Dress Code

Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast. To hear the entire 3 hours of my radio show commercial-free every single day, become a member of Prager Utopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at pragertopia.com. Hello, my friends. Welcome to the Dennis Prager Show. A happy Tuesday. Is that right? Yeah, happy Tuesday. To you. I want to remind you listeners in Greenville, South Carolina, that I will be with you on Thursday night. Just go to the station's website for the information. It's up at DennisPrager.com at Where's Dennis. Just click Where's Dennis and then what speeches. It's, uh, it's not a— it's not just— where's Dennis? Is that one enough? Yeah, very nice. Hi everybody, good to be with you. A thought having nothing to do with news but having a lot to do with society. In the elevator coming up to my studio, I shared the elevator with, I would say, a woman of about 40, maybe 35. She was going to work on her floor and I was going to work on my floor. And she was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. A t-shirt with writing on it. A t-shirt that is clearly not, not even a dressy t-shirt, if there is such a thing. Just a t-shirt and baggy jeans going to work. I know that for at least half the society, that is completely irrelevant, unnecessary to even comment on. And at least half the society is wrong. Clothing is of extreme significance. It's a great example, great example. Didn't use it in the video, but I recorded a video for PragerU. I do it— what do I do it, 4 times a year? About the irrelevance of good intentions. I don't know anybody who thinks they have bad intentions. The whole concept is useless. That's why that road to hell is paved with good intentions, because Everybody, including bad people, thinks they have good intentions. I remember speaking to the principal of an elementary school that my younger son attended. So we're talking now, oh, about 20 years ago. Yeah, that'd be right, 20 years ago. And she was completely opposed to a dress code for students. This woman who had devoted her life to education was telling me that what kids wear doesn't matter. So this is a classic example. She was a very nice person. She had very good intentions. And she had no wisdom in this regard. Nice intentions without wisdom leads to bad stuff. Always, always. Kids with dress codes in schools have better grades. There's less fighting, less cursing. It was depressing for me to see this woman in the elevator, okay? Simply depressing. See, there's something completely self-centered when one doesn't in any way say, well, what do I wear to work? Now, there are some jobs that clearly don't necessitate any type of formal dress. I fully understand that. But this woman was going to— we, what do we have on other floors? We have law firms, we have insurance companies, I mean, bank. This is all a white-collar work. There was no white color, so to speak, on this woman. T-shirt and baggy jeans. The way that society's decline can be measured in so many arenas— I have raised this subject periodically over the course of my career. I have raised the issue of public cursing, neither of which seem to matter to most Americans. So big deal, it's just a word. It's like graffiti. Graffiti doesn't matter to a substantial percentage of my fellow Americans. What's the big deal? James Q. Wilson, correct? James Q. Wilson and his associate, whose name eludes me. I knew James Wilson pretty well. He was, to my great honor, a regular listener to my show. He and his wife would have dinner with me James Q. Wilson was at Harvard and then at UCLA, and he and his colleague wrote the Broken Windows Theory, that if society does not repair broken windows and graffiti, you will end up with beatings, rape, murder, and burglary of homes. The little stuff— when society announces little stuff doesn't matter, or what seems to be little— I don't think it is little— then you get big stuff. That's just the way it works. Oh, some kids smashed glass, threw a baseball through a glass, or whatever. Big deal.

Ah, graffiti, urban art.

As the fools of our society, the left, have claimed. Urban art, that's what it is. The decline in society begins in many, many, many arenas, not just one. In that regard, here's a story from Breitbart: English school bans skirts. To be, quote, more gender neutral. So now every student is required to wear slacks. How do you like that? Required. A girl cannot come in a skirt. Tiverton High School in Devon, England, another example of the fools that teach your children. In the English-speaking world, Tiverton High School in Devon, England, is banning skirts and moving to a trousers-only uniform policy to be more gender-neutral. We will follow other secondary schools— God, it's not the only one in England. Who's worse, England or the United States? We will follow other secondary schools in implementing a more gender-neutral uniform policy. A letter to parents at the school quoted by Devin Live reads, quote, parents slash carers. Oh, it's a new term, carer. Wow, I grew up with two carers. I'm amazed that they still allow Father's Day, which is coming up now. Quite, quite something. Should be Carers Day. Also, your father can be your mother, I would assume. If, if women give birth, then a father can be a woman. Is that right, or is that not possible? I don't know. Parents slash carers will be pleased to know— this is the Orwellian gaslighting. 'You will be pleased to know that the majority of the uniform will remain as it is, with the exception—' What does it even mean, 'will remain as it is'? 'With the exception that from September, all students will be expected to wear trousers.' They added, 'Although the confidence of their assertion that parents will be pleased appears to have been misplaced, judging by the reaction.' These uniform changes have been made without any consultation with the pupils or parents and are simply being imposed, complained one parent named Stephen Moakes. I feel that as a school that encourages its pupils to be engaged and have a voice, this seems to be a complete lack of democracy. The left doesn't care about democracy unless it knows it will win. By not allowing the established pupil forums to have input on school uniform changes, start-finish times of school day, reduction in lunch break, etc. Referring to some other pending changes as well. Hmm. Headmistress— oh, a shocker, it's a woman— Sammy Crook insists that the skirt ban has, quote, the approval of our governors and balances the demands placed on us in matters including standards of education, parental cost, inclusivity and student health. Do you understand any of that? 1-800-PRAGER-776. I'm Dennis Prager. The Dennis Prager Show. Whether it's the pump or your check at your favorite restaurant, inflation is hitting all of us where it hurts. That's why I recommend that you use Upside. Just to let you know, I have activated my Upside and it works. Tell you exactly where you get your discounts and you can get, including for example, which is needed here in California, 20 cents per gallon at gas stations near my home. This thing works. To get started, download the free Upside app in the App Store or Google Play. Use the promo code Prager. You'll get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more. Next, claim an offer for whatever you're buying on Upside. Check in at the business, pay as usual with a credit or debit card, and get paid. I have a good way of putting it: there's no downside to Upside. Download the free Upside app. Use the promo code Prager to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 $5 or more. That's $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more using the promo code Prager. That's at the Upside app. Hello, my friends. So I've been reading to you from this article here, and it is, uh, it is par for the course, as I discovered— well, discovered— as I realized, I have been discovering this all of my life. As you may know, you can verify this by actually watching the radio show. You can see it at the Sierra— Sierra, that's right— Salem Podcast Network. You can see me broadcasting and often my guests. But when I was not visible, which is the, the great bulk of radio's history and the history of my show, I still wore a tie and shirt every day to work from the beginning of my broadcast career. See, clothing is a statement of, "I care to look good for others." The woman wearing the t-shirt and the jeans made an announcement: "I don't care how I look for my colleagues." I don't wish to honor my work at the bank or at the whatever firm she was working with. If you look at pictures from the 1940s and '50s, you will see that men and women dressed up better at baseball games than they do now at churches. What I'm saying is so unpopular, a lot of conservatives don't even agree. I have very rarely been surprised by listeners, by callers' reactions to anything I've said. I've usually assumed that conservative listeners will say X, people to the left will say Y, and some people will be ambivalent. But I was taken aback by the number of religious Christians, committed Christians, who have said to me, God doesn't care what you wear, so it's okay to go in shorts and flip-flops to church. Well, when I look at the way in which people dress to go to the Kentucky Derby, and I thought, yeah, Well, but a lot of those people went to church on Sunday, and they dressed up far better for the Kentucky Derby. Now, what does that say? That's a wisdom issue, my friends. That's not, uh, that's not a, a, an issue of good intentions or not good intentions. And now we have the added issue of being gender neutral at schools in England, so girls can— are not allowed to wear skirts. The same crowd that tells us a woman can do what she wants with her own body, right? Tell them what they can wear. The whole thing about a woman can do what she wants with her own body is so dishonest. It's like, get your hands off my body, common sign at pro-life pro-choice protests. But of course, it's absurd because the whole anti-abortion crowd wants no hands on her body. That's the whole point. Every day is a left-wing onslaught on language and honesty. So there are schools in England now that ban the skirt. Everybody will wear slacks so that they all look the same. Isn't that beautiful? But I don't even understand that. How does that help? I'll tell you, it doesn't help. So let's try to unravel the logic here. They are telling girls you can't wear skirts so as to be— what is the term? I mean, it's Gender neutral, right? So what does gender neutral achieve? That our school does not have boys and girls, it has students. That's the Disney and New York City subway idea of never saying ladies and gentlemen or boys and girls. I'm gonna check, I'm flying today to the, from, to the East Coast. I'm going on Tim Pool's podcast in Maryland tomorrow night, and then Thursday night I'm speaking at Greenville, South Carolina. I'm going to see— let's see, I guess I'm going to listen to discover whether or not they will say 'ladies and gentlemen' on the airplane. Do you recall that airlines had dropped that as well? They don't do what anymore? They don't do 'ladies and gentlemen'? They don't say anything, right? So they have become Disney? Airlines have Disney-fied with regards to not speaking about two sexes? The loss is incalculable by telling the girls they can't wear skirts. Skirts announced that there were girls at school. Slacks announced there were boys. Now, I know a lot of girls now wear slacks to school. Of course, there are feminine slacks, so you can make that announcement However, nothing was more clear that when I went to high school and we had a uniform, the boys had to wear a white shirt and tie and slacks, and the girls had to wear a skirt, I assume a blouse or shirt, whatever it would be, sweater. There it is, incalculably richer to have the experience of distinctiveness of boys and girls when you grow up. It is one of the exciting aspects of life to know that there are girls if you're a boy, and to know that there are boys if you're a girl. For the vast overwhelming majority— and it's tough, you have to navigate your way through terra incognita unknown land. The unknown land of the opposite sex. And the left is destroying that. We return, 1-800-PRAGER-776. Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out-of-control inflation. People are concerned about what the future holds financially. This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion. There's no better time than the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals. Gold and silver IRAs are more popular than ever, and dealers are advertising heavily for your business. You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA. Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines. Nick Grovich, man I completely trust, owner of AmFed Coin and Bullion, has agreed to send you a concise report about how to set up your IRA and how to get the best bang for your buck. Nick and his team will be happy to help you set up your precious metals IRA or review your current account. Call AmFed Coin and Bullion, 800-221- 1-800-821-7694 for your free IRA report and all your precious metals needs. AmericanFederal.com. That's AmericanFederal.com. Well, hello, y'all. Dennis Prager here. Reminder to those of you in Greenville, South Carolina, I'm coming to speak. Go to Where's Dennis at DennisPrager.com. Get the details. Thursday night, Greenville, South Carolina. Mike Gallagher and I. Should be a great, great night. Haven't been to South Carolina in a long time. I like that state a lot. Welcome indeed. Welcome to the show. It's Flag Day. That's important to me. Find out if we put out the flag. Never been a more important time to express patriotism, given the number of people who loathe this country. Part of the dishonesty of the left, which is a characteristic of the left and always has been, is that the— it's the gaslighting. You're saying we hate America? What are you talking about? Oh, you love the country. You love the country for which you advocate open borders. You love the country that was founded in 1619, 1776— not 1776. You love the country that is systemically racist, misogynist, heteronormative. Transphobic, homophobic, racist, bigoted. You love it. Strange form of love. Want to destroy every institution. Washington was despicable. Jefferson was despicable.

But I love this country.

And we're supposed to believe that. Just want to remind you that my last item on the last segments of— yes, not yesterday, of previous hour— are how many more viruses kids are getting because COVID measures harm their immune system. The amount of damage done to children by parents and by schools and by the government is, uh, is immeasurable. My heart breaks for young people at this time in the United States and Britain and Australia and New Zealand. New York Times report reveals sharp rise in transgender young people in the U.S. Now, why might that be? All of a sudden, for the first time in recorded history in the Western world, we have a sharp rise of young people saying that they are not their sex. It shows you the power of society. Hillary Clinton was right, takes a village to raise a child. I can't stand her village, that was my position, but she was right. Conservatives who instinctively have contempt for Hillary Clinton, which I do too, nevertheless were not capable because of that instinct to assess the actual terminology. She is absolutely right, and I said it at the time, takes a village to raise a child. So conservatives said, oh no, no, no, parents raise children. It's not true, my friends. Parents raise children and so does the village. And if your village is rotten, it will have a terrible effect on your child. The village, known as the school, is generally rotten. You don't want to acknowledge it. You don't, you don't have to. It's— you're taking a very big risk with your child. Parents who would not allow their kids to go on a seesaw or jump off a diving board will nevertheless send them to a school a regular school, private or public. Pete Hegseth was my guest yesterday. It was a great, great hour actually. He's written a book on education. And I asked him, so what do you recommend parents do? And without hesitation he said, take your kids out of school. That's correct. Parents will gamble with their children's character and psychology, but not— not— but be afraid if their kid didn't wear a mask if the kid was 5. The reason for the vast number of new transgenders in the United States among young people is because society has told them if you have any issues, you might really not be a girl. That's right. That's the sick stuff that they're taught at school. It's encouraged. You'll be popular, you'll stand out, you'll solve your problems. Sounds great to a lot of kids. The number of young people who identify as transgender— and this is with a pro-transgender kids newspaper, The New York Times— The number of young people who identify as transgender has nearly doubled in recent years. The analysis, relying on government health surveys conducted from 2017 to 2020, estimated that 1.4% of 13- to 17-year-olds and 1.3% of 18- to 24-year-olds were transgender. Compared to about a half a percent of all adults. So I assume 1.4% is 3 times 0.5%. Is that fair? So 3 times as many kids, that is under 17-year-old, are saying they are not the sex they were born than the— in the general— in the population generally. 3 times as many. You think that increase is natural, or do you think that increase is induced by the sick world of the left and the sick world of your schools? I wonder how many kids who are in a religious school? I mean, seriously religious, not has the name Christian or Jewish and just has woke values. Or how many kids who are homeschooled are transgender? Wouldn't that be interesting? Is that enough to, uh, make you consider homeschooling, or are you perfectly comfortable with the idea that your daughter will say she's a boy when she's 13. It says— it's interesting— 0.5% of all adults in America are transgender. That means 1 out of every 200 adults in America says that they are not the sex that they are biologically. Do you believe that? No, I don't believe that either, especially since it comes from government health surveys. Experts said that young people increasingly have the language and social acceptance to explore their gender identities. Is that a great sentence? Do you know that this sentence would have not been understood at any time in Western history prior to 10 years ago, maybe 5 years ago? Young people increasingly have the language and social acceptance to explore their gender identity. I'm curious, do you want your child to explore his or her gender identity? Or affirm it, whereas older adults may feel more constrained. Poor, poor older adults. But the numbers, which vary widely from state to state— now, whoa, that's an interesting point. Why would it vary state to state if it's a natural phenomenon? Hey folks, what do you think? Also raise questions about the role of peer influence. Well, that's an honest line in the New York Times. Or the political climate of the community. It's developmentally appropriate for teenagers to explore— this is, this is the best. This is, this is worth the price of a New York Times subscription. The very next sentence. It's developmentally appropriate for teenagers to explore all facets of their identity. That is what teenagers do. Really? When I was a teenager, we didn't do that. I didn't explore whether I was really a girl. I explored what it meant to become a man from a boy. It's better time. And guess who they're— whom they're quoting? Said Dr. Angela Gopford, medical director of the Gender Health Program. Wow, when did that start, a gender health program at Children's Minnesota Hospital? And generally, I'm going to tell you about Dr. Go for it. I'll save this for when we come back. It's priceless. Towels just don't seem to dry you anymore. They feel soft and lotiony in the store, but you get them home and they don't absorb. Well, Mike Lindell at MyPillow found that out around 2006, and towels changed forever. He found the best towel company right here in the USA. They have proprietary technology to create towels that feel soft but actually work. And that happens to be true. I use them. They are all made with USA cotton, and they come with the MyPillow 60-day money-back guarantee. 6-piece set, 2 bath, 2 hand towels, 2 washcloths, regularly $109.99, now $39.99. Just go to mypillow.com and click on the new radio listener specials and get deep discounts on all MyPillow products, including the towels, by entering the promo code PRAGER, or call 800 761-6302 for these great radio specials. MyPillow.com, promo code Prager. Way more teenagers are now saying they are the other sex. New York Times article. I will read again part of it. Experts said that young people increasingly have the language and social acceptance to explore their gender identities. Do you realize the way this subject is covered, it's like nothing? That's, that's the sickness. Now, it's not the sickness, it's another aspect of the true sickness of the left. Oh, you're a boy, you're a girl, doesn't matter. Whatever makes you feel good, whatever your peers will honor. Anybody, any parent who says to their daughter who at 13 says she's a boy, or at 8, no, in fact you're a girl, uh, it actually risks losing their child to Child Protective Services. That is how sick the left takeover of the government in general, public health specifically, is. Or Child Protective Services. Yeah, you're a bad parent if you actually say to your daughter, I love you, and you're a girl. Okay, you're a girl. Biology, and if you believe in God, made you a girl. The tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny segment of humanity that thought that they were the other sex should have been regarded with compassion, and we understand that. But there is nothing to be learned in the general treatment of young people. The article really gets interesting. Listen to this: it's developmentally appropriate for teenagers to explore all facets of their identity. This is what an expert— an expert says. Really? It's developmentally appropriate to explore all facets of their identity, including their sex? Developmentally appropriate? Did any of you— did any of your friends— did any of your relatives And who said this? Who was quoted in the New York Times? Dr. Angela Goepferd, G-O-E-P-F-E-R-D, medical director of the gender health program at Children's Minnesota Hospital. Not a hospital I would take my kids to, to be honest, just knowing that. Who was not involved in the new analysis. And generationally, gender has become a part of someone's identity that is more socially acceptable to explore. No question about that. It's one of the 50 reasons you should rethink sending your kid to a regular school. Do you want it to be socially acceptable for your kid to explore if he's a boy or she's a girl? The notion of what it means to live as a transgender person is also shifting. Dr. Goldford— and here's the, here's the great line, the great words of the article— who is non-binary. They mention it as if Dr. Goldford, who grew up in Connecticut, it says it's irrelevant. Dr. Goldford, this is the head at the Minnesota Children's Hospital. They picked for the gender health program a person who has no gender. Non-binary is not transgender. Non-binary is even rarer. I am neither male nor female. And this person at the Minnesota Children's Hospital—

Minnesota is a goofy state, truly goofy state.

Is the head of the Gender Health Program, because it's very healthy to have no gender identity. This is who they picked to head it. The corruption of science and medicine specifically is incalculably immense. Noted that many teenagers would not necessarily want or need hormones or surgeries to transition to another gender. I was typical of older generations. What does that mean? No hormones and no surgeries? So a boy has a beard and just says, I'm a girl? No need to look like a girl, take a girl's name, nothing? The surveys created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not ask teenagers, younger teenagers, about non-binary or other gender identities, which have also been rising in recent years. Do you think that that's natural for people to think that they're neither male nor female? Or do you think that that is socially induced at our sick schools run by sick leftists? Nearly one quarter of the adults in the surveys who said they were transgender identified as gender non-conforming. We as a culture just need to lean into the fact that there is gender diversity among us, Dr. Gope Wolfford, who has no gender identity, said, and who is the head of the gender health program at Minnesota Children's Hospital. You feel good about sending your kid to that hospital now, those of you in Minnesota? Why would they pick someone with no gender identity? Well, the rarest— one of the rarest conditions in humanity. To treat your child who has these issues. Wow. We as a society need to make space for that. Okay, there's the article. We'll, we'll put it up. It's already up at DennisPrager.com. 1-800-PRAGER-776. They always get to this part. We don't know how many gay people or bisexual people died of suicide this past year. Well, we certainly know that a lot of non-homosexual or non-gay or non-bisexual people committed suicide. It's been up for every group. We return, 1-800-PRAGER-776. Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here. Boise, Idaho, Sebastian, hello.

Hi Dennis, you know, the only thing, you criticize the left a lot, And I agree with you, but the only thing they care about is challenge to their political power. I don't know why you don't use your political equity over the many, many years you've been broadcasting with logic and reason to just run for office one time. Everybody would vote for you in California.

I would have much more impact doing what I'm doing with PragerU and my broadcasts and my books than being in Congress.

But how would you— how do you know that? How do you measure that? What makes you say that?

Because no congressman that I know of influences how people think. They vote and they're important, but they don't influence how people think. I want to influence how people think. That is my gift. I have no political gift. I can't stand politics.

Then why, then why are you so concerned about the left if most people think that way? It's because the left does have reins on political power.

No, they, the left had reins on everything but political power when Donald Trump was president. They still, they still taught your children sick things about America. It had no— Donald Trump had no impact whatsoever on what was taught in your schools.

But that's because of the elected school boards, right?

And that's right. So would you like—

so would you like me to give up my radio show and PragerU and writing and run for a school board?

Mm, not school board, governor.

Okay. All right. Thank you. I take it as a compliment. Anybody give a damn what Gavin Newsom thinks? Does anybody know what Gavin Newsom thinks? Governor of the largest state in the union? They care about his politics. They care about his policies. It's a very powerful position. I fully agree. The chances that I would win for governor of California are minuscule. The state has been brainwashed into leftism is good for them. By the way, I did think about it. I did. I thought of running against Barbara Boxer. I actually— there was a Prager for Senate committee I filed with the Federal Election Commission. I gave it serious thought. Politics is not the only way to influence people. In my humble opinion, it should be one of the less important ones. The fact that politics has become so important is because government has become so important. This country was founded to have government play as little a role in your life as possible. And that's what I would like to influence people to understand. It is not possible to have big government and freedom. It is not possible. The bigger the government, the less the freedom. That's the way it works in life. Interesting call, I appreciate it. And let's go to Chicago and John. Hello, John. Hi, thanks for taking my call.

You know, I have a, I have a theory that I'm sure you'll reject, but I hope you'll allow me to lay it out. My theory is that the effort by right-wing broadcasters such as yourself, near unanimous effort to, uh, endlessly focused day after day after day on transgenderism and drag and gay pride is not just a function of outrage over those things and is not just a function of trying to distract listeners from paying any attention to the mountain of evidence being presented by the January 6th Commission proving Trump's plot to overturn the 2020 election. But in your case, I think it is a rather conscious effort to avoid acknowledging the fact that two of the primary characters implicated in helping Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Trump's lawyer John Eastman, who tried to convince Mike Pence he should overturn the election for Trump, have both been given friendly, uncritical platforms on your radio show. And you haven't mentioned it yet. You're just talking about transgender people.

So your theory is that I talk about the transgender issue and the biological males competing in women's sports in order to deflect attention from January 6th?

Am I repeating you correctly? I think that not only do you do that—

okay, well, I don't know, I just want to understand it. Okay, right. Okay, so, so I have a question. Did I talk about this Did I talk about this constantly before January 6th? You talk about it a whole lot. Okay, then that completely subverts your theory. I was preoccupied with this for the last 25 years, the destruction of male-female differences by the left. It has nothing to do with January 6th. I will say about the January 6th What, what is it called that is going on now? What is it called? Hearings? Yeah. When they are— when every single person allowed to ask questions was picked by Nancy Pelosi, to consider that a hearing is, uh, doesn't speak well for those who think that way.

Thank you for the Grand Canyon and good luck with the apocalypse. And this is it, the Ultimate Issues Hour, the third hour of my show every Tuesday. If you don't get the big issues right, you won't get the little issues right. That's why we have an Ultimate Issues Hour, and they're not talked about often enough. What we have is, you know, people become very involved, totally understandably, in the daily struggles of life— kids, marriage, friends, job, financial addictions. Sickness, and the list, the list is very long of things that can preoccupy us as life goes on. And then we forget about the great issues, and it's, it's not a good thing. And likewise, you can't get the, as I said, the little issues right if you don't get the big ones. So we, we have an Ultimate Issues Hour, and it's been very, very successful. Today's ultimate issue is how do you shop for a religion? Let's say you realize that a life without religion is simply emptier. It is. There's no question about it. I'm not saying you can't be a good person. You can. There are good people who have no religion. And we surely know that there are bad people who do have religion. That's understood. But life without religion is emptier. You know, it's not meant to offend the non-religious. It's just a fact. Here, I'll give you a secular example, all right? Life without reading is emptier. Would you all agree to that? Is that fair? If you deny that, then you deny that there's such a thing as a deeper life. How about life without music is emptier? Life without love is emptier. But there are good people who don't have a love in their life. There are good people without music. There are good people who don't read much. All right, so I'm not talking about whether you can be a decent human being. I'm, I'm, I'm merely making a very matter-of-fact, very commonsensical claim. Life without religion is more shallow, is less deep, is, is in fact less wonderful. Good— there's no replacement for good religion, although people try. What they do is they have secular ideologies that replace it, or they have bad religion. There's good religion and bad religion. Maybe I should say there's life without good religion is emptier.

How's that?

So having said that, having said that, having said that, I would like to try to answer the question of If you do decide, you know what, I'd like to give religion a try, it does seem, it does seem to have great benefits. Where do you look if you are not currently involved in a religion, or you rejected the one that you grew up with, and you, and you are in that group which is ever-growing in America called none, N-O-N-E? What do you do? Where do you start? Now, a lot of people will say what you do is you look for truth. You look for what religion is true. That's not my— it's not my first argument for how to find a religion, because if that's the case, then I have nothing to say. So wherever you see— wherever you feel that you have found the truth, then go, and there's nothing, there's nothing for me to advise, right? Thus, you'll, it'll, it'll dawn on you one day that religion A is true and religions B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K are not. So I will take the religion that is true. I have a different, I have a different set of recommendations. My, I My first— my first of all, my first recommendation is that you rethink the religion that you grew up with, that you grew up in. For a whole host of practical reasons, I think that the first thing you should do is rethink the one you rejected. After you do that, you may in fact still say, look, I just can't, I can't I don't find it tenable. I don't, I don't want to consider myself a— and then fill in the religious name. That's possible. But I would ask you, as an adult, because most of the time the religion that you've rejected, you rejected as a young person, maybe even as a teenager. Well, you're not a teenager and you're not a young person, you're not a 20-year-old anymore. And you might therefore want to reconsider it. And I have dealt with this at least once. It's just worth noting, if you are looking for a religion with which you agree 100%, you will never be active in a religion.

You will join no religion.

Just like if you are looking for a candidate with whom you agree 100%, you will never vote. There is no candidate with whom you agree 100%, and there probably isn't a religion with which you will agree 100%. That's— it's not possible. The only religion that would— with which you'd agree 100% of the time is one you made up. And if you wish to make up a religion, more power to you. America has all of that. Make a religion, and if it does, does good and elevates people morally and spiritually and emotionally, intellectually, that's great. More power to you. I'm all for it. But the chances of you doing so are minimal, and so you pretty much have to choose among those that exist. And in America, you have a cornucopia of choices. So then how do I recommend you do it? Let's— so again, recommended recommendation number 1 is look into the religion that you rejected. And the reasons I said are practical. The odds are most of your family is involved in that religion. I don't mean immediate, but extended as well. Your friends, your social milieu. That you grew up in, and why not feel comfortable amongst them if you can? That's obviously a big— if you can intellectually, if you can emotionally, and if you can theologically. So that's the first, my first recommendation. See if you are absolutely certain you cannot be involved, you cannot call yourself by the name of the religion that you grew up in. So now let's say that's— you can't, and then how do you shop for a religion now that you are an adult? Well, I would offer the following recommendations. I am a big believer in 'by their fruit shall ye judge them.' I want you to look at the product of religions and think, you know what, by and large, I, I have been impressed with the people who adhere to this religion, and I would like to look into that further because I like the life that they have made, that that religion has made possible, or at least aided in making possible in the lives of its adherents. That, that's a, that's a big deal. In fact, to me, that's the biggest deal. It's the biggest deal no matter what. What does that religion produce?

Maybe I'll do an Ultimate Issues Hour one day on the whole issue of religious truth.

Because I, I probably have a slightly different view than a lot of people. I think what is true is that God wants us to be good. As Micah 6:8 puts it, oh man, has God told you what he wants? To pursue justice, love mercy— or pursue mercy, love justice, I always forget which the order is— and walk humbly with your God. And the founders were very much, uh, I, I have the religion largely of the founders, for whom ethical monotheism based on the Hebrew Bible in particular was so essential. All right, 1-800-PREGGER, 776. How do you shop for a religion if you are currently not an adherent of one? That's the topic of this edition of the Ultimate Issues Hour on The Dennis Prager Show. Hello, my friends. You're listening to The Dennis Prager Show, and the third hour every Tuesday is the Ultimate Issues Hour. The ultimate issue today is: if you're shopping for a religion, how do you do so? My first recommendation, as I made clear, is look to the religion in which you were raised. Now, if you were raised with no religion or cannot accept the religion, or simply even after study as an adult do not wish to identify with the religion with which you grew up, then you are a none. N-O-N-E. There are many of them in America. A religious life done well that's critical to add. That is a better life, is a deeper life, gives you a community. People need a community. People need other people. People need ritual. People need faith. People need a scripture. People need all of the things that good religion gives you. So how do you look for one? My first recommendation is, again, you are presuming— I'm presuming you are an N-O-N-E. My first recommendation is look at the fruit. My second is study and see which makes the most sense to you. It doesn't mean that you, you believe every tenet. Which makes the most sense? That's a very important aspect to me, at any rate. The intellectual is an exceedingly important aspect of religion. Okay, let's go to some of your calls, and we begin with Alex in Greenville, South Carolina. Thanks for calling, Alex.

Dennis Prager. Well, hello, Dennis.

This is indeed an honor. First time, long time.

Thank you for both.

Thank you. I wish we could sit together in front of your stereo with some classical jazz in the background, you smoking your cigar, and you with a cup of coffee. We have our Bibles, we can really discuss this. We've only got a moment. Um, now this is Ultimate Issues Hour, so here's the bottom line: all religions ultimately deal with not the temporal but the spiritual, which is the afterlife. Point number one. So point number two is, because they deal with the afterlife, essentially we're talking about salvation. How do you get to heaven? And so That really, in my opinion, is the most important thing. Therefore, the quest for truth should be paramount, not the fruits that are produced on this earth. Because as a Christian, I believe, and you probably do too as a Jew, that mankind is fallen. Now, in the Christian religion, you don't really begin to produce fruits per se until you are saved. So the salvation comes first. So, and I definitely agree that logic— and I'm an— I study apologetics, and for me, logic, logic is very, very powerful when it comes to deciding what is true. You know, you have the, um, the different rules that apply to logic, like the law of non-contradiction and things of that nature, which you can apply to all religions and apply to all truth claims. So even though, uh, also I believe that God does not God doesn't necessarily want us to be good so much as he wants us to be holy. And people can be, quote unquote, "good" without religion, as you and I both know, and you've stated before several times. And so ultimately, the quest for religion should not be what makes you feel good here on the planet. It's how are you going to be saved, how are you going to get to heaven? Because if you're searching for a religion, then obviously you've taken that first step, you believe there's an afterlife. Yeah, all right, all right.

You've been very eloquent, Alex.

Obviously you've thought this through, and I—

and that's why I didn't want to interrupt you at all. That's— I think— not I think, clearly Alex gave the answer from a traditional, uh, Christian perspective, and I honor it. I, I do think that God cares deeply, and I'm not saying Alex doesn't, but I want to reemphasize because the issue did arise in his comments. I do believe that God cares deeply about how we act on this earth. In fact, the silence, the relative silence of the Hebrew Bible, which is of course the basis ultimately of Christianity as well, but the Hebrew Bible is relatively silent on the afterlife, and it is so not because it rejects it. There's no question that there's an afterlife if there is a God. I mean, no, logically, just forget faith-wise, and that Jews always believed it. But, uh, the, the reason for this silence was that all religions surrounding The Jews 3,000 years ago were preoccupied with the afterlife, and the Hebrew Bible, which is part of the reason the founders were so enamored of the Hebrew Bible, was preoccupied, said God cares what happens on this earth. Why would God have made this, this world if he cared— didn't care about this physical world in which we live? Also, I have another argument for God's preoccupation with how we act in this world. God is our Father in Heaven, and those of you who are fathers or mothers on Earth, which is most of you, I assume, or many of you, you know how important it is how your children treat each other. Well, I think that the analogy holds true for God. Just as you care as a parent how your children treat each other, in some ways more than you care how they treat you. Nothing brings a parent more joy than seeing their kids enjoying and loving each other, and it gives a lot of pain to parents when kids are estranged from each other. That's how God feels. And of course, finally, on the salvation issue, obviously there, there are Even if that is the primary consideration for the shopping for religion question, which is the question of this Ultimate Issues Hour— if you are a none, N-O-N-E, shopping for religion, how do you do it? Even if salvation is your primary question, you, you then have the question of how it is attained. And is it attained through your good works on earth, or is it attained through ultimately an act of faith? That's a faith question as much as it is any other. So the question on the table is, if you do not have a religion now and you will not go back to the religion in which you were raised, or you were raised in none, how do you shop for one? Since we live on Earth, I think the first question for me This is a very personal hour in some ways. Is what are the fruits? What type of people does this religion produce? You're listening to The Dennis Prager Show, The Ultimate Issues Hour, and we return in a moment.

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