Both in Lewis' time and today, there is a trend of attacking a persons reasoning rather than the truthfulness of their arguments. Lewis named this Bulverism. Bulverism tries to show that thoughts are somehow tainted at the source. So, in order to prove that a thought, claim, argument is false one must attack the source and not the actual thought. For example, lets say I believe it to be below freezing. By attacking the source (me) one would say that my claim that it's below freezing is tainted by my sense that it's cold. One might say, "No it's not, you're just saying that because you're cold." In order to have actually attacked the claim one would have to show that water is not freezing at the current temperature.
Bulverist ideas attack whether or not our perceptions, which we obtain from our senses, about reality can be true. If they aren't we can't really know anything. I agree with Lewis that this kind of world doesn't make any kind of sense to me, and I don't think God create a world in which our minds are useless. Lewis explains our world in terms of causes and reasons. Causes being the ordinary observations of the world and reasons being explanations by our minds for what happens. Bulverism attacks the reasons that we create. It is as Lewis puts it "a proof that all proofs are invalid" which makes it invalid.
Even though it doesn't make sense, I see that Bulverism has a dangerous role in our society. It explains why someone is wrong without proving that they are wrong. Inn the case of Lewis and me, this is troubling to the standing of our religion. To use a religious example, lets take my belief in Jesus Christ's Resurrection. An atheist bulverizes me and says, "You're religion is false, you just have these beliefs because it makes u feel loved, gives you community, shows you morals, and provides joy in your life." These are some of the most attractive things about Christianity and many people come to the Christian faith for just these reasons and learn the good news of God's plan of salvation. Therefore this argument makes sense to a lot of people because it would make sense to INVENT an religion for these reasons, but the argument hasn't looked at the ORIGIN or TRUTH of Christianity. It's a dangerous way of thinking and I think we really ought to prove things are indeed false before we attack why they are false.
Mike, I thought this was very insightful. I really enjoyed reading the last paragraph and seeing how an antheist opposed to a Christian would think about it. I have cousins who don't understand Christianity and come at me with these views but one thing that I feel is important is that we try to point others toward truth. I think especially as Christians, we don't do this enough with others and their beliefs and just ultimately become bulverists ourselves. It is scary how relevant it is in me with other religions such as buddhism, islam, and others. As Christians, we also need to be more careful about not showing bulverism to others beliefs as well.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the example you gave of how an athiest would debate a Christians belief. It's sad to think about but I think that because we as Christians haven't put much thought or work into those sorts of attacks we have nothing else to say but to "bulverise" right back at them. When we Christians are faced with statements like these we should be prepared and even welcome questions reguarding our beliefs. Like we discussed in class, the best response would one filled with humility, respect and care for the other person.
ReplyDeleteThough a bulveristic atheist may be annoying, think of the other option: one who actually reasons. There's a disheartening experience.
ReplyDeleteOne of my best friends has such a classmate. He gets into debates with her about faith and God and sin and all that. And you know what? He loses. Every time. What do we do when reason and logic drop us short of our goal?
It's definitely true that Christians get bulverized a lot just as you talked about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we also need to realize that, as Christians, we tend bulverize other religions without realizing.
Most Christians approach other religion in the mindset that "we are right. they are wrong"
and this mindset can be extremely damaging.
As mentioned in class, the important things is to be willing to listen, and when we do that, we will be amazed with how much we learn.
I agree that Christians are often Bulverized and it's difficult for Christians to win in a debate because so much of our religion is based off of faith. It's often difficult to stand up for what we know and believe to be right. We do need to also be careful not to Bulverize other religions. We may not agree with the religion itself, but we at least have to be respectful of the person who is part of that religion.
ReplyDeleteI'm not exactly sure that your example about the person who is cold is an example of Bulverism. It seems logical to me that the fact that one is cold would be a logical transition to a belief that the temperature is below freezing. One would naturally wonder whether the temperature is below freezing if one is cold. This is a logical assumption, based on reason and not simply psychology-bashing.
ReplyDeleteGood post! I like the examples; this makes it easier to understand a thought, even though some examples may 'click' better for one person as for the other!
ReplyDelete