@6:31
"I'm not an atheist anymore, because I don't look at the world that way anymore. I'm not a materialist anymore. I don't think the world is made out of matter, it is made out of what matters. It's made out of meaning." - JP
"I was once asked how I would define God. My God is the spirit that is trying to elevate Being. My God is the spirit that makes everything come together. My God is the spirit that makes order out of chaos and then recasts order when it becomes too limiting. My God is the spirit of truth incarnate. None of that is supernatural. It is instead what is most real."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvM7KKxxQV8&ab_channel=AkiraTheDon
Akira The Don. Jordan Peterson | THAT'S GOD! | 🦞🌊 Meaningwave | MV. YouTube, 26 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvM7KKxxQV8.
"So there's a line in the New Testament where Christ says that no one comes to the Father except through him. Which is a hell of a thing for anyone to say. I am the way and the truth and the life. That's another one. Here's the idea. Its as if there's a spirit at the bottom of things that is involved in bringing to being of everything. People talk about evolution as a random process, but that's not true. The mutations are random, but the selection mechanisms are not random. What are the selection mechanisms? Human females are very sexually selective. That's why you have twice as many female ancestors as male ancestors. So the male failure rate for reproduction is twice that of the female. How is it that males succeed differentially? Females reject. They reject on the basis of what? Well its something like competence. How is competence defined? Well men put themselves in hierarchies and they vote on each other's competence. Let's say you follow the best leader into battle. Then you don't die. Like, he might get all the women, but you don't die. So at least your still in the game. And it might be the same if you're following the greatest hunter. And the greatest hunter wouldn't be the person who was the best at bringing down game, it would be the person who was best at bringing down game, and sharing it, and organizing the next hunt, and all of that. What that means to some degree is that there's a spirit of masculinity shaping the entire structure of human evolutionary history. That's what that means. Its the spirit of positive masculinity that manifests itself across epochal ages - millions of years perhaps. And it actually has shaped our consciousness - actually! Its like the essential spirit of all the great men who defined what greatness constituted - that's a spirit. Well that's a purely biological explanation. That's God. God is the highest value in the hierarchy of values. That's God. God is how we imaginatively and collectively represent the existence and action of consciousness across time. That's God. God is that which selects among men in the eternal hierarchy of men. That's God. God is that which eternally dies and is reborn in the pursuit of higher being and truth. But there's another possibility too which is that that's actually reflective of a deeper metaphysical reality that has to do with the nature of consciousness itself. I think that's true. I believe the biological case and I believe the biologically reductive case. But I don't think that exhausts it. There's a metaphysical layer underneath that that the biology is a genuine reflection of. And that's the macrocosm above and the microcosm below. We are really reflective, including in our consciousness, of something about the structure of reality itself. And that might involve whatever it is that God is. Well that's God. God is the future to which we make sacrifices. That's God. God is the voice of conscience. That's God. God is the source of judgement and mercy and guilt. That's God. God is what calls and what responds in the eternal call to adventure. That's God. "
GOD -
God is the highest value in the hierarchy of values.
God is how we imaginatively and collectively represent the existence and action of consciousness across time.
God is that which selects among men in the eternal hierarchy of men.
God is that which eternally dies and is reborn in the pursuit of higher being and truth.
God is the future to which we make sacrifices.
God is the voice of conscience.
God is the source of judgement and mercy and guilt.
God is what calls and what responds in the eternal call to adventure.
God is the spirit that is trying to elevate Being.
God is the spirit that makes everything come together.
God is the spirit that makes order out of chaos and then recasts order when it becomes too limiting.
God is the spirit of truth incarnate.
"I believe the biological case and I believe the biologically reductive case. But I don't think that exhausts it. There's a metaphysical layer underneath that that the biology is a genuine reflection of. And that's the macrocosm above and the microcosm below." - JP
He seems to believe that there is a metaphysical (magical) reality of God. He thinks that the naturalistic biological evolution of values that form into a metaphorical fictional God is a reflection of a deeper reality of a true and real God.
1:13:00
Matt - Why is atheism wrong?
JP - Because we can extract order out of chaos (God's magical power).
JP - And because materialistic determinism is wrong.
1:15:40
Matt - What is the reason to think God exists?
JP - Because conscience exists (the magical voice telling you to not sin)
1:16:09
JP - "I think the evolutionary biology and the religious dovetail perfectly well God is the deepest instinct."
Matt - "[Some people think] the idea of a sugar daddy God giving me a theme park if I don't masturbate is bullshit"
JP - "Well it is and it isn't - its a concretized representation" [as opposed to a decentralized magical force]
JP:
God is a representation of the highest spirit. Admirable men are reflecting God.
God is the call to adventure.
God is conscience.
Matt - "Well, couldn't you say that none of this is real, but the stories help me be a better person?"
JP - "No, [because] you can't commit to that" [as in, doubting God's reality fails to provide enough motivation for commitment to the path]
1:20:00
JP - "[You might say that the forces motivating you to the highest spirit, i.e. conscience] are not transcendentally real, but why NOT?" [JP admits that some evolutionary instincts can be motivating us in a good direction. JP rejects that evolution is based on materialistic determinism. Therefore JP injects some magic into evolution. There is a divine force guiding evolution towards goodness, and that divine force is very plausibly transcendentally real, as it the most axiomatically real - the most primordially real, the most foundationally real.]
Matt -"Do you believe in life after death?"
JP - "Your actions echo in eternity."
1:53:00
"Highest form of faith is the spirit of the bible stories" - Bible has many patterns of spirit moving through the world - [like an ethereal force guiding the fate of mankind]
1:51:00
story of Adam and Eve the spirit that punishes presumption and pride okay how about in the
story of Cain and Abel the spirit that rejects unworthy sacrifices right
then in the flood mhm the spirit that is hell breaking loose when you've gone looking for trouble right
then the Tower of Babel the spirit that brings the presumptuous technologically obsessed Tyrant to his knees right
then in Abraham Spirit of Adventure
and in Moses the burning bush
and the force that enables the worthy to free to stand up against tyranny and to free the slaves from their chains.
That's God all of that - do you believe in that?
[i.e. all of the magic forces guiding evolution and history towards heaven]
1:53:00
God is the spirit [force] that guides you forwards and upwards.
TRANSCENDENT PHILOSOPHY:
This is how I would frame Jordan Peterson's faith.
"Dragons - they are myths, sure. They are not real. They are a metaphor for chaos. But chaos is real. In fact, chaos is more real than real. Chaos is the most fundamental thing in reality. In fact, when you look into the abyss, the ultimate chaos stares back at you. That's Satan. So, no I don't believe in dragons, but I do believe in an ultimate chaos, which is Satan. See, the metaphor of the dragon is pointing to a deeper metaphysical reality that the dragon is a reflection of - that deeper metaphysical reality is what I believe in."
Flip this analogy upside-down, and you have Jordan Peterson's perspective on God.
The "dragon" is to "Satan" as "mythological gods" are to "God".
"Mythological gods - they are myths, sure. They are not real. They are a metaphor for order. But order is real. In fact, order is more real than real. Order is the most fundamental thing in reality. In fact, when you look into the heavens, the ultimate order stares back at you. That's God. So, no I don't believe in mythological gods, but I do believe in an ultimate order, which is God. See, the metaphor of the mythological gods is pointing to a deeper metaphysical reality that the mythological gods are a reflection of - that deeper metaphysical reality is what I believe in."
But of course, when J.P. talks about Satan and God, he is not talking about mere naturalistic interpretations of order and chaos. He actually thinks of them as conflicting magical forces in the universe that have agendas and are fighting to pull reality in different directions, whether towards heaven or hell. In his debate with Destiny, JP admits that he thinks Satanic forces are at the bottom of all of leftism - inspiring them to hate humanity (we are a virus, too many of us, reduce population [said with a Satanic evil smile]), inspiring leftists to sabotage family, reproduction and sexuality with LGBT issues, and inspiring leftist scientists to falsify Global Warming data so that they can have an excuse to raise prices, snuff out the poor, and force the world to submit to their global order. Jordan's metaphysics is anything but naturalistic. He fears there are actual malicious motivations hiding in half the people around him as animated by a fundamental Satanic spirit - something like a malicious omnipresent omniscient force that can scheme, manipulate, and infect minds. God is just as magical, with just the opposite valence of effect on the world.
Jordan's most direct confession of supernatural belief:
Daily Wire theists pushing Jordan Peterson into admitting belief in the supernatural (macrocosm above [supernatutal] and microcosm below [natural]):