Posted on 05/29/2019 12:37:41 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
May 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Speaking with one of the best-known conservative Jews, Dennis Prager, at the PragerU summit last week, world-famous psychologist Jordan Peterson spoke of God and his views of faith. After speaking about his dislike for the question ‘Do you believe in God?’ Peterson said, “I think that Catholicism — that's as sane as people can get.”
Peterson has often been asked about his faith, if he believes in God, and he said the question has always troubled him. He promised a podcast on the matter since he has given his dislike for the question much thought.
He explained, “Who would have the audacity to claim that they believed in God if they examined the way they lived? Who would dare say that?”
“To believe, in a Christian sense,” he added, “means that you live it out fully and that's an that's an unbearable task in some sense.”
Then in one long drawn-out, rapid-fire thought, the type that has enthralled his millions of fans, he laid out extemporaneously the vision of a believer in God:
“To be able to accept the structure of existence, the suffering that goes along with it and the disappointment and the betrayal, and to nonetheless act properly; to aim at the good with all your heart; to dispense with the malevolence and your desire for destruction and revenge and all of that; and to face things courageously and to tell the truth to speak the truth and to act it out, that's what it means to believe -- that's what it means -- it doesn't mean to state it, it means to act it out. And, unless you act it out you should be very careful about claiming it. And so, I've never been comfortable saying anything other than I try to act as if God exists because God only knows what you'd be if you truly believed.”
See the full exchange of Peterson and Prager here.
Well, he’s not a Christian, for he doesn’t claim to be. He also exposes ignorance of the gospel message as well as the message of acts and the Epistles. He’s impressive when he understands the subject at hand, though.
almost Kierkegaardian in that statement....and there’s much merit to be found in that line of reasoning
Okay, I'll discuss. Would you have posted this if Jordan Peterson had said that Shintoism is "as sane as people can get?" And does it really matter what Jordan Peterson thinks?
Poor boy doesn’t understand the Gospel. Perhaps he should try reading it sometime.
As a Christian I absolutely LOVE the question. Just saying he hates the question tells me a lot about him.
and to act it out, that’s what it means to believe — that’s what it means — it doesn’t mean to state it, it means to act it out.
= = =
He is almost saying faith without works is dead.
But he emphasizes works. And they will say Lord, Lord, we did ... so and so in your name ...
Meanwhile, I am tickled that he talks about God and the Bible, which to me, is evidence that they are real and powerful. Else why would the world’s smartest man even consider them, much less discuss them?
He and Leonard Cohen and Charles Krauthammer went to the same University... and all of them came away with insights that are one off from the world... but ‘one off’ in a wonderful way...
I like what he is essentially saying. Saying what you believe is meaningless compared to living what you believe. I can get behind that.
His opinion about spiritual things is as valid as anyone else’s.
And I’m sure there are a lot who would disagree.
So who’s right?
The man is not, as far as he's ever said, a believer. What he claims to admire, here, "Catholicism," is quite a fantastically detailed and mammoth 2,000 year old "thing" which has a lot of concrete "thinginess" about it --- by which I mean, it is not something easily conformable to anyone's transient picks and preferences. It has its own definite content and character.
It's not easy to redefine, slip out of, or mold to preference. It's not particularly pliable.
It's not like, say, Buddhism, which is almost as old but not nearly as refractory.
As the subtle old joke has it,
"Christianity and Buddhism are a lot alike. Especially Buddhism."
His humility, for one.
The current pope is on a steep learning curve.
He doesn’t practice Gods teaching of let your “yes be yes” and “no be no”. A Christian would answer YES to the question of believing in God.
What we see here, I think, is -- like Israel --- one of those who wrestles with God.
He's a work in progress.
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father but through me." - Jesus.
Jesus is right!! Jesus is a stumbling block to works oriented people like Peterson.
Very nice. Undoubtedly, he’s attracted to Catholicism’s intellectual and scientific tradition.
Who’s right?
If there is a creator who is omniscient and omnipotent and love and that creator gave his creatures freedom and those creatures abused it and then the creator came down to be a creature and show them how to live and die starting with the Old Testament and gave his friends a mandate to love as he loved and gave them a New Testament to fulfill the Old and a church with power to teach infallibly and a promise that that Church would last until the end of time sounds like the Catholic Church to me and Peterson is right. They cannot all or both be right.
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