C.S. Lewis on Atom Bombs (and WW3?) During the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union, fears of atomic warfare were becoming pandemic throughout the West. The possibility of universal destruction of all living beings on earth (not merely one's own country) terrified millions. In this context of growing hysteria, C.S. Lewis (1898–1963), the Christian apologist and Oxford professor of English Literature, penned an essay on living in an age when the A-bomb appeared to be the ultimate nemesis facing humanity. Below are the first three paragraphs of his 1948 essay. (A link to the entire essay is included.) In light of fears of World War III with Russia or China or Iran, I believe his counsel from 75 years ago can be helpful for people to think deeply about our time. “On Living in an Atomic Age” C. S. Lewis (1948) 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. From: Present Concerns: Essays by C.S. Lewis (edited by Walter Hooper; New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986), pages 73-80. [Click here for a 5-page PDF copy of Lewis's entire essay.] Articles