Skepticism should work both ways

“Their [Lewis’s opponents’] skepticism about values is on the surface: it is for use on other people’s values; about the values current in their own set they are not nearly skeptical enough. And this phenomenon is very usual. A great many of those who ‘debunk’ traditional or (as they would say) ‘sentimental’ values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.”

— C.S. Lewis

Source: Abolition of Man

Many thanks to the MACAT project for sussing this little gem out for me. From the grave, Lewis reminds us that too many ardent unbelievers believe their own ethos to be above debunking.

And he reminds the faithful that our own first obligation is to ask of ourselves and our faiths very hard questions, and to acknowledge the limits of our beliefs.