The Secret of Western Success

[September 8, 2025]  We often compare ourselves and our culture to others.  Whether this is a conscious act or not, our comparisons are unimportant.  There is something within us that gives rise to the idea that we can do something to make ourselves better.  That something is the secret to Western success, and that secret is Christianity as a fundamental belief system.

In a recent interview, Dr. Jordan Peterson explains this phenomenon and gives us insight into what makes Western cultures more successful than others.  His explanation is both intellectual and Biblical.  I found the interview fascinating.

“With the death of God, many other things die, things you don’t expect, and one of the things that dies when God dies is Science.  And no one expected that.  Because Science, as a practice, is a religious practice.  It’s predicated on [Christian] religious axioms.”

The first reaction of many to this statement is a knee-jerk denial.  Folks will say that “science” and “religion” have a bright line between them, and there is no reconciliation.  One is fact-based, the other faith-based.  This is how Dr. Peterson overcomes that argument.

“Well, you have to believe that there’s such a thing as truth.  You have to believe that the truth is understandable.  You have to believe that understanding the truth is good.  You have to believe that there is such a thing as good.  So, imagine being a scientist, you have to imagine that, first of all, the world is comprehensible to the human intellect.  But more than that, if you investigate the mysteries of the material world, that that will be beneficial.  Right?  Those aren’t scientific claims.  Those are metaphysical claims.  And that metaphysical claim is nested in a story.  The Enlightenment types they’ve portrayed the scientific revolution as something contrary to the religious substrate, and that’s not accurate.  That’s a French Revolution, a Luciferian intellect history.  It’s not true.”

Then, a bit of history that is overlooked, sometimes purposefully.

 “The universities grew out of the monasteries.  That’s where the universities came from.  And, science, as a widespread enterprise, got its start in the universities.  They grew out of the monasteries.  That’s not questionable.  If you go to Oxford and Cambridge, it’s starkly evident.  The layout of the colleges is a Monastic layout.  So, the idea that there’s some fundamental contradiction between religious belief and the scientific enterprise, there’s nothing about that that’s true.  And, part of the reason that we’re losing the scientific enterprise right now is because we’ve unmoored its metaphysical substrate, and it can’t survive.  If you’re going to be a scientist, you have to put the truth above all else.  Scientists are very rare.  You have to believe in the truth to be a scientist.”

At this point, Dr. Peterson gives us a great example in the person of Richard Dawkins.  Dawkins is the legendary atheist and evolutionary biologist who argues that truth shouldn’t bend to faith or fashionable politics.

“I think Dawkins believes in the truth, by the way.  He’s an atheist, but he’s much less of an atheist than he thinks.  That’s my impression.  Lying scientists are atheistic or just malevolent.  Dawkins is a truthful scientist and, insofar as he’s pursuing the truth, and insofar as he believes that pursuing the truth will set you free, then he’s walking down a path that’s Christian to its core.  Now, I know he doesn’t like that idea, but he also doesn’t like the fact that the scientific enterprise seems to be collapsing in terms of its reliability and validity everywhere.”

Dr. Peterson is doing us a great favor in this interview. If only we could listen closely to what he says. I recommend watching his discussions of the Bible and how he relates that to our daily lives.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).