Do we need God to make sense of life?

Q: Do we need God to make sense of life?

An interesting answer from Jordan Peterson:

Well God is what you use to make sense of your life, by definition. This is one of the things I learned from Jung. You have a hierarchy of values otherwise you can’t act, or you’re painfully confused. So you have a hierarchy of values and whatever is at the top of that hierarchy of values serves the function of God for you now. It may be a god that you don’t believe in, or a god that you can’t name, but it doesn’t matter because it’s God for you and what you think about God has very little impact on how God is acting within you, whatever God it is that you happen to be following.

Thoughts?

God is a piece of frosted glass believers hold up in front of their eyes. It obscures the reality of the human predicament, it prevents a genuine search for clarity. God can certainly provide a false sense of reality, one that is comforting and hopeful. But to truly make sense out of life and address the big questions of origin and purpose, we need to put aside things of our own creation, boldly embrace our humanity.

jordan peterson sounds as if he just got done with a particularly satisfying AA meeting
i, too, have had this type of experience

call it him, her, it, they, them, it doesn't matter as long as one realizes that there is a superior being to oneself

@fmf said
Q: Do we need God to make sense of life?

An interesting answer from Jordan Peterson:

Well God is what you use to make sense of your life, by definition. This is one of the things I learned from Jung. You have a hierarchy of values otherwise you can’t act, or you’re painfully confused. So you have a hierarchy of values and whatever is at the top of that hierarchy of value ...[text shortened]... n how God is acting within you, whatever God it is that you happen to be following.

Thoughts?

I think this statement assumes God is not real and is therefore faulty.

But the question you asked in the title of this thread was pondered by Solomon in Ecclesiastes and he concluded the answer was Yes. I’d have to agree.

What sense does our life and existence make without God?

@pb1022 said
I think this statement assumes God is not real and is therefore faulty.

But the question you asked in the title of this thread was pondered by Solomon in Ecclesiastes and he concluded the answer was Yes. I’d have to agree.

What sense does our life and existence make without God?

Why do you think that our life and existence needs to make sense?

@ghost-of-a-duke said
God is a piece of frosted glass believers hold up in front of their eyes. It obscures the reality of the human predicament, it prevents a genuine search for clarity. God can certainly provide a false sense of reality, one that is comforting and hopeful. But to truly make sense out of life and address the big questions of origin and purpose, we need to put aside things of our own creation, boldly embrace our humanity.

<<But to truly make sense out of life and address the big questions of origin and purpose, we need to put aside things of our own creation, boldly embrace our humanity.>>

You really think the purpose of our existence can be found within ourselves (collectively?)

@rookie54 said
jordan peterson sounds as if he just got done with a particularly satisfying AA meeting

I think I know what Peterson is getting at - about how we are governed by our moral compasses - but I also think it's a definition of the word "God" that unnecessarily dilutes its meaning.

@fmf said
Q: Do we need God to make sense of life?

An interesting answer from Jordan Peterson:

Well God is what you use to make sense of your life, by definition. This is one of the things I learned from Jung. You have a hierarchy of values otherwise you can’t act, or you’re painfully confused. So you have a hierarchy of values and whatever is at the top of that hierarchy of value ...[text shortened]... n how God is acting within you, whatever God it is that you happen to be following.

Thoughts?

I enjoy listening to Jordan Peterson and this quote is one reason why. I don’t have to agree with him but he usually makes good sense of his arguments and doesn’t take any crap from virtue signalling wokists.

@divegeester said
I enjoy listening to Jordan Peterson and this quote is one reason why. I don’t have to agree with him but he usually makes good sense of his arguments and doesn’t take any crap from virtue signalling wokists.

That quote from Jordan Peterson is nonsense on stilts. I haven’t bothered listening to him in the past and this quote confirms that was the right decision.

@pb1022 said
<<But to truly make sense out of life and address the big questions of origin and purpose, we need to put aside things of our own creation, boldly embrace our humanity.>>

You really think the purpose of our existence can be found within ourselves (collectively?)

Personally, I don't think our own purpose goes any further than survival and procreation. In that sense, I share the same purpose as my cat.

I live entirely free of God or gods, but you are wrong in thinking my life is therefore void of sense or meaning. Far from it.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Personally, I don't think our own purpose goes any further than survival and procreation. In that sense, I share the same purpose as my cat.

I live entirely free of God or gods, but you are wrong in thinking my life is therefore void of sense or meaning. Far from it.

You’re divorcing purpose from meaning and sense?

Does your life, to you, have more meaning and sense than your cat’s life?

@pb1022 said
You’re divorcing purpose from meaning and sense?

Does your life, to you, have more meaning and sense than your cat’s life?

I exist to procreate and pass on my genes. That is my purpose. My cat and I differ only in regards to our intellectual capacity. My cat only really thinks about food and finding a warm place to nap. As an evolved human, I am able to contemplate complex things and am motivated to explore and learn etc. I find my own meaning in life, though appreciate some humans struggle to do that. (Humans are after all able to contemplate their own mortality, unlike my cat). For me personally, meaning is found in family and friends, in finding challenges, in finding happiness. The fact I exist at all is miraculous (even without a God to pin that miracle on). The chances of me existing at all and sitting here today typing this post are practically impossible, and yet sitting here I am. You don't think that instils my life with a sense of wonder and meaning, that I don't recognise how precious and rare life is, how lucky I am to have one? That it doesn't motivate me to make the most of it?

@pb1022 said
That quote from Jordan Peterson is nonsense on stilts. I haven’t bothered listening to him in the past and this quote confirms that was the right decision.

Yet another way in which we differ I suppose.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
I exist to procreate and pass on my genes. That is my purpose. My cat and I differ only in regards to our intellectual capacity. My cat only really thinks about food and finding a warm place to nap. As an evolved human, I am able to contemplate complex things and am motivated to explore and learn etc. I find my own meaning in life, though appreciate some humans strugg ...[text shortened]... us and rare life is, how lucky I am to have one? That it doesn't motivate me to make the most of it?

I have no doubt you find meaning in what you said.

But how meaningful is something that has an expiration date?

And I’m aware your interactions with family and friends live on in them, but eventually they die and so do the interactions and meaningfulness of them.

And the meaningfulness of finding challenges and happiness have a far shorter expiration date.

So do you think meaning is tied at all to duration? If something is meaningful today and not meaningful 25 years from now, how meaningful was it to begin with?

@pb1022 said

But how meaningful is something that has an expiration date?

Life is fleeting and rare. This intensifies the meaning, it doesn't negate it.

Chocolate has an expiry date. Does that mean there's no point in eating it?