Lecture: Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God

I highly recommend you listen to these lecture series. I cannot overstate the profound effect they had on my life, by giving me the tools I needed to turn my depression around and give me a sense of balance and control in my life. ▶ this video [link]

in “Surviving Depression” · View on HN

For those interested in his non-gender identity content: His series on the Bible: ▶ this video is generally regarded (by those I know, at least) as Jordan at his best. He goes through the first few stories in the Bible and tries to bring meaning to them, not from the fundamental Christian lens of "this is absolute truth," but more like: "Here are some archetypal patterns about the world and how to act in it that our ancestors have discovered over thousands of years and distilled into stories. Maybe they hold truth that isn't the 'word of God' truth, but observations about the world that have utility to us even as a modern, rational, scientific civilization. I'll back this up by tying it to studies on psychology, neuroscience, evolution, and animal behavior, and show that variations of the same archetypal stories appear in non-Judeo-Christian societies all over the world." You can be a hardline atheist and still get tons of value out of these lectures. I also found his 2017 Maps of Meaning lectures particularly interesting, and personally more relevant: [link] He does a similar thing with the story of Pinocchio instead of the Bible for the first few lectures, which might be more palatable for some. There's a lot of overlap with the Bible series as well.

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There might not be meaning to the universe, but there is meaning in the human enterprise. We went from animals, to highly effective and conscious of ourselves and the universe. The human developpement keep pushing forward. I think that the main cause of meaninglessness is our rejection of our own culture ( mostly Christian). There is good reason to reject them as the bearded magician in the sky seem stupid to a modern science minded person, however if you look at those stories at a second degree there is a lot of parts that make sense. Theses stories were the bedrock of our civilisation and the spine of our consciousness. We need to update theses stories with what we now know instead of throwing them out because science make them look outdated. Take a look at Jordan Peterson biblical series, it explain in evolutionary terms how we invented theses stories, what they mean, what we can learn from them. ▶ this video

in “Dabrowski’s theory and existential depression (2020)” · View on HN

I watched a bit of that and a bit of the start of the biblical lectures ( ▶ this video ) The Some More News is a bit unfair in that he's going on about something he doesn't understand - climate science. Whereas on his home turf of the Bible he's pretty good. I mean if you'd interviewed Einstein on say salsa dancing you might have thought he's an idiot. It's not a good way to judge.

in “Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?” · View on HN

I want to be extra clear: All the things I believe about religion are rooted in a belef in neurochemical reactions in meatbrains in a purely, exclusively, hard-materialistic perspective. I also want to state that I'm trying to see what you're written in the best possible light. I mean that. But I might fail, and for that I apologize in advance. I'm not trying to straw man, and if you think I am, know that's not my intention and feel free to clarify. > Could you list some of the truths of being human? Also give some examples of psychological realities of the human brain? Sure. This is going to take quite a bit of effort to unpack. But first, let me address the remainder of your post because I think it's important context. But my answer to this question is at the end. > The only ones I know of are biological in nature, as we are living, breathing, conscious, sentient organisms. I used to think us humans were all skeletons, but in reality we're just brains. And our brains, like all matter, are made out of atoms. The body parts are just the physical layer. Think about that next time you talk to someone face to face, you're two brains communicating with each other. Indeed. In fact, while the center of our perception might be our brains, what we are at a deeper level is worms. Coelemates, to be precise. We are incredibly sophisticated survival systems for a digestive tract. In any case, the things you said are probably true, and I do accept them as true with a high degree of confid

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