss living with hope in the face of incredible fear. It is about a life of futility versus one of hope and perseverance (and self-sacrifice). It is something worthy of discussion. But it is not about making choices in a pandemic.
Final Thoughts on C.S. Lewis’ On Living in an Atomic Age
As I noted at the beginning, I expect the vast majority of the people who use this quote have not read the essay. I have done similar things. We all need to be more careful. And if you see these quotes by Lewis being misused, please do not repost them. Or, if the person is receptive, perhaps remind them that this essay is not about choices in a pandemic. It is about what your life is based upon. And reading Lewis – instead of simply quoting him – is a good place to start learning what bricks you have used. Lewis believed in and was thankful for modern medicine and hope in God.
We recently had the opportunity to see Hamilton. (You can find our review of the Disney Plus movie review here with a link to our quiz/curriculum we sell for it!) One of the really striking things was the diversity of the crowd and reading how people had picked up on certain lines- like “history has it’s eyes on you.”, to prove or confirm two opposite points of view. How, for instance, a staunch Republican or Democrat could see this same musical and say, “See, this proves my point! We have to do xyz for our country!” and not understand how the other person could use the same thing to prove their point. The same happens with inspiring quotes or memes. We connect with things that confirm our own biases. We want to share memes, and other inspiring snippets, that prove our own points of view. And like mentioned above, we do this a lot ourselves!! It’s easy to pick and pull things that resonate with us. But often, like with this Lewis atomic age quote, they are taken out of context. And we really should think twice and do a little digging before sharing.
C.S. Lewis and his wife used modern medicine and believed in putting the needs of others before your own. It’s been disheartening to see this essay used to promote ignoring pandemic prevention measures in the name of Christian living. Because that is quite opposite of how Lewis himself lived and what his works promoted, especially in regards to living a Christ filled life.
Thanks for reading out dissection of C.S. Lewis’ On Living in an Atomic Age. Check out our related content:
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Interesting to see and read this on the internet. Can I ask if you’ve ever seen the film ‘Threads’? I think this fills in the gaps Lewis left out (not deliberately; he simply didn’t have the full picture at the time).