A Recap of the Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris Debate in Vancouver
Peterson's position is that religious myths and stories instruct how people should act within the world; that these myths outline a precise path for the individual to walk in order to bring harmony to themselves, their families, and society as a larger whole. Furthermore, he argues that "God" is the super ordinate principle, or the highest objective, which constitutes meaning in the world and serves as a threshold for people to attempt to move towards as they walk this path.
On the other hand, Sam Harris has devoted his intellectual capacity to outline a code of morals and ethics for people to live by-without having to resort to religion. He claims that moral code is grounded purely in objective scientific facts about the world. Thus, he establishes in his book "The Moral Landscape" that human beings can rely on their rationality alone to discern the objective moral framework of reality, without falling into the subjectivity of moral relativism and nihilism on one hand, and the repressive and superstitious dogmas of organized religion on the other.
