These are just a few of the things that Jordan Peterson, author of the best-selling book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, has been called.

He is a psychology professor at the University of Toronto who first became well-known for his opposition to the forced use of gender-neutral pronouns, and has become an international celebrity.

His book was recently banned by booksellers in New Zealand after the attack on the Muslim mosque, blaming him for appealing to white supremacists.

Peterson responded that such accusations are "self-serving" and false. His straightforward and logical presentations do not sit well with the radical left, which wants to dictate and force their ideologies onto the culture.

Thus, referencing Peterson in a school speech competition has been known to get a student disqualified. He and they do not see things the same way.

What about God?

When asked if he believes in God, Peterson has answered, "I believe in acting as if God exists."

And when asked if he believes that Jesus died and rose from the dead, he said it would take more than 30 hours to answer that question.

So, why should anyone, much less Catholics, listen to what he has to say?

Catholics believe in the importance of both faith and reason.

Pope St. John Paul II said, "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth."

In other words, without reason there cannot be true faith, and without faith, there cannot be true reason. And "there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason" (CCC 159).

When passing down of the Catholic faith from generation to generation, we often use faith as a starting point, and this leads to reason.

What sets Jordan Peterson apart is that he starts with reason, which can support faith because faith supports reason.

Genesis tells us we are made in the image and likeness of God. Peterson lays out a foundation of how to look at the human person as a whole, through reason, and thereby allows us to see the image of God reflected in each of us.

Peterson's basic argument is that if we are to have meaning in our lives, we need to value that which is good.

We need to sacrifice for it.

He uses the concept of hierarchies.

If we set the ultimate good (God) at the top of our hierarchy, that will order our lives in a way that gives us meaning. And the reason this gives us meaning is because we were made to do it.

His end sounds familiar, but his means are not.

He uses mythology, religion, literature, philosophy, biology and psychology to construct his argument to cover the whole human person.

He calls us to a life of responsibility, honesty, and the constant pursuit of the ultimate good.

This is exactly the message our society needs to hear. It is taught in the Catholic and other Christian churches, but the problem is that so many people are not engaged in such religions. Instead, a twisted notion of freedom with no consequences and relativism surround us. Continue reading

• Image: National Post

The University of Notre Dame from the US will oversee the initiative at University Church, Dublin.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin announced the establishment of the "Notre-Dame Newman Centre for Faith and Reason".

Earlier this month, Archbishop Martin lamented the dearth of Catholic intellectuals able to engage with public issues in Ireland.

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"We thought the whole story wasn't being told in the media about the evidence for God from physics," the Jesuit priest told CNA.

"We're utterly convinced that the evidence from physics shows the existence of God and certainly does not take away from it."

The 49-minute documentary, titled "Cosmic Origins," features eight physicists who discuss the big bang theory, theories of modern physics, and eventually discuss the need for a creator.

Along with Fr. Spitzer, a former Gonzaga University President and founder of the Magis Center for Faith and Reason, the film features Michael Heller of the Vatican Observatory, Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias, and a slew of professors from Harvard and Cambridge.

In choosing the physicists for the film, Fr. Spitzer made sure that every scientist was "absolutely top in their field, world class, they had to be a Nobel prize winner, a Templeton prize winner, or come from Harvard or Cambridge or from the top ranks of NASA."

The scientists "come pretty much out of the closet," and affirm that it is impossible for the universe to be random and without purpose, he said.

In the film, after discussing the Big Bang theory and affirming it scientifically, the physicists say there still must be a beginning or cause of the universe, even with theories of modern physics.

"When the universe was nothing, it could not have moved itself from nothing, something else had to do it, and that something else was a transcendent creator," Fr. Spitzer said. Continue reading

Image: CNA

This does not make Aquinas a biblical literalist. He argues that the Bible is written in metaphors that render the divine mystery meaningful for finite human minds. We depend on material objects for our knowledge, and therefore we can only speak of God as if God, too, were part of the material world. Biblical language is multilayered, opening itself to mystery the more one allows its meanings to unfold. Aquinas says of scripture that "the manner of its speech transcends every science, because in one and the same sentence, while it describes a fact, it reveals a mystery" (ST I.1.10). Anyone who has ever thrilled to poetry understands this. Profound truths speak to us through ordinary metaphors when we take time to listen and reflect. Indeed, Aquinas insists that we should avoid exalted imagery when we speak about God, in case we are deceived into taking our language too literally. Read more

Sources

• Tina Beattie in The Guardian
• Image: London Lay Dominicans
• See also: Thomas Aquinas, part 2: the mind as soul and Thomas Aquinas, part 1: rediscovering a father of modernity
• Tina Beattie is Professor of Catholic Studies at Roehampton University, London, and a frequent contributor to the Catholic weekly, The Tablet and the online journal, Open Democracy