[buescher]

There is a C.S. Lewis quote that is as good as St. Paul and I don’t say that lightly: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”

Hard, isn’t it? The highest ideals are.

The clankers are just very big machine spirits. Treat them as such.

[hackingonempty]

People are mortal. C.S. Lewis died over sixty years ago.

[IndeanCondor]

And yet here you are, strongly reacting to a philosophical argument made by him.

He's mortal, he's dead, and yet he's affected you here, a throwaway comment on a forum post no one will think about in a week's time.

[hackingonempty]

I didn't think about it that way, thanks!

[noddybear]

He also believed in the immortal soul that survives after death, so he may have had a more literal meaning.

[IAmBroom]

A more critical examination of the whole quote makes it clear he was not being that simple.