In his essay, "On Obstinacy in Belief," originally presented to the Oxford Socratic Club talk, C.S. Lewis addresses a common criticism of religious faith: that it is an irrational refusal to proportion belief to the evidence. Lewis, a former atheist, dissects this claim with logical precision. He argues that the kind of "obstinacy" found in religious belief is not a scientific failure, but a different category of commitment, one analogous to the trust we place in other people.

Lewis explores how trust between individuals often requires maintaining faith against apparent contrary evidence, and questions whether a relationship with God would demand anything less. This is not a call to blind belief, but a nuanced defense of why certain personal convictions are held with a strength that pure data alone cannot justify.

Because there are no known recordings of Lewis delivering this speech, and few recordings of him in general, this audio production of C.S. Lewis's "On Obstinacy in Belief" has been produced by New Thought Academy, in partnership with Corbett & Brewer, using synthetic speech. The contents of the essay have not been altered.