In my last programme I spoke about Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, his book “The Meaning of Life”, and the Holocaust. Talking about the Holocaust, as if everyone knew what I was talking about, was a big call because a lot of people today don’t know what the Holocaust was. Who caused the Holocaust – was it the Jews like many younger people think? Let me briefly tell you about how the Holocaust came to be known to the world from the end of World War II until today.

Tag words: Viktor Frankl; The Meaning of Life; Holocaust; World War II; Nazis; Rudolf Hoess; Auschwitz; Malcom Gladwell; The Revenge of the Tipping Point; Nazi death camps; Steven Spielberg; Shoa; Vietnam War; The Deer Hunter; Apocalypse Now; The Odd Angry Shot; Wansee Conference; Reinhard Heydrich; Anne Frank; The Final Solution; the Nazi atrocities; Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss; Meryl Streep; Steven Spielberg; Schindler’s List; Mauthausen concentration camp; Amon Goeth; Ralph Fiennes; Schindler’s List; The Big Bang Theory; Herbert Schlosser; The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression; Jordan Peterson; Exodus; the Bible; Satan;

This series is about two men. Both had death at their side as a constant companion. But both somehow discovered the meaning, the purpose of life. One is Dr Viktor Frankl – a holocaust survivor. The other is Dr Stephen Iacoboni, a cancer specialist, an oncologist. Two amazing stories.

Tag words: Dr Viktor Frankl; The Meaning of Life; Dr Stephen Iacoboni; The Undying Soul; oncologist; oncologist; Jordan Peterson; 12 Rules for Life; fear of death; Nazi Germany; Sigmund Freud; Rothschild Hospital; Catholic; the Bible; Christian; Bertrand Russell; Jacques Monod; atheist; The Brothers Karamazov; Dostoevsky; National Socialist; Nazis; Ten Commandments;

Now here’s a saying that you might not have heard for a long time. “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. Maybe some of you have never heard it. The full version of it is in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, 13:24 and it reads “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”

With people like John Lennon saying that we need child liberation after women’s liberation, many people today will undoubtedly say that he was right and the Bible was wrong.

Jordan Peterson, in his book “12 Rules for Life” said that we shouldn’t let our children do anything that will make us dislike them. He’s talking about letting our children misbehave. He follows up on that theme up in his book: “Beyond Order – 12 More Rules for Life”. Basically what he’s saying is that if you spare the rod, if you don’t discipline your children, you will be a major contributor to potentially ruining the entire lives of your children, which would be a very serious outcome. I note here that God agrees with Jordan Peterson, who has basically filched God’s thousands of years old teaching from the Bible.

A common reaction to parents who use physical discipline on their children is to call it abuse. It can be, if its done to excess. It’s clearly abuse not to guide your young children to behaviour that will give them the best life that it possibly can have by refusing to discipline them. Anything done to excess, at either end of the spectrum is wrong. But you can’t wipe out just one end of the spectrum and leave the other. Both ends need to be removed. If you watch any nature programme you’ll see lions giving their young a good slap when it’s needed. They know what to do. They don’t murder their offspring, but they pull them into line. If you’re a modern pagan, then you think that you descended from an ape, but if you don’t physically discipline them when needed, like videos you’ll see of gorillas doing to their young, then you’re still missing the essential point.

So how does Jordan Peterson explain his ideas about discipline?

Tag words: Discipline; Spare the rod and spoil the child; John Lennon; Jordan Peterson; 12 Rules for Life; Beyond Order – 12 More Rules for Life; creativity; freedom; child abuse; free spirit; aggressiveness; adolescence; free thinking; independence; morality; the Bible; the Ten Commandments; God; Matthew Parris; Christian missionaries; Galatians 3:28; St Paul; Sunday school;