This short animated clip taken from the lectures of Jordan Peterson, sums up the long term value of art to a society, the necessity of investing in the work of artists we admire, and the power of art to connect us as finite and limited creatures to the transcendent, providing us with the strength to prevail.
Jordan Peterson has delivered a series of lectures titled, ‘Introduction to God‘ and an excerpt from part 1 addresses the psychological significance of the biblical narratives and their role in forming the western scientific mind.
Peterson touches on Nietzsche’s estimation that by throwing out the biblical narratives, the western world would be essentially undermining their own identity. The consequence would be an a moral vacuum resulting in a pendulum of despair and radical ideology, which we have seen in the 20th century.
The Bible, he says, has been more resilient than kingdoms, more durable than empires, and it is fascinating that a compilation of stories, by various authors, cobbled together over a thousand years, could hold such cultural and historical weight.
What do you think about ‘why we should bother with the Bible?’