Accidental Exposure Proves Important

Below is an interesting and lively conversation about religion. Could I ask that you just watch the first 3:30 of the clip and read my post below, then continue watching if you found it interesting enough to do so? And if I could impose, I would encourage a person to listen to the first 3:30 several times as it is dense and concise, not a single word is wasted.

Jordan Peterson starts out with "There is an idea within Christianity which I think is the central idea..."

Ben Shapiro, not a Christian but a Jew, after politely and carefully listening, responds "What you just said is fundamentally Unchristian"

Well, I agree with Jordan. He has laid out a clear analysis of the central idea within Christianity. The sad and shocking reality though is that Ben is also correct. This central idea of Christianity is understood by the vast majority of Christians and their leaders as Unchristian.

The main idea within Christianity, the actual beating heart of the thing, is unacceptable to the vast majority of Christians. Then what is left? Signing on the dotted line underneath a collection of beliefs. They idolize the power of belief. "Just believe" and everything will be OK. People who have bought into this idea once, will have a very hard time seeing through the illusion that "believing in an idea" can have some kind of saving/healing effect upon the core of their being.

The brilliance of Jordan Peterson's analysis is blinding and razor sharp. Of course there is much more to be said, but the centrality that he claims for this idea within Christianity is well founded.

Christianity has abandoned it's own beating heart and focused instead upon the idea that "what you believe" is of the utmost importance. It is not.

What Jordan says about:

1)the importance of embracing (not "believing in" but embracing) the depth of the human tendency/capacity WITHIN us AND around us for malevolence.

2)Willingly taking on the suffering of the world as YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

3)Confronting the malevolence of the world,

are in fact, the beating heart of Christianity.

There is nothing here about the ultimate importance of what Christianity calls "believing". It is everything to do with "facing" things. Jordan Peterson often replies to various questions or conundrums that people question him about with these words: "Stop lying to yourself", "Stop playing games".

Faith isn't about finding the right ideas to "believe in", it is about embracing the the realities that are staring us in the face. Just believe this, just believe that, just believe in something you have no way of actually validating for yourself, is this really the ultimate goal of life? To agree to believe in some idea that someone else foists upon you?

Of course there is a lot more to the way of Christ, and those three things that Jordan mentions need a lot of unpacking, BUT, they are a solid foundation and are in every way worthy and sturdy to be taken and built upon. They are, I think you will find, the actual foundations of Christianity as Jesus himself laid them out. Moreover they are ones that any Jew, (as Ben himself points out) would have no problem with embracing. I think no serious seeker of any religious background would find anything to disagree with within Jordan's words. He speaks of embracing the way things are, and posits some ideas about how these things might actually work within the human person. A generous person can allow Jordan to tease out the three basic ideas in the specific ways that he is capable (as a psychologist and serious student of life) to do.

In short, Jordan states that facing these three realities/responsibilities transforms a person into the "Image of the Father(God)"on earth. Thus God and his ways can become known in the earth through a living representative who has been transformed into his likeness. I would agree. Faith comes by honestly doing the math. No "belief" is required in this equation unless you are willing to grant that seeing=believing.

What Christianity today calls belief, is a "take my word for it" form of religion. It relies upon religious authorities to tell someone what is right and what is wrong. This creates a false foundation that one must stick their head in the sand to embrace and then build upon. What did Jesus say was a firm foundation? To hear his word and do it. Not "believe" stuff.

Luke 6:46-49  “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?  (47)  Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:  (48)  he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.  (49)  But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

The earliest known name that Christians had for their movement was "The Way", which is an abbreviation for "The Way To Live That Actually Makes The World A Better Place." There was no common "belief" that held their movement together, that is a fairy tale. There was a mishmash of all kinds of ideas that various individuals and groups within Christianity "believed". Just as it is today. Christianity would have never survived if it had been founded on a set of beliefs. But it DID survive despite the wildly variant beliefs within it, because of those who did what Jesus said to do. Those who were doers, who followed the "way", kept the candle burning for those who would come after. It was that candle, that light, that has always shone in the darkness, and the darkness has never extinguished it. This house does not fall.