This is the beginning of a 2-part series (within each part there will be separate for/against threads). Here are the topics:
I’m hopelessly addicted to Jordan Peterson’s lectures. What follows is a distillation of some of the ideas that I’m hearing from him, and I can in no way take credit for any of these ideas. My way of processing information is to listen, take notes, and internalize the content. My goal is to be able to intelligently summarize these ideas for other people in conversation. Continue reading “Lectures on Personality by Jordan Peterson—#2 Mythological Representations”
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth.
A friend of mine is a big fan of C.S. Lewis, and I asked for a recommendation for which one to read first. “Mere Christianity” was the response. So, like most books of this nature I like to take notes so that I can internalize the content better. Also like most books that I read, I may or may not finish it, but I’ll get as far as I can! Continue reading “Mere Christianity”
Smash every idea with as much intellectual strength as you can muster.
Jordan Peterson has been taking the internet by storm lately. Yes, he has had a long career as a professor and he’s spent a lot of time reading, thinking and developing his ideas, but it just seems like only lately he’s inserted himself into the limelight, and the internet is just EATING HIM UP–myself included. I find myself utter fascinated by his insights, but they’re so new and far from my usual thoughts, that I find it hard to internalize and summarize his ideas when telling other people about them. Continue reading “Strengthen the Individual”
“It’s not an easy thing to live in a truthful manner, but the alternative is hell.” —Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson, author of “Maps of Meaning“, likes to retell old stories. It seems that the overarching objective of many of his interviews and lectures is to provide modern people with a more robust interpretation and deeper understanding of these stories so that they can be practically applied to each person’s life rather than dismissed as “silly” or “irrelevant”. In a sense, he is trying to draw out a map for people to navigate their “being” in the world.
Continue reading “Truths & Symbolism in Judaism & Christianity”
Trump is the new Hitler.
Every once in a while I’ll be listening to a podcast or reading an article, and someone will say something outrageous—or not even outrageous, but rather just a simple claim that I want to fact check for myself. The unfortunate thing is, I don’t have a lot of time to really run these down, but I figure I’ll list them here and maybe someday I’ll get back to them.
“Tell a lie long enough, loud enough, and big enough, people will believe it.” —Kent Hovind on Evolution
I started to work my way through Kent Hovind’s Creationism Seminar. I had heard them all before when I was Christian, and they were very influential in providing me the “evidence” I needed to believe in Creationism. I’m listening to them again with my new perspective, and as I go, I’ll jot down my thoughts right here. Continue reading “Creationism”
Be better at having discussions with people that have ideas different from your own.
I’ve made the plunge and I purchased the Atheos app. I highly recommend you do so as well if you are a lover of knowledge and would like to be better at having discussions with people that have ideas that differ from your own. While the app mostly applies to having discussions about religion, I’ve found myself using the method for navigating political/social issues too. In summary, here are the themes, or “10 commandments” of Epistemology. Continue reading “The 10 Commandments of Epistemology”
We only cook and eat babies on special occasions.
Nearly every atheist blogger probably has a list like this, so if you’re looking for original content on the subject, move along. I created my own list in order to help me to internalize some of the potential concerns or responses people have to atheism, along with my own replies to each. As I’ve done in past articles like “The Perks of Atheism“, I polled my Facebook group for some potential replies. Continue reading “Misconceptions About Atheism”
— Jordan Peterson
I just listened to a really wonderful podcast conversation between Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson. I really liked Peterson’s metaphor for how ideologies are like low-resolution ideas, and this concept made an impression on me because of my background in graphic design. More importantly, it gave me a better understanding of what I’m attempting to do in this blog, which is to take a broad brush, paint some quick strokes, and then start filling in the details as best I can in order to make a high-resolution picture of an issue. Continue reading ““Ideologies are Low-Resolution Representations””
