The Agenda with Steve Paikin is an interview show on TVO (TV Ontario). I watch it quite often.Lately I've been more and more annoyed at Steve Paikin for his naive, simplistic views of religion and it's importance in the modern world. A few weeks ago he had an entire week of shows about the "resurgence" of religion in Canada. A resurgence that apparently only he and his fellow believers can see.
The show on Thursday night was just about the last straw for me. His interview with Richard Dawkins and the panel discussion afterwards were so bad that I'm going to stop watching the show. You can see the entire hour of the May 10th episode at [Richard Dawkins | Can We Live by Reason Alone?].
Pay close attention to Jordan Peterson in the panel discussion at the end. He's a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He accuses Dawkins of being very simplistic and naive about religion—and by implication he (Jordan Peterson) has the correct, deeply intellectual, understanding of religion that would trump Dawkins in a debate. Trouble is, nothing coming out of the mouth of Peterson convinces me that his reasons for believing in superstition are any better than the reasons Dawkins criticizes in The God Delusion. Or, am I missing some incredibly sophisticated version of the Courtier's Reply that's way over my head?
I especially like the claim that all hell will break loose if religion is abolished. The interesting part about such claims is that they come from people who are completely ignorant of what's going on in Europe. We're about to find out what happens when a country abandons religion because Sweden and other European countries are very close to that point. If the true believers are correct then these countries will soon become dens of iniquity and depravity—in sharp contrast to very religious countries like the USA. I can't believe that one of my colleagues would make such a stupid statement in public.
UPDATE: Read the comments on Dawkins.net
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