Last week an interview was released on famed Canadian clinical psychologist and philosopher Jordan B Peterson’s YouTube channel. The discussion in question featured two of the leading intellectual-philosophical voices of the 21st century, Dr Peterson and Dr Richard Dawkins, representing diametrically opposing metaphysical viewpoints; yet, it received virtually no attention from the Western mainstream media.
Dr Dawkins was one of the most prominent figures of the popular atheist movement of the early 2000s. Dr Peterson rose to international fame for his strict opposition to the progressive activism in Canadian and American academia in the late 2010s. While he is infamous for giving confusing answers to questions about his belief in the Divine, it is most likely fair to categorize him as a theist, and he most certainly holds the biblical texts and the Judeo-Christian tradition in a very high regard.
The fascinating discussion was moderated by British internet personality Alex O’Connor.
Dr Peterson’s belief in divine miracles was a prominent topic once again. Dr Dawkins asked if he believes in the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, two facts that he evidently finds impossible. Dr Peterson answered:
‘I don’t know how to mediate the fact-value dichotomy in that case. I said the same thing about the resurrection…I think it is inappropriate to ask a question like that to attempt to undermine the validity of the entire deep mythological enterprise. I think it’s foolish’.
Then, after some pressing from the moderator, Dr Peterson landed on the answer that he simply does not know if Jesus was born of a virgin mother or if he was resurrected.
Then, however, Dr Peterson pointed out to Dr Dawkins that the whole of the scientific enterprise itself, which Dr Dawkins prioritizes above all, relies on value judgements that cannot be proven scientifically. Notions such as the valuing of facts and truths and the belief that the universe has a consistent logic to it that can be understood by humans are value judgments in themselves that cannot be justified by simple references to scientific facts. Dr Dawkins tamely conceded that point, but did not seem to give it too much importance. Neither did he seem to grant any to Dr Peterson’s lengthy analysis of the symbols and mythology of the biblical texts, and at some point even telling him ‘You’re drunk on symbols’.
Dr Peterson then opined that the value system that modern science is based on came from the Judeo-Christian tradition, and that is why it emerged in Europe and elsewhere.
He also drew parallels with Dr Dawkins' most famous work, the meme theory, and the work of Mircea Eliade, the author of the three-part book series The History of Religious Ideas. Dr Peterson proposed that religious ideas have spread among humans the same way the memes of behaviour have according to Dr Dawkins’ theory.
One of the few things the two philosophers agreed on is that the progressive, Neo-Marxist infiltration into the academia today is undermining academic work in the West.
As Hungarian Conservative also reported, Dr Peterson has been to Hungary several times, and has delivered lectures to full audiences. His work has also been recognized with one of the highest Hungarian state awards.
You can watch the discussion between Dr Jordan B Peterson and Dr Richard Dawkins in its entirety below.
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