In this episode of The Dennis Prager Show’s Happiness Hour, recorded on April 10, 2020, Dennis Prager opens with a brief recap of his virtual Passover Seder, noting the worldwide, mostly non‑Jewish, audience and the touching comments on YouTube and Facebook. He then digresses into a humorous mix‑up about the spring equinox and winter solstice, using the confusion to segue into the main topic: whether religious people are better equipped to handle crises like the COVID‑19 pandemic than secular people. Prager argues that religious individuals benefit from built‑in community structures—synagogues, Zoom services, personal relationships—that act as “shock absorbers” during disruption. He contrasts this with secular folks, whom he claims panic more and tend to favor intrusive government measures such as prolonged shelter‑in‑place orders. Prager also critiques the reliance on experts for policy, citing Dr. Fauci’s hand‑shaking comment and the former Obamacare administrator now advising President Biden, asserting that experts lack wisdom and should only inform, not decide, policy. Throughout, he maintains a conversational, slightly sarcastic tone, acknowledges that both religious and secular people can be good or bad, and ends with a call‑in number and holiday greetings to Christian, Jewish, and all listeners before returning to the show’s regular programming.
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All right, y'all, Dennis Prager here. There's no question I'm in your life. I fully acknowledge that, and I'm honored to be, and I want to be of good use to you. Incidentally, if you missed it, I conducted a Passover Seder on the internet. You can get it at PragerU or YouTube or Facebook. Smoke signals. How else are things transmitted? And it's very touching, actually. People all over the world watched, mostly non-Jews, from the reactions. That's my assumption. But it's very touching. The comments are very touching on YouTube. Are there comments on Facebook? Yeah, I should look there too. I gotta look there too. Yeah, there are comments everywhere. Comments here, comment there, comments everywhere. All right, y'all, Dennis Prager here. So the obvious topic for today's Happiness Hour— come on, give me a break, you could guess it yourselves— the meaning of the spring solstice. Why that would bring people happiness. Is it the spring solstice? Wait, so when is the equinox? When is solstice and when is equinox? I admit my ignorance on the air. Oh, the equinox is closed. You know, you're thinking of the health club. This is what I have to deal with, ladies and gentlemen. If you knew what went into my earphones on a daily basis, you would send me a a cigar. Yes, cigars have been a very good thing. Do you know, by the way, this is of human interest, I admit it is not of colossal note, I've actually eaten less during this time than more. I totally get it that people look to food for comfort. I mean, I don't get it personally because I look to cigars for comfort, but I I get that people would. I have just found that I don't have an interest in eating. 'Cause it's a fairly sedentary existence right now, which is my fault. I mean, I do walk, but I don't walk enough. And not that if I walk more, I don't think I'd even want more food. Well, you don't eat much anyway, so it wouldn't affect you. I don't eat much anyway either, but I even eat less. Yeah, the equinox is twice a year. So then I was wrong. It's the spring equinox. It's the winter solstice. So I was totally wrong. Those of you who celebrate the spring equinox, please forgive me. I had a feeling I was wrong because I remembered the term winter solstice. It couldn't be both spring and winter. Has to be spring and fall. All right, now the topic on the Happiness Hour today is religion and happiness. Now this is a very great test. We're all equally— well, not equally, but it has nothing to do with secular or religious. We are, in that sense, we're all equally affected, correct? There are religious poor people, religious rich people, religious middle-class people. There are secular poor people, secular middle class, secular rich people. So the distinction has nothing to do with whether you're religious. So therefore it's a good test. Are religious people better capable, do they have advantages in coping with a situation like this that secular people do not have? That's my question. Now, my, uh, even putting God aside, which is a big deal to put aside, I get it. There is something that we have, we religious folks, not all but most, that secular folks don't have, not all but most again, and that is community. I have a synagogue that I attend. I'm very close to many of the people who attend it. I teach there every week, and we have a Zoom service every Saturday. Well, now we do. No, while I'm talking now, during this period, obviously we don't have a Zoom service when we can be together. I'd much rather be together. I'm a big hugger. According to Dr. Fauci, we won't even be able to shake hands ever again. Ever again. That's why you never have experts make policy. Never. Never. I rather have, as Buckley said, the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than 2,000 Harvard professors. Experts overwhelmingly lack wisdom. There are a handful of experts with wisdom. That's a very tiny fraction. They should have nothing to do with policy. They should just tell us what they know, and then wise people make policy. Can you think of something more foolish than we will never shake hands again? Yes, I can think of something more foolish. The man who ran Obamacare for the— the doctor who ran Obamacare for— and now is the health advisor to Joe Biden— said that we should stay in place for 18 months. He admits it will affect the economy. Shelter in place. That's right, shelter in place. Anyway, you see, religious people are, I think, are better prepared for things like this. One of the things, it's very interesting, one of the things that I think it's, I think this generalization is accurate. The vast, the disproportionate majority of those who are panicking, like the woman who wrote in the New York Times today that Nebraska should have shelter-in-place and she's angry at the Republican governor for not, the vast majority are secular. I think secular people panic more. I think they want a more intrusive government. There's a very big difference between secular and religious. I mean, there are secular conservatives and there are religious leftists, I understand that. But nevertheless, there really is a difference between the religious and the secular. Not to say that secular are bad and religious are good. There are bad religious people and there are wonderful secular people. But in the ability to cope with life, I think religious people have better shock absorbers. I think that our expectations of non-tragedy, although there are people who are religious who expect no tragedy 'cause they think by being religious, God will protect them. So I have knocked that many times. There isn't a shred of thought in me, deeply religious person, that God will protect me from all evil. I don't even know why people would believe that. It doesn't make any sense to me. So what do you think, religious or secular, better capable of dealing with the crisis we're in? That's the Happiness Hour subject. 1-800-DENNIS-PRAGER, 776-877-243. 7776. A meaningful holy weekend to my Christian listeners and a happy Pesach or Passover to my Jewish listeners. And to all other listeners, a happy weekend. We continue, um, The Dennis Prager Show, The Happiness Hour. The Dennis Prager Show, live from the Relief Factor Pain-Free Studio.
