Bulverism was a very hard read, it took a lot of thinking for me to understand what C.S. Lewis was trying to say. I think that he is trying to tell us that we cannot just say something is wrong or incorrect just because we want it to be. It is impossible for every human being to be right all the time. However, it is out nature to want to be right or to believe that we are. However, we are not good at accepting criticism or question of our views. We not longer take the time to listen to one another and to actually hear their point of view. We automatically decide what type of person they are because they have a different view than us. I can help but to think how much we are missing because of this. So many brilliant minds are being dismissed because what they think or believe is not socially acceptable or popular. We need to be aware that we may not have all the evidence so that in fact we might be wrong, and a lot of us tend to get angry or upset when we are wrong instead of being humble and craving to learn from out mistake. Also, most human beings tend to follow those that they trust or admire, instead of thinking for themselves. However everyone has a sinful nature because of the great fall. So we must know that even if someone is a good person and we want to trust their ways, they too are sinful.
A quote that I found interesting within the text was "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" It is very confusing, and I am not sure I even understand the full context of it, but it makes me think what is the point? Why bother trying to prove that something is wrong, because how much can you gain from it? Another concept that we talked about in class that was just incredible to think about was cause and reason and how they go together. Cause is the feeling that we have, just like we said feeling like we have a lot of money. Reason is checking that feeling to be true, so going to the bank to see how much money we actually have. This then ties into the quote about will and reason " Will and Reason cannot depend on anything but themselves, but Nature can depend on Will and Reason, or, in other words, God created Nature." I think is talking about Christ in this quote. God does not depend on us, but we depend on God. If God needed to depend on us then he would not be God of course. He would just be one of us. Overall we need to learn to avoid bulverism by being loving Christians, and we are called as Christians to love everyone as their are, and to guide them in a Christlike manner.
I found the subject of cause and reason interesting as well. My question about that came up to be which one comes first? It seems that often people can have a cause without having a reason. Just like someone saying you are wrong without giving a reason. However, with reasons it seems to me that there would be more passion. When a person has a reason for something they will often argue or fight for their cause because they have a reason to feel so strongly about supporting that cause. It gets confusing to me but that's what I got out of it.
ReplyDeleteI really like your comment about people that we admire. It is so true that we often accept a viewpoint of someone we admire without really looking into their thought process. Because we admire them, we take their opinions blind and assume their accuracy. I love how you said that people we admire are still sinful, and we need to be critical of their thinkings and opinions despite our admiration for them. So true.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it's true that considering people imediately wrong is a poor choice, however I would argue that it could be used in a useful way as well. I didn't really understand your definition of God not being a god if he needs the support of mortals. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like while he may not then be our "christian God" should he still exist I doubt we have any other word for it
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