“Bulverism” was definitely a harder reading than the previous essay. The ideas that Lewis talks about are more abstract and harder to understand, and it took me several readings for me understand what Lewis was trying to say. However, the main application that we can get out of this reading is similar to that of “Meditation in a Toolshed.” Once again Lewis puts emphasis on the importance of humility when we encounter different ideas, and we are challenged to judge less and listen more.
Bulverism is a word created by Lewis to describe a situation when one person invalidates the other’s ideas because of something other than the logic and the reasoning behind the other’s ideas. Ezekiel Bulver, from whom the word Bulverism comes from, noticed his mom say to his dad, “Oh, you say that because you are a man.” This is typical case where Bulverism is evident. His mom invalidates his dad’s ideas just because he’s a man.
Bulverism is also present within our Christian world. I attended a very conservative Christian elementary school. As a result, whenever I heard anything about evolution, I regarded that idea as untrue. However, as I grew older I came to see that there are so many amazing that we can learn about our world that have to do with evolution, and evolution didn’t contradict with my faith as I thought it did.
The Bible doesn’t tell us everything. As mentioned in class, the Bible tells us to feed the poor, but it doesn’t tell us the recipe for the food. In the same way, the Bible tells us that God created the world, but it doesn’t say how or what method He used.
I’ve also seen Bulverism occur in the way Christians view Islam. It seems that when we encounter a Muslim, we come with the mindset that “we are right, they are wrong.” However, in my personal experience, I’ve been challenged and humbled by seeing how some Muslim live out their lives in humility and kindness. There is so much to learn once we truly start listening.
One of the ways we can fight Bulverism is by being aware that it can occur to anyone, and we should be willing to learn. We should stop looking at the person and their social status and start looking at the argument.
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답글삭제Isn't it amazing what we can learn from other cultures and religions? I went to China last interim and was blown away by how dedicated people are to their faith-Christian or not. We went to a Bible study that was packed full of people-literally sitting shoulder to shoulder; and when they pray-man do they pray! They go to the temple every day to burn incense to Buddha, and sit there meditating for hours! There is so much we can learn from them even if we disagree with their core beliefs!
답글삭제Also, in Guatemala, I learned so much about being thankful for what I have. The people we visited in the slum had no visible reason for hope. Their houses were destroyed in mudslides during the rainy season, yet they were still able to say, "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Thank you for bringing up the example of Islam. It is true that in the west Bulverism has been extensively employed against Muslims and that is sad because while we believe that they are in fact wrong, we still have so much we can learn from them and should in fact be engaging with them out of love rather than disengaging because we do not trust them because of their religion and culture.
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