In this video, Dr. Oz chats with Jordan Peterson about the similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam, and how both religions are guided by the Sacred Word. Jordan Peterson also speaks about how differences in beliefs can create a more colorful and meaningful world where people can co-exist.
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00:00 Islam, and I'm proud to have witnessed it up close with my family, is a religion
00:07 that has some great similarities to Christianity. As someone who's spoken to
00:12 the wisdom of the book, of the Word, so beautifully, can you help us understand
00:17 how we need to treat religion more seriously, not realistically, more
00:22 seriously? Well, with Islam and Christianity, I mean, obviously we're
00:28 embroiled in a conflict between those two systems of belief, but maybe we could
00:31 look at the commonalities and see how we could progress from there. It's a
00:36 reasonably, reasonable negotiating strategy, let's say. Well, what's
00:40 importantly similar between, say, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity? Well, the first
00:46 thing is that that's all people of the book. That's a big deal, because
00:51 what that means is that all three of those cultures have decided in some
00:55 mysterious manner that a book should be at the center of things, and so they've
01:02 all decided also, because that's what that implies, that the Word should be at
01:06 the center of things. Now, each religion differs in their interpretation of that,
01:12 and that causes problems and has advantages as well, but that's a major
01:19 commonality. It's a stunning commonality, and it's quite the mystery that that's
01:23 occurred. I think when Islam burst onto the scene, it unified a diverse
01:29 range of fractionated tribes under the power of the Word in a book. Well, that's
01:34 a remarkable thing, and so we should attend to that and try to figure out
01:37 what that means, that we're all guided by the Word, also the written Word, and then
01:43 we should also be attendant to the potential dangers of that, because in
01:47 some sense, the printed Word is also a frozen document, although a book can be
01:51 very sophisticated and subtle, and sacred books tend to be exactly that. And then,
01:56 of course, in Islam you also have some degree of veneration for the figure of
02:02 Jesus Christ. Now, the details of that matter, let's say, and the fact that
02:10 there's disagreement about his precise stature, let's say, that's not trivial, but
02:15 the agreement that there's something of massive significance there, or profound
02:20 significance, is also not trivial. And so that's something for everyone to discuss.
02:25 And when we were speaking earlier this morning, you mentioned the communitarian
02:30 emphasis in Islam, and I'd like to address that too, and the feeling, and
02:35 perhaps well-founded, of many people in the Islamic world that the Western world,
02:40 with its stress on individuality, doesn't pay enough attention to the
02:44 sacrality of the community, and you know, that is a criticism very much worth
02:49 attending to. By the same token, you might say that if you want to serve the
02:55 community best, even if you put it in the highest place, let's say, because
02:58 something has to be in the highest place, you're still faced with the necessity of
03:03 the veneration of the individual, because a community is a living thing, and the
03:09 circumstances that communities find themselves in across time change. And so
03:15 there has to be a living element of the community, and that can't be the past
03:20 because the past is dead. That has to be the living individual. And so to serve
03:24 your community properly, you have to be a very well-developed and courageous
03:30 individual, even if you feel that should be subordinated to the, you know, broader
03:34 interests of the community at large, which I think is an appropriate way of
03:37 looking at things. And what a privilege, right? You want to do something
03:40 that matters with your life. Well, could you be useful to your community? Well,
03:45 that would be a good thing. That might, you know, improve your view of
03:49 yourself with all of your faults. And so all of those things are massive
03:55 commonalities, and you know the fact that there are three different communities of
03:58 the book, you say, "Well, that's a problem because of disunity, and how can they all
04:01 be right?" It's like, well, they can no more be all right or all wrong than the
04:08 members of a family living under the same roof. They're different. Well, what's
04:12 the advantage in the diversity? The disadvantage is the disunity and the
04:16 potential for conflict, but the advantage in the diversity is, well, different
04:21 traditions are going to generate different takes on the world. And like,
04:25 if your life is perfect and couldn't possibly be improved, and the same is
04:30 true of your family and your community, then, you know, you don't need to listen
04:33 to anyone's opinion. But if you're not where you should be or would like to be,
04:37 and neither is your family or your community, it might be that people you
04:41 disagree with and who think differently than you have something to say to you,
04:46 because you're already acting out what you think, and it isn't working. So where
04:51 would you look? And I think that's partly why that injunction exists, to love your
04:55 enemy. So what does that mean exactly? Well, first of all, it would be better not
04:59 to have enemies, unless you want them, you know, because they're a convenient place
05:03 to put evil, let's say, and then you don't have to deal with it, except to hate them.
05:07 But you really want enemies? And wouldn't it be better to bring people on board so
05:11 they could be contributing to the solution of all the catastrophic
05:15 problems that we face? And so, you know, I try when I'm being interviewed by someone,
05:20 say, who's hostile to me, and I don't always manage this, to remember that I
05:24 don't need an enemy at all. Really, I don't. And to bring people on board,
05:29 wouldn't that be better? Well, unless you want misery and pain and suffering and
05:35 war, and you know, there's a part of all of us that absolutely wants that,
05:40 absolutely wants to see everything burn. You know, consciousness is so unbearable
05:45 in its essence that maybe it should not exist at all. That's the motif of Goethe's
05:50 Mephistopheles, right? Satan himself. And you know, it's a non-trivial proposition,
05:56 and we all wrestle with it. Wouldn't it just be better to have nothing? Why? Well,
06:02 the absence of pain. And you know, the problem is, is when that proposition is
06:11 put into action, everything that makes you object to life gets worse. So, it's not a
06:17 solution.