{"id":1467587,"date":"2022-05-07T18:29:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T22:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1467587"},"modified":"2022-05-07T18:29:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T22:29:38","slug":"the-devil-at-the-crossroads-jordan-peterson-on-christianity-suffering-and-temptation-at-hillsdale-college-commencement-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-devil-at-the-crossroads-jordan-peterson-on-christianity-suffering-and-temptation-at-hillsdale-college-commencement-address\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Devil At The Crossroads\u2019: Jordan Peterson On Christianity, Suffering, And Temptation At Hillsdale College Commencement Address"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-devil-at-the-crossroads-jordan-peterson-on-christianity-suffering-and-temptation-at-hillsdale-college-commencement-address%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1467587&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/joerogan.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Esteemed author and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson discussed the reality of the \u201cdevil in the crossroads\u201d in his Saturday commencement speech at Hillsdale College.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cYou\u2019re at a pinnacle of sorts,\u201d Peterson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SuJczjOIN9I\">told<\/a> the graduating seniors at the conservative Michigan school. \u201cYou\u2019re at a crossroads. You\u2019re entering a new phase of your life. You\u2019re someone different than you were four years ago, and hopefully someone better. Likely someone better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cA crossroads \u2014 the metaphor works because you make a decision. You go one direction or another. There\u2019s an old \u2018blues\u2019 idea that you meet the devil at the crossroads. I always wondered why that was \u2014 I found it true. It\u2019s a really compelling idea. It\u2019s an image that has a good narrative fit, and it sticks in your memory once you hear it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cMaybe that\u2019s when you examine your conscience,\u201d Peterson suggested. \u201cOr it examines you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhy do you meet the devil at the crossroads? And the answer is, most fundamentally, because when you come to a place in your life where you have to make a choice \u2026 you aim up or down. And there is always an agent of temptation at every choice point, enticing you to aim down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As one example of \u201caiming down,\u201d Peterson referred the graduates to the biblical account of Cain and Abel. The former brother made sacrifices to God that were \u201cnot everything that they could be\u201d and \u201cnot in the service of the highest good\u201d \u2014 and also \u201carrogant,\u201d because \u201cwhen we make improper sacrifices, we believe in the deepest part of ourselves that we\u2019ve pulled one over God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Peterson continued by noting that the Bible \u2014 being \u201cunbelievably sophisticated from a literary perspective, philosophical perspective, theological perspective, existential perspective\u201d \u2014 next offers the narrative of the Flood, which points to \u201cnihilistic chaos.\u201d He also dove into the meaning of the term \u201csin\u201d \u2014 which in its Greek and Hebrew iterations, according to Peterson, is \u201cto miss the mark.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt implies that it has something to do with aim or the lack thereof. I love that. \u2026 There\u2019s a variety of ways you can miss the mark, right? Don\u2019t aim at all \u2014 that\u2019s a good one. Assume there is no such thing as aim. Assume all aims are equal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On the other hand, Peterson said faith is a \u201cform of courage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve thought a lot about in relationship to faith \u2014 we have this idea, and it\u2019s not a good idea, and it\u2019s certainly an idea for which religious people are often pilloried \u2014 that faith means the sacrifice of reason and the willingness to believe things that are patently not true \u2026 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what faith is at all in some fundamental sense. I think faith is a form of courage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIf you\u2019re hurt by life \u2014 and you will be \u2014 it\u2019s understandable that you might react in a nihilistic and hopeless fashion \u2026 and I think part of what helps you through that is faith,\u201d Peterson described. \u201cAnd part of that faith is that it\u2019s incumbent on you \u2026 to maintain faith in the fundamental goodness of existence, including your own, despite the evidence to the contrary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhen you\u2019re at the crossroads and you\u2019re counseled to despair \u2014 rise up in courage and see if you can resist it,\u201d Peterson advised. \u201cIt\u2019s better for you, and it\u2019s better for the people around you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Peterson noted that the Tower of Babel follows the Flood in the biblical narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s a continual temptation for human beings to build complex organizations that get too high. So what does that mean? How about too many layers? Not local enough, not distributed enough, right? Too separate from the people that they serve,\u201d Peterson argued. \u201cIt\u2019s also a Luciferian story. Lucifer is this spirit of intellect \u2014 the light-bringer who\u2019s flown too high and challenges God Himself, and falls. \u2026 It\u2019s a symbol of prideful intellect. And it is the prideful intellect that raises itself up against what is most properly placed at the highest place \u2014 which is what God is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019m very opposed to the idea that the fundamental human motivation is power \u2014 which is pretty much what every student is taught at every level of their education, in every educational institution except a handful across your country,\u201d Peterson added. \u201cIt\u2019s such a dismal philosophy. \u2026 You could not formulate a more pathological philosophy. It obliterates your faith in society, and it eradicates the notion of the individual. It removes the notion of good faith and goodwill, and it makes communication impossible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To Peterson, such a self-aggrandizing mindset represents another temptation. \u201cThe construction of your own empire for your own narrow purposes \u2014 part of the reason you shouldn\u2019t do that even though it\u2019s tempting \u2026 is because, do you want to rule over hell?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In terms of aiming higher, Peterson said that the pursuit of good is \u201cpractical.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cYou learn to optimize an aim, and then you see once you\u2019ve learned to optimize an aim across a set of goods, you start to aim at what unites those goods \u2026 by practicing any good in any rigorous sense, and making the proper sacrifices in that direction, you simultaneously learn to approach the good that is the sum or the essence of all those proximal goods.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe essential insistence in Christianity is that the good that unites all those goods is the same good that\u2019s reflected in the image of Christ, which is an image of acceptance of the suffering of life, and the necessity of serving the lowest as the highest calling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThat\u2019s something that might be true \u2014 like really, actually, 100% true \u2014 more true than anything else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of earth-shattering, in some sense, to take this with real seriousness,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cIt\u2019s all very frightening if you\u2019re not afraid of that vision and what it implies for you and your soul \u2026 but it\u2019s also \u2026 an endlessly promising vision of what your life could be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In response to inevitable suffering, Peterson concluded that \u201cthe attempt alone\u201d to move in the direction exemplified by Christ \u201cis of sufficient value.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cSo that\u2019s the choice you make at the crossroads.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Esteemed author and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson discussed the reality of the \u201cdevil in the crossroads\u201d in his Saturday commencement speech at Hillsdale College.\u201cYou\u2019re at a pinnacle of sorts,\u201d Peterson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":1481981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1467587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1467587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1467587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1467587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1467587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}