“There is no uncreated being except God. God has no opposite.”
Image credits：Aronsyne,”Lewis, age 48″,CC BY-SA 4.0,C.S.-Lewis – C. S. Lewis – Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963
- Born in Ireland
- Writer, scholar
- Had a major influence on fantasy literature and religious thought through his many works, including the Chronicles of Narnia series and The Poetics of Christianity
Quote
“There is no uncreated being except God. God has no opposite.”
Explanation
In this quote, C. S. Lewis makes a fundamental theological statement about the nature of God. He asserts that God is the only uncreated being, meaning that God has no beginning or origin—He exists eternally and is the source of all creation. All other beings, including humans, angels, and the physical universe, are created and therefore dependent on God. The second part of the quote, “God has no opposite,” emphasizes that there is no rival or counterforce to God. In many religions and philosophies, opposites such as good vs. evil or light vs. dark are central concepts. However, Lewis is emphasizing that God, as the ultimate creator and source of all, has no equal or antagonist—evil is not a force that exists in direct opposition to God, but rather the absence or corruption of good. This idea is central to Lewis’s Christian worldview, where God’s sovereignty is absolute and uncontested.
Historically, Lewis was writing as a Christian apologist who believed in the uniqueness and supremacy of God. The statement is part of his broader defense of the Christian concept of God as the eternal, uncreated Creator. He often critiqued the idea of dualism, where good and evil are seen as equal and opposite forces. Lewis believed that evil does not have independent existence but is instead a distortion or perversion of good. For him, God’s goodness is ultimate and unchallenged, and while evil exists in the world, it does not have the same ontological reality as God’s being.
In the modern context, this quote challenges certain philosophical or spiritual frameworks that treat good and evil as equally powerful forces. For example, in some systems of thought, evil is treated as a co-equal force to God, leading to the idea of a cosmic battle between the two. Lewis’s words remind us that God is supreme, and evil, while real, is not a rival power. This distinction can offer clarity in discussions about theodicy (the problem of evil) and the nature of God’s sovereignty in a world where suffering and evil are present. By asserting that God has no opposite, Lewis is reinforcing the absolute and unrivaled nature of God in Christian theology, which has profound implications for how we understand the relationship between good and evil in the world.
