Comments by "H B" (@capitalb5889) on "Jordan B Peterson" channel.

Alex has a degree in theology, and spent three years studying it exclusively at Oxford University, so it's not surprising he knows a few things.
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 @Memfys I noticed that JP did not retreat inside his word salad armour and used normal speech.
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 @JoubertMalan - you'd think that after a theology degree he would have become a believer if he was going to.
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@stevegaspar his degree was in Theology from Oxford University. He is articulate and well-read. And despite my own studies in philosophy as an undergraduate, I never learned any of what he discusses about religion - because I did not study theology. The fact that you deliberately conflate the two in an attempt to belittle his knowledge says more about you than him. Not sure what your obsession with his "British" accent is. He has an English accent because he is from England. That's how people speak.
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@richardpowell1772 - Alex O'Connor's degree was actually in theology from Oxford University, so there are unlikely to be many at his age with the theological insights that he has. But you seem to belittle and condescend based on age simply because you are not able to tackle what he says. It is far easier to dismiss with the "undergraduate philosophy" label than tackle what he says. But does he need to say anything original? There is essentially one atheist argument - until you present evidence for a god or gods, I'll withhold belief. As of today, no theist has managed to tackle this one. Peterson knows this, so defaults to the word salad, using his verbose manner of speaking that tends to be mocked by his peers, although seen as impressive by those who follow him - his title of the stupid person's idea of a smart person is well deserved.
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@stevegaspar - Alex O'Connor hasn't claimed to be an original theologian. But given that there haven't been any new arguments for the existence of God for a thousand years, it seems unfair to use this as an angle of attack.
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@stevegaspar your PhD /Dphil argument is absurd. You would only want to do it if you wish to pursue a career in academia. Alex doesn't - his career is active and he clearly didn't want to stay at Oxford University to do a masters and/or DPhil.
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@aaroningl he won't be a Christian ever. He has already done a theology degree and that didn't convince him. What is going to make him start believing in an supernatural being for which there is no evidence?
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@aaroningl well, it is sometimes said that the path to atheism starts with actually reading the Bible. I'm actually Gen X, but hardly know anyone in my generation who believes in God or attends church. Obviously I know some, even one of my cousin's children is very active in church groups, but it's actually rare for anyone in Britain to attend church, except for immigrants. But I appreciate that in the US religion is still quite popular and isn't regarded as an eccentricity like it is here.
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 @ithurtsbecauseitstrue - I think he deserves a reward just for watching Ken Ham - the man makes my skin crawl.
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@ithurtsbecauseitstrue I'm not actually strawmanning his arguments at all. To strawman is to deliberately misrepresent another's arguments in order to attack that argument. I didn't do that. I was really more just insulting him, and by reference to him being a stupid person's idea of a smart person, his followers. I would rather do that than strawman, which I have contempt for. We should avoid it. In fact, to use Peterson's affected verbose style, It is imperative, therefore, to cultivate a vigilant awareness against this pervasive rhetorical stratagem, ensuring that one's adversary's assertions are engaged with in their most robust and authentic form.
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The problem is that the bible is never clear on what is meant to be symbolic and what is meant to be literal.
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@Higorgqfeir Of course, over the centuries we have re-interpreted the Bible to mean whatever we want to say so that it keeps pace with the humanistic values of our society. Once people used the Bible to defend slavery, and then used it to condemn slavery, all in the space of a couple of hundred years. A book that can be interpreted to defend a wide range of positions has questionable value. But I will accept that at the forefront of the message of Jesus was love and forgiveness and this is something that quite a few hardcore atheists forget. Perhaps this is not surprising as a lot of them come from more extreme versions of Christianity.
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@melissasw64 Jews , Christians and Muslims all believe the same God. Here is the difference: Judaism: Jesus was no one, an imposter. Christians: Jesus was the son of God, and actually God at the same time. Muslims: Jesus was an important prophet after Mohammad. They are also big followers of Abraham. It is worth pointing out that Allah is the Arabic word for God, in much the same way that Dieu is the French for God. Arabic speaking Christians also follow "Allah". But while all three religions follow the same Abrahamic God, their interpretations of this God is different. And as this God has never shown up to clarify which is the real version we should follow, we just have to guess.
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I thought this was an excellent point - he is an theologian by education, so is well-versed in these perspectives.
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@melissasw64 you are correct that not all three can be following the correct God because they all have different ideas about that God. At most, only one can be correct. But the chances are, no are correct. There's a hell of a long way from the Orthodox church, Coptic Christians, to extreme evangelicals, to the Mormons, and JWs. Even clear heresies like the prosperity doctrine and the rapture are quite mainstream in evangelical groups. Is anyone correct? Probably not, especially if the God concept is simply man-made.
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That advert for the anti-abortion group really surprised me, but then i remembered that i was watching JP's channel rather than Alex O'Connor's and that abortion is actually an issue in North America, unlike in other developed nations.
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I will forever now stuck with the idea of Paul speaking like Kermit the Frog
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