In my previous blog I suggested that the death of Osama Bin Laden posed some significant theological problems from two differing points of view claimed in popular culture.  The one is of Pastor Rob Bell who claimed in his latest book Love Wins, that there is a hell, but God may be so gracious as to save people out of hell after they are placed there.  Stephen Hawking takes an opposite approach for he claimed last month that there is no heaven, that humanity is no more than a computer that fails, saying, “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”  The basic point I was making is that Bell and Hawking’s views on the afterlife are incompatible with C.S. Lewis’ understanding of moral law, the Law of Human Nature.  I also argued that those two views were not only incompatible with Lewis, but the Bible as well.  Here I would like to propose how this negative stance, does have a positive outcome.

Last month the U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted terrorist.  A man promoting an ideology of death and destruction through his acts and plots of terror was met with praise at his death.  People throughout the media world were praising the job of Seal Team 6, and condemning Bin Laden to hell.  This occurred throughout various media outlets like talk show host Sean Hannity, as well as comics like Jimmy Kimmel, who declared Osama Bin Laden in hell.  They were not the only ones who espoused this, but there wasn’t a large outcry against such declaration.  Why?

I believe the reason is because of what C.S. Lewis refers to as the Law of Human Nature.  This Law of Human Nature is a moral law which he sums up as “human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it.  Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way.”(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity,19)