Interview · moment 22 of 26
Hitchens, Literature as Scripture, and Skepticism of Old Religions
from #249 - Jordan Peterson | The Tim Dillon Show · #249
3 min
Guest
Peterson responds to Christopher Hitchens' idea of replacing religion with literature, arguing the deepest literature is itself religious, while Tim raises skepticism about traditional religions given historical abuses like the Inquisition and modern Saudi Arabia.
- Secularized religions retain the same impact and moral lessons, but many people doubt whether Christianity, Judaism, and Islam remain relevant today.
- Traditional religions enforced through law and political power often became oppressive—the Catholic Inquisition and modern Saudi Arabia demonstrate the problem.
- When people reject their inherited faith, they search for new belief systems, sometimes landing on internet ideologies as replacements.
- People leave religion for many reasons: identity mismatch, family trauma, or documented abuse like what many Catholics fled.
- George Carlin captured it: people in groups are awful, but individuals are worth knowing.
- The left now indoctrinates people into a new religion that's as oppressive, unforgiving, and detrimental as old-school belief systems.
- The dilemma: rejecting both modern ideological religion and ancient superstitious belief leaves people searching for what to believe in instead.
George CarlinSaudi ArabiaCatholic InquisitionChristianityIslamJudaism