I was reading last night before bed and I stumbled upon this passage in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. I love, and hate, how C.S. Lewis explains things because his writing can be so cumbersome that you don't want to read anymore and at the same time so insightful that you can't put it down.
(C.S. Lewis is explaining how he came to the conclusion that God does in fact exist.)
"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got the idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?
If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet.
Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too - for the argument depends on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. This in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense.
Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning."
Way to go C.S.!
Also known as the argument from evil.
"But how had I got the idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?"
Probably comparison between the universe and interactions with other human beings.
"A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet."
A man lives in air and yet can feel the air against his face.
"in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense."
Justice is derived from other human beings. If you didn't have them, you wouldn't have a sense of justice. If lived in a society with a certain type of oppression, no one would notice that except by comparrison to other interactions.
"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning"
The idea of meaning is an extension of our dealings with other things. In all things we seek order and puspose in order to understand it and given that animals do have order and purpose we generalize to everything.
"just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning."
A universe without light would have no matter or life. Interestingly, there is no ESP in our universe and yet the word does have a meaning.
I encourage you to read Mere Christianity or better yet the gospels themselves.
Start with the gospel of John and see if the Lord Jesus words begin to penetrate.
He is God. He loves you. He died for your sin. I pray you will repent and come to know Him. When you realize He is God, it changes everything.
--Marty