Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

These complex systems of action and belief are religious. They are the traditional means of dealing with the shadow cast on life by knowledge of mortality. Our inability to understand our religious traditions-and our consequent conscious denigration of their perspectives-dramatically decrease the utility of what they have to offer. We are conscious enough to destabilize our beliefs and our traditional patterns of action, but not conscious enough to understand them. If the reasons for the existence of our traditions were rendered more explicit, however, perhaps we could develop greater intrapsychic and social integrity. The capacity to develop such understanding might help us use our capacity for reason to support, rather than destroy, the moral systems that discipline and protect uso