I am well aware that you brought JBP to the table. Or that I, at least, was made aware of him by you. I've watched dozens of clips since then, most often enjoying them, and do appreciate your introduction.
It's almost a bit like gossiping were I to pick him apart, but since I believe this was made (that clip) with his assent to publication, I believe he's kind of assented also to criticism of a sort.
I am just at the beginning of it, but by :59 I see a faltering. "I can't answer that". With subsequent "It depends upon what you mean by Jesus"...
Never mind. There's already too much on the table less than two minutes in. But thanks.
This is what some guy was moved to write in the AM yesterday regarding the resurrection prior to seeing your post this morning.
https://israelx7wordpresscom.wordpress.com/
Not really meant to be (at least by me). And there's a host of other things said by JBP ripe for discussion. Nevertheless, I do find it interesting...for everything hinges upon the resurrection...but as said...it's not merely an event, but a person.It's a sign.
Not really meant to be (at least by me). And there's a host of other things said by JBP ripe for discussion. Nevertheless, I do find it interesting...for everything hinges upon the resurrection...but as said...it's not merely an event, but a person.
Listening to Peterson shows me that a person fully committed to science and logic can make use of ancient mythology in a very meaningful way without having to believe in preposterous things. But he fails miserably when he says that he doesn't know what a person is capable of if they manage to find the right mix of dying and living. He doesn't seem to be implying that it would come from a technological advancement but from a spiritual exercise. If he thinks that this might allow for a resurrection he might as well say that people might be able to fly or shoot laser beams of of their eyes as well.
Rising from the dead, yes. Laser beams from the eyes, no. Why?
I've watched the vid a few more times and still retain a sympathy for JBP's trying to wend his way through. He has the problem a lot of really smart people have whose smartness has, to a great extent, informed their apparently successful status.
And let's face it, he has made a living being smart, and now from what I understand is seen (by some) as cashing in on that with his popularity. He's really sought after.
And that's fine. What others may say as to his cashing in means nothing to me per se, but I think both of us (as thus far we are the only two in discussion) are neither unaware, and perhaps, not willing to easily dismiss matters of conditioning and their consequences. It's hard to kill a goose laying golden eggs.
Well, maybe...only maybe.
Wealth (or that form of success), popularity, being sought for opinion (that often goes hand and hand with the previous) seem sweet consequences. How that may condition us toward and against certain other things, may not be easily discerned.
Who really wants to be seen ignorant...and therefore ignorable?
How this may all factor in I am not willing to commit to any condemnation of his position expressed in his words. And, I don't think he is unaware of it completely. I am more inclined to believe there's a lot more going on "inside him" than he can adequately express in word. It looks like he makes that pretty plain.
He's struggling.
It's interesting though, isn't it? To watch conflict. I don't think you're a guy who much goes for MMA and cage matches, but we may all have our indulgence in it. Conflict. What will win? What will show itself superior, that guy with the longer reach and quick feet...that idea...that character in a movie? So many seeming arenas for its display. And hook to hook us.
Everyone it seems "likes a good fight". Likewise, I don't think we much care for rigged ones, unfair ones (as they may appear to us)...where the heavyweight steps in to the ring with the feather weight (unless the feather weight may have a trick up his sleeve...in which case that becomes very, very sweet!).
If I could speak to JBP it would be this.
You have said truth is important, and to such an extent that you have highly recommended exercise in it. "Speak your truth", and let the chips fall where they may. Don't lie. Stop lying. Lying creates a dissonance in ones being. Let your truth out there (so to speak) for buffeting, for conflict, for contradiction...and BEAR it! Find out what happens when you speak (as best you can find words) in accord with what is true to you of your being. Stop...lying. (I don't think I have miss-characterized his expression) One can even do this around an Easter dinner table.
Besides which, I heartily endorse it. Find out who you are...when you stop lying.
The final arena of this should, and will, always lead to ones self. We speak "into the world" to discover we are speaking to, and for, ourself. ("I try to explain what I think about that" he says...standing for six hours giving biblical lectures) And I am persuaded that in "trying to explain" he's working things out in himself.
For "to ourself" is where we discover the most precious of lies is told. Sure, we may try to grease the world's wheels with whatever characterization of our self seems to appear most beneficial...but when we discover how many wheels within wheels are within us, we discover something quite apart. That grease is not as easily admitted to or (perhaps) even seen at the first.
So, I would ask him. "Is some wheel being greased to say you are a christian, but not convinced the life in Jesus Christ has overcome death (in the resurrection of his body) by His manifest presence to you...as being alive? How can one "be a christian" unconvinced Jesus Christ...is alive? (and that life being of such a sort as to you is both wondrous...and inexplicable) This is not even beginning to touch what Jesus said...about Himself. And what He would accomplish...and how.
Smart men encounter a problem when confronting what their smartness cannot explain. They will either submit their smartness is not as great (And O! how that wheel loves to be greased!) as they tell themselves, nor represent themselves to the world.
We can all start small. So small as described by Jesus (and can be seen, in Jesus)
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.
And finding that grace to shuck off all the lies we embrace to make ourselves "look big"...as we grow...we find ourselves...even smaller, still. Yes, God has a deep and abiding affection for his little ones. How small will a man allow to see this?
I tell you...it's worth every bit of losing what appears "large" to gain Who truly is. Yet willing...to be made...so very small. For our benefit.
He's struggling and he should. If one asserts the truth of a human resurrection from the dead one should struggle as mightily with that as the notion of a man flying or shooting laser beams from his eyes.
How precious is the lie that someone is at the helm, that he cares for me, that he has super powers and that he will let me live forever? How big would all that attention make someone feel. Big enough and important enough to fly a plane into a building or vote for a particular candidate with the faith of one who has received revelation? They're just humble servants after all.
He should struggle with the claim like "a rock fell up". What kind of people wouldn't struggle with such a claim? People of faith? The more I hear the story about "hitting my knees and in humility I found the strength" the more I think that the strength comes from the new found willingness to accept the irrational. "With God behind us, who can defeat us".
It's convenient to make all of one. Pilots and voters and Jesus Christ. Some plainly do not see nor hear His singularity. Or...find it safer to themselves...to deny it.
Why does the resurrection have to be literal but not all the other miracles? Why are some easier to let go of then the others? Is it the promise of everlasting life? Would thinking Jesus' resurrection as symbolic be like seeing Xerxes bleed?
God purposed man to know eternal life and forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ. Laser beams are not addressed. (That I know of)
But the Lord has made clear in so many ways...be careful in what regard you esteem one another; "see" one another...a jaundiced eye, full of malice...or in hope for one another. Wishing evil upon another, comes with its own stripes. And if, or when they are revealed as necessary...it is far better to submit to them...than lose one's soul.
It doesn't "have to be" anything but what it is.
And it's crucial. In the deepest root meaning of that word.
And there is much of stumbling about it, for it is more than an event, more than a "fact".
"I am the resurrection and the life..."
Jesus is the resurrection out from the dead.
Depends on what the definition of "is" is?
I think that's where Peterson is. What is the resurrection and the resurrected? Real? Myth? Archetype? Only one of those propositions seems ridiculous.
Depends on what the definition of "real" is. If the real is what is true, then anything coming out from what is not of the real...is not true.
This is what he approaches (I perceive) when he says those things about truth and greater truths than mere facts.
But yes, I believe the resurrection of the body is sufficient to all these, real, true, and fact. And that Jesus Himself is that..."out from the dead".
Of course some men may say "but how can you believe this?" To say it has much to do with an epiphany, a touch, an enlightenment, a revelation has (in the past, and at least to a certain moment) appeared as useless...to you.
And from what he says, JBP may occupy (at least in this video) a curious place of trying to "factor" in the resurrection by factoring in what he already believes to be true. "The universe is a strange place". Berlinski also noted this. Stuff is often shown to be not at all as it seems.
The reality of being, and consciousness...these things which are certainly perceived, even to the point of being grossly taken for granted...upon closer look suddenly become in some ways (though so easily assumed as foundational) quite mysterious. "How do I know...what I think I know"?
What is the way in which the "out there" comes into me to be made real to me in such a way...as I believe it real?" The a priori here is also worth a closer look. "Why do I even believe I am real (in such a way) that the real can be related to...within me?"
And yes...there is no barring the ready anecdote of the man, coming home early to what he believes is his loving wife, finding a lover escaping out the back window.
Yes, that man may well question..."how do I know (and may I ever know?) what is true?"
I could easily use myself as an example of certain things, but I know how tedious this can become. But...I cannot exclude this...the immediate and in a moment reality that has come, and by testimony come to many who are suddenly exposed to a light that both shows "I am not who I think I am" (and all my knowing is now forfeit) and therefore things are not at all the way I have previously...presumed. My reality detector is shown...defunct, by blinding light. In blinding light. And the light that shows my understandings completely corrupt...is the very light...that saves.
It can never "factor" for that. Men like to move from the know something...to the know...more.
What is needed is found here "Forgive them Father, they don't know..."
and the light in the darkness did shine, and the darkness did not perceive it.
Young's Literal
yes, the resurrection is blinding to what needs blinding to STOP. And no man knows just how much blinding he needs to one way...to see another. But, Jesus is. The way.