Jordan Peterson now seems to be saying that he believes in God, so, in celebration of that arrival, I will share the notes I took one of his short video clips concerning his religious ponderings. My notes will be on a 10.25-minute clip dated 12/22/20021, and it is entitled: "People Have Forgotten This Truth About God."
I will quote Jordan for a paragraph or so and then I will respond to what he presented.
Jordan (J): "Jordan is often asked if he believed in God. He does not like that question. But have complained at him a lot for being evasive."
My response: One's relationship with God, or the lack thereof is very private and personal, and no one has the right to intrude into such an intimate subject. Now, with Peterson being a public intellectual constantly referring to metaphysical topics, including mythological, it is understandable that he will be approached about his belief in the divinity.
I do not like proselytizers or evangelicals witnessing about their relationship with God. Go ahead and worship the deity that you worship but keep it to yourself.
Has Jordan been evasive? Perhaps, because he liked being the physicalist the scientist on the fact side, while being the secular existentialist exploring Junginan mythology on the other side, the value side, without being pinned down to either side. A professed belief in God would seem to limit him to the values side of the argument, but many famous early Enlightenment thinkers, including John Locke, believed in God.
J: There are three hypothetical answers to these questions.
1. It is none of your damn business.
2. What do you mean by believing? Like do you means the words you just uttered: I believe in God. Is what you believe what you say or what you act out?
My response: Belief in God is what you say and how you act it out in the world. We do need publicly to announce upon occasion that we believe in God and speak up to defend God and the children of light under attack in the world. But we do not need to wear it on our sleeves and become preachy, pious, smug, and hypocritical about it.
Jordan is making the point that unless a person is a great soul, living very, very authentically, in almost pure communion with God, the truth, living a most high-end ethical life, then one does not really believe in God.
He has a point. Perhaps Soren Kierkegaard with his emphasis of Christians living the aesthetic life, the ethical life and finally the religious life as a believer in God, comes close to what Jordan is admonishing superficial believers for.
I think we need to cut people some slack. Just as there are levels of consciousness, each level of consciousness will enjoy a deeper, richer, more meaningful relationship with God, but this does not mean that churchgoers enmasse, everyday, average worshipers, do not believe in God. They do but they need to grow in their faith.
Jordan is correct that God is love, or pure or near pure ethical goodness, so that if one is not acting out almost pure love in one's actions, one is not very good, and one does not much or at all believe in God. His standard for goodness in conduct or faithful belief are very high, and he loves truth, so he does not take it easy on himself or anyone else.
If I may digress for a second, perhaps I can help clarify Jordan's stance on belief. I have long suspected that humans in their basic, natural, unenlightened state as nonindividuators and group-livers, do not much wield the free will potential that they have. They are naturally more determined (Their will is not free, more determined by Satan, nature, and nurture than by their own free agency choices, well-reasoned and well understood.) By self-realizing, each of the automatons, like Pinocchio, come to life and as they self-realize, their consciousness grows, and they wills become more rational and free, and they then have enough knowledge to know how to be well and live well, so ordinarily they choose good over and evil, and that good-living becomes habitual, and their state of grace and virtue almost makes their will good as well as free. People that are asleep and nasty are not much to be blamed because they are evil, but they do not know what they do. It is important to not be too hard on them, and help them gently, voluntarily to wake up over time
If we apply this analogy to Jordan's disgust with superficial cafeteria Christians, it becomes obvious that they are less inferior quality of believers, then they have not had enough exposure on how to live and how to worship God. As individualists, individuating and group-living, they will come much closer to being so ethically pure that they match loving God, so good and ethical. Jordan is correct that believing in God and acting out that faith in the world do track together.
J: "Is what you believe what you say or what you act out? It is both but what you believe is what you act out not what you say. In an integrated person, what you say and act are one. I integrated, your word can be trusted because what you say and what you do is isomorphic. Belief is instantiated in action. Jordan says: 'I act as if I believe in God or to the best of my ability, and people do not like that answer.'"
My response: Jordan is wise here: the believer must be an integrated person. The more ethical and loving the agent, the more he believes in God. The standard for genuine belief and must be matched by one behavior,
J: "3. I am afraid God might exist. You say you believe in God that there is a divine power that oversees everything that is fundamentally ethical, that is watching everything that you do. Are you all in, sacrificing all to this transcendent entity that you claim to believe in? Have you cleansed yourself of all your sins? To act out religious rituals or say that you believe in God is not enough. If you are not so good, not the best person that you can imagine on an ongoing basis, and then terrified of deviating from that path in a serious manner, if you sin and are not really good, you should not say you believe in God."
My response: Jordan's standard is very high but so is God's, but God is also merciful for we are not perfect after all, but, when we fall, and we all do, we should get back up and try harder to believe and practice our faith.
J: "Nietzsche was a friend to and a critic of Christianity. There is only one Christian and he died on the cross."
My response: Again, people are born half-beast and half-angel, so such provenance wickedness and cruelty are instilled powerfully in the human heart, and God knows, understands and forgives this, if we try and repent.
J: "You are called to act on that spark of divinity that is in you by confronting potential with the Logos that is within you. Take opportunities in front of you, the potential future and transform it into the present in the best possible way using truth and courage and careful articulation. That is the first thing that you are called to do.
My response: Peterson is so articulate and inspirational.
J: "Make proper sacrifices. The Cain and Able story is about getting sacrifices right. If you want something genuinely you want to set the world straight, and you let go of what is not necessary no matter what it is and then do what is necessary and then maybe your sacrifice to God will be accepted.
My response: Great point that how you conduct yourself is the real sacrifice to God, and Cain gave the obligatory, ritualistic sacrifice but not his heart, so God rejected his sacrifice because it was not meant.
J: "Bring your children to Go by imitation, by instruction, by love and by encouragement, let your kids know they are crucial beings in the world whose ethical decisions play an important role in shaping the structure of reality itself, and they have a moral responsibility to do that."
My response: Jordan reminds adults and parents that to believe and be good is crucial but so is raising up the next generation properly.
J: "Get your ark built so when the storms come your family will be safe and survive, and you can escape from tyranny because you are wise enough to see it. Take full being onto yourself and all the suffering that goes with it. You commit yourself voluntarily and confront malevolence in you, the state and in the world. You make a garden around you, a walled space so nature and society can live in harmony."
My response: Lovely metaphors. By taking full being onto yourself, you maverize as an ethical being as well as growing in talent, knowledge, power and skill. All of this should be in service to God and to expand God's kingdom in the world.
J: "Christ is quoted as noting that no one is good but God--not all those that say Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. If you say that you believe in God, you can't make a higher moral claim than that."
My response: If the key to entering heaven is being or becoming perfect, almost no human can stack up. God is moderate, just, and merciful: De says the bar high, but shows consideration too.
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