Isn't "No but I act as if I believe" a dissociation?
Hi! You are always teaching us the importance of having your actions aligned with what you believe so that there is no dissociation between them. But when someone asks you if you believe in God you say "no but I act as if I believe". How is this different from a discontinuity between action and belief?
Rules framework
Hi Dr. Peterson, I find that as a young person myself, we’ve been misinformed by post-modernism in that there are no fundamental truths. This has been quite disorienting as it becomes difficult to pick a target to aim at. How important do you think it is, that young people develop a fundamental framework to guide themselves before picking a goal such as career, status etc.
How can I recognize and avoid ideological (or idolotrous) thought in myself?
Hello Dr. Peterson, In your talk with Steven Pinker and Jonathan Haidt, you talked about the "God-shaped hole" that we have as humans, and how dangerous it is when we try to fill that with something other than the ultimate good, and claimed that this is what's happening with the heightened intensity and polarization of the political discussion. This strikes me as profound and important, and resonates with secular Jewish sermons (yes, that's a thing) describing idolotry in a similar fashion - placing any value as "the top value" is an attempt to replace god, such as in the story of the Tower of Babel. I feel that this framing has helped me make sense of a wide variety of phenomena around me - from political correctness, through the extremes in the vaccine discussion, and up to some of the strong advocates of Bitcoin, for instance. Since I believe in the importance of avoiding idolotry in this form, I want to do what I can to notice where it appears in me. So, my question is - how do you recognize when a value that you're pursuing has overstepped its bounds and has become a form of idolotry?
Can Abel help Cain and prevent disaster?
Can Abel help Cain and prevent disaster? How can you be certain you are Abel? Is there a point of no return on Cain’s path? When? Should Abel help Cain as he is his brother or is Cain’s life none of Abel’s business to begin with? And if he can and should help, how?