Thursday, January 8, 2009

Bulverism

In the article 'bulverism' C.S Lewis teaches us about why we need to search for the real truth. I noticed that Lewis talked a lot about how we as humans assume that the person we are arguing with is automatically wrong. We try and prove that we are right and the other is wrong. Bulverism is apparent all over the world today, and is near impossible to get rid of. If we want to find the real truth we must stop trying to be right all the time. Lewis says in this passage that Bulverism eliminates true reason. Because people have become biased which takes away from our humility. It takes a lot of humility to accept that we may be wrong, and once we finally accept that we have the potential to find truth. It is within our human nature to think that we are right and others are wrong, however we need to become humble enough to know and accept that higher educated people many know more than we do and we need to accept that we are not always right. 

Just like we have flexors and extensor muscle in our bodies, we also have people who play those roles in our lives. It is easier to flex than extend, it is a natural instinct to curl or flex our bodies into a fetal position when we are hurt. Flexors are those people who make us feel good about about ourselves. However, if we need to stand up to people in our lives and stand straight we need to have extensors as a part of our lives. Extensors will help us to accept the blow and criticism. Things that hurt us only make us stronger and teach us to stand a little straighter, but we need to learn to accept humility before we can face our extensors. 

After the class discussion on bulverism I began to think about my life and people around me. Being judgmental has become more and more apparent today. When we begin to judge someone we are really using the theory o bulverism, we automatically assume that the person we are judging is wrong, or not good enough. Not all of this judging is spoken but even a simple glance at someone and thinking negative things about them, we are using bulverism and beginning to assume that we are right and superior to our peers. 


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2 comments:

  1. KaitlynJanuary 9, 2009 at 2:22 PM

    I really liked when professor Adrianna used the flexor and extensor example. With bulverism, we more often than not argue just to be right or wrong when instead we should be arguing for a truth. I can think of people who I cannot have a legit conversation with because they just want to prove a point to be right, even if it is completely untrue. These people are not extensors; they do not make me stronger or build me in my faith. I think it's hard in this day and age to find people who are willing to fight for the truth, who are able to practice humility in order to establish that truth, and who can work with others to build a strong community of truthful people.

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  2. Adriana Schalkwijk RibeiroJanuary 11, 2009 at 7:34 PM

    Dear Briana,
    Yes! The biggest lessons we learned where from a poor, blind, and arched by age Brazilian fisherman, an elder in his church. His wife read and then he would preach… We many times sat hand in hand, as engaged couple, in his dark, palm thatch roof hut listening to his wisdom.

    And I loved Kaitlyn’s comment. YES!!!! We need to surround us with a community of truthful committed people that prayerfully make us stronger!
    A & P

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