{"id":29575,"date":"2022-11-17T20:03:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T04:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29575"},"modified":"2022-11-17T20:03:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T04:03:43","slug":"confidence-in-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/confidence-in-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidence in Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jordan B. Peterson clinical psychologist and faculty at the University of Toronto wrote <em>Maps of Meaning<\/em>: <em>The Architecture of Belief<\/em> fifteen years ago to address the depths of why and how people believe what they believe. Grounded in neuropsychology, this book both macro and micro analysis of different topics including the known and unknown, chaos and order, images, and adversity. Coupled with the reading, I found myself listening to different lectures of his, specifically focusing in on one entitled \u201c2017 Maps of Meaning 10: Genesis and the Buddha.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> Similar content to the overview video assigned, Peterson delves into different religious figures and stories throughout history including several from the Bible. Watching and listening to the lectures resonated with me much more than engaging with the book this week and I\u2019m grateful for his public release of so much of his content.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the specific content that Peterson offers the audience to consider, what I really found refreshing and magnetic was his ability to hold differing worldviews, concepts, and belief systems in such a way that reinforced the inherent dignity of the people that hold those beliefs. He was less concerned about right and wrong than he was about the exploration of the why behind the belief. While incredibly intelligent, he continually asked \u2018what the hell is that about?\u2019 in his lectures which made him all the more reliable to me. Perterson\u2019s comfort level and even encouragement of asking questions and not knowing the answers felt foreign in a society that seemingly expects everyone, especially leaders, to have all of the answers. He is able to drill down on what is known by various philosophers and great thinkers both past and present and simultaneously hold the breadth of the unknown, the mysterious, with just as much validity of an appropriate answer to life\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n<p>I found many connections between Peterson and the other works for our time in the program thus far, namely:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Augustine \u2013 the asking of the why questions<\/li>\n<li>Kahneman \u2013 which parts of our brains are engaged while we engage our beliefs and how<\/li>\n<li>Meyer \u2013 the historical and current implications of culture (especially those with rich oral traditions still at play) on cross-cultural interactions<\/li>\n<li>Busch \u2013 the connections between the visible and invisible portions of belief<\/li>\n<li>Solzhenitsyn \u2013 is western society built on a solid faith or a matter of opinion. If a solid rock, have we forgotten that?<\/li>\n<li>Miller \u2013 religious traditions and how we engage with them individually and societally<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On a more person level, though, I found Peterson\u2019s engagement with leaning into the why behind belief systems a strange sort of comfort this week. As I laid in yet another MRI tube this afternoon, I was asking the Lord many of these questions. Why do I have this cancer again? Why do I have such a rare type of cancer \u2013 one that so little is known about? Why does it not play by any rules? Why will I likely never experience the relief of remission in my lifetime? Why, in and through all of this, do I still hold fast to His goodness? Why do I believe that the Lord is working even this for my ultimate good?<\/p>\n<p>While I don\u2019t know many of these answers, I think the assurance I find can be tied to the graphic Peterson references in his lectures on the cross-references within the Bible. It is a fascinating image that points me back to an intentional creation, and thus Creator. It reminds me that each story within the Bible can be held on its own and in relationship and context with all the others. It displays the ingenuity of a God that lets nothing go to waste. So, even in this season of suffering \u2013 perhaps especially in this season \u2013 I can sit in the confidence of His faithfulness to me because my belief system is such that gives heavy emphasis of faith and trust as core components. I lean not into my own understanding and I am grateful that I do not have to.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Peterson, \u201c2017 Maps of Meaning 10: Genesis and the Buddha\u201d retrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7XtEZvLo-Sc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jordan B. Peterson clinical psychologist and faculty at the University of Toronto wrote Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief fifteen years ago to address the depths of why and how people believe what they believe. Grounded in neuropsychology, this book both macro and micro analysis of different topics including the known and unknown, chaos [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2004,2223,1779,1778],"class_list":["post-29575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lgp11","tag-maps","tag-maps-of-meaning","tag-peterson","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29576,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29575\/revisions\/29576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}