Intellectual Humility
by an Old Disciple
“For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?~ 1 Cor. 4:7
To me, the only thing more embarrassing than an ignorant person attempting to sit in the seat of the learned is an intellectual peacock flaunting his or her mental superiority. The former has somewhat of an excuse for such ill-mannered behavior, but for the latter there is no justification.
For example, C.S. Lewis is considered to be one of 20th Century’s great intellects. I personally have been moved time and again by his intellectual humility. He never comes across as superior or belonging to a close knit society of elites. He brings pearls up from the depths to show to us who do not have the advantage of possessing diving suits.
As an illustration of intellectual simplicity, honesty, and humility, allow me to quote one of Lewis’s excerpts on the subject of “Doubt.”
I think the trouble with me is lack of faith. I have no rational ground for going back on the arguments that convince me of God’s existence: but the irrational dead weight of my old skeptical habits, and the spirit of this age, and the cares of the day, steal away all my lively feeling of the truth, and often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address. Mind you, I don’t think so—the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so. However, there is nothing to do but peg away. One falls so often that it hardly seems worth while picking oneself up and going through the farce of starting over again as if you could ever hope to walk. Still, this seeming absurdity is the only sensible thing I do, so I must continue it.
I am thankful as an amateur writer I adopted him as my mentor!
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Such a wise man, C.S. Lewis. That says it all. Thank you.