Simon Paynton

Sometimes people feel like they’re a terrible person, and this translates into “sinner” which the Church promises to fix.  The more terrible she feels, the more susceptible she is to this way of thinking.

There are times when a depressed person will violently reject everything they love, because it’s antithetical to their new depressed way of…[Read more]

@anna, it sounds to me like your friend could be depressed, and this conversion to Catholicism is snarling up the problem even worse.  Don’t take it personally.

Some things only sound like deepities because they might take some work to understand.  Their meanings may not be apparent on first sight.

I’ve explained it in my last answer.

He is talking about the Western ethos and how aspects of God relate to that.  The two aspects he identifies are: 1) the kind of truth that levels unhealthy hierarchies – in other words, for example, universal education, scientific progress, etc.; and 2) something which imposes intelligible patterns of order onto nature’s chaos.  He says that t…[Read more]

I believe that JP mentions “conscience” in the mix of what he calls God, and this is part of “God”‘s judging function.  He also says, “God is the source of judgment, mercy, and guilt.” and this is a traditional interpretation.

He doesn’t have to take on the whole Judeo-Christian canon in order to talk about God.

People are free to create.  T…[Read more]

I think people sometimes “find Jesus” when they’re at rock-bottom and need to turn their lives around.  Is it genuine?  i.e. does it stick?  There are anecdotal stories that often it does.

So they’re saying that something that exists has a cause or causes outside of that thing.  It’s a big leap to say that the cause is God.  But like you say, it can’t be proved either way.

The death of certainty, leading to acceptance of uncertainty, leading to new knowledge.

The breaking of old unhealthy habits in favour of more healthy ones.

The breaking of attachments: external supports with which we invest our self-preservation.  For example, relying on a career, or achievements, or possessions, etc. to make us feel…[Read more]

Glen D wrote:

Copleston argues from contingency ,and is not convincing.

What is his argument, Glen?  That sounds a bit vague.

I think that to Jordan Peterson, the idea of God is a placeholder for our “higher nature”.

I think there are many examples within our psychology of things dying and being reborn.

One is being “stripped of all belief” – certainty giving way to uncertainty, giving way to the possibility of new knowledge.

Davis wrote:

extensive idiosyncratic explanations

They’re only idiosyncratic if you don’t understand them.

An explanation that requires an explanation is not informative.

It’s just a different language from what you’re used to.  I get it perfectly well, and I think JP has put it in a good way.  It requires, not so much an explanation, as unpacking and discussing.  Any of this kind of stuff does, including morality, which is related.

especially by the Left, for whom it’s a term of abuse.

I hear or read this a lot.

There is a kind of language of spirituality, and if you’re not used to the ideas, it tends to go straight over people’s heads.

Most of that excerpt from Jordan Peterson is highly intelligible to me; some of it isn’t.

I think he has a description of what God would be like if He existed, and corresponds this description to real-world ideas.  So, the “follower” of Peterson is free to choose either way.

@regthefronkeyfarmer – have you got examples of his negative statements about atheists?  I haven’t heard any of these.

Disillusioned AND sour grapes…

If a lot of young men have lost their way, I can’t believe it’s because of a straightforward loss of power or enforced sharing of power.  Unless the “power” was really masking an immaturity that was already there.  I think it’s more because of a loss of their previous exclusive roles.  Maybe the patriarchy tells them…[Read more]