Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson has said he believes the Bible is “way more true than just true” because it has provided a structure for much of our current cultural knowledge.
During an interview with Joe Rogan, a US comedian, Peterson said he believed the Bible was “the first book” and acted as a base “upon which other texts depend.”
Peterson explained how he had come to that conclusion after a recent visit to the Bible Museum in Washington.
“All of those books in some sense emerged out of that underlying book,” Peterson said.
“And that book itself … the Bible itself isn’t a book. It’s a library. It’s a collection of books.”
Rogan and Peterson where discussing comments made by author Douglas Murray, who argues that collapsing civilisations tend to become “obsessed with gender”.
To this, Peterson said that the issue is not so much about gender but the dissolution of categories.
“If categories dissolve, especially fundamental ones, the culture is dissolving. Because the culture is a structural category,” Peterson said. “Culture is a structural category that we all share, so we see things the same way and that’s why we can talk… roughly speaking we have a bedrock of agreement and that’s the Bible.”
He continued: “It isn’t that the Bible is true. It’s that the Bible is the precondition for the manifestation of truth, which makes it way more true than just true.”
Peterson has previously said he does not believe in God but is “terrified he might exist” noting that he would often answer that he "acts as if God exists".
In October last year, his daughter Mikhaila Peterson revealed she had become a Christians during a “very sudden” conversion.”