God in the Dock: "Bulverism"

                In this article, C.S. Lewis discusses the theory of ideas as being tainted as well as the idea of bulverism in society. 

                He begins with examples of theories of tainted ideas.  He first explains the problem of whether all thoughts are tainted or just some, and if so which ones.  He then asks “does the taint invalidate the tainted thought- in the sense of making it untrue-or not?” He then explains that if all ideas are invalidated than so is the idea that all ideas are not true because they are also tainted.  This leads to the idea that, just like in yesterday’s reading, he cannot let one theory be our standard of how we think because we are finite creatures and can not only not remove ourselves to completely be able to look at something; are views are tainted.  In makes me wonder why our views are tainted.  I at first thought it was our experiences that teach us to think a certain way as we make schemas of our surroundings.  However, the more I think about it the more l think that is perhaps not our experiences but rather our our lack of experiences.  As finite creatures we have limited knowledge and limited experiences.  This lack of experiences and knowledge perhaps in the reason we are tainted. 

                The idea that our ideas are tainted then leads into bulverism.  He describes bulterism as a type of refutation without logical proof or explanations.  C.S. Lewis explains that “you must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong”.  In our society we all too often make illogical assumptions.  From politics to families, this tendency to assume people are wrong without evidence is just as prevalent now as it was when C.S. Lewis wrote this.  I do think that perhaps this vice did not start out intentionally bad.  As I contemplated this the term innocent until proven guilty came to mind.  We assume the accusation against the alleged suspect is wrong until we are proved otherwise.  However, do we originally have any reason to assume this accusation is wrong? But we also don’t have any reason to believe it is right. When we don’t have any proof we start to make assumptions, however, if there is knowledge to help us understand and make a clear decision we must look for it before making a decision.  I think this all leads back to our society’s pompousness.  As individuals we assume we are right and yet that others have a tendency to be wrong before we have significant evidence, a type of self-serving bias.   Especially in politics today to use bits and pieces of truth to create self-serving propaganda against the other parties.  It sometimes even seems like the desire to prove the other party wrong outweighs the desire to get what you want.  For example, Republicans talked about national health care as being a good way to help reduce the costs from emergency room care when that type of care was not required.  However, when Democrats brought up the idea of a national health care system many Republicans were firmly against this idea even though they originally saw the need for it.  We are tainted by sin, yet we must see the error in our bulveristic tendencies.

                Bulverism is a big problem because it distorts our views.  It blocks open-mindedness and distracts us from our real goals.  It must be stopped.  The first step towards the prevention and the decrease in bulverism is humility.  We must be humble enough to realize that we do not understand many things and therefore we must learn before judging.  This leads to learning in general.  We need to be well educated in order to understand people, situations, and even God better.  We must be open to new information and ideas. I remember in C.S. Lewis’ book Out of the Silent Planet he talked about how if something is bent it is far more damaging that if it is broken.  This reminds me of how we some of our ideas and sketched out evidence.  As humans we n ever quite have the whole picture, however, we often get bits and pieces.  When we piece together parts of information and make it seem true it is far more damaging than to have a completely ridiculous theory that no one will believe.  We must therefore, remember we are finite creatures who only have pieces of information to put together rabther than all the evidence.   Therefore, we must be humble and listen to other people’s ideas.  Then we should take people’s criticisms and use them to help us find more truth.  To do this we must be respectful of others and stop insulting others who have different views but rather listen and learn from them.  However, we must also look for credibility and wisdom in those who we are learning from.  We must remember we are looking for truth we are not looking to be right or prove others wrong.