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Biblical Series with Jordan B Peterson

Started by Cramulus, August 15, 2017, 07:55:19 PM

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Cramulus

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God

This a lecture series we've been batting around in #discord over the last day or two. It's not a straight info-dump so much as Peterson trying to work through some of his ideas in a public forum. So it rambles and digresses and circles around what he's aiming to say.

I'm not familiar with J. Peterson at all - I understand that he's a controversial figure in some circles, and there are a couple of places in this lecture where I want to throw fruit at him. But for the most part, I really enjoyed this lecture. Anybody who can quote the bible and homer simpson and give both some weight is a good orator.

Here are a few of the topics from this lecture:

  • Why Nietzsche was right about Christianity destroying itself
  • The unconscious (in the Freudian sense - the stuff we carry inside of us which has a big impact on our behavior despite us not being aware of it) and how it's the space where myths take place
  • the origin of philosophical or moral ideals and how they move from concrete behaviors to symbolic abstractions
  • The underlying psychological forces which inform biblical mythology, law, and concepts like sovereignty..
  • and how those forces may also be what the ancient Greeks and Israelites meant by "God"


I thought you cats might dig some of this stuff - at the very least, it's thought provoking

rong

I thought his interview on the Joe Rogan Experience was fascinating.  I took him to be a sort of evolutionary psychologist and is perspective on many "archaic" ideas being passed on from pre-human times very interesting to ponder (i.e. snakes representing evil goes all the way back to tree dwelling monkey times)
"a real smart feller, he felt smart"

Cramulus

ugh, evo psych gives me hives, & I just discovered his clashes with "the SJWs"....  ughhhh I think I'll stick to his religious studies stuff.

rong

Quote from: Cramulus on August 15, 2017, 09:30:05 PM
ugh, evo psych gives me hives . . .

oh?  it was my first and only exposure to it - i didn't really even know it was a thing
"a real smart feller, he felt smart"

Cramulus

let me put it this way - evo psych is the domain of "just so" stories... It's not evidence based. You don't collect data and then come up with a theory to organize it. A lot of evo psych starts with a premise, like, men are naturally promiscuous and women are naturally monogamous, and then tries to concoct a reductive explanation for why this behavior is informed by natural selection. A lot of evo psych isn't falsifiable. And it's one of these things that typically gets thrown around in defense of some repugnant ideas.

I might have to watch the Joe Rogan podcast... idk, I try to limit my intake of talks about "The SJWs" these days, as a bloodpressure precaution.


It really throws me when somebody can speak so eloquently and deeply about one topic and then be a shithead in other dimensions.

rong

I see where you are coming from with the "just so" stories comparison - i didn't think of it in that context.  I was more fascinated with the connection he made between some dots that i never thought to even try connect.

I'm not sure you will like the Joe Rogan interview as it does, if i recall, delve into quite a bit of left vs right discussion. . .
"a real smart feller, he felt smart"

Bu🤠ns

Quote from: rong on August 16, 2017, 12:40:50 AM
I see where you are coming from with the "just so" stories comparison - i didn't think of it in that context.  I was more fascinated with the connection he made between some dots that i never thought to even try connect.

I'm not sure you will like the Joe Rogan interview as it does, if i recall, delve into quite a bit of left vs right discussion. . .


I heard it, I can say it's not /entirely/ that, but you're better off sticking with the lectures. I feel like he's overly cerebral in that same way that sam harris is--you know, that ignoring the social implications of what he says kinda thing and also something about staying in one's own lane. But, the flip-side, he does really dig deep on a biblical interpretation i haven't really considered before.

rong

i get a kick out of the canadian accent, too
"a real smart feller, he felt smart"

Bu🤠ns

Quote from: rong on August 16, 2017, 01:36:04 PM
i get a kick out of the canadian accent, too

:lol: to my ear, he keeps morphing from Crispin Glover to Kermit the Frog

hooplala

Quote from: Bu☆ns on August 16, 2017, 03:45:16 PM
Quote from: rong on August 16, 2017, 01:36:04 PM
i get a kick out of the canadian accent, too

:lol: to my ear, he keeps morphing from Crispin Glover to Kermit the Frog

That's how we all sound.
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

The Wizard Joseph

I'm about half an hour into the first lecture. I like how painstakingly honest he is about what is unknown and that he understands the oversimplification epidemic in academia and elsewhere. Going to take the whole 6 hours of stuff one bite at a time, but this seems darn well worth it.
You can't get out backward.  You have to go forward to go back.. better press on! - Willie Wonka, PBUH

Life can be seen as a game with no reset button, no extra lives, and if the power goes out there is no restarting.  If that's all you see life as you are not long for this world, and never will get it.

"Ayn Rand never swung a hammer in her life and had serious dominance issues" - The Fountainhead

"World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation."
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality :lulz:

"You program the controller to do the thing, only it doesn't do the thing.  It does something else entirely, or nothing at all.  It's like voting."
- Billy, Aug 21st, 2019

"It's not even chaos anymore. It's BANAL."
- Doktor Hamish Howl

MMIX

Wow. That's 2 hrs 40ish minutes I won't get back again; eeeugh, creepy and aggressive.
"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently" David Graeber

Cramulus

ah, I long for the naievity of this time last year

Cain

You mean you don't want to know about lobster hierarchies? Aren't you at least interested in slaying the Dragon of Chaos?  Will you not even consider washing your penis?

rong

"a real smart feller, he felt smart"