Everyone goes through that phase where they think they are never wrong. i know i did, i know my older brother did...and still does for that matter. whether its you or your brother or a politician, at some point you truely feel that you're right and everyone else is wrong. bulverism, its such a univseral thing and yet so personal we experience it in our everyday lives.
i enjoyed lewis take on bulverism. He reccognizes that using our reason is much more effective when trying to make a point than simply saying, "nope, you're wrong, im right...end of story."
Lewis' high regard for inteligent thought out agurments and reason is incouraging also. its easy to slip into automaticlly assuming ones apponent is wrong from the start but it is a challenge to be open to listening to them and then challenging them with your own intelligence.
i also liked lewis' point when he wrote,
"Until Bulverism is crushed, reason can play no effective part in human affairs. Each side snatches it early as a weapon against the other; but between the two reason itself is discredited. And why should reason not be discredited? It would be easy, in answer, to point to the present state of the world, but the real answer is even more immediate. The forces discrediting reason, themselves depend of reasoning. You must reason even to Bulverize. You are trying to prove that all proofs are invalid. If you fail, you fail. If you succeed, then you fail even more - for the proof that all proofs are invalid must be invalid itself. "
Lewis' thoughts are always clear and well planned out.
About Me
- Leighanne Evelyn
- Along with taking photos... i like and or love: God breathing going to CALVIN COLLEGE<3 chewing gum acting fighting with my brother(and winning) laughing making people laugh the beatles the movie jaws kill bill (vol 1 & 2) peter pan playing scrabble with my mum boston and Vans sneakers and C.S Lewis of course...along with blogging about his works. i dont like and or hate: cracker barrel fighting with my brother(and losing) skanky clothing homework stress bowling falling down cleaning my room being late tom clam chowder being bored dirty socks doing dishes pretty much cleaning ingeneral
4 comments:
It is indeed encouraging that Lewis advocates reason as possible. However, sometimes I wonder, does it work??? For those true Bulverists, they don't seem to listen, even if you try to argue reason with them. That can be very discouraging especially when witnessing to someone for Christ. When they just look at everything you say and refuse to listen by saying "No, you are just wrong because I say you are."... this is sometimes difficult to handle. Reason is good, but does it defeat a true Bulverist???
Homey had a very interesting point, and I think that there are certainly people who are as you said "true bulverists" (and will never listen to reason). However, I think that C.S. Lewis' challenge is really directed toward us the reader to take it upon our selves to prevent bulverism where we can- in our own lives. When witnessing to someone for Christ, we should make sure that we have reason- sometimes it seems that Christians can be somewhat bulveristic (real word?) in the way that we witness to others.
To go off Emily's comment, for something as serious as our faith I think it can be extremely hard, as Christians, to avoid a type of bulverism. When we have based our life on something such as Christianity, and someone disagrees with us, at what point can we agree to disagree? Perhaps winning the argument isn't the most important thing at that moment, perhaps planting a seed is. So C.S. Lewis reemphasizes the importance of sound argumentation and perhaps teaches us to back down when we find ourselves becoming bulveristic? (again, i'm not sure if that's a word, but it sounds good)
Excellent discussion!!
Enjoying treading them.
Paulo and Adriana
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