Clive's Depraved Depravity

Lewis says in the Problem with Pain on pg. 62 that he "disbelieves that doctrine, partly on the logical ground that if our depravity were total we should not know ourselves to be depraved, and partly because experience shows us much goodness in human nature."

Although, one may consider the grade I got in Logic depraved, let me see if I can map this out.

(1). The Doctrine of Human Depravity states (according to R.C. Sproul in Essential Truths of the Christian Faith pgs. 147-149 Tyndal Press) that the human race is under radical corruption.

(2). The ability to recognize depravity requires some sort of good or clear thinking.

(3.) Humans recognize depraved behavior

Therefore: Since humans can recognize their depravity, it must not be total in the core sense of the word.

I believe Lewis has a wrong understanding of this doctrine, and I wish to defend it and suggest a different take on it.

The go-to verse that Calvanists usually state in a situation like this (and I believe it's a right rebuttal) is Ephesians 2:1-2. This verse says "As for you, you were dead in your tansgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the sprit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." The key words are found in the phrase "dead in your transgressions." Is a dead man aware of his deadness? For the sake of this arguement let's rule out the afterlife. I would say he probably is not aware. Something must raise him, or at least infuse into him the consciousness required to understand his/her current state. What I think Paul is trying to point out with this analogy is that the human race, when left on its own, is morally and spiritually dead. However, we know that we are bad. How is it that non-believers can even recognize badness?
I think the answer to that question is also the answer to the reason why unreached tribes will be held accountable before God. The Doctrine of Common Grace. The Augsburg Conession says "the man's will hath some liberty to work a civil righteousness and to choose such things as reason can reach unto; but that it hath no power to work the righteousness of God." Which ties into Paul's judgement on the pagans in Romans 1:19-21 when he says "since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without exscuse. For altough they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Here is my "new" suggestion. Although, I recognize that I am not the first to suggest it. I suggest that humanity is, in a sense, utterly depraved. The difference between this idea and total depravity is that in total depravity, our sin touches every part of us, even to our core, but we are still not as bad as we could be. I suggest that we are as bad as we could be. The reason I say this is because, as humans we all have the capicity to sin in great and awful ways, and if we were left to the desicion without God interfering, we will always choose the sin.
If I have to choose between lusting and not lusting, I will always choose to lust.

But, the reason that I do good things is by the grace of God. If I ever choose not to lust, it is because God prevented me from lusting, not because I was aware of what I was doing. I believe this holds true for non-believers too. In John 3 Nocodemus says "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." The implications of this verse tell me that it is possible for non-believers to recognize the work of God. Why? Because God enlightened them. Why are we not in perpetual chaos? Because God set bounderies. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it. It is not because the darkness is aware of its own darkness. It is because the darkness is aware of the light.