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#089_ STORY INSPIRE: How to Become the Person Everyone Can Count On · INSPIRE STORY

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Speaker 1: I was reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins today.
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Speaker 1: In principle, I'm going to speak with him publicly at
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Speaker 1: some point in the next five or six months. I
0:14
Speaker 1: don't really want to have a debate with him. I
0:16
Speaker 1: want to have a discussion, and I think we can
0:18
Speaker 1: manage that. I've been trying to contrast the way that
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Speaker 1: he views the world with the viewpoint that I'm putting
0:32
Speaker 1: forward in everything I do, really. Probably culminating to some
0:39
Speaker 1: degree in this new book, the topic of this tour,
0:42
Speaker 1: We Who Wrestle With God. See, I think that Dawkins
0:48
Speaker 1: is wrong and not just on, not even primarily on
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Speaker 1: religious grounds, not exactly. I think he's wrong on scientific grounds.
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Speaker 1: I think he's behind the curve. scientifically speaking. And I
1:03
Speaker 1: want to tell you why first to set the stage
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Speaker 1: for what we're going to talk about tonight. So Dawkins
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Speaker 1: is an empiricist or a rationalist. Now, an empiricist is
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Speaker 1: someone who believes that essentially that we get all of
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Speaker 1: our information from sense data, so to speak, that we
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Speaker 1: orient ourselves in the world as a consequence of understanding Now,
1:34
Speaker 1: the empiricists have been aligned to some degree since the
1:39
Speaker 1: Enlightenment with the rationalists, and the rationalists believe that we
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Speaker 1: can use our rationality, as well as the empirical facts
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Speaker 1: at our disposal, to organize the facts, say, in a
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Speaker 1: rational manner. But there's some real problems with that perspective.
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Speaker 1: I mean, one real problem, scientifically, is... That isn't how
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Speaker 1: the large language models now that mimic human thought so
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Speaker 1: accurately actually work. They work by weighting facts. And there's
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Speaker 1: something crucially important there. So, the problem with the idea
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Speaker 1: that you can orient yourself in accordance with the facts,
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Speaker 1: which is, let's say, the scientific rationalist doctrine, is that
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Speaker 1: there's an infinite number of facts. So there's one fact
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Speaker 1: per phenomena. That's one way of looking at it. But
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Speaker 1: that doesn't even encompass the world of facts because there's
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Speaker 1: one fact for every combination of phenomena. And there's an
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Speaker 1: innumerable number of things that you can attend to. And
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Speaker 1: the fact of the existence of those facts provides you
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Speaker 1: with no guidance. Now, David Hume... Scottish philosopher figured this
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Speaker 1: out about 200 years ago. And I think he was right.
3:01
Speaker 1: He said we can't get to an ought from an is.
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Speaker 1: By which he meant something like. There's no navigating your
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Speaker 1: way forward on the mere basis of the facts. You
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Speaker 1: have to. Prioritize the facts. And that's not. That's a
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Speaker 1: non-trivial thing. Observation that you have to prioritize the facts now.
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Speaker 1: There's there's something even more Subtle going on with regards
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Speaker 1: to the facts The empirical hypothesis is something like you
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Speaker 1: look at the world the unfiltered sense data comes rushing
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Speaker 1: in you evaluate The data the data and then you
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Speaker 1: act But that's not right. It's not even close to
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Speaker 1: right and And the reason it's not right is because
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Speaker 1: in that schema, action comes last. But that isn't how
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Speaker 1: perception works. When you're looking at the world, we'll use
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Speaker 1: vision because that's the primary human sense. But the same
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Speaker 1: thing applies to all the senses. When you're looking at
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Speaker 1: the world, you're moving your eyes. Now, and you're not
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Speaker 1: just moving them voluntarily, although you have eye fields at
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Speaker 1: the front of your brain, called the frontal eye fields,
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Speaker 1: that allow you to move your gaze voluntarily. But your
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Speaker 1: eyes also vibrate at a very rapid, at multiple different frequencies.
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Speaker 1: And if they ever stop moving, even for a tenth
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Speaker 1: of a second, you go blind. So your eyes have
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Speaker 1: to move back and forth. They have to move the
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Speaker 1: light back and forth on the retina for you to
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Speaker 1: even be able to see. And when you're looking at
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Speaker 1: the world... gathering sense data objectively, you're doing nothing of
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Speaker 1: the sort because you have to prioritize your attention. So
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Speaker 1: here's a simple example of that. Although you're doing this
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Speaker 1: all the time. Imagine that you're in a crowded restaurant
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Speaker 1: on a first date and maybe there's 30 conversations going
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Speaker 1: on around you. The place is buzzing. Maybe there's some
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Speaker 1: background music as well. Now you can filter what you
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Speaker 1: hear and You can direct your attention and filter what
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Speaker 1: you hear. Now, we don't exactly know how we do that,
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Speaker 1: but we can do it. And what you're likely to do,
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Speaker 1: if you have any sense, is prioritize attending to the
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Speaker 1: person that you're on the date with. Right. Okay, so
5:41
Speaker 1: now everybody thinks that's funny. So that's very interesting, because
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Speaker 1: you understand exactly what I mean. You know that your
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Speaker 1: attention could wander, right? Right. It could wander, especially if
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Speaker 1: the date's dull. Your attention could, and that's a bad sign,
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Speaker 1: either because there's something wrong with you or because there's
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Speaker 1: something wrong with the person, or both, or both. You
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Speaker 1: could have your attention attracted by a distal conversation and
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Speaker 1: focus on that, and that's very interesting because you know
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Speaker 1: as soon as you do that that you can start
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Speaker 1: to make sense of that conversation. And filter out all
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Speaker 1: the other ones. Including the one that your date might
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Speaker 1: be attempting to have with you. You could focus on
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Speaker 1: the background music. You don't do that. Because generally. Especially
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Speaker 1: if you're polite. Because you prioritize the exchange of information.
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Speaker 1: That you're attempting to undertake. In the course of the evening. Okay. Now.
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Speaker 1: I said you do that because you're polite. But there's
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Speaker 1: many reasons that you do that. So we could kind
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Speaker 1: of walk through the reasons. Because it gives you some
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Speaker 1: sense of the structure. Within which your attention is prioritized. So.
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Speaker 1: Maybe you're a. Maybe you're someone who engages in short-term
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Speaker 1: mating strategies. Let's phrase it that way. And. And your
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Speaker 1: goal is to entice. Or bribe. or fool this person
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Speaker 1: into bed with you that night. Well, then you're prioritizing
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Speaker 1: your attention with that end in mind. But that end
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Speaker 1: is nested in something broader. It's nested inside your broader
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Speaker 1: conceptualization of sex and relationship. And that's nested inside a
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Speaker 1: broader conception of the relative role of men and women
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Speaker 1: It's nested inside your idea of what your moral orientation
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Speaker 1: might be in terms of establishing a relationship. That's nested
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Speaker 1: inside a moral concept of sex and relationship as such.
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Speaker 1: That's nested inside a broader perception of what it means
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Speaker 1: to be human. And it's that nesting that constitutes the
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Speaker 1: grounds for the direction of your attention. You're up to
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Speaker 1: something when you're attending. You're aiming at something when you're attending.
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Speaker 1: You're pursuing an aim. And because of that, you prioritize
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Speaker 1: the facts. And so, you filter the world of facts
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Speaker 1: through a structure of value. Okay, so... I was thinking backstage,
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Speaker 1: I'd elaborated this idea of a structure of value. So
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Speaker 1: we don't attend to the fact. We attend to the
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Speaker 1: relevant fact. We attend to the meaningful fact. Okay, now
9:01
Speaker 1: what makes fact, what makes a fact meaningful? Now look,
9:05
Speaker 1: here's something else to understand. Almost everything that you could
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Speaker 1: apprehend Has zero meaning. As long as it doesn't misbehave. So,
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Speaker 1: and we know this from intensive experimental analysis. So, for example,
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Speaker 1: it's dark now. It's highly probable that none of you
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Speaker 1: can remember what color the carpet that you walked in
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Speaker 1: on was. Or even if there was a carpet. The
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Speaker 1: reason you don't remember is because it doesn't matter. As
9:43
Speaker 1: long as the floor stays solid underneath you as you
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Speaker 1: make your way to your seat, you can ignore it.
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Speaker 1: And you ignore almost everything. All right. So what don't
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Speaker 1: you ignore? Which is the same question as how does
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Speaker 1: the world lay itself? out in front of you? You're
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Speaker 1: a mobile creature, right? You're always moving. You're moving in
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Speaker 1: order to sense. You're moving in order to move towards
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Speaker 1: your aims. You're always on a journey. You're always on
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Speaker 1: a quest. You're always in pursuit of a vision. You're
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Speaker 1: always pursuing an aim. You're always up to something. It
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Speaker 1: might be something short-term. It might be something medium-term. It
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Speaker 1: might be something long-term. If you're reasonably coherent, your short-term
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Speaker 1: preoccupations are linked to your medium-term desires, and those are
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Speaker 1: linked to your long-term plans. And the way you take
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Speaker 1: care of yourself now, the way you pursue what you
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Speaker 1: want and need now, is associated with you taking care
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Speaker 1: of yourself as you repeat into the future, You don't
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Speaker 1: do things that are foolish but enjoyable in the immediate
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Speaker 1: present if you understand that they're going to cause you
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Speaker 1: misery and grief in the future. Or at least you
11:01
Speaker 1: don't do that if you're disciplined and mature. So you
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Speaker 1: constrain your aims in consequence of your knowledge of the
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Speaker 1: fact that you exist across time and you do the
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Speaker 1: same thing in relationship to other people. You constrain your aims.
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Speaker 1: In the moment. Knowing full well that. The things you
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Speaker 1: do have impacts on other people. And that those impacts
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Speaker 1: are reciprocal. And that they're going to propagate across time
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Speaker 1: as well. And so. The construction of your aim. The
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Speaker 1: construction of your value system. Is very complex. Matter that
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Speaker 1: takes into account. What it is that you need and
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Speaker 1: want now. But also. What you'll need and want as
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Speaker 1: you progress through the future. And then. Takes into account you.
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Speaker 1: But in relationship with. To everyone you are in relationship with. Okay. So.
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Speaker 1: The structure of values that you inhabit. Has to. Account for.
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Speaker 1: All of those. Realities. How does the world of facts
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Speaker 1: make itself. Evident to you in terms of relevance. What's
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Speaker 1: a meaningful fact. A pathway forward. That's a meaningful. That's
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Speaker 1: a meaningful fact. Something that lays itself. In front of you.
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Speaker 1: As a. Stepping point. A stepping path. A pathway to
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Speaker 1: something that you value. That's an opportunity. A quest is a.
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Speaker 1: Pursuit of an opportunity. A quest is a pursuit of
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Speaker 1: a treasure. A treasure. Why is the mythological story the quest? Well,
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Speaker 1: the answer is because you're always in pursuit of the treasure.
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Speaker 1: You're always moving from where you are to somewhere richer
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Speaker 1: and better. Insofar as you're aiming up and attempting to
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Speaker 1: expand your domain of opportunity. What facts that are relevant
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Speaker 1: might you come across along the way? Well, tools. Tools.
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Speaker 1: You can use tools to facilitate your movement forward. Cooperative agents.
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Speaker 1: People that you can work together with to attain a goal. Obstacles.
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Speaker 1: They trigger negative emotion. They stand in your way. Markers
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Speaker 1: of failure. And transformative agents. That's the landscape of meaning
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Speaker 1: and purpose. As you traverse your. As you traverse the
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Speaker 1: landscape of meaning. You aim up. And you move away
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Speaker 1: from what's down. And that's the landscape of good and evil.
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Speaker 1: If good is the ultimate up. And evil is the opposite.
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Speaker 1: Is the ultimate down. The abysmal down. Then you orient
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Speaker 1: yourself along that axis. You see the pathways forward. You
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Speaker 1: move uphill. And. Things come along with you that facilitate
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Speaker 1: your movement forward and indicate progress. Those things please you.
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Speaker 1: Obstacles occur and indicators of failure. Those things displease you,
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Speaker 1: produce negative emotion. And agents of transformation change your goal.
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Speaker 1: And that's the magic of an agent of transformation. Agents
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Speaker 1: of transformation are very common figures in fairy tales, for example.
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Speaker 1: They change the way you look at things. So there
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Speaker 1: is a world of facts, but the world you live
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Speaker 1: in is the world of relevant facts. And the world
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Speaker 1: of relevant facts is a reflection of your structure of value.
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Speaker 1: And that in turn is a reflection of your aim.
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Speaker 2: Imagine your favorite lecture dial that up on max put
15:11
Speaker 2: that on steroids and then add some cinematic elements to
15:15
Speaker 2: it that's the best way i could describe a peterson
15:17
Speaker 2: academy lecture.
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Speaker 3: I went to college because I had to. I go
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Speaker 3: to Peterson Academy because I want to. I'm still paying
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Speaker 3: off college from 10 years ago, and I'm also still
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Speaker 3: questioning the value that I got out of college.
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Speaker 2: In traditional universities, a lot of times it's just pretty dry.
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Speaker 2: They don't bring the same energy as the professors at
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Speaker 2: Peterson Academy.
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Speaker 3: It is a completely different experience to learn from somebody
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Speaker 3: who actually wants to teach you. If you've been on
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Speaker 3: the fence about this, this is the time.
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Speaker 1: That thing that's calling to you, you won't have an
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Speaker 1: answer for it unless you enroll and see for yourself.
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Speaker 1: You have the opportunity to investigate that calling. No aim,
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Speaker 1: no value. That's a conclusion you can derive from that outline.
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Speaker 1: Ultimate aim, ultimate value. That's another conclusion. That's worth knowing.
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Speaker 1: If You experience positive emotion in relationship to a goal.
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Speaker 1: What that implies is that the more lofty the goal
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Speaker 1: that you're pursuing, the more opportunity there is for hope.
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Speaker 1: Hope is the emotion that indicates progress towards a valued goal.
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Speaker 1: No goal, no hope. A goal also, an aim, a
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Speaker 1: value structure also constrains you it delimits possibility in a
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Speaker 1: manner that's equivalent to the regulation of chaos. If you're
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Speaker 1: aimless and directionless, not only are you hopeless, you're anxious.
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Speaker 1: And so a well-constituted structure of value moves you towards
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Speaker 1: your ultimate goal, specifies your objects of perception, orients you emotionally,
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Speaker 1: provides you with hope, And quells anxiety. The embodiment of
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Speaker 1: someone's structure of value. Is their character or their personality. Okay.
17:28
Speaker 1: So that's the next link you need to know. To understand.
17:35
Speaker 1: To understand what we're going to talk about tonight. People
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Speaker 1: portray their. Structure value. In their actions in their patterns
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Speaker 1: of attention and their actions their patterns of attack attention
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Speaker 1: and their patterns of actions are their character or their personality. Okay.
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Speaker 1: Now an account of someone's character or personality. Is a story. Okay.
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Speaker 1: So now, you know why you need stories. You need
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Speaker 1: stories because it's very hard to perceive the world. There's
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Speaker 1: an infinite multitude of facts and their combinations and getting
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Speaker 1: a grip on those and determining which of them are
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Speaker 1: relevant and which aren't under which circumstance is extraordinarily difficult.
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Speaker 1: One of the things we do when we're communicating with
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Speaker 1: other people is we look at their eyes. You know,
18:38
Speaker 1: when you talk to someone, you look at their eyes.
18:41
Speaker 1: The reason you do that is because you want to
18:44
Speaker 1: see where they're pointing their eyes. And the reason you
18:47
Speaker 1: want to see where they're pointing their eyes is because
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Speaker 1: you assume that they're pointing their eyes at something valuable.
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Speaker 1: And the direction of their gaze is an indication of
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Speaker 1: the presence of value. Now, if they're looking at you,
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Speaker 1: which everyone hopes for, at least under the appropriate circumstances,
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Speaker 1: then you understand that they regard you as a source
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Speaker 1: of value. That's what you'd be trying to do on
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Speaker 1: the date that we described at the beginning of this lecture,
19:17
Speaker 1: indicating your value of the person for whatever nefarious ends
19:22
Speaker 1: you might be cooking up. But you could be playing
19:25
Speaker 1: a straight game as well, indicating to the person by
19:28
Speaker 1: your direction of attention, their value in your eyes. Our
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Speaker 1: eyes actually evolved to allow that kind of signaling, you know?
19:39
Speaker 1: Our iris is colorful. It's surrounded by a ring of contrast.
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Speaker 1: It's against a white background because the direction of our
19:49
Speaker 1: gaze is such a tremendously important signal. It's a signal
19:53
Speaker 1: of attentional focus and aim. And it's a place of
19:58
Speaker 1: signaling of associated emotions. When you get to know someone,
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Speaker 1: you get to understand their character and their personality, and
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Speaker 1: you can step into their shoes. That enables you to
20:08
Speaker 1: understand them And that enables you to cooperate with them.
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Speaker 1: But equally importantly, perhaps, it enables you to see the
20:16
Speaker 1: world through their eyes. And that's a tremendous gift. Because
20:21
Speaker 1: it means you can get access to the wisdom they've
20:25
Speaker 1: earned through their struggles without having to go through those
20:29
Speaker 1: struggles yourself. That's what you do when you go see
20:32
Speaker 1: a movie. It's a great mystery that you go see
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Speaker 1: a movie. You'll pay to do it. You'll line up
20:39
Speaker 1: to do it. You'll be enthusiastic about it. The root
20:43
Speaker 1: word of enthusiasm is theos. Deus means to be inspired
20:47
Speaker 1: by God. You can be enthusiastic about going to see
20:50
Speaker 1: a movie. Well, why? Well, it's in a way, it's
20:54
Speaker 1: because you meet the gods in a movie. Now, sometimes literally, right?
20:59
Speaker 1: Or as literal as a movie can be. You go
21:01
Speaker 1: watch a Marvel movie and there are gods in it. Thor, Loki...
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Speaker 1: And the rest of the superheroes. But even if you're
21:11
Speaker 1: just watching. Even if you're watching a movie that's. A
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Speaker 1: more realistic portrayal. You're watching characters and personality unfold in
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Speaker 1: real time. Okay, so what are you doing when you're
21:29
Speaker 1: doing that? Well, let's start with what the movie is
21:33
Speaker 1: doing first. You want the movie to be interesting. You
21:39
Speaker 1: want it to grab your attention. And so what the
21:42
Speaker 1: writer does is he distills the experience of one person
21:47
Speaker 1: or many people into a set of associated interesting experiences. Right?
21:56
Speaker 1: So when you go see the movie, you don't see
21:59
Speaker 1: every single thing the character does second to second in
22:03
Speaker 1: real time. You see something edited So only what's gripping remains.
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Speaker 1: And you see characters that in the main are more
22:15
Speaker 1: than human. Even if the movie is realistic, it's edited
22:19
Speaker 1: so that everything that's only predictable is gone. And only
22:27
Speaker 1: what's informative about the person's character is left. And then
22:32
Speaker 1: you might ask yourself, well, why do you want to
22:35
Speaker 1: see A value structure characterized. So that you can inhabit it,
22:43
Speaker 1: understand it, and benefit from it. So, you watch The
22:49
Speaker 1: Dark Knight. It's a mythologized movie. It's halfway to a
22:55
Speaker 1: religious story. A superhero story is halfway to a religious story.
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Speaker 1: Why are you interested in the characterization of the Joker?
23:05
Speaker 1: Because you're interested in the author of all ill. You
23:10
Speaker 1: want to identify the pathway to the abyss. You want
23:14
Speaker 1: to understand the nature of evil. And not only as
23:18
Speaker 1: it makes itself manifest. In characters in the real world
23:25
Speaker 1: who have wandered off the path. But as an essence.
23:30
Speaker 1: You want to understand evil as that which all people
23:33
Speaker 1: aiming down have in common. And so a great writer
23:39
Speaker 1: extracts out all the structures of value that orient people
23:45
Speaker 1: downward towards pain and suffering and distills it. And then
23:52
Speaker 1: you can watch that character, adopt his frame of reference,
23:57
Speaker 1: evaluate the structure obstacles and facilitators and pathways that make
24:03
Speaker 1: themselves manifest to him, experience the accompanying emotions, embody the experience,
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Speaker 1: and walk away somewhat wiser. You do the same thing
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Speaker 1: when you watch the hero, except it's in the opposite direction.
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Speaker 1: The hero in a movie is an amalgam of heroic
24:27
Speaker 1: patterns of attention and action. And you have the opportunity
24:31
Speaker 1: to evaluate them as they lay themselves out in the
24:35
Speaker 1: fictional world. And to embody them as you observe them.
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Speaker 1: The fiction is a distillation. In our world, because we're naive,
24:46
Speaker 1: we contrast fiction with fact. We say that fact is
24:51
Speaker 1: one thing and fiction is another thing. Fiction is a
24:56
Speaker 1: distillation of the prioritization of facts. It's an abstraction. It's
25:03
Speaker 1: a very, very, very profound form of truth. It's truth
25:08
Speaker 1: as it manifests itself in character. And since you're a character,
25:13
Speaker 1: there's no truth deeper than mythological characterization. Right now. So
25:25
Speaker 1: what happens? So what happens in the biblical Corpus? The
25:41
Speaker 1: character that defines the highest possible orientation is portrayed and explored.
25:50
Speaker 1: The biblical, the Bible is a library of stories. And
25:55
Speaker 1: each story presents the character from a slightly different angle.
26:06
Speaker 1: Who is the character? Well, there's two. There's God and
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Speaker 1: human beings. Right? And God is characterized and human beings
26:18
Speaker 1: are characterized in relationship to God. And That means that
26:22
Speaker 1: human beings are characterized in relationship to the infinite. It's
26:26
Speaker 1: something like that. We have to be characterized in relationship
26:30
Speaker 1: to the infinite because we exist despite our finitude in
26:34
Speaker 1: relationship to the infinite. Managing that relationship is very difficult
26:41
Speaker 1: because we're bounded and mortal. There's only so much we
26:45
Speaker 1: can do and take. So the relationship has to be
26:51
Speaker 1: Filtered and particularized. The God of the tabernacle is veiled.
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Speaker 1: That's because the infinite is veiled from us. But also
27:03
Speaker 1: has to be. There's only so much you can take.
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Speaker 1: As you tell yourself and other people frequently. The full revelation.
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Speaker 1: A full revelation would destroy everything. How is God characterized?
27:23
Speaker 1: All right, so now you see, this is a different
27:25
Speaker 1: approach to the religious problem. I made some reference to
27:30
Speaker 1: Dawkins at the beginning. Dawkins characterizes the religious endeavor, well,
27:37
Speaker 1: first of all, as the sum of all evil, which
27:41
Speaker 1: I think is not very fair because you can find
27:45
Speaker 1: evil everywhere and limiting it to the religious domain is foolish.
27:50
Speaker 1: There's economic evil and political evil and social evil and
27:54
Speaker 1: familial evil and there's evil in love. It's everywhere. And
28:01
Speaker 1: to delimit it arbitrarily like that and to attribute it,
28:04
Speaker 1: let's say, to the religious enterprise is convenient but preposterous.
28:10
Speaker 1: But also, it's based on a misapprehension of what the
28:15
Speaker 1: religious endeavor is attempting to do. It's attempting to characterize
28:21
Speaker 1: the good. It's attempting to characterize. Good and evil. And
28:28
Speaker 1: it's attempting to characterize man. In relationship to good and evil.
28:33
Speaker 1: Now you might say. I don't believe in good. And
28:36
Speaker 1: my response to that would be. You don't know what
28:39
Speaker 1: you're talking about. You simply don't know what you're talking about.
28:44
Speaker 1: Because you can't. Prioritize your attention without. acting out a
28:50
Speaker 1: relationship with the good. What you believe is good is
28:55
Speaker 1: what you attend to. That's why you attend to it.
29:00
Speaker 1: Attention is expensive. It's a sacrificial gesture. When you attend
29:05
Speaker 1: to one thing, you forego the attention you could pay
29:09
Speaker 1: to everything else. That's an opportunity cost. That's a sacrifice.
29:13
Speaker 1: And when you Attend to one thing, you celebrate it
29:18
Speaker 1: and worship it. You put it on a pedestal. You
29:22
Speaker 1: can do that excessively. You might do that on your
29:24
Speaker 1: first date, for example. Because everything in its proper place.
29:30
Speaker 1: But to attend to something is to raise it above
29:33
Speaker 1: all else. To raise something above all else and to
29:37
Speaker 1: devote attention to it, is the same as establishing a
29:42
Speaker 1: relationship with what's good. It's the same thing. And so,
29:49
Speaker 1: You may have a fractured idea of what constitutes good.
29:53
Speaker 1: You might have an incoherent account of it. You might
29:56
Speaker 1: not be able to make sense of how what's good
30:00
Speaker 1: makes itself manifest in your life. But that doesn't mean
30:04
Speaker 1: that you're not inhabiting that landscape. You have no choice.
30:13
Speaker 1: That's why we wrestle with God. Because every decision we make,
30:19
Speaker 1: Every decision we make, every glance we take is a
30:25
Speaker 1: moral act within the landscape of up and down, within
30:30
Speaker 1: the landscape of good and evil. The biblical corpus is
30:35
Speaker 1: an attempt to characterize good and evil and man's relationship
30:41
Speaker 1: to them. It sets forward, it sets forth a series
30:47
Speaker 1: of characterizations. So let's walk through them. The first characterization
31:00
Speaker 1: occurs in Genesis 1, where God is presented as the
31:06
Speaker 1: spirit associated with the word that moves on the face
31:12
Speaker 1: of the chaotic and deep, tohu vabohu. What's that? It's
31:23
Speaker 1: something like possibility. Okay, so what's the idea there? The
31:30
Speaker 1: idea is that the spirit that gives rise to the order,
31:36
Speaker 1: to the order that is good, is the spirit that
31:41
Speaker 1: interacts with possibility in a certain manner, in a manner
31:45
Speaker 1: that's characterized by the definition of the divine word. The
31:50
Speaker 1: divine word is... conceptualization that aims upward in love and
31:56
Speaker 1: orients itself in truth. The spirit of divinity in Genesis
32:02
Speaker 1: 1 is characterized as the spirit that brings order to
32:06
Speaker 1: possibility and chaos with upward aim and in truth. Okay,
32:14
Speaker 1: so what does that mean? Well, It's best understood in
32:23
Speaker 1: a relational manner. There's an insistence in Genesis 1 that
32:27
Speaker 1: human beings are made in the image of God. Man
32:29
Speaker 1: and women are made in the image of God. Now,
32:32
Speaker 1: that's a fundamental proposition. Make no mistake about it. The
32:37
Speaker 1: reason that you all have rights, the reason we understand
32:43
Speaker 1: the idea of rights and their requisite responsibility is is
32:48
Speaker 1: because the system of conceptualization in which those ideas exist
32:55
Speaker 1: emerged from the notion that human beings are manifestations of
33:02
Speaker 1: the transcendently divine order and have, in consequence, an intrinsic
33:09
Speaker 1: worth that's inviolable. You can't violate it even with your
33:13
Speaker 1: own criminality. The state cannot impose on it. You can't
33:19
Speaker 1: impose on it even in relationship to yourself. Your intrinsic
33:25
Speaker 1: value transcends the natural and social order. Okay. Is there
33:37
Speaker 1: any justification for that claim? Well, here's a way of
33:41
Speaker 1: thinking about it. Your spirit is made in the image
33:48
Speaker 1: of God. The closest word we have in modern parlance
33:56
Speaker 1: to spirit is consciousness. You might ask yourself, what does
34:01
Speaker 1: your consciousness do? What are its objects? Well, we laid
34:06
Speaker 1: it out a little bit. The objects of your consciousness
34:09
Speaker 1: are not facts. They're relevant facts. But there's more to it.
34:18
Speaker 1: The objects of your consciousness are something like the realm of,
34:24
Speaker 1: the realm of the infinite potential. That's a good way
34:27
Speaker 1: of thinking about it. When you wake up in the morning,
34:30
Speaker 1: what occupies your consciousness? This is why you're conscious in
34:34
Speaker 1: the morning. Well, it's the possibilities of the day. Now,
34:37
Speaker 1: if your life is in disorder and disarray, the possibilities
34:43
Speaker 1: of the day will make themselves manifest to you in
34:46
Speaker 1: a manner that evokes anxiety. Too many directions. Too many
34:51
Speaker 1: things crowding in on you. Too many facts at hand.
34:56
Speaker 1: If things are well ordered for you. Then the possibilities
34:59
Speaker 1: of the day. Will make themselves manifest. As the opportunity that.
35:04
Speaker 1: Compels you forward. And what it is. What is it
35:08
Speaker 1: that you undertake to do. When you awaken. You undertake
35:14
Speaker 1: to take the possibility. That's at hand. And to. wrestle
35:20
Speaker 1: with it so that you produce the order that is
35:23
Speaker 1: good or very good. If you're operating as you should
35:32
Speaker 1: in relationship to yourself and to those you love and
35:36
Speaker 1: to your community and to the future, then you shape
35:42
Speaker 1: that possibility, that chaos, into the actuality that's beneficial at
35:49
Speaker 1: all those levels simultaneously. And that makes you admirable, self-confident,
35:59
Speaker 1: relatively free of existential terror, faithful, courageous, and possessed of hope.
36:10
Speaker 1: There's no difference between that and the biblical idea that's
36:14
Speaker 1: expressed in Genesis 1 of walking with God. That's the
36:21
Speaker 1: same idea. Paradise vanishes when people cease to walk with God.
36:28
Speaker 1: Paradise vanishes when people cease to employ their central affinity
36:35
Speaker 1: with the divine word when needed. interacting with the possibility
36:41
Speaker 1: that lays itself out in front of them. The fundamental
36:44
Speaker 1: object of your consciousness is equivalent to the chaos that
36:50
Speaker 1: God moves upon, not only at the beginning of time,
36:56
Speaker 1: but now and forever. It's that affinity that defines the
37:02
Speaker 1: human being. And it's that Transformation of possibility into beneficial
37:11
Speaker 1: actuality that constitutes the first characterization of God. The second
37:18
Speaker 1: characterization of God occurs when Adam and Eve overreach as
37:25
Speaker 1: a consequence of their sin of pride. Human beings are
37:31
Speaker 1: characterized as those creatures that will overreach as a consequence
37:36
Speaker 1: of pride. And God is characterized as the spirit that
37:48
Speaker 1: objects to that prideful overreach. How can you understand that? Well,
37:53
Speaker 1: how often do you bite off more than you can chew?
37:57
Speaker 1: And how often do you do that because you fail
38:00
Speaker 1: to attend? How often do you do that because you're...
38:04
Speaker 1: Putting forward something within yourself that shouldn't be put forward.
38:10
Speaker 1: Adam overreaches to impress Eve. That's the eternal sin of men.
38:17
Speaker 1: Eve overreaches to impress herself with her ability to even
38:21
Speaker 1: clasp serpents to her breast. That's the eternal sin of Eve.
38:29
Speaker 1: Those are characterizations of human beings and their proclivity to
38:33
Speaker 1: go astray. And God is the spirit that responds to
38:40
Speaker 1: that overreach with the dissolution of the paradisal state. How
38:46
Speaker 1: does that make itself manifest in your life? Well, how
38:51
Speaker 1: many failures have you encountered that were a direct consequence
38:57
Speaker 1: of your cataclysmic arrogance? Well, it's really a serious question.
39:04
Speaker 1: You know, there's an emphasis in Christian theology. It's very
39:07
Speaker 1: difficult to make sense of. There's an idea in Christian
39:10
Speaker 1: theology that suffering enters the world with Adam and Eve's sin.
39:15
Speaker 1: So the idea there is that suffering is a consequence
39:19
Speaker 1: of prideful overreach. Now, this is a hard idea to
39:22
Speaker 1: wrestle with because suffering in some ways seems to be
39:25
Speaker 1: built into the structure of existence, right? Because we all are... fragile,
39:30
Speaker 1: we're mortal, we age, we're subject to decay. To some degree,
39:35
Speaker 1: that appears to be independent of our ethical orientation, although
39:40
Speaker 1: you can certainly make your life a lot shorter and
39:43
Speaker 1: a lot worse with some effort. And so we do understand.
39:47
Speaker 1: What we do understand. That there's a relationship. Between our
39:51
Speaker 1: inability to aim properly. And the suffering that visits us.
39:55
Speaker 1: And there's an open question. In consequence of that. Which
39:59
Speaker 1: is something like. If you ceased overreaching. And continued to
40:06
Speaker 1: walk with God. How much of the suffering. That characterizes
40:10
Speaker 1: the world. Would vanish. It's akin to. A related question,
40:16
Speaker 1: the question being, if you were as good as you
40:20
Speaker 1: could be, how much better would everyone around you become?
40:29
Speaker 1: In the story of Cain and Abel, God is characterized
40:35
Speaker 1: as the object of proper sacrifice. This is a definition.
40:45
Speaker 1: What does sacrifice mean? If you understand this, you have
40:49
Speaker 1: a key to understanding the entire biblical story. If you
40:55
Speaker 1: understand sacrifice, it's difficult to understand because it's multidimensional in
41:00
Speaker 1: its meaning. But one of its more straightforward meanings is
41:04
Speaker 1: simply work. There's no difference between sacrifice and work. Human
41:10
Speaker 1: beings work. Why? Why? Because we're self-conscious. Right? Part of
41:17
Speaker 1: Adam and Eve's awakening is the dawn of self-consciousness. Their
41:20
Speaker 1: eyes open and they realize that they're naked. Right? They
41:24
Speaker 1: realize their mortal vulnerability. And the reason we work is
41:29
Speaker 1: because we realize our mortal vulnerability. We know that even
41:32
Speaker 1: if things are good right now. Look. Imagine you're a zebra.
41:38
Speaker 1: You're out on the veldt with all the other zebras.
41:40
Speaker 1: And the lions are sleeping. And what do you think?
41:44
Speaker 1: with your zebra mind. Something like, there's nothing dangerous about
41:50
Speaker 1: sleeping lions. Well, what's the problem with that theory? Well,
41:56
Speaker 1: the same lions in the future will be awake and
41:59
Speaker 1: then they'll be hungry. And so a sensible group of
42:03
Speaker 1: zebras would get together and stomp the lions when they're asleep.
42:09
Speaker 1: But because they have no sense of their boundaries or
42:13
Speaker 1: their future, They have no comprehension of the future and
42:18
Speaker 1: its dangers. We have plenty of apprehension of the future
42:23
Speaker 1: and its dangers and its promises. And in consequence, we
42:28
Speaker 1: organize our actions so that we sacrifice the present to
42:33
Speaker 1: the future. That's what work is, right? Work is delayed gratification.
42:41
Speaker 1: Work is investment in tomorrow. Work is a covenant with tomorrow, right?
42:48
Speaker 1: Work is a covenant with the spirit that rewards proper sacrifices.
42:54
Speaker 1: That's why the relationship with God in the Old Testament
42:57
Speaker 1: is characterized as covenantal. It's because we act out the
43:01
Speaker 1: notion of a contractual relationship when we work. You work
43:07
Speaker 1: so you can get a paycheck in two weeks. You
43:09
Speaker 1: put some of your money in the bank. So you
43:11
Speaker 1: can invest for the long run. You do that on
43:14
Speaker 1: the understanding. That if you make the proper sacrifice in
43:19
Speaker 1: the present. You will be rewarded in the future. That's
43:23
Speaker 1: a contract in the covenant. And it's faith predicated. Now
43:28
Speaker 1: if you're sensible. You keep the covenant in all its dimensions.
43:35
Speaker 1: Because by doing so, you stabilize your society in precisely
43:42
Speaker 1: the manner that increases the probability that your future investments
43:45
Speaker 1: will in fact pay off. Right? Because you invest wisely
43:51
Speaker 1: only if, only under conditions of sufficient stability, so that
43:57
Speaker 1: immediate gratification is not the best bet. And you do
44:01
Speaker 1: that In your faith that things are organized well enough
44:05
Speaker 1: so that what you invest will be returned to you.
44:09
Speaker 1: That's an action of trust. And trust is dependent on
44:14
Speaker 1: the maintenance of an ethos of honesty. And so the
44:20
Speaker 1: value of your work is dependent on the trust of
44:25
Speaker 1: That characterizes your society. And that in turn is dependent
44:28
Speaker 1: on the moral action and orientation. Of everyone who makes
44:33
Speaker 1: up that society. The covenant that guarantees that sacrifices will
44:39
Speaker 1: be amply repaid. Extends to include the actions that stabilize
44:45
Speaker 1: the processes. That make that return likely. And there's no
44:51
Speaker 1: real difference between that. There's no real difference between that
44:54
Speaker 1: and the psychological sense in maturation. If you're a mature person,
44:58
Speaker 1: you don't run your life by impulsive whim. That's what
45:01
Speaker 1: you do when you're two. When you're grown up, you
45:06
Speaker 1: take into account the ramifications of your behavior into the
45:09
Speaker 1: future to govern your behavior in the present. And you
45:13
Speaker 1: take into effect the effect of your actions on the
45:16
Speaker 1: people around you. And that's the definition of maturation. And
45:21
Speaker 1: It's really the ability to see over that long span
45:24
Speaker 1: of time and in that multidimensional manner that actually characterizes
45:29
Speaker 1: neurological maturation and development. When you're young, when you're two,
45:36
Speaker 1: when you're a toddler, when you're impulsive, you're at the
45:40
Speaker 1: mercy of your instinctual whims, and they have a very
45:44
Speaker 1: short-term time horizons. And you might... There's something wonderful about that.
45:49
Speaker 1: There's something wonderful about being around toddlers with their unbridled
45:53
Speaker 1: emotionality and motivation and enthusiasm. But if you put ten
45:59
Speaker 1: of them in the forest for a week, they're dead.
46:04
Speaker 1: And while that's an indication that the notion of moral
46:08
Speaker 1: relativism is incorrect, right? There's a directionality in maturation. And
46:15
Speaker 1: the directionality... involves the transformation of that short-term mode of
46:24
Speaker 1: apprehension into the long-term and pro-social view that characterizes the
46:30
Speaker 1: proper covenant. Cain and Abel make sacrifices. It's a hard
46:36
Speaker 1: thing to understand because it's couched in archaic language. Cain
46:42
Speaker 1: offers what second rate sacrifice? Abel offers the finest that
46:49
Speaker 1: he has. What does that mean? God accepts Abel's offering
46:56
Speaker 1: and rejects Cain's offering. Well, how do you understand that?
47:05
Speaker 1: It will take everything you have to keep the covenant properly.
47:09
Speaker 1: That's how you understand it. Anything you offer that's second-rate
47:13
Speaker 1: will be insufficient. To adapt properly to the conditions, to
47:18
Speaker 1: the dreadful conditions of your life, it will require your
47:25
Speaker 1: total commitment. God is conceptualized in the story of Cain
47:30
Speaker 1: and Abel as the spirit that punishes those who sacrifice
47:34
Speaker 1: in a second-rate manner. And then you can ask yourself
47:39
Speaker 1: this with regard to your own moral orientation. Do you
47:44
Speaker 1: admire people who are convicted and committed? Are you proud
47:50
Speaker 1: of yourself in those moments when true self-esteem is justified,
47:55
Speaker 1: when you observe yourself convicted and committed? Or when you're
48:00
Speaker 1: playing both ends against the middle and trying to pull
48:03
Speaker 1: the wool over your eyes, the eyes of people you love,
48:07
Speaker 1: society at large, and God? Conscience calls you out on
48:16
Speaker 1: your failure to sacrifice properly. In the Old Testament corpus,
48:23
Speaker 1: conscience is one manifestation of God's character. In the story
48:34
Speaker 1: of Noah, which is the next story, Cain is... Cain
48:42
Speaker 1: sacrifices him properly. Okay, so what happens to him? Well,
48:46
Speaker 1: he becomes murderous first. He becomes insanely jealous, right? And
48:49
Speaker 1: not only insanely jealous, but insanely jealous of his brother.
48:54
Speaker 1: Not just his brother, his own ideal. Right? And then
49:00
Speaker 1: he destroys his own ideal in his bitterness and resentment.
49:03
Speaker 1: And then his children become murderous and genocidal. Cain's inhabitants
49:13
Speaker 1: fill the earth, and God determines to destroy everything. Is
49:21
Speaker 1: that real? Well, what happens when everyone becomes bitter and resentful,
49:30
Speaker 1: stops making the right sacrifices, becomes vengeful and murderous, and
49:37
Speaker 1: destroys their own ideals? It's happened in many countries in
49:43
Speaker 1: the 20th century. And the consequence was the flood. A
49:49
Speaker 1: flood of blood. That's what happens in the story of Noah. Okay,
49:55
Speaker 1: what's God in the story of Noah? God is the
49:58
Speaker 1: spirit that calls the wise in their time to prepare
50:05
Speaker 1: when chaos looms. It's a definition. So imagine that you're
50:10
Speaker 1: like Noah. You're someone wise in your generations. What does
50:14
Speaker 1: that mean? It means that for your time and place,
50:18
Speaker 1: you're a good man or woman, which is all you
50:22
Speaker 1: can really expect from, which is almost all you can
50:26
Speaker 1: expect from someone, right? To be good within the confines
50:31
Speaker 1: of your time and place. And Noah is presented. That's
50:36
Speaker 1: his characterization. And he receives a message telling him that
50:46
Speaker 1: all hell is about to break loose and that he
50:48
Speaker 1: needs to shepherd his family, his community, and the natural
50:56
Speaker 1: order itself through the flood. And that's what you're called
51:02
Speaker 1: on to do. What does that mean? Well, cataclysms come
51:08
Speaker 1: in various orders of magnitude. We'll all go through periods
51:15
Speaker 1: in our lives where things fall apart around us. And
51:18
Speaker 1: now and then, collectively, we go through periods of time
51:21
Speaker 1: where everything falls apart around everyone, everywhere. If you're wise...
51:33
Speaker 1: you'll hearken to the voice that warns you that such
51:37
Speaker 1: occurrences are pending, and you'll make whatever preparations are necessary,
51:43
Speaker 1: despite the noise of the mob. And that's Noah's role.
51:50
Speaker 1: And so his characterization as a good man presents him
51:58
Speaker 1: as someone who's in alignment with his calling and his conscience.
52:02
Speaker 1: but whose vision is also untrammeled. One of the things
52:09
Speaker 1: I realized many decades ago that scared me to the core,
52:13
Speaker 1: I would say, was that there are times in your
52:16
Speaker 1: life where you will have to rely on your judgment.
52:21
Speaker 1: Your judgment. So then you ask yourself, well, how do
52:27
Speaker 1: you know you can rely on your judgment?
52:28
Speaker 3: Right?
52:30
Speaker 1: How do you know if you can rely on anyone's judgment?
52:33
Speaker 1: You ask yourself that. Whose judgment do you rely on? Well,
52:36
Speaker 1: you rely on the judgment of people who have proved
52:39
Speaker 1: themselves to you as honest and reliable. Their patterns of
52:45
Speaker 1: attention and action indicate their honesty and reliability. You assume,
52:50
Speaker 1: in consequence, that their vision is clear and that they
52:53
Speaker 1: can be trusted. Those are the people you might trust.
52:55
Speaker 1: call upon for counsel, or use as a confidant. The
52:59
Speaker 1: same thing applies to yourself. The acuity of your vision
53:05
Speaker 1: is proportionate to the clarity of your purpose. If you
53:13
Speaker 1: have deviated from the path, which is what sin means,
53:18
Speaker 1: sin means to miss the mark, by the way, three
53:21
Speaker 1: different languages have the same derivation, same grammar, insistence that
53:26
Speaker 1: to err is to miss the target. If you purposefully
53:32
Speaker 1: miss the target, you obscure your vision. What's the consequence?
53:36
Speaker 1: When the crunch comes, first of all, you might not
53:39
Speaker 1: even notice it until it's too late. Or you'll be
53:43
Speaker 1: so addled in your judgment that you won't be able
53:45
Speaker 1: to make the proper preparations. And if the crisis is acute,
53:49
Speaker 1: that'll be worse than fatal. And you might say, well,
53:53
Speaker 1: what's worse than fatal? Well, how about the occurrence that
53:58
Speaker 1: results in the prolonged suffering of the people you love?
54:05
Speaker 1: Disorient yourself at your peril. That's a violation of the
54:09
Speaker 1: covenant with what is described as God in the Old
54:13
Speaker 1: Testament corpus. Noah walks with God. That's the definition of
54:21
Speaker 1: his goodness. In consequence, when he has an intuition... A
54:25
Speaker 1: revelation that trouble is brewing. He can trust himself. He
54:33
Speaker 1: can take action. And he's correct. That's what makes him
54:37
Speaker 1: a prophet. How do you become a prophet? By seeing
54:42
Speaker 1: what's right in front of your eyes. How does societies
54:49
Speaker 1: fall apart under the dominion of the false sacrifices of Cain?
54:53
Speaker 1: The flood comes. That's not the only way. Totalitarian tyranny beckons.
55:01
Speaker 1: That's the Tower of Babel. Cain's descendants build cities. They
55:07
Speaker 1: worship technology. It isn't that technology in and of itself,
55:13
Speaker 1: or human intellectual activity, is reprehensible. It's that it's reprehensible
55:23
Speaker 1: when it's put in the highest place. And those who
55:27
Speaker 1: worship technology do that. They're the builders of the Tower
55:31
Speaker 1: of Babel. Babel is Babylon. Babylon is the symbolic city
55:36
Speaker 1: of the tyrant in the biblical corpus. Now you see
55:39
Speaker 1: variants of that. Sometimes it's Rome. Sometimes it's Sodom. Sometimes
55:44
Speaker 1: it's Gomorrah. Although those are more holidays of chaos. Babylon
55:49
Speaker 1: is the tyranny of the presumptuous spirit. Why a tower? Well,
55:58
Speaker 1: because at the time in Babylon, potentates in the Middle
56:03
Speaker 1: East had competitions within cities and between states to build
56:08
Speaker 1: the highest tower as testaments to their divine presumption. Societies
56:20
Speaker 1: that deteriorated in the past made their leaders into gods.
56:25
Speaker 1: We haven't stopped doing that. It's exactly what happened in
56:28
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. It's exactly what happened in Nazi Germany.
56:32
Speaker 1: It's exactly what happened in Maoist China. It's still happening
56:36
Speaker 1: in North Korea. The ruler who's elevated to the position
56:42
Speaker 1: of the highest becomes the tyrant who produces the Tower
56:45
Speaker 1: of Babel. That's a technological enterprise oriented to the wrong end.
56:53
Speaker 1: What's the consequence? No one can understand each other anymore.
57:00
Speaker 1: All right. Words lose their meaning. Does that ring any bells?
57:10
Speaker 1: What is a woman? When that word loses its meaning,
57:25
Speaker 1: we all speak different languages. And the tower comes tumbling down. Right?
57:32
Speaker 1: And I mean that very specifically because I believe as
57:36
Speaker 1: a cognitive psychologist that there is no category of apprehension
57:41
Speaker 1: more fundamental than that of sex. Creatures without nervous systems
57:47
Speaker 1: can detect the difference between sexes. Otherwise, they die. Right.
57:53
Speaker 1: If people lose their apprehension of that fundamental reality, all
57:59
Speaker 1: words lose their meaning. Right. And you can see part
58:06
Speaker 1: of the reason that you're here tonight is because you
58:08
Speaker 1: can see that happening. Right. The next story is the
58:14
Speaker 1: story of Abraham. Now, Abraham is... As the stories progress,
58:22
Speaker 1: the human characters become more realistic. They become more fully human.
58:31
Speaker 1: Cain and Abel are almost purely archetypal. Cain and Abel
58:34
Speaker 1: are representations of the two patterns of adaptation that war
58:40
Speaker 1: with each other eternally within the human soul. The proclivity
58:45
Speaker 1: to aim up and to sacrifice properly. The pathway of Abel.
58:48
Speaker 1: And the bitter, resentful, callous, prideful, murderous pattern of Cain.
58:56
Speaker 1: The earliest representations of the eternal battle between Christ and
59:01
Speaker 1: Satan in its nascent form. Noah, again, is deeply mythologized.
59:10
Speaker 1: He's emblematic of the pattern of being that shepherds family
59:18
Speaker 1: and society through crisis. With Abraham, we get quite a
59:27
Speaker 1: fully developed character, person. With much of the historical context
59:36
Speaker 1: left intact. Who is Abraham? Well, he's a late bloomer.
59:46
Speaker 1: Abraham comes from a rich family. And he lolls around
59:51
Speaker 1: his tent till he's 75. Not his tent. His father's tent. Right? So.
59:58
Speaker 1: And why? Because he can't. Abraham has everything that you
1:00:07
Speaker 1: hypothetically need. This is why you maintain skepticism in the
1:00:16
Speaker 1: presence of utopian promises. There's no reason for Abraham to
1:00:21
Speaker 1: leave home. All of his needs are satisfied. Insofar as
1:00:28
Speaker 1: the conceptualization of need and satiation is. covers the domain
1:00:36
Speaker 1: of human experience, which it does badly. An infant who's
1:00:43
Speaker 1: been fed and is sheltered and held can sleep. There's
1:00:49
Speaker 1: no need for consciousness. Abraham is living a life of ease,
1:00:56
Speaker 1: but it's not a life because a life of ease
1:01:00
Speaker 1: is not a life. A life of voluntarily undertaken difficulty
1:01:06
Speaker 1: is a life. And there's no difference between that and
1:01:11
Speaker 1: an adventure. God in the story of Abraham is the
1:01:16
Speaker 1: call of the spirit of adventure. And it comes to
1:01:20
Speaker 1: Abraham when he's 75. And it says to him something
1:01:23
Speaker 1: very direct. It says... Get out of your father's tent.
1:01:33
Speaker 1: Get away from your family. Leave your countrymen and your comfort.
1:01:37
Speaker 1: And go to strange and foreign places and make your way.
1:01:45
Speaker 1: And if you do that, then I'll make you a
1:01:50
Speaker 1: blessing to yourself. I'll make your name resound among other people.
1:01:57
Speaker 1: I'll make your descendants numerous beyond count. And I'll make
1:02:02
Speaker 1: you and them a blessing to everyone. That's the promise
1:02:08
Speaker 1: of God. Do you believe in that promise? It's not
1:02:15
Speaker 1: a matter of your acceptance of a set of descriptive facts.
1:02:19
Speaker 1: It's a matter of your willingness to be motivated by
1:02:22
Speaker 1: a particular spirit. Did you leave home?
1:02:26
Speaker 3: Why?
1:02:28
Speaker 1: Why? Do you find yourself impelled to leave your zone
1:02:34
Speaker 1: of comfort? Do you find yourself dissatisfied with mere comfort?
1:02:42
Speaker 1: That's a more, that's a deeper question. You can imagine
1:02:47
Speaker 1: infantile security as the logical end of striving. But that's
1:02:55
Speaker 1: not in accordance with the reality of your own experience.
1:03:00
Speaker 1: If all your romantic partner offers you is security, you're
1:03:05
Speaker 1: going to be bored into frustration rapidly. What do you want?
1:03:12
Speaker 1: You want a challenge. The word Eve means beneficial adversary. Why? Well,
1:03:24
Speaker 1: because a beneficial adversary is a partner in play. Imagine
1:03:29
Speaker 1: you're playing one-on-one basketball. You're six foot four. Your nephew's over.
1:03:35
Speaker 1: He's four foot two. So you think, I can stomp
1:03:43
Speaker 1: the little guy. And you go out into your driveway
1:03:48
Speaker 1: and you make 50 baskets and he makes none. And
1:03:53
Speaker 1: maybe you push him over once or twice just for
1:03:56
Speaker 1: good measure. And you've won. So why not do that?
1:04:04
Speaker 1: Well the answer is. Well there's two. That's not the
1:04:11
Speaker 1: right way to play. And it's no fun. Well why not?
1:04:15
Speaker 1: You're winning. Well isn't winning the point? Well your children
1:04:22
Speaker 1: will ask you that. Especially when they're cheating to win.
1:04:24
Speaker 1: Well isn't winning the point? Isn't winning the point? You
1:04:27
Speaker 1: don't know how to answer that because obviously winning is
1:04:29
Speaker 1: the point. But the way you answer this doesn't matter
1:04:32
Speaker 1: whether you win or lose. It's how you play the game.
1:04:35
Speaker 1: You've got that cliche at hand, but you have no
1:04:37
Speaker 1: idea why it's true. Even though it is true. Why
1:04:40
Speaker 1: is it true? Cheat and have no friends.
1:04:45
Speaker 2: Right.
1:04:45
Speaker 1: Well, then you win the game, but you lose the
1:04:47
Speaker 1: game of games, right? Because if you try to win
1:04:51
Speaker 1: and you play by the rules and you play fair
1:04:53
Speaker 1: and you're fun, then people keep inviting you to play games.
1:04:56
Speaker 1: And that's how you win. And the spirit of play
1:04:59
Speaker 1: is an indication of the presence of that occurrence. And
1:05:03
Speaker 1: what you really want is not security, but life optimally
1:05:07
Speaker 1: on the edge. And you need a partner who keeps
1:05:09
Speaker 1: you there. And that's where you dance. And you dance
1:05:12
Speaker 1: so that you're flexible in the face of life's challenges.
1:05:16
Speaker 1: And you manifest sufficient faith to make those challenges welcome.
1:05:20
Speaker 1: And that's what Abraham does. The voice of adventure comes
1:05:23
Speaker 1: to him. And he follows it. Well, that means he believes.
1:05:30
Speaker 1: It's not a statable set of propositions, precisely. It's an
1:05:35
Speaker 1: orientation to the world. Now, there's an offer embedded in
1:05:41
Speaker 1: the story that's unbelievably profound. And it's so optimistic. So,
1:05:45
Speaker 1: you know, you want to encourage your children. What does
1:05:48
Speaker 1: it mean to encourage them? It means to reward them for...
1:05:55
Speaker 1: surpassing their limits, right? You want them to move continually
1:06:00
Speaker 1: and more effectively farther and farther out there into the world. Okay,
1:06:05
Speaker 1: why do you want that? Because you assume that if
1:06:08
Speaker 1: they develop that ability, if they develop the courage and
1:06:12
Speaker 1: the faith to move forthrightly out into the world, That
1:06:16
Speaker 1: they will be a credit to themselves and to you
1:06:18
Speaker 1: and to everyone who knows them. And to the degree
1:06:21
Speaker 1: that you love them in your encouragement, that's what you
1:06:24
Speaker 1: want to see. And when you see them doing that,
1:06:26
Speaker 1: then that fills you with the sense that you're manifesting
1:06:30
Speaker 1: the proper spirit of the Father. That's what Abraham endeavors
1:06:36
Speaker 1: to do. And God tells him that if you abide
1:06:41
Speaker 1: by the calling of the spirit of adventure... Then you'll
1:06:48
Speaker 1: be a blessing to yourself and to the world and
1:06:51
Speaker 1: the founder of a nation. Now, that's a good deal.
1:06:54
Speaker 1: So imagine this. Imagine that you have an impetus towards
1:07:01
Speaker 1: an adventure. The adventure can be of any scale. It's
1:07:05
Speaker 1: the adventure that puts you outside your zone of comfort
1:07:09
Speaker 1: in a manner that's optimally challenging, right? Not too much,
1:07:14
Speaker 1: but not too little. Right on the edge. That's the
1:07:16
Speaker 1: line between yin and yang, by the way. That's the Tao.
1:07:20
Speaker 1: That's the eternal way. You can feel that because you're
1:07:25
Speaker 1: maximally incentivized when you occupy that position. What's the promise
1:07:31
Speaker 1: in God's revelation to Abraham? There's nothing you could do
1:07:36
Speaker 1: that would be better for yourself, now and in the
1:07:40
Speaker 1: long run, and for everyone you love and your descendants...
1:07:44
Speaker 1: And for everyone else. Than to hearken to that voice.
1:07:50
Speaker 1: In faith and courage. Now you know that you wish
1:07:55
Speaker 1: that you had the courage to believe that. And you
1:07:58
Speaker 1: know that the best times in your life have been
1:08:00
Speaker 1: when you dared that. And you ask yourself... whether you
1:08:05
Speaker 1: want to or not, what your life could be like
1:08:08
Speaker 1: if you did that all the time, wholeheartedly, all in,
1:08:12
Speaker 1: offering your best without reservation. And God has an answer
1:08:16
Speaker 1: to that in the story. God is the source of
1:08:19
Speaker 1: the answer to that in the story of Abraham. The
1:08:22
Speaker 1: answer is everything you want and need in a manner
1:08:26
Speaker 1: that gives everyone else everything they want and need forever.
1:08:32
Speaker 1: No difference between that and the reappearance of paradise. No
1:08:36
Speaker 1: difference between that and the establishment of the heavenly Jerusalem.
1:08:41
Speaker 1: The same thing. What's Abraham called upon to do? Lift
1:08:46
Speaker 1: the burden of his life. And make the appropriate sacrifices.
1:08:53
Speaker 1: Abraham leaves and he brings his wife. He brings his family.
1:08:58
Speaker 1: He brings his wife. staff with him on the adventure.
1:09:04
Speaker 1: You don't have to go into the world alone. You
1:09:07
Speaker 1: can journey with other people. There'll be plenty for them
1:09:11
Speaker 1: to do in the adventure as well. He leaves. He
1:09:16
Speaker 1: makes the first sacrifice. He offers something up to God.
1:09:22
Speaker 1: What does that mean? It means to offer something upward.
1:09:25
Speaker 1: What does that mean? It means to take something of
1:09:28
Speaker 1: value and to devote it towards something that's even more valuable.
1:09:33
Speaker 1: You know, when new opportunities emerge in front of you
1:09:36
Speaker 1: in your life, you have to sacrifice. Well, let's say
1:09:40
Speaker 1: that you started a business and it's starting to be successful.
1:09:44
Speaker 1: And you're not the world's best manager because you're too lazy. Fundamentally.
1:09:49
Speaker 1: You're not disciplined enough. So there's a part of you
1:09:52
Speaker 1: that's immature. There's dead wood. You're partly dead wood. And
1:09:56
Speaker 1: so you want to move forward with that opportunity. So
1:09:59
Speaker 1: that it makes itself fully manifest. What do you sacrifice?
1:10:05
Speaker 1: You painfully sacrifice your own stupidity. And that is a
1:10:10
Speaker 1: sacrifice that's pleasing to God. Because you're probably in love
1:10:14
Speaker 1: with your stupidity. And you... It pleases God to be
1:10:18
Speaker 1: offered something that you love in service of something that's higher.
1:10:23
Speaker 1: And I would say as well that that's also a
1:10:24
Speaker 1: hallmark of maturity and commitment. And you can imagine that
1:10:29
Speaker 1: as your scope of opportunity grows, the magnitude of the
1:10:33
Speaker 1: sacrifices that you're called upon to make continually increase. Not
1:10:38
Speaker 1: least because as your opportunities grow and your horizon of
1:10:42
Speaker 1: possibility expands, There's less and less room for foolish error.
1:10:49
Speaker 1: The costs, the opportunities multiply, but the costs of foolishness
1:10:53
Speaker 1: multiply as well. And so what you see in Abraham
1:10:57
Speaker 1: is life as a secession of expanding sacrifices and opportunities.
1:11:03
Speaker 1: And so that lays out the pathway for a life
1:11:06
Speaker 1: that's successful. Abraham journeys with his family, with his wife.
1:11:28
Speaker 1: He makes the sacrifices along the way. But he also
1:11:32
Speaker 1: encounters the harsh realities of everyone's life. Right? So he's
1:11:40
Speaker 1: on the adventure. And he's hearkening to the call of adventure.
1:11:43
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that his life is without challenge.
1:11:46
Speaker 1: Quite the contrary. The challenges are profound. He almost immediately
1:11:50
Speaker 1: encounters a famine. Very common occurrence. Throughout history. Rare at
1:11:57
Speaker 1: the moment. So far. The elite in Egypt. Conspire to
1:12:07
Speaker 1: steal his wife. He. Parts company with Lot, his nephew
1:12:13
Speaker 1: along the way. Lot turns towards Sodom. There's a civil
1:12:17
Speaker 1: war in the vicinity. And Lot is captured by the
1:12:23
Speaker 1: warring kings. And so Abraham has to organize his people
1:12:29
Speaker 1: into an army. And go rescue his wayward nephew. Abraham fully...
1:12:40
Speaker 1: confronts a sequence of catastrophes and opportunities, making the appropriate
1:12:48
Speaker 1: sacrifices in good faith as he moves forward, determining, regardless
1:12:54
Speaker 1: of the consequences, to maintain his faithful commitment to the adventure,
1:13:01
Speaker 1: which is equivalent to his willingness to abide by the
1:13:04
Speaker 1: spirit that calls to him. It's a good thing to
1:13:08
Speaker 1: know that God is portrayed in the Old Testament as
1:13:12
Speaker 1: the spirit that calls you to adventure, that calls you
1:13:16
Speaker 1: to meaning, is the manifestation of that spirit. In the
1:13:20
Speaker 1: story of Moses, Moses is going about his business as
1:13:25
Speaker 1: a shepherd. This is before he becomes the leader who
1:13:27
Speaker 1: will combat tyranny and slavery. The story of Moses is
1:13:33
Speaker 1: a story about how to become the leader that can
1:13:35
Speaker 1: combat tyranny and slavery. And you might say, well, I'm
1:13:38
Speaker 1: not called upon to do that. It's like, yes, you are.
1:13:41
Speaker 1: You are called upon to combat the tyranny that you
1:13:44
Speaker 1: exert against yourself and the fact that you're a slave
1:13:47
Speaker 1: to your own idiot whims. You're called upon to fight
1:13:52
Speaker 1: the tyranny and slavery that exists in the workplaces you
1:13:55
Speaker 1: inhabit and in the social communities that you're part of,
1:13:58
Speaker 1: in the families that surround you. And you develop that
1:14:03
Speaker 1: ability by becoming a leader. How do you become a leader?
1:14:08
Speaker 1: Moses is at the foot of Mount Sinai as a shepherd.
1:14:11
Speaker 1: He's an ordinary man at this point. Something attracts his attention.
1:14:16
Speaker 1: That's worth noting. Things attract your attention. Why? Well, the
1:14:25
Speaker 1: biblical hypothesis is that's because that's the spirit of being
1:14:29
Speaker 1: and becoming itself beckoning to you. That's what happens in
1:14:33
Speaker 1: the story of the burning bush. Something attracts Moses' attention.
1:14:37
Speaker 1: He goes off the beaten path to investigate. He investigates thoroughly.
1:14:42
Speaker 1: He gets closer and closer to this thing that's revealing
1:14:46
Speaker 1: itself as compelling. He takes off his shoes. He dispenses
1:14:51
Speaker 1: with his current identity and his current preoccupations. He investigates
1:14:56
Speaker 1: even more deeply this thing. transformation of life that the
1:15:01
Speaker 1: burning bush represents as a consequence of his commitment to
1:15:06
Speaker 1: that pursuit the voice of being and becoming itself speaks
1:15:12
Speaker 1: to him and says you have within you what it
1:15:20
Speaker 1: takes to become a leader of men you're to return
1:15:24
Speaker 1: to the community that spawned you You're to confront the
1:15:28
Speaker 1: forces of tyranny. You're to lead your enslaved people from
1:15:34
Speaker 1: their captivity into the desert of their hopelessness to the
1:15:40
Speaker 1: promised land. How do you become a leader? By hearkening
1:15:46
Speaker 1: to the voice of adventure. Now that's something to know.
1:15:51
Speaker 1: What's the price? You have to orient yourself properly so
1:15:57
Speaker 1: that you know that the voice that's speaking to you
1:16:01
Speaker 1: is a genuine manifestation of what's highest. How do you
1:16:05
Speaker 1: do that? By genuinely aiming at what's highest. Whatever you
1:16:12
Speaker 1: call upon will answer. That's about the most terrifying thing
1:16:17
Speaker 1: that you can ever learn. Let's recapitulate. In order for
1:16:41
Speaker 1: us to perceive and to act, something has to come
1:16:45
Speaker 1: before something else. That begs the question, what should come
1:16:56
Speaker 1: before everything else? That's the question that the biblical stories
1:17:02
Speaker 1: are attempting to address with their characterization. Your ability to
1:17:08
Speaker 1: wrestle potentiality and possibility into the order that's good. That's
1:17:14
Speaker 1: what you do in your family. Determination to make sacrifices
1:17:22
Speaker 1: of the highest quality. Your foregoing of bitterness, resentment, faithlessness,
1:17:28
Speaker 1: and cowardice. Your decision to walk with God so that
1:17:34
Speaker 1: you can be apprised of the chaos when it's about
1:17:37
Speaker 1: to manifest itself. Your commitment to the highest good so
1:17:42
Speaker 1: that the tyrants of technology don't build for you false paradises.
1:17:49
Speaker 1: Your willingness to follow the calling of the spirit of
1:17:54
Speaker 1: adventure in good faith and with courage wherever it takes you.
1:18:00
Speaker 1: That's the characterization of the values that should establish the
1:18:06
Speaker 1: priorities in your life. If peace, productive harmony and opportunity
1:18:14
Speaker 1: are to make themselves manifest to you. Thank you very much.