[October 9, 2025] In an interview with Bill Maher and Jordan Peterson, they discuss why the Bible is the most influential and best-selling book of all time. During this conversation between these two intelligent men, Maher questions whether the Bible is comically stupid.
“They love the Bible [referring to his relatives] and it’s the greatest book, and they swear on it. But it has these things that are like comically stupid and corrupt. God is corrupt in the Bible.” – Comedian Bill Maher
Dr. Peterson doesn’t take the bait that Maher throws about the Bible but responds like a professor addressing students in his classroom. This is where the conversation shifts from an emotional attack on the Bible by Maher to a more logical interpretation of its meaning.
“I”ve been walking through the Biblical corpus that was actually something I wanted to talk with you [Bill Maher] today about. There’s a very interesting idea that lurks behind the notion that you can establish a covenant with God. It’s a reflection of the fact that human beings bargain with fate (i.e., the future) all the time. This is what we teach our kids. You teach your kids that if you forgo immediate gratification, so you give it up, sacrifice it, because the future will be better as a consequence.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson
Dr. Peterson discusses how giving up immediate forms of gratification (a sacrificial offering) allows us to make a covenant (a bargain) with the future. He makes it clear that this is what is being reflected in these stories that Maher calls “dumb.”
I think Maher misses the point that Dr. Peterson is making. Maher comments that “most people have not read the Bible, at least not all the way through.” Going further, he says, “it’s full of mostly nonsense and occasionally it stumbles upon wisdom.”
What I really like is the story of Jonah, that Dr. Peterson tells Maher. Maher, of course, knows enough about the Bible that he has heard of it. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the sinful people to stop because God is going to destroy the city. Jonah decides this is too difficult, hops on a ship to get away, but a storm rolls in to rock the boat. After admitting that it was he [Jonah] who caused God to punish them, he is thrown overboard and swallowed by the whale. After Jonah repents, the whale spits him out onto the shore, where he eventually goes to Nineveh and convinces them to change. God then spares the city from destruction.
The lesson that Peterson points out is that if you have something to say and you don’t say it, then you put the ship at risk (i.e., your household or marriage or community). If you are called upon to say what you have to say and you refuse it, you’ll end up in a place you wish you were not.
“It’s so interesting that you see the lessons in these [stories] and I just always read these things as like super stupid from the Bronze Age, you know and obviously they were telling people something. I mean, whoever wrote this had a message in mind.” – Bill Maher
This is where Dr. Peterson politely emphasizes the important point he’s trying to make.
“They were trying to figure out, by telling stories, how the state itself got corrupted, and this is one of those stories. So the story is, here’s how the state gets corrupted. You’re called upon to tell your fellow man, enemy or not, when they’re not behaving properly. When your conscience tells you to do that. If you don’t, then the whole ship will start to rock.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson
Maher asks if Peterson thinks the “ancient peoples” really understood the message in the stories. Dr. Peterson says he believes these were the early steps in developing understanding. Before humans can understand, they can express it through a story. And that is a powerful idea.
We all have a deep moral obligation to say what we have to say.
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Please read my books:
Comedian Bill Maher is not the right person for Dr. Jordan Peterson to have this kind of conversation with. Cheers.
Bless you for helping put down the idea that Christianity is stupid. So many believe we are knuckledraggers or Neanderthals.
I think this means – the Bible being comically stupid – that the stories are simplified so the ordinary person can both remember them and, at least to some degree, know their meaning. But knowing its meaning is not the paramount idea. Keeping it simple, easily remembered, exciting (an adventure like the story of Jonah), and meaningful is what sets these stories from the Bible apart. That is a pattern of wisdom that mankind took a long long time to learn, and learn the hard way. I want to thank Gen. Satterfield for making us aware of this important interview because I think most people would feel closer to comedian Bill Maher, and less to Dr. Jordan Peterson. Having both these men discuss the topic openly and without recriminations is refreshing.
Ya just gotta live ❤️ the way Gen. Satterfield writes.
We know this to be so very true, and thank you Jonathan for making it plain that Gen. Satterfield tries very hard to dispel old arguments that attempt to degrade Christianity and good Christian teachings. The Bible is one area that he has, on many occasions, given us an interpretation that makes a lot of good sense to even Gp the most secular among us. I hope that we get to read more articles like this one. But, the big question we have not answered is how can a blood – like the Bible – be written for all people, regardless of intellectual capability and moral standing? This is certainly a hotly debated topic inside the higher forms of religious teachings. How do we overcome that issue? I think the teachings of the Bible have solved this conundrum by the use of stories to convey God’s message.
I finally got the time to go back and listen to the interview. Great!! Listen to the interview both intellectually from Dr. P’s conversation and for his style of getting a point across with a non-believer.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Welcome, Bob-John to a place where you can throw ideas up for valuable critiques.
Gen. Satterfield, i never thought of the Bible this way, that it helps people understand what is “good” even if they cannot verbalize the idea or even have a sophisticated view of what it means to be a Godly person. Maybe calling it “comically stupid” is only an attention-getter and maybe there are better words to say the Bible is written for the low IQ person. Those are also not the right words either.
Good point, and I cannot say it better but I understand. 🙏 Prayers for those who need them today.
This is a master class (although too short) on the purpose behind the Bible. Get yourself a copy and read it. I will recommend here that you aslo get onto Dr. Jordan Peterson’s website and watch his videos on many many topics. This will get you a flavor of his content.
WELL SAID, GEN. SATTERFIELD
This paragraph is the core of Gen. Satterfield’s article:
“They were trying to figure out, by telling stories, how the state itself got corrupted, and this is one of those stories. So the story is, here’s how the state gets corrupted. You’re called upon to tell your fellow man, enemy or not, when they’re not behaving properly. When your conscience tells you to do that. If you don’t, then the whole ship will start to rock.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson in referring to the Biblical texts.
JT, nailed it. This is the point.
This is the advantage anyone will gain by reading this leader forum page. You get to reinforce what is the correct view (or at least one correct view) of what Gen.S. Is saying in his article. I’m not so sure I could have figured out a more and deeper understanding without it.
Great stories in the Bible. Read the Bible literally and symbolically.
Darn good interview. We can see how Dr. Peterson continues to bring Comedian Maher back to the point that the Biblical scriptures are not “comically stupid” or “dumb” but are the beginning of understanding human existence. This interview helped me see more about the purpose of the Bible. I would like to see Dr. Peterson address what he thinks about which stories were chosen to be in the Biblical texts.
Hello King. I think Dr. Peterson is very ill and is out for some time now. Pray for him to get well soonest. 🙏
That is sad. By the way, I just finished reading “Our Longest Year in Iraq” again for the third time and very much enjoyed the stories there. Great stories never disappear.
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Longest-Year-Iraq-Construction/dp/1737915510/
This is an Amazon link, but the book can be found elsewhere.
Yes, King Henry VIII, and I suggest people take the time to watch this short video of Maher and Peterson. They are not trying to one-up each other or extract some kind of negative response, although Maher is a bit of a whacko anyway. Get yourself a decent family and do that now. And, if you can, get yourself a decent job.