{"id":2877,"date":"2018-04-16T17:15:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T22:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/?p=2877"},"modified":"2026-02-22T12:39:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:39:44","slug":"cheat-chaos-with-jordan-petersons-12-rules-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/cheat-chaos-with-jordan-petersons-12-rules-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheat Chaos with Jordan Peterson\u2019s 12 Rules for Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Solutions for chaos have millions clamoring for Jordan Peterson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I read his book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Antidotes
Jordan Peterson 12 Rules for Life\/Kaleb Kroetsch\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Here’s the gist of his survival plan for your calamities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cStand up straight with your shoulders back\u201d<\/mark>  <\/strong>JP p.1<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peterson, a Darwinian naturalist, urges us to focus on lobsters as inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s winner-take-all in the lobster world, just as it is in human societies.  Look for your inspiration to the victorious lobster, with its 350 million years of practical wisdom.”<\/strong>  JP p. 8, 28<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\"strong
Larry the Lobster clobbers chaos \/Wiki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Standing up straight with your shoulders back is to sweat out the future on your own like any other animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we are no more than descendants of lobsters and apes like Peterson, Nietzsche and Freud say, then we would behave more like animals because\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAnimals only kill for food or safety, not for pleasure.  They kill for prey, one or two at a time, not a million of their own species for no reason at all.\u201d <\/strong> Philip Yancey<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But, we are not just animals, because fortunately and unfortunately we humans have a unique and higher form of consciousness for choosing good or evil<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animals can’t do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not Christian faith?<\/mark><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peterson blames Christian faith as “wishful thinking” because he thinks the doctrine of grace removed the angst to do good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNietzsche believed that Paul, and later the Protestants following Luther, had removed moral responsibility from Christ\u2019s followers.  They had watered down the imitation of Christ.  Nietzsche writes, \u2018The Christians have never practiced the actions Jesus prescribed them\u2026and the impudent garrulous talk about \u2018justification by faith\u2019\u2026is only the consequence of the Church\u2019s lack of courage and will to profess the works that Jesus demanded.\u2019\u201d <\/strong> JP p.189<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In other words, if Christian faith is authentic, why do so many Christian leaders fail?<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Bill
Moral accusations against Bill Hybels undid his reputation as a pastor\/michaeljrcomedy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And yet Peterson calls the Sermon on the Mount a model for human excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Sermon on the Mount outlines the true nature of man, and the proper aim of mankind: concentrate on the day,so that you can live in the present, and attend completely and properly to what is right in front of you–but do that only after you have decided to let what is within shine forth…, do that only after you have determined to sacrifice whatever it is that must be sacrificed so that you can pursue the highest good.”  <\/strong>JP pp. 109-110<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Faith, for Peterson, is for every human to use the ethics of the Bible without God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enough supermen will save the world<\/mark><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like Nietzsche, Peterson is willing us forward to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n