Integrative Essay

Pride - The Basis for Relativism

Nate Hansen

Prof. Paulo and Adriana Ribeiro

DCM 2011 - C.S. Lewis

25 January 2010

"I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one”1. This is clearly not a valid argument because it is not at all rational, but completely irrational and based solely on personal opinion. This is one example of Bulverism, something that takes place in almost every argument in society today. In addition to irrational argumentation, because of the sinful nature of us as human beings, the sin of pride has become the main source of all the sin in our lives. Because we live in a fallen world where evil has permeated everything, including all people, sin and pride has led many people to reject God and even morality. This rejection has lead to the dangerous idea of relativism, which has placed the Earth in a state where it is hard to restore because there is no longer absolute truth. Although absolute truth is essentially no longer accepted, logic and reason point to the fact that there is a moral law which can only be denied by our pride, which is a sin, and a personal feeling. Therefore, since logic and reason naturally lead to a moral law and a belief in God, pride, which is the basis for all sins, is the dangerous mechanism, which humans use to reject this truth.

The exclusively spiritual sin of pride is evidently, but often not obviously the source of all sin. This fact is really unmistakable when we take different sins and trace them down to their root source. Let us look at the least obvious example, one that would seem to be the opposite of pride - low self-esteem. Low self-esteem may seem like something we acquire when we have no pride, but really low self-esteem is also a sin, and like I said, all sin can be traced to pride at its base. When someone is insecure with their body shape or size for instance, what they are doing is they are not focusing on God’s truth. An insecure person is not realizing that they are made in God’s image, and that God made them a beautiful person. When there is this low self-esteem, a person is only looking at what they want – a smaller body, bigger arms, better hair, but what they fail to realize is that all these things are worldly things and that they should be happy with the way that God made them. An enormous part of pride also takes place in competition, and argumentation is surely one type of competition. The problem with this type of competition is that people want their own opinion to be the right one that their pride begins to stand in the way of logic. C.S. Lewis even assigns a name – Bulverism - to this reoccurring incident and says in his essay about it that "you must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong"2. This is much to often the case in our society, as we can see in politics, debates involving science versus religion, and even in our own homes. As you can see, even though it is a hard sin to pinpoint most of the time, pride is a real troublemaker in our society. Pride is what forms a barrier between God and man, and as long as we have pride, we are not able to see past ourselves and focus on Him. “Pride is the complete Anti-God state of mind and it leads to every other vice”3. As Lewis points out here, pride is the complete opposite way of thinking than God, and he also reveals that pride is what leads to all other sins, or wrongdoings. Now pride has even seeped into society’s view of morality, which has become something very relativistic.

Morality, unfortunately has become a word that is on the road to becoming obsolete. In our society, people have begun to look at morality as something relative, something that is not absolute. When people come to this conclusion they are not coming to it using the method of reason, because there is no way of being able to use logic to come to the conclusion that morality is relative. If going by logic, then "what's true is what's "true for you," and what's true is also what's "true for me." Both truths are true, even if they conflict"4. As you can see this does not make sense – you cannot have two conflicting truths. So, obviously people who do not believe in a moral law are refusing to believe it because of their pride, which is a sin to those who are ‘inside’ morality. Again, as the definition of bulverizing suggests, "it is perfectly easy to go on all your life giving explanations of religion, love, morality, honour, and the like, without having been inside any of them"2. This is the reason it is so important to look at the facts of every issue, including morality rather than our own pride taking control and jumping to a conclusion simply because we do not want to believe the other side of the argument. Further, when we take control of a situation on our own, not only can we only see what we want to and miss many important ideas, but we also face the danger of ignoring our Creator, God. “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you.” This shows that as long as you have pride, you are always looking down, and can easily miss so much because you are so focused on yourself. This is what happens with relativism, because people are focused on believing what they want to believe. They do not want to believe that there is a moral law because then there has to be someone who created this law, which in turn means they will have to answer to a higher power. The danger then because of pride, is that relativists are living their lives by something that is false, and until they look at this issue with the approach of reason, it will not be fixed. This is how potent pride can be in our lives, and "[u]ntil Bulverism is crushed, reason can play no effective part in human affairs"2. Humans must learn to get over their personal pride and look at everything from a logical perspective before it is too late. Until then, morality and relativism will continue to be at war and morality will remain the minority.

Thus, logic proves that morality is absolute truth, but because we live in a fallen world, pride – the chief of sins - remains in the way and morality remains relative. When this is the case, we are working against God and we cannot properly work to redeem God’s world when we do not even believe in his truths. For this reason, pride is the main enemy that we need to fight so that one day, we can all admit that morality is truth, God’s law is truth, so that his will can be done.

Works Cited

1. Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (1986), page 6.

2. C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Bulverism, 1941.

3. C.S. Lewis, The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis.

4. Plantinga, Cornelius Jr. Engaging God's World. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Co. 2002. Print

"Human Pain"

"It is men, not God, who have produced racks, whips, prisons, slavery, guns, bayonets, and bombs; it is by human avarice or human stupidity, not by the churlishness of nature, that we have poverty and overwork". Although this is obviously true, Lewis talks about why a lot of pain and suffering is not originally our fault. Pain is something evil, and it is clear that it is evil unlike sins which are harder to suspect because as Lewis says, "the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil". Because pain is obviously evil and it is seen everywhere in out world, this is an important topic, and Lewis describes it well as he comes to the ultimate conclusion that pain is necessary for us as humans to grow.

A thought that I could really relate to was that "[e]veryone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us". I think most of us can relate to this, because when things are going well for us, we feel like we do not need God, that we are doing just fine on our own. Not only that, but because of our pride, we tell ourselves that everything is going well without God, ignoring him and pretending that we are our own God. It's not until we run into a problem that a lot of us ask God for help. This is the same for non-Christians. They choose not to believe in God because they can handle things just fine on their own. It is often not until they face dire circumstances that they turn to God because there is nowhere else to turn. Even when things are going well, what we fail to realize is that God is there all along, and loves us even when we ignore him. Could we ask for a better God? At this point, I think you would have to be crazy to say yes.

In relation to this, Lewis states this point very logically and clearly when he states that "[u]ntil the evil man finds evil unmistakably present in his existence, in the form of pain, he is enclosed in illusion. Once pain has roused him, he knows that he is in some way or other 'up against' the real universe: he either rebels (with the possibility of a clearer issue and deeper repentance at some later stage) or else makes some attempt at an adjustment, which, if pursued, will lead him to religion". He says here pain is clearly a part of our world whether people reject it or acknowledge it. Similarly, we have lots of work to complete here at college whether we face the reality or not. Then Lewis says that once a person has accepted the truth that there is pain in the world, that person either rebels (adding more pain to the world) or wants to fix the pain that is present which in one way or another will lead to religion. I love this because it really narrows everything down (either option 1, or option 2), allowing Lewis to easily develop his point. Lewis also mentions the interesting point that atheists often curse God for the pain a suffering that the world is enduring, even though atheists claim that they do not believe in God. Thus, it is clear that the 'problem' of pain points toward there being a God. What other reason would there be for pain to exist, that is, pain that "cannot thus be traced to ourselves". Where else would it come from?

God uses pain in our lives in order to make us grow and become stronger. Without pain, it is not possible to see beyond ourselves, but it is the pain that we endure that teaches us lessons. When we make our own decisions, we must make them using the wisdom of God in our hearts. "When we act from ourselves alone-that is, from God in ourselves-we are collaborators in, or live instruments of, creation". We must listen and obey God because "the mere obeying is also intrinsically good, for, in obeying, a rational creature consciously enacts its creaturely role, reverses the act by which we fell, treads Adam's dance backward, and returns". This is how we make the world a better place, by surrendering to God and letting him work in us so that we can work our way backwards, in the opposite direction of the one that Adam and Eve decided to take. So we must give ourselves up, give up our own selfish desires to do things on our own, and in our own way. Although it requires pain, "there is one right act - that of self- surrender - which cannot be willed to the height by fallen creatures unless it is unpleasant". Pain is essential to life, and it is by acknowledging this and working for God (not against him) that we will make our world better and ultimately redeem it. Everything is made, as it says in Hebrews, 'perfect through suffering'.

"Vocation in the Kingdom of God"

This chapter discusses everything from our role within the Kingdom of God to the difference between secular post-secondary education opposed to a Christian one. We as Christians are called to become prime citizens of God's Kingdom. A prime citizen meaning someone that "passionately yearns for the Kingdom. A prime citizen has been redeemed far down in her spirit, way downtown in her heart, so that she deeply loves God and the things of God". Plantinga also discusses the fact that unbelievers are leading the redemption of creation in some respects such as the environment, even though their motives for doing so are obviously much different than that of Christians. This shows us that God is using everyone, not only Christians to redeem our fallen world - and should tell us, that all people are good people. I feel that far too often, Christians are filled with pride in this area, and they think they are better than people who are not Christians. Could it be possible that God is allowing non-Christians to be leaders as well so that we can learn to work together as a global community? Just as the pilgrims learned from the natives and vice-versa. Similarly, we can for example teach the secular world about God, and they can teach us how to be better stewards, so that we can take care of the environment. This is why Calvin's ideology is so great, because it teaches that we should be engaging with every aspect of God's creation instead of separating secular and Christian ideas.

Plantinga touches on this topic as well when he is discussing secular and Christian education. He says that one of the dangers of Christian students being enrolled in secular education. He says that "a number of these students will live with a wall between their sacred faith and their secular learning" which keeps us from sifting through all the information we receive to determine what is truth and what is not. With this being said, Plantinga also warns us that a Christian education will not mean that discerning information will be unnecessary, but in order to grow into a mature Christian, it is indeed necessary. "[J]ust as it would be a huge mistake simply to go with the flow on a secular campus, it's a huge mistake to suppose you can get truly educated by floating downstream in a Christian college". This reminds me of "Our English Syllabus" when Lewis explains that it is important for us as students to take control of our own education and learn on our own instead of vulnerable to the idea of simply being educated and not using our minds to decipher what it right and what is wrong. I agree that it is necessary for Calvin to challenge us in this sense because "you can't "rise with Christ" unless you've died with him first, and that means enduring some dark nights of the soul". This is a beautiful quote, and it is so true that we cannot even grow properly if we are not deeply challenged.

The fact that Plantinga spends time talking about the difference between secular and Christian education, really intrigued me and interested me because before I came to Calvin, I was very close to making a decision on going to a secular university in Canada. If I had made this decision, I would have never been introduced to this Calvin Theology that now makes so much sense to me. Just like Plantinga says, I would not have been able to live out my Christian faith in the right way at a secular university because it is just to easy to "go with the flow" and without the encouragement to discern I would "be busy with a hundred other things and [wouldn't] take the time to spend the effort to sort out the good and evil in what [I would have] encounter[ed] on campus to construct a thoughtful Christian philosophy of life" . For this reason, I thank God that I discovered Calvin, and that I will now be able to do what I would not have been able to do on my own. I look forward to becoming (along with all of you), a prime citizen of God's Kingdom.

"Man or Rabbit"

This essay was one of the ones that I enjoyed the most from the ones we have read so far. I liked that it was written for the purpose of non-believers, but believers can also get much pleasure from it. Lewis's arguments for answering the question of whether you can lead a good life without believing in Christianity are beautifully written, and so logical at the same time. His logical thinking is evident when he essentially answers this question in saying that "if Christianity should happen to be true, then it is quite im- possible that those who know this truth and those who don't should be equally well equipped for leading a good life. Knowl- edge of the facts must make a difference to one's actions. Suppose you found a man on the point of starvation and wanted to do the right thing. If you had no knowledge of medical science, you would probably give him a large solid meal; and as a result your man would die". This makes it clear that knowing the truth is what will enable one to lead a good life.

If the key then to leading a good life is the truth, then we must figure out what the truth is. I find it interesting that Christians are sure that God is the truth and are committed to living their lives as Christians, whereas people who do not believe in Christianity pretend to believe that that there is no God - and that to them is truth. Yet, they ask the question: "'Can't I lead a good life without believing in Christianity?'... If he hadn't heard of Christianity he would not be asking this question. If, having heard of it, and having seriously considered it, he had decided that it was untrue, then once more he would not be asking the question. The man who asks this question has heard of Christianity and is by no means certain that it may not be true". This is so interesting, and the fact that a person has tried to convince themselves that Christianity is not true, but continues to ask about it should tell us something, should it not? It reminds me of the bible when it says that we are created with the ability and conscience to seek out God, which is exactly what this unbeliever is doing when questioning their beliefs. This overlaps quite nicely with the discussion of honest error, and ignorance of God, and who will be the ones to go to heaven. I know there are many different ideas about this, about whether God will show mercy to those who honestly cannot believe in their hearts. But, overall I do not think we can decipher this, or find a definite answer, for we cannot look into their hearts. It is a good thing to discuss, but in the end, God will be the judge. He is the one that knows the truth about the secrets in our hearts. Since God is perfect, and he is a God of justice and grace, we should not be concerned about this. Let's leave it to the Creator.

A life of uncertainty is not a life worth living in my opinion. To me, it's like trying drive a car in two directions at once - impossible. So, for us as humans, we should get busy asking questions and finding what the truth is about our universe and follow that truth. "You may not be certain yet whether you ought to be a Christian; but you do know you ought to be a Man,
not an ostrich, hiding its head in the sand". I agree with Lewis that finding this truth is essential, but still just the beginning of living a good life. Without truth there is no morality, and "[m]orality is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; and if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable air of the summit, lacking those wings with which the rest of the journey has to be accomplished. For it is from there that the real ascent begins. The ropes and axes are 'done away' and the rest is a matter of flying". I know this quote has already been overused in class, but it is such an elegant and true illustration of how beautiful and meaningful life is. But, to be able to live this life, the first step for every human being is to seek out the truth. We cannot live life going in two directions. We can't swim in an ocean of uncertainty forever. At some point we need land, solid ground, a truth that is dependable no matter what.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" - John 14:6

"The Inner Ring"

Throughout this essay, Lewis makes known the dangers of inner rings. The key idea is that our main motive for forming inner rings is for the purpose of excluding other people, even though it may be subconscious. Because of this, we make it our goal to become part of that inner ring so we are not the one who is excluded. "Unless you take measures to prevent it, this desire is going to be one of the chief motives of your life". This is bad in my opinion because it is not only a sinful desire, but a useless thing to commit such a vast amount of energy to. It is useless because as Lewis says, "[i]t is the very mark of a perverse desire that it seeks what is not to be had. The desire to be inside the invisible line illustrates this rule. As long as you are governed by that desire you will never get what you want. You are trying to peel and onion: if you succeed there will be nothing left. Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain". Inner rings are not always evil, but if this is the prime desire (as it often is) - this is something we need to avoid.

Although I could say much good about "inner rings" as I am part of one myself, and most of us are, I think it is necessary to examine the cliques, circles, or groups (whatever you want to call them) of friends that we have to ensure that we are involved for the right reasons and that our chief desire is not the unending, never satisfying one that I mentioned above. As I was working on the presentation material for my group presentation on pride this week, I was reminded of this essay. Because pride is purely spiritual and it is such a hard sin to pinpoint, I think it is the perfect sin for Satan to use against us. Throughout the vicious search for an inner ring, "you will always find them hard to enter, for a reason you very well know. You yourself, once you are in, want to make it hard for the next entrant, just as those who are already in made it hard for you". This to me spells pride. It is our pride that wants to exclude outsiders, and we feel personal satisfaction when we accomplish this. We want to feel better, more popular, or cooler than everyone else. I always ask myself, "would Jesus do this?", and in this case as well as most others, certainly not! This is so clearly an issue of pride, and therefore is a perfect chance for Satan or "Screwtape" to intervene. It may even seem like the thing we're doing is good because after all, we have friends, and relationships is such an important thing in life. This is exactly what Satan wants, he wants us to think we're doing something good. Again, this does not mean that we are not doing something good, just like going to church is good when we do it for the right reasons. What we must do though, is carefully study our habits, sift them through to make sure that our inner ring does not "exist for exclusion" and that we are not being prideful. If we are not careful about this, "[t]he quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it".

"The Four Loves"

In this wonderful book, Lewis discusses a lot about love and the truth about it. For example, he uses Eros to represent the sexual aspect of a relationship, and that with Eros alone, a relationship will not last. In his summary of the reading, he uses the analogy of diving into a swimming pool. Eros is the diving, but if they cannot swim, there will be no chance for the relationship to last. Instead, they must get out of the pool and try to dive into another one. Because of this, it is very important to work hard to keep love alive. Lewis uses an illustration that I really like, of a garden as a picture of a couple who are in love. The garden is beautiful - beautiful to look at, incredible to smell, but in order to keep it like that it takes a lot of work to keep out the weeds that could very quickly destroy the entire garden. "[A] garden to say that it will not fence and weed itself, nor prune its own fruit trees, nor roll and cut its own lawns. A garden is a good thing but that is not the sort of goodness it has. It will remain a garden, as distinct from a wilderness, only if someone does all these things to it. Its real glory is of quite a different kind. The very fact that it needs constant weeding and pruning bears witness to that glory. It teems with life. It glows with colour and smells like heaven and puts forward at every hour of a summer day beauties which man could never have created and could not even, on his own resources, have imagined". This is the stunningly beautiful and divine garden which Lewis talks about. Love, and all of it's components are unexplainably magnificent if tended to and treated in the right way, with care.

One of these components of a Christian relationship or marriage that I want to talk a little about is the idea of the wife being submissive. The word "submissive" is something I think we need to be very very careful with - even as Christians, but also with unbelievers. I noticed that, even in class yesterday when submission was mentioned, everyone started to laugh. Why was this so funny? To me, it's a serious thing that should be treated with very careful attention because it is something that can very easily be abused if you do not follow exactly what the word means. Before even mentioning that the wife should submit, I think we should establish the job of the husband first. In Ephesians 5 it commands "Husbands [to] love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy...[i]n the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself". Now this is a big statement. Love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her? It is only after this is in place that a wife can submit to her husband. Also, note that this does not mean that a husband has the right to make every decision in the family, for how can that be love? Love is working together and collaborating in order to make a decision. I see it as a leadership role for the husband, and not a dictatorship role. Lewis even specifically points out that "[i]t is submitted rather than asserted", showing that there is nothing that is 'forced', but everything is out of pure love. This is something that can only be explained to a certain extent because even near the end of the chapter in Ephesians it says that "this is a profound mystery". Indeed, it is a mystery and the relationship between a man and wife is best explained by seeing the evidence, seeing it is action.

I feel that part of the reason for a lot of male dominance in our society is due to that simple word 'submit'. It has been abused far too much and has been accepted as a whole different meaning from what God intended it to be. This is why I think it is not something to joke about, but rather something to be cautiously addressed, with careful attention being payed to the true meaning. When this is accomplished, only then will it help the garden of love to flourish.

"Redemption"

Redemption is made possible because of our loving, gracious God - and that is what this chapter is all about. We caused this world to fall, and without Jesus' death on the cross, there would be no use of trying to restore it. "Jesus Christ came to put right what we human beings had put wrong by our sin". This is what is meant by the word atonement that Plantinga also uses; atonement is "a self-sacrificial act or process that makes up for sin, either ours or another's and therefore tends to reconcile the sinner with the one sinned against". This is the beauty of God that we do not appreciate as often as we should. Not only did Jesus die for us, but he endured everything that us as sinners go through. "He got himself baptized...He absorbed accusations...He accepted rebuke...He endured gossip...Jesus endured the kind of mockery that shreds a person's dignity". Even after knowing this, we still "chafe under commandments. They nick our pride and cramp our style". We need to remember that God did not set these commandments to make our lives miserable, but rather to protect us. He is basically giving us the key to success, and warning us what not to do so that we can avoid getting hurt and getting into trouble; after all, "God's commandments are all pro-life". It is by following the 'advice' that he has given us that we will not only succeed, but work to redeem our fallen world.

As a Christian, to redeem this world, I think that first of all a "person needs to attach to Christ by prayer...and listening to the Word of God. A person needs to trust Christ, to lean on him, to surrender to him". This is the hardest part, to overcome your inner pride of wanting to do things on your own and trusting the only hope that our world has. After this, everything else will fall into place, including "a double grace" - the sanctification and justification. These are both things that are life-long processes, but it all contributes to the restoration of our world. Without this, without surrendering to God, "without the guidance of God "doing what we want" is a recipe for falling right back into slavery", the slavery to sin that is. Pride, I believe is the biggest wall, the largest barrier between us and God. Pride, especially for me is what makes me want to do things my own way, and pride is what holds me back from engaging in redemptive activities that God would want me to participate in, simply because I think 'I'm better than that'. Stepping beyond that, climbing over that barrier is what leads to flourishing relationships, keeping in touch with family members I would rather ignore, praying to God when I don't feel like it, listening to boring people, driving patiently among impatient drivers, and longing to grow in the knowledge of Christ - to name as few that Plantinga also notes. It is when this happens that we begin to see redemption in our world - in all areas.

It is so vital to redeem ourselves in Christ so that we can be transformed and fulfill our purpose of doing the same for the world. To help us along the way, we have the ten commandments, a double grace, and God - if we can swallow our pride and accept that he is our creator, our King, the Messiah. "The whole world belongs to God, the whole world has fallen, and so the whole world needs to be redeemed". God became a man, endured unbearable, agonizing pain and died for us, now it's time for us to do our part.