Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

And so...

apart from the utter preposterousness from a materialistic perspective, say that the deity is a necessary supposition, I think your case for his existence is shaky on moral grounds.

And Eliosha is silent in the onslaught of that argumentation.

But it isn't obvious that it shakes his faith, and

It's still the case that as the novel progresses, he shows himself to be the better man.

Ivan being brilliant intellect is characterized by the pride that the brilliant intellect has as its greatest sin.

You know, I've been thinking recently about how the cosmic scales of justice are balanced.

Let's say there's a gospel line that says that

To those, from those to whom much has been given, much will be expected or demanded.

And that's a very interesting line, you know, because one of the things we wrestle with in the culture now, let's say, is the issue of privilege.

Maybe you're born wealthy, maybe you're born tall, maybe you're born Caucasian.

Apparently that's an advantage.

Maybe you're born Asian.

Maybe you were born good looking.

You know, we are all awarded privileges that constitute a temperamental advantage or maybe a situational advantage.

And there is something that seems unfair about that.

Arguably, it's certainly the case that people differ painfully in their intellectual capacity.

For example, it's also equally obvious that that difference is a major determinant of success economically, let's say, as you move forward.

Even the trait conscientiousness, which is associated with orderliness and industriousness and also predicts economic success, has quite a substantial genetic influence, which means that it's really not attributable to the... It's not a trait that's attributable to the person that bears it.

It's a gift in some ways that's given to them at birth.