Jordan Peterson’s New Clothes
Why won’t Dr. Peterson answer one simple little question?
Controversial academic Jordan Peterson has recently embarked on the tour for his upcoming book: ‘We Who Struggle With God’. It is therefore worth exploring what Dr. Peterson is struggling with exactly.
Peterson has spoken extensively about the Bible and the importance of Bible stories in particular, though he is neither a philosopher nor a theologian.
Despite this, Peterson has never answered the question: “Do you believe in God?” in a straight-forward affirmative.
The closest he has said on the matter is that he “acts like God exists.”
Then there is the almost comic interview he recently conducted with EWTN where he describes himself as “existing on the border of things.”
There is also the even more nebulous: “God isn’t something you believe in, but something you commit to.” And so, the word games continue...
The obvious problem is that a supernatural higher power is something you either believe in or you do not. Not everything is a game of semantics.
I believe every human being has a soul; that’s what human consciousness is, that it exists after we die, and we are judged by a higher power on our actions and intentions in this life. I have no evidence to support this claim, but I know it in my heart to be true. That’s what faith is, and people who are believers usually aren’t afraid or reticent to say so.
Christians simply do not speak about their faith like Peterson does. All reports from Peterson’s book tour suggest an affirmative answer won’t be forthcoming, neither in person nor in the book. It remains a damning indictment of contemporary journalism that no interviewer has found a strategy to shut down the semantic games that Peterson plays and get a straight answer out of him.
There’s something I’ve always found deliberately obtuse, and possibly manipulative if I were to assume bad faith, about Peterson’s reticence to answer this question.
After all, there are only three straightforward answers to this question:
1. Yes, I believe in God.
2. No, I do not believe in God.
3. I am agnostic about the existence of God.
Why, then, does Peterson refuse to give one of these answers?
It’s true that Peterson’s work focuses on the didactic and structural importance of Christianity to the success of Western civilisation. He is, however, not the first influential intellectual to point these factors out. Historian Tom Holland is one notable example.
If Peterson’s arguments came from a declared atheist, they would be met with hostility from Christians. The suggestion that religions are fairy stories that give our transient existences meaning and hold us to certain standards of behaviour is an oft touted rebuke of religious belief from atheists.
Even renowned athiest Richard Dawkins described himself as ‘culturally Christian’. Christian lore, values, and identity are used by many as a set of cultural signifiers that make them feel superior to others. As author Louis Perry describes it, it’s being 'religious but not spiritual’ rather than being ‘spiritual but not religious’.
Peterson continues to refuse to answer the question that should be most important to Christians: Is it true? At least Dawkins has the decency to say he doesn’t.
This is, for me, why it is so strange that Christians, American Christians in particular, have so much time for Peterson. Including theologians and academics such as Bishop Robert Barron.
American Christians are so happy to have a professional smart person seemingly on side, they’re willing to overlook the fact that Peterson either does not believe in the Christian God or what he thinks God is is either unorthodox or unChristian. Why they need validation from the academy when they value it so little is a question for another day…
My personal theories on this are as follows:
1. Jordan Peterson won’t say he believes in God because that would put him in a position where he would be doing apologetics, and this is work he simply doesn’t want or can’t do.
2. Jordan Peterson doesn’t want to be held to Christian standards of behaviour by other Christians because he does not see them as his equal.
3. His audience is mostly Christian, and he doesn’t want to alienate a potent source of income.
4. He likes Christianity and thinks it’s valuable structurally and didactically, but he does not believe in any supernatural aspects of the faith.
I suspect a combination of all of the above is true.
But what is most frustrating is that nobody calls Peterson out on his obtuseness.
In 2019, Bishop Barron described Peterson as an exemplar of effective online communication, which is laughable considering how hard it is to answer the basic question: “Is Jordan Peterson a Christian?” Bishop Barron then went on to say, “[his] emergence and his success are indicators that we could get a serious message across to a wide audience.”
It would be nice if it were a little less obvious that Bishop Barron positively salivates at the prospect of increasing his audience via Peterson. That said, Catholic apologist Matt Fradd certainly inched towards a respectable challenge but seems afraid to press Peterson any further.
But, perhaps, this is why Dr. Peterson’s obtuseness on the issue goes so unchallenged. Commenters know the emperor is butt naked, wang exposed, and flapping in the wind, but it suits them well to pretend otherwise.
Peterson pretending that his personal concept of the divine is more complex than other mere mortals could possibly comprehend, should be called out for the patronising nonsense it is.
With a huge audience lapping up this snake oil, few intellectuals or commentators on the right have any incentive to stop feeding the snake.
Thank you for reading — I hope you found my thoughts interesting. You can find links to my other work here: https://linktr.ee/sayde.scarlett
