In this monologue from the Dennis Prager Show’s Ultimate Issues Hour, Dennis Prager argues that living a religious life yields measurable personal and societal benefits. He cites studies showing that religious individuals are happier, live longer, and have richer social networks, and he asks why people avoid such a lifestyle despite the evidence. Prager distinguishes a "religious life" (participation in organized religion) from a vague "spiritual life," questioning what the latter even means. He likens raising children with religion to providing music lessons, suggesting that cultural neglect (fewer piano lessons, fewer orchestras) parallels the decline in religious practice. Prager references Stephen Meyer’s Return of the God Hypothesis and Charles Krauthammer’s criticism of atheism as evidence that science supports belief in a creator. He critiques secularism, noting the rise of the “nones” and associating secular decline with moral and social decay. Throughout, he frames belief in God as a personal choice akin to choosing happiness, urging listeners to deliberately adopt religious practice for themselves and their families, and invites callers to share their obstacles via the show’s phone line.
Chapters
Oh, this is, this is unbelievably important, the Ultimate Issues Hour. Now you realize, many of you realized earlier, but now you realize even better how important it is to have a clear outlook on life. Otherwise you're susceptible to nonsense, which is what is now taught from kindergarten to university. So we talk about the great issues. I have one today. Every one of you— not now, that's not exactly correct. The vast majority of you are aware of all the studies that I respect anyway. Anyway, all the studies, even the ones I don't respect, note the benefits of a religious life. People are happier, they live longer, they have more people in their lives. By every criterion, it is a better, a better way to live. So what stops you? Not what stops you from believing in God. It's not my— not the issue. I have, I have raised that issue. That's not the issue. The issue is what stops you from leading a religious life. You can lead a religious life while you struggle with the question of God's existence. They're not the same thing. Here's a related issue. People who say, "Oh, I'm not going to raise my kids with any religion," I'll let them choose when they get older. Why don't you say that about anything else? I'm not gonna give my kid music lessons. If they're interested in an instrument, they'll take one later, right? Why is, why is that different? Of course, anyway, fewer and fewer parents are probably giving their kids musical instruments. You know that a piano was, was normative in all but the poorest homes in American history. Might have been a hand-me-down and needed to be tuned a lot, but some piano. Not today. If people played an instrument as much as they play video games, we would have a phenomenally cultured society. They have orchestras in every little town. You know, John Lennon wrote Imagine. I imagine too. I imagine— I should do that. I should write a column on what I would imagine. Yeah, I would imagine every kid got music lessons. And joined an orchestra. I would imagine that kids had strong fathers who told them right from wrong. I would imagine that kids would go to church or synagogue each week, whether they liked it or not. Anyway, I'll stop imagining. I want you to tell me, given the factual benefits of a religious life— and I'm not talking spiritual life, I don't even know what that means. I literally do not know what spiritual life means. If you, if you can explain it, as opposed to a religious life. Religious life is a life involved in a religion. I don't know. What is a spiritual life? A life involved with spirits? I'm not being cute. What does it mean? What stops you from being religious, given the benefits that adhere to it? Now, 1-800-PRAGER, 776-877-243-7776. Some people will undoubtedly say, well, I just can't believe in God. Okay, I don't know why you can't believe in God. My take is you choose to believe in God. I made that choice at a very early age. It's the greatest choice I ever made. I don't know for certain that there is a God. I believe very strongly that there is a God. How could I know for certain? All evidence suggests there is. I cannot believe— in fact, science is my greatest single evidence right now. Science not only doesn't refute God, science argues for God. His great book that I just read, Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen Meyer— I mean, I didn't understand chunks of it because of the physics But it was still worth it. I mean, the evidence is so overwhelming for a creator and an intelligent creator. If you saw a computer on Jupiter, would you think it just came there, or would you think that an intelligence had made it? How do you have intelligence from non-intelligence? I mean, you think it's more rational to believe that we went from rocks to any one of us on its own? I mean, that's an absurdity. Charles Krauthammer, when I had him on, said of all the things that he's ever heard, and he was an agnostic, atheism was the stupidest. So I can't believe that It's only, oh, I can't believe in God, that's why I'm not religiously involved. See, my view is, like happiness, you choose to be happy. I think you should choose to believe in God and choose to lead a religious life. You have problems with the religion in which you were raised? Guess what? Every thinking person does. I don't know anybody who has no problems with the religion in which they were raised. Therefore what? Therefore it's not worth leading a religious life? What stops people that you know? I mean, do you realize that— what is it, a third of young people now say they are a none, N-O-N-E. They don't believe in any religion. They have no faith. You think they're happier for it? You want to know the results of that? In part, what you saw last year, the hysteria, the massive thievery. Think those are thieves, are churchgoers? Think the people who would twerk on police cars are churchgoers? I mean, why isn't it obvious to every thinking person that as we get more secular, we decline as a society? Why is that not obvious? You know why? People don't want to believe what is rational. They want to believe what they want to believe. What they have committed their lives to. So if you've committed your life to secularism, you want to believe it was a great choice. Well, you know what? It was a crappy choice. Sorry. Doesn't mean you're a bad person. There are a lot of nice, wonderful secular people. But it was a very foolish choice. For you, for your family, and children in particular. I know, I know a guy really, really well who doesn't believe in God and goes to church regularly. It's exactly what he should be doing. He feels elevated at the service. Whether he intellectually has made peace with the God or not is a separate issue from having something that elevates him each week. Are you elevated by something every week? Something secular? I'd like to know what it is. Sunday Night Football? 1-800-PRAEGER, 776-877-243-7776. What stops you, or for that matter, someone you know well, from a religious life? That's the question of this Ultimate Issues Hour. On the Dennis Prager Show, it's sort of the $64,000 question of life. It's a choice, like happiness, and you should choose it.
