Friday, January 7, 2011
God in the Dock: "Bulverism"
According to C.S. Lewis, Bulverism is 'to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this by busily explaining how he became to be so silly.' In other words, Bulverism is when someone tells you that you are wrong but gives unreasonable explanations of why you are wrong attacking you instead of the arguments. Bulverism is actually present everywhere. For example, Bulverism is present in a small classroom environment when a teacher starts breaking the rules of not eating in class. When students see this, they argue to the teacher that it is not fair that they cannot eat in class but he can. After all, the teacher answers them saying that he can break the rules because he is a teacher, the boss of the class, and students can't do it because the boss says so. This is Bulverism. The teacher is assuming that the students are wrong and then attacked the students by giving unreasonable explanations of why he can do what he is doing. The article we read last night talks mainly about Bulverism and how important it is to show a person that he or she is wrong and then start explaining why the argument is wrong. Then the question is, how do we show that it is wrong? We know that something is wrong when it goes against what our indicator (in this case what God wants us to do) says. God's law is written in our heart, in our conscience. We have to let the spirit lead us and have faith that God will lead us to a good place. At the same time, we have to do our parts too. We have to 'rise, follow, speak, and act.' We have to use our talents for God. After all, what matters the most is not success but faithfulness. Do it all for the glory of God and rely on him then you will know the answer. You will know what's right and wrong, and you will be able to show that to others in a proper way.
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