Timeless Wisdom - Why Are People Alienated From Religion?

Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com. Whenever I hear somebody say I threw away the introduction. I want you to know it doesn't fill me with confidence. There was a girl who didn't throw away the introduction, who— where it said, uh, in the— it's the official one, Los Angeles Times— said Dennis Prager was preoccupied, uh, uh, with good and evil. And she said, Dennis Prager is preoccupied with doing evil. And, uh, this was in front of like 500 people at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Yeah, how do you speak after that? Aside from which, you know, I thought, how does she know that? But this was really— I recorded it. Where are you, Rabbi? Rabbi House, I recorded this. That's how much it meant to me. I'm going to keep that. That's very touching. But it is astonishing, a fellow Jew from New York City out— we were the only two Jews in Simi Valley. I mean, you know, that's amazing. By the way, those days had a very, very deep impact on me for another reason. And that was, I'm writing my autobiography and I have the subtitle but no title. And that is A Man, A Jew, An American. How I have worked through those three identities. And it was really in that order. The first thing I knew, of course, is that I'm male. And immediately knew I was a Jew because I was an Orthodox Jew, and in the cocoon of Brooklyn, New York, what else are you? And I started realizing how American I was. Actually, the transformation started, and I've written about this, in Morocco, oddly enough, when I was 20 years old, a few months before I went to the Soviet Union. And it was— I couldn't believe I missed Christmas. I was in a Muslim country where there was no Christmas. The first time in my life there was no Christmas. And I kept thinking, why does a yeshiva boy miss Christmas? And so that was the first inklings in my life of how American I was. And then Simi Valley, I joined the Rotary Club. And I loved these guys. It was all guys then, which was, in my opinion, better days. No, no, it was better days not for guys. It was better days for America because guys need guys. And if guys modeled goodness for other guys, you get more good in society. And that's all they did in Rotary Clubs was do good things. That's all they did. You, they competed with one another, almost macho, who could do more good, who could help more retarded kids in the area play baseball. That was the big macho battle. And of course, it was dismissed as sexist in the age of stupidity in which we live. And so the Rotary Clubs, I'm sure they do good today too, but it was— the change was awesome. But anyway, I I was the only Jew in the— I think I was the only Jew in the group, and I was treated beautifully. And I had written a book on antisemitism, so I wasn't ready to be so liked. And it was transformative, that time there. And so, give you a very interesting story since you mentioned Carol Hemingway. I haven't told this story very often, but I have told it. And then I'll get into my talk. But you'll, I think, there are a number of non-Jews here, obviously a big welcome to you and to the father and the Catholic priest who's here, any other clergy. And a very fascinating thing happened After I was broadcasting at KABC, my first station, uh, for about 4 years doing this show, which was unbelievably popular— I inherited a very popular show, but it became even more popular. It had— let's put it this way: in radio, if you have a 3 share, you are probably number 1. The share Religion on the Line had on Saturday, Sunday evening was 32 share. It's, I mean, one-third of all radios in Southern California were tuned to that show. It was unbelievable. It was just unbelievable. And so when I got it, it was a big deal for me, obviously. And about 3 years, 4 years into it, George Green, God bless him, who's still with us, and may he be for many years, the, the head of the station called me in. It was the first time he ever called me in. What do I think? Uh-oh. But he said, Dennis, Dennis, nothing bad, you're doing great, we love you here, but I got a question. He said, I don't understand something. And he was totally sincere. He didn't understand this. And it was a great question. He said, Carol Hemingway, your predecessor— well, let me explain Carol Hemingway, whom I did not know, and this is not a knock on her, I'm just describing the reality. She was completely secular, anti-religious. There was a lot of mockery of religion on the show. People call in with very disrespectful questions to the clergy, especially the Catholic priests. And so she was the opposite of me, who thinks that without religion America's doomed, God-centered. I was the opposite. And, but interestingly, she was a Jew despite her name. She was a Jew and she never mentioned it. So he said to me, Dennis, I don't understand something. Carol Hemingway did this show all these years. I got a lot of anti-Semitic mail against her, but how did anybody even know she was a Jew with her name and she never mentioned it? You mention you're a Jew every show. And I've never gotten one piece of anti-Semitic mail. It doesn't make sense. And I said, George, it does make sense. Non-Jews trust Jewish Jews more than they trust non-Jewish Jews. And he had never thought about that, totally understandably. I don't think most people do. When I say this, it comes as a first hearing to most people. And I have found that completely true in my life. There are listeners of mine around the country who have Dennis is my rabbi t-shirts. Needless to say, they're all not Jewish. You know, the number of Jews who would regard me as their rabbi is minimal. But it's just— I'm the first Jew Many of my many listeners, millions ultimately, have met— they've met, yeah, you know, Birnbaum may own the local grocery store or, you know, be a father of a kid in their class or mother, but as a Jewish Jew, I'm the first one they meet. And it's sad, obviously. I wish it weren't true. So why are so many people alienated from religion? It's a very important topic, and I will have something to say that will annoy all groups. By the way, I just want to make this official announcement: I never say anything to annoy anybody. I do it unintentionally, but regularly. I just want to say that. It's like people say to me, I get this very often, "Oh, Dennis, I love you." But you hear that all the time. I say, "Well, actually, why don't you go on the internet and put in Dennis Prager and a-hole and see how many tens of thousands of hits." It's not true. I annoy a lot of people. I don't want to, it's not my intent, but it does. And it's like, first in Jewish life in particular, most Jews are on the left, I'm not. And to have a prominent Jew who's not on the left is very annoying. And I salute this, one of the few non- non-Orthodox synagogues that would invite me. Conservative and Reform Judaism are increasingly hermetically sealed to non-left-wing views. I mean hermetically sealed. For decades, after Elie Wiesel, I was the most frequently booked lecturer in Jewish life. For decades. You could check with the head of the formerly existing B'nai B'rith Lecture Bureau. But as I became more and more known as a conservative, the invitations just dropped off, even though I came to synagogues to speak on Judaism. I didn't come to speak on politics, and I have no problem in not talking a word about politics, talking about religion or Judaism, Jewish education, God. But it doesn't matter. There's no place in much of conservative and Reform Judaism today for a non-left-wing Jew, which is not good for them, because you only grow when you have had intellectual intercourse with a person of other views. I just had a dialogue debate with Alan Dershowitz. Was it last week? 2 weeks ago? Well, was it last week? 2 weeks ago, yeah. And, you know, 1,400 people came, as Rabbi Woznika, the great rabbi at Stephen S. Wise, said, "It looks like Kol Nidre." For those of you who don't know Kol Nidre, that means Yom Kippur. For those of you who don't know Yom Kippur, we're in bad shape. The Jews knew it. I knew that. But anyway, it was a huge turnout, and it was fast. People told me that they had Jewish friends or relatives who were members of the synagogue who wouldn't come because I was appearing, even though I'm appearing with the most prominent liberal Jew in America, Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Medical School. It's still, it's still tameh, it's still impure to have a conservative who is a Jew appear in a synagogue. That's how bad it is. Which will go to one of the factors that I want, but I'm not going to absolve the rest, you will see. So let me give you a number of reasons why people are alienated increasingly. And by the way, the numbers are dramatic and they're rising exponentially. We now have A vast number of young Americans who, when asked their religious affiliation, check off "none." And they're called the "nones," N-O-N-E-S, not N-U-N-S. I wish they were all nuns. But they're nuns in terms of not reproducing, but they're not nuns in terms of a sense of holiness. And this is an increasing number in America. And by the way, it's afflicting everybody. You know, evangelicals are no longer guaranteed to produce evangelical children, let alone mainstream Protestants, and certainly not Catholics as well. And obviously we know about the falloff rate in Judaism. And why? So in no order of importance, and it really isn't— they're all important— here goes. Number 1: there is a secular ocean in which People swim. I mean, ocean. It's overwhelming. You can't even see the religious shores. You're so far from religion, all you see is secularism, is irreligion. And it's to the point of, it's not just there, it's indoctrinated. It's the message of virtually all American education today, from kindergarten through graduate school, and the older you get, the more the indoctrination. Religion and God are for the stupid. At best, when it's innocuous, religion is just stupid. But sometimes it's worse than stupid, it's actually bad. And the most common thing— and this, you have to learn the following line, it's not something you would have come up with— if you hadn't heard it. And you hear it all the time. As a talk show host, I have heard this probably 1,000 times. And if I did shows on it every day, I would have heard it 10,000 times. Oh, come on, Dennis, you know that the greatest amount of evil in the world has been done in the name of God by religious people. It's a statement of staggering ignorance, and I can only ascribe it to college education. There's a chance if you didn't go to college you may not have heard that line. There's no chance if you went to college that you didn't hear that line. No chance. It's as true as water is wet that religion is responsible for all or nearly all of the great evils. So when you give them a simple little counter, which of course I do, I say, well, how do you explain that the bloodiest, most cruel century in history, the 20th century, all the evil, with one, in terms of tragedy, there's no such thing as minor, but in terms of numbers, minor exception of the Ottoman Empire, what it did to the Armenians, all of it was done by secular groups. Nazism and communism were responsible for 100 million non-armed people getting slaughtered. More than 100 million. Just in China alone, 70 million by the monster called Mao Zedong. They were all non-religious. Now, wouldn't you think that that's a pretty fair retort? To the comment, all the evil has been done in the name of God by religious people. And here you have the staggering amount of unprecedented. So they have two answers. Uh, one answer is, well, Nazism and communism, they were religions too. So dishonest. Of course they were religious, but they were secular religions. I thought you said it was done in the name of God. When you said religious, you meant religious, like Christian. That's what you meant. So it's a phony response. The other response is, well, they had technology. The Communists and Nazis had technology. But that's— first, therefore what? You can't mass murder without technology? The, the, the, the second greatest per-day murders of the 20th century happened in Rwanda. And it was done by knives. All by knives. So, so, it's ridiculous. And by the way, Mao's 70 million, they weren't— it wasn't modern machinery that killed them. They simply starved them to death by forcing them to collectivize because of this monstrous idea, and selling his food, all Chinese food, to the Soviets so he would get their weapons. That's the reason for it. He sold the food. He starved his people to get— not nuclear, well, he had nuclear weapons— but to get weapons. He wanted to be a major power in the world, this megalomaniac. But so what? But they still believe this. So you have to understand, the first reason is secular indoctrination, where it's not even worth your time to confront religious ideas. Religious ideas— if you go to college, the term religious ideas is considered an oxymoron. There are only secular ideas. Religious idea means that religion has intellectual depth. That is not possible. But you don't understand, it's almost the other way. Secularism produces no wisdom. There is no depth in the secular world. There is knowledge And I'm all for it. But there— tell me where there's secular wisdom. Tell me if you think of wisdom that would transcend the age in which we live. Show me where it comes from a secular source. By the way, my theory is secularism produces— the only secularism is good for government. It is good for nothing else. It's not good for your life. It's not good for wisdom. It is not good for Uh, for the arts, tell me what, what secular music compares to music written in the religious periods of Europe? What art? Is it, is it perhaps the sculpture in front of the, uh, Orange County Museum of, uh, what is it, what is it called, the Museum of Modern Art? No, that's not, that's MoMA in New York. Uh, it's called, uh, the Orange County Museum Is that it? All right, whatever it is, the main museum in Orange County, you know what it has in its front? A gigantic sculpture of a dog lifting its leg and urinating, which I think is utterly appropriate because the museum deserves to be peed on, in my opinion. And I can't think of a more accurate representation of museum than a dog peeing on it. But that, that's what it is. I mean, the amount I, I, on my show, I regularly Again, by the way, they're very huge. The art world is very big on scatology, which is acts of excretion. Very big on it. The big German art award went to a sculpture of a German policewoman crouching and urinating, and even the puddle. Now what is the point of that? A policewoman urinating? But it got a big award in Germany. And then there's Piss Christ, the crucifix in the guy's urine. You have no idea how much menstrual blood feminist artists use. This is an important statement. I don't know of what, but of something. To them it's important. When you have no talent and no depth, that's what you do. You have peeing and menstruating as your forms of art. It's worth laughing only because your alternative is to cry, and I prefer to laugh than to cry, but it's really worth crying over. So secularism doesn't produce much good stuff, but they are enamored of themselves and they consider the religious— I mean, to be a religious student today at a university, to be publicly traditionally religious is so much more countercultural than anything in the '60s when I was a kid, or the '70s when I was at the graduate school. You know, counterculture, you know, ripped jeans and weed. That was really countercultural, right? Countercultural is, you know, go to church on Sundays, go to synagogue on Saturday. That's countercultural today. And you really have to have a lot of strength to let it be known that that's what you do. I'm sorry, I can't go to the movie with you on Sunday, I'll be at church. You will? You believe in that nonsense? So the first is this, as I say, the secular indoctrination, the ocean of atheism and secularism in which kids, and not just kids, you know, kids I'm talking under 40, swim. Number 2, the human being needs religion. And if so, if they don't have Judaism or Christianity, to use our country's primary examples, they will create other religions. People very rarely can live without religion because religion gives you meaning. And the human being, unlike an animal— animals don't yearn for meaning. They yearn for carnal pleasure, eating, sex at certain periods of time, and to be petted, to be walked. Most of you have a dog. It's un-American not to have one. I'm sure you're all patriots. So, Pete, everybody has a dog. You know that this is true, and that's fine. I don't want my dog to yearn for meaning. Then he'll get depressed. I don't want a depressed dog. The whole point of having a dog is to make you cheerful. But humans are unique. We're unique. We want meaning. It's not enough to have our carnal needs met. Except at college. There it is considered sufficient. But we want meaning, and so what people do as a result of the decline of mainstream religion in America and in the West is they invent other religions. And so we have a number of them. We have scientism, we have leftism, and we have environmentalism. Those are the primary three. Scientism is not a belief that science has something to teach us. The vast majority of religious people, including traditionally religious people, know that science has something to teach us. My brother is an Orthodox Jew, went to Harvard Medical School, is a professor of medicine at Columbia University. Whenever people tell me that, you know, religious people are anti-science, I think, is my brother anti-science? My brother was the head of medical ethics for all of Columbia University. He's a full professor of medicine. He's one of the leading pulmonologists on the East Coast. He's anti-science? It's an ignorant, stupid statement that religious-believing people are anti-science. They don't give their kids inoculations. I mean, there are a handful of people who don't give inoculations, but it has nothing to do with religiosity. They just make these comments up, and the point is though that kids believe it. They believe that if you're religious, you're anti-science. That's what's so frightening. Because there's no other voice allowed. I can't name a single conservative who was giving a commencement speech this year at a major American university. By major, I mean 200, top, in terms of numbers of students. There may be one, I can't find it. When I read to my listeners a few weeks ago that Ohio State was inviting Chris Matthews of Hardball, I saw it as a perfect example. Is anybody inviting Hannity? That would be the equivalent. Hannity at Fox News to Chris Matthews at Hardball. No, of course not. But they're not inviting Krauthammer. They're not inviting George Will, Bill Bennett. And Brandeis University disinvited Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Black African Somali Muslim-born woman who is the leading voice for the rights of girls in the Islamic world. Disinvited her. And so it's their hermetically sealed worlds, and they have their own substitute religions. So you don't need Christianity, you don't need Judaism, you have your own. Scientism is not the belief that science has something to teach. Everybody acknowledges that. Everybody. Even people who believe in a 6-day creation, which I am not among them. I don't believe that the days are 24 hours. But even though, even they know, they take their kids to doctors. They would have no issue with their kid attending a medical school. The charges is just absurd. But they have scientism. That is, science is my guide. But of course, science guides you nowhere. Science does not know good and evil. It has, it is It is morally dumb. Your dog has a better sense of good and evil than all of science. Science has nothing, no moral guide. It can't tell you anything. How do you know what to do? If it guided you in anything, it would be survival of the fittest. That's what science would teach. If you're fit, kill the weak. It's what nature does. So whenever science changes its mind, or, you know, I ask a listener, you know, an atheist who comes on— I've debated every atheist except for Dawkins, who just won't come on— and I, I, I asked them about this. Well, whatever science doesn't know today, science will one day know. Science will one day know why the universe came about. It's not possible. It's not possible to know why something came from nothing. I debated the guy who says a universe From Nothing. I think that's the title of his book. Lawrence Krauss, big astronomer in Arizona, one of the leading atheist voices. So I had him on for an hour, just in case people should think I don't give them time. And I gave him, you know, a whole hour, and we actually had a— I asked him these questions, and he said, well, it depends on what you mean by nothing. You have to know, folks, uh, if Any of you who know me know how polite I am on the radio. I'm known for that. You have to know that it comes at some psychic price. There is an internal price paid because at that moment, the things that I want to say would have me fired. I must— What do you mean, what? But I did say very sweetly, Professor Krauss, we know what nothing means. Nothing means No thing. It's not a toughie. It's not esoteric. It's not complex. Nothing means nothing. No, it doesn't. And so what do you do then? If nothing doesn't mean nothing, if nothing means something, then it's really back to Abbott and Costello and who's on first. No, no, am I right or wrong? Except people knew that that was hilarious. They take this seriously. So their belief in science is absurd. What does it mean to believe in science? To believe— by the way, even believing in science, and obviously whatever science proves is true. What's it? H2O, right? So the 2 hydrogen atoms to 1 oxygen atom produces a molecule of water. It's a given, okay? But on so much else, science constantly changes, to its credit. You know, now, did you know the latest— I'm serious— the biggest mega study yet is saturated fat has no impact on your heart whatsoever. That is the latest mega study in major academic journals. And when it came out, it reminded me of Woody Allen's movie Sleeper, if you recall. Woody Allen is asleep for a long time. He wakes up in the future, and in the future, hot fudge sundaes are healthy and broccoli isn't. And it is a very funny scene, and that's what I thought of when they said saturated fats turn out to be irrelevant. And do I know whether it's true? 2, 3 years from now, they may say saturated fats gives you athlete's foot. I have no idea. So what does it even mean to believe in science? You believe at any given moment that science is giving you its best shot. Yes, of course I— who doesn't? But to believe in science? What? Does it fulfill you? Does it give you meaning? Science doesn't give you meaning. Science doesn't give you moral education. It doesn't give you purpose. Then there's environmentalism, which is huge. Just huge. It's not concern for the environment. Anybody with a brain is concerned with the environment because we want to leave our children a good environment. But this is not that. This is, this is to the environment what communism was to concern for the worker. Anyone with a heart was concerned for workers. Communists worshiped the worker, as it were. Of course, they killed more workers than anybody else in history, but that's a separate issue. But that's what they would preach. Environmentalism is the worship of the environment. So that if banning DDT causes millions of Africans to die of malaria, it does not bother the environmentalist movement. The environmentalist movement has more blood on its hands than any of— certainly than George W. Bush. But nobody— does anybody know that? Do you know what all of the positions the environmentalists have taken? It is— who's my— The guy in Denmark that I always have on the environment. Uh, yeah, what's his name again? Bjorn Lomborg. Bjorn Lomborg is a very— he believes that global warming is taking place, but he drives the environmentalists crazy because he said, "You are wasting so much money that could go to saving lives in Africa. You're wasting money on this battle of computer models." And the latest is to tell African countries not to use fossil fuel for electricity. I've been to 20 African countries. I've been to Africa multiple times. The thing they most need is fossil fuel to have a chance at getting out of subsistence a subsistence life. It's so angering to think that people, rich people in Marin County, have the arrogance, the lack of heart to tell Africans not to use fossil fuels because computer models at the IPCC at the UN will tell us that in 40 years from now there'll be a temperature increase and the oceans will rise. We'll worry about that then. Right now, Africans need fossil fuels. And then, of course, there is leftism, the most dynamic religion of the last 100 years, by far. It's been far more dynamic than Christianity. Judaism's not even in the race, unfortunately. But even far more dynamic than Islam. Leftism has conquered the elites of the world. It is the dominant— it is as dominant a religion among the world elites as Catholicism was in the medieval world in Europe. And there were probably more questioners in medieval Europe than there are at the New York Times editorial board. The latest editor, Jill Abramson, who by the way is getting her award at Brandeis University, where Ayaan Hirsi Ali was kicked out. She hasn't commented. She's the latest editor of the New York Times. When she was appointed, she was, she was, uh, very honest and said, you know, this is, this is like the greatest day of my life. In our home, when I grew up, the New York Times was the Bible, which of course is true. That's where the New York Times editorial page is to the left world, which is the dominant education world and the whole Democratic Party, what the Bible was to most Americans. It's holy writ. They took that out on the next printing of it on the internet because so many people like myself commented on The original would be very hard to find now. If you go to the New York Times, you won't see that quote from her when she was appointed. But the conservative blogs still have it. But leftism is— it's the most dynamic religion. It takes over your kids, conservative parents' children. You know, a couple today at my synagogue told me that their granddaughter, that is the daughter of their daughter, is of course sees the grandparents, you know, regularly, but there are conditions. Their daughter made conditions, and one of them is that when they take their daughter in the car, they may not have talk radio on the radio. Just today, it was told to me at my synagogue by this couple. I totally believe it. Now, I can't even imagine doing the— on the other direction, that my conservative child couldn't hear NPR or MSNBC. I would want them to hear it so that they get inoculated. I would think it's a good thing for them to hear. But it's a good thing for them to hear, because I want their brains to work. There's nothing else. I never wanted my children to grow up in a hermetically sealed religious world or hermetically sealed ideological world. It is, it's the most, uh, it is the most dynamic religion. And if you are opposed to any of these You're anti-science if you are not in the environmentalist movement, and you are intolerant and bigoted if you are not on the left. You know, SIXHERP: sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, bigoted. Number 3. Now we go to the other side. This is where I promised— it's not just— it's The reason for alienation from religion is not just the fault of the secular indoctrinators or the left. It's also a big problem because of the religious. And a big issue is religious evil. Sincere young people look at religious evil and find the argument that God and religion are necessary for goodness to be without merit. And we are right now, right now, in our very moment, we are witnessing the greatest eruption of religious evil in hundreds of years. And that is evil done by Islamic terrorists in the name of Allah. The frightening thing is that the left has made it impossible to say that.

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the government of the United States doesn't even refer to a war on terror. It's overseas contingency operations. The Islamist who murdered people at Fort Hood, it's called by this government a workplace shooting. A workplace shooting. The man yells "Allahu Akbar" while doing it. It's called a workplace shooting. The combination of leftist hatred of those who point out what's happening in the Islamic world today is exactly what happened in the Cold War. The left didn't support the communists, they attacked the anti-communists. They don't support— the left doesn't support Islamist murder. They hate anti-Islamists. That's what's done. Like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Brandeis University, and so many others. Religious evil, though, is having an impact. I have done this, but I don't expect any results. I've still done it. I've called for 1,000 Christian and Jewish clergy to go to Washington and say how the name of God is being ruined by Islamic evil. By the way, I would want imams to join it. There's no reason why a good Muslim should not join that. If anybody should organize it, it should be a Muslim. Isn't the name of Islam being sullied? Wouldn't you think that that would be the first— that would be my first reaction? Jews were killing in the name of God, Torah, and Israel? Taking innocents and slaughtering schoolchildren and beheading people while saying the Shema? You know how angry I would be? But there's nothing. It's nothing. You can't even talk about it, let alone have anybody gather. They would much sooner be a gathering of rabbis, priests, and ministers against carbon emissions than against Islamist evil, and you know that. It would be effortless to have that get-together. The damage done by Islamic evil— one writer just pointed out recently, a very good point, that the— you know, it's called the New Atheists, this whole This whole burgeoning of atheism and atheist bestsellers since 9/11. You know, unlike the 9/11 memorial, which is now debating whether to even mention that they were Muslims who murdered us— that's— it may not be mentioned, just people or terrorists, not sure, maybe not even, maybe militants. New York Times never says they're terrorists, they're militants. And, and they— that's, uh, that's who, who attacked us. But, uh, most Americans know who attacked us, and it's had an impact on religion. Religious evil— let me put a very touching thing to you. Religious evil does more to alienate people from God and religion than all the atheists in the world. And religious good does more to bring people to religion and God than all the arguments for God and religion. But religious goodness is not publicized. CURE International, that beautiful Christian group that runs these hospitals— you've heard about it recently because 3 people were murdered in their Afghan hospital in Kabul. I visited their hospitals in Honduras and Dominican Republic. My wife and I are going to visit maybe in Uganda or Niger this coming year. They're extraordinary people. They believe that their Christian faith demands that they do good. Is that a shocker? But that, you know, as I've always said, it's my whole life, this has been my one consistent theme because of my devotion to the concept of ethical monotheism. God demands ethics more than anything else. But it's not— I didn't make that up. The prophet Micah said it. Oh man, God has told you all he wants, right? Love justice, act mercifully, and walk humbly with your God. Then have a nice day. I added have a nice day, but some interpretations also have have a nice day. The very new International Version. It's unbelievable, it's so easy. The religious message to me is so simple: God wants you to be good. But it is amazing how obfuscated it gets in religious life, and therefore religious people are partially responsible for alienation from religion because so much else dwarfs that message. There's another reason though for this alienation, not just religious evil. And by the way, I have to include, although, uh, it's not fair to the church because the church does so many beautiful things which are never reported, but the, the, the priestly molestations also had a terrible impact. There's no way around it. And it hurts me because I have so many close, dear friends in the church But to deny it, you know, is— you know, at least what Madoff— you know, A, he didn't molest children. And B, he didn't do it in the name of Judaism. You know, I don't know. Does he get kosher in prison? I don't remember. Madoff— no, I'm serious. Does anybody know? Is he religious? I don't think he's religiously inclined. I mean, it's not like he gave Jews a good name. Let's be clear about that. You know, Jewish embezzlers are not— Is that Madoff? Do you know how to turn it off? Oh, it's yours. Yeah, okay. I should always remind, if you have a cell phone, that was a good reminder to turn it off. There's another thing that has caused Evil in general. I think we have to be honest. And this is no fault of religion, no fault of— it's only the fault of evildoers. But two things had another impact to alienate people from religion. I think we have to be honest about this. And there's no blame here except on those who did the evil. World War I killed Christianity. In Europe, and it was buried after World War II. It was almost killed after World War I. Nationalism was killed after World War I. World War I had a— World War I was the worst thing that happened in history. It led directly to World War II, the Holocaust, communism, Nazism. They're all products of World War I. And World War I had a terrible impact on religion. Everybody— because Christians killing Christians for no apparent reason doesn't do good for Christianity or religion generally. And then the Holocaust, uh, was the burial grounds because so few Christians spoke up. Now, I, I defend Christianity against the charge that the Holocaust, that Auschwitz was built by Christians. It wasn't. It was built actually by secular people who hated Christianity. But at the same time, the number of Christians who spoke up or did anything was too small given the message of Christianity. If it's so great, where are— where were you? I'm just reading the great Metaxas biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a Christian who spoke up and got killed for it by the Nazis. But it's— he's the exception that proved the rule. And he himself said, what is something colossally wrong with the church? Because the vast numbers of pastors who just went along with Hitler, they weren't personally cremating Jews. And if you needed to be saved— I asked this of Sam and Pearl Oliner, who wrote a book on Who Saved Jews, two sociologists up in Northern California, and they're not religious. And I said, so I have a question. If you could go back to, let's say, Poland during the Holocaust, you're a Jew, and you could knock on the door of a professor, of a lawyer, of a priest, which door would you knock on and hope that you had the best chance of being saved? And they both said a priest, though interestingly she said, and even better than a priest, a nun. But in any event, they were both religious figures, so that's important to note. But there was a general failure of Christianity at the time. Christianity didn't make Auschwitz. But Christianity did almost nothing to stop it. And so, uh, you got to be honest. You have to be honest about, uh, all of these factors. And then there is just the factor of evil. People look around, they see so much evil, and they say, if there is a God, how do you explain the rot of humanity? Even my wife, who deeply believes in God, thinks he really should not have saved Noah. There's a very dark view of humanity. By the way, that is a very good— Rabbi, you really should have that as an interesting discussion one Shabbat or whatever you have discussions. Given all the amount of suffering of humans since then, did God make the right decision in saving anybody? It's an interesting question. And finally, my last reason is the two choices that exist. Again, now, again, I'm blaming religious life too. I blame non-religious life, but I got a religious life has to be blamed very big in a very big way. Basically, Christianity and Judaism have two divisions, these two divisions. On the one side is the crowd that believes in no divine scripture. The Bible is all man-made. Everything is man-made. Oh, that's almost as bad as driving slow in the left lane. See, in my hierarchy of evils, slow in the left lane remains worse than that, but it sits up there. The division is those who believe— and this is in Judaism and Christianity— there is no divine scripture, the Bible is all man-made. On the other side is the divine scripture crowd. I'm in the divine scripture crowd. I'm a non-Orthodox Jew who believes that the Torah is a divine document. Okay, so I am There are about 47 of us, and I know about 40 of them. Now, this is very important, though. This is key. The ones who don't believe in divine scripture make their non-divine scripture religion very relevant. The ones who believe in divine scripture in Judaism and Christianity, we will call them with a small o, the Orthodox in Christianity and the Orthodox in Judaism, don't make their religions, by and large— there are of course fantastic exceptions— don't make their religion relevant. And this is what I want to emphasize, and it's difficult because I love a lot of these people. But you have to call a spade a spade if that's how you see it. What's happened is that the folks— we'll call it left and right because it is left and right— the religious left, the pastors, rabbis, and priests get up and speak about social justice. So, sermon after sermon is about how our religion forces you to back the forces of social justice, which is another way of saying big government. Because that's what it means: support more and more government, more and more equality, and all the positions that we associate with the left. They're talking about real life. On the orthodox right in Judaism and in Christianity, they don't talk about the relevance of their religions to the real problems of life nearly as much as the left does. Take the religion I know— I know Christianity very well, and I know Judaism even better. Overwhelmingly orthodox rabbis will cite what Rashi says, famous medieval French rabbinic commentator on the portion of the week read in the Torah, and/or talk to you about how you can be more observant. How you can have a more strict kosher for Passover home. How important it is for you to send your kids to Jewish day school. And, which is fine, I give a lot of talks on that. But how often does an Orthodox rabbi speak, compared to a non-Orthodox rabbi, about capital punishment? Just as an example. The vast majority of Orthodox rabbis are pro-capital punishment. In the last year, I would be stunned if 5 Orthodox rabbis in all of America spoke about The Torah's call to kill murderers. The only law in all 5 books of the Torah is that murderers be killed. It's not insignificant. Why don't you make it relevant? That was my— I went to yeshiva till I was 18. I kept going nuts. Talk to me about real life. We spent some sort of a fair amount of time, a half a year on You know, in Leviticus on the priestly clothing. And I was so ticked off that on the final exam when they said one of the questions I'll never forget, "Ma'ayubidei ha'kohen hagadol?" What was the clothing of the chief priest? So I wrote, "Garbayim, alayim, michnasayim, mishkafayim, dekova." And I knew I'd flunk, but I was so ticked off. Socks, shoes, pants, underpants, and glasses. I'll never forget it. I always had chutzpah. I was born with an extra dose when God gave it out. My friends went into the gardening line and how-to-make-money line. I was in the chutzpah line. But I think it's worth learning all of that. I have taught that. There's something very powerful, by the way, as it turns out, about clothing. Clothing is a very important factor in life. But it was not— but the issues of the day, see, so what you have is— here's my way of putting it in Jewish life: the Jews who talk to the world don't live Judaism, and the Jews who live Judaism don't talk to the world. That's generally the way it is. There are exceptions, of course. In Christianity, you have a similar thing, because remember The essence of Judaism is behavior, so halacha, right? Jewish law. Essence of Christianity is faith. And each, in my opinion, overdoes it. So the message from the Orthodox Christian world is also not to deal with the major issues, although, you know, aside from abortion. And that is to stress salvation. But you're not going to convince a typical kid on an American campus that he needs Christ for salvation if he doesn't think he's not being saved. You're selling him a product he doesn't think he needs. And so instead of saying, you know what, we really have a different view of the world than you're getting at the university. We think God is necessary for ethics. Because if there is no God, murder isn't wrong. What do you say to that? I taught college, and I taught college kids for years at this Jewish retreat institute mentioned by Rabbi House. And they never— the kids from Stanford, the kids from Harvard, it didn't matter where they went— they never in their lives heard the argument that if there is no God, there was no objective morality. It was the first— philosophy majors hadn't heard it. Poli-Sci majors, religion majors hadn't heard. Where's the religious world, Christians or Jews? Isn't that more vital right now? You can give your particular message once you get them to take basic God seriously. So that's, uh, you know, the campuses are now in the latest hysteria. The left has a hysterical hysteria very regularly. And so the latest is that they're basically— college campuses are basically rape saturated. Which is an amazing thing given that all these women who are applying don't know it. Isn't that amazing? What are they, kamikaze pilots? All these women applying to college? They're rape centers? It's just an absurdity. But so, alright, so they're all preoccupied with rape, fine. You know why? Why is rape wrong? I would love to— I would like to go to a college and just— that would be— that's a thought I've just had. I think I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna go to college. Dennis Prager is coming to X college. Topic: Why is rape wrong? I would like to hear what students would have to offer why it is wrong. Because she didn't consent? So? So what? What if he could get away with it and it's very thrilling? Why is it wrong? If there is no God, it isn't wrong. Period. Period. There is no argument. I'll argue with you all night, but you have no counter-argument. I'll tell you a personal story. When I started, I was 32 years old when I got this show. Religion on the line. And I've always had chutzpah, but I never had arrogance. They're not the same. I always— there's always a voice in me, am I wrong? Always, always. And I remember thinking, after 5 years, I didn't only have rabbis, priests, and ministers. I opened it up not only to every faith in the world, and every faith in the world showed up. Jehovah's Witnesses were the only ones who wouldn't come up. Everybody came out. I had Jews for Jesus out. I had everybody out. Muslims regularly. Muslims so liked me, they invited me to speak at the Southern California Mosque, the biggest mosque in the United States. Twice. Because I treated them as a co-equal religion. My alienation with them came after so much terror caused in Israel and elsewhere that they said nothing about. Then I said, okay, I'm sorry, I feel bad. But I really did feel bad, but I treated them beautifully. And anyway, I had everybody on, and I also had atheists. Atheists United, I had them send a person a few times a year to Religion on the Line. Then I had the head— that they have a thing that came out in the— in the— when did I start? '83. It came out in the '70s or '80s called the Humanist Manifesto. The humanist world put out this. It got a lot of attention. You don't need God. Here's how to be good. The Humanist Manifesto. I had the author, came in from New York State. I had him on for 2 hours. And I will tell you, and I don't know if I've ever mentioned this publicly. I said to myself, okay, Dennis, you've given all these arguments on the need for God for ethics. Maybe you have really just not met your match tonight. And I was a little nervous. This guy may present some arguments that I have just not confronted. And I remember thinking, as the hour went into 2 hours, my God, he has no answers. He's no better than all the callers that I've debated on this issue. He doesn't have one better answer. I mean, they don't. They don't. If there is no God, murder and rape aren't wrong. You can say they're wrong, but you can say they're right. You know, Jewish kids— when I talk to Jewish kids, I go, "How many of you think the Nazis were wrong?" Of course, all the hands go up. "How many of you think that they were objectively wrong?" In other words, how many of you think that they thought they were right, so who can tell? And most of the hands go up. They think that saying the Nazis were wrong is just their opinion because they were part of the victim group. But they weren't objectively wrong because the Nazis thought they were right. Who's to say? We're not making the case. If the religious don't make the case, then you can't blame the others. It's like, I'll never forget, when the Mormons built a center in Jerusalem in the '80s, I wrote a big essay in that journal that your rabbi received called Ultimate Issues, and I wrote this column, let them build their center in Jerusalem, and I remember what I concluded. If we can't keep Jews Jewish in Jerusalem, let's close up shop. That's why there was such opposition. Less Jews in Jerusalem convert to Mormonism. This is not Salt Lake. This is Jerusalem. And if we're afraid of losing Jews in the Jewish state to other religions, then we don't have anything to sell. I'm not going to suppress other religions in the Jewish state because we're so crappy at selling our own. Look in the mirror, man. What are you selling? And we don't know what to sell. They don't know what to sell. You know, to the great credit, the Orthodox, to their great credit, invite me to speak even though I'm not Orthodox. They invited me to the West Coast Convention of the OU, Organization of Union Orthodox Congregations of America, and they invited me to speak why I am not Orthodox. Imagine the Reform inviting me to their convention. Why I'm not a liberal? Well, I am a liberal. Why I'm not a leftist? Just all liberals today are conservative, but I am a liberal. Liberalism is now what conservatism is called. Of course not, they wouldn't. The Orthodox are more open-minded than the non-Orthodox in that sense. It's really remarkable. But when I speak to them, and I just spoke at the big the biggest congregation on the West Coast in Beverly Hills. And to get it to their credit, and I said, do the Jews have a mission? And I said, what is— and I asked Orthodox Jews, what's the Jewish mission to the world? God chose us, right? I believe we're chosen, you believe we're chosen. What were we chosen for? And the standard Orthodox answer, as I got in yeshiva, was to keep the mitzvot, to observe the commandments. Wait, that's it? God chose 0.1% of the world to keep commandments? We don't have a mission to the other 99.99% of humanity? He chose us to keep quiet, to hide in Jewish Orthodox ghettos? And these are revelatory questions to these people. So I have to blame the religious Christian world, the religious Jewish world, just as much as I have to blame the secular world for the alienation from religion. There are some terrific people who are selling God in an intellectual and compassionate way, but not many. But we're doomed without it. We're doomed. The United States of America will not be great if it is secular. Okay, period. France is secular, it ain't great. Germany is secular, it ain't great. This, this society was founded by God-fearing Hebrew Bible-based Christians. That it is now considered gutsy to say Merry Christmas rather than happy holidays, it shows you how far we have come from what we were supposed to be. I'll end by telling you of a revelation to me. I attended a presidential address a few years ago. I've never been in the House of Representatives chamber where the president gives addresses in front of the Senate and the House. Like a State of the Union address. The first thing I noticed, and I was transfixed the whole night, you know who, of course, who were behind the President, the Speaker of the House, and the Vice President of the United States. But if you weren't there, you don't know this. About 10 feet above the Speaker and the Vice President, on that wall, in gigantic letters chiseled into the wall, are the words "In God We Trust." You will never see that in any televised presentation of a presidential address. It is inconceivable that it is not deliberate. It is inconceivable. All they would have to do is the most logical thing, is pan out, give you a wide-angle view of the chamber. They never do. You'd never know that. And you know who the president is facing? A sculpture of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. And if the secularizing forces, among whom I am ashamed to say Jews are overwhelmingly disproportionately represented, prevail, that sculpture will be taken down and that wall will be smoothed over. But we will not have what we know as America left. Unfortunately, the answers to this question are very, very troubling. I don't think that we are doomed, but if we don't— we religious— don't fight back intellectually with all we can, it's hard to imagine a good scenario. Thank you very much. Thank you.

At the risk of being somewhat self-serving, Congregation Beth Shalom's Judaism Confronts Contemporary Issues has passed. Wednesday night, the topic of discussion was Judaism's attitude toward capital punishment. So I just wanted to let you know that this is still being discussed. Finally, before I turn over the evening to questions, I would like to propose something. I would personally be willing— the challenges you suggest to Judaism of dealing with these very serious issues and of confronting the world, I would like to propose, and I will do whatever I can to arrange a discussion between Dennis Prager and Jonathan Sacks. That's a discussion I would love to see.

That would be great. Thank you.

At this point, we are going to allow those of you who would like to ask some questions. And in talking with Dennis, we've decided that it's easier for me, and this way I don't have to become politically involved in choosing who gets to ask the question and who doesn't. I'm going to turn this over to Dennis. He will respond to any of the questions that you have. We are going to limit it to— Nathan, how long do we—

him?

20 to 25 minutes. So within that time frame, I'm going to allow you to ask questions. Following the question and answer session tonight, there will be an opportunity for you, those of you who have books to be signed, we will provide you with an opportunity to do so. I'll come back up one more time after the question and answer.

Great, thank you, Rabbi. I saw that I'm a very bad salesman for— I'm a great salesman for the things I believe in, but not for anything I do. But there are two things I would like you to know. One is my latest book is out there. I did not know it would be here. I'm very happy it is, and it makes all these arguments. The other is Prager University. And don't raise your hand to make me feel good. Just raise your hand if you have visited Prager University on the internet. Okay, so about, I would say, a third of you. And donated. I'm not going to ask who's donated, although that would be effective. But thank you, Mary. That's, aside from my radio show and writing, that's what my project in life is. Watch them. Because in 5 minutes we can change minds. These are super sophisticated, highly expensive videos in 5 minutes to change minds on the greatest issues. And they're extraordinary. The numbers we're talking about, within weeks all of them hit about a quarter of a million immediately. I mean, it's having success. But we need to get it to millions. And the only way is for you to watch it and then send it on. So please visit Prager University and look at the topics. They're all as personal as happiness. There's, are people born good? And then there's the Middle East conflict and then big government. So I promise it'll keep your attention. Okay, so now, by the way, I welcome comments. I asked for brevity, but if you want to give an alternate speech that's brief, that's fine. I'm okay with that. So anybody want to raise anything back there, please? Yes? [Speaker:AUDIENCE MEMBER] You spoke to students at your college retreat which you talked about on your radio. I'm not young enough to have attended that, so I'd like to know, what did you tell the young people today? What did you tell them in that? Well, when I speak to college kids, whether it's Pierce or elsewhere, it depends on the subject obviously, but I really do know how to talk to college kids. I am the opposite of everything they expect from a conservative. First, I actually am funny, and the thought that a conservative can make them laugh is disorienting. So that's number one. It really— no, it's— I could— I read people after 40 years of doing this. I read the audience, and it shocks them. It shocks them that I'm not mean-spirited. We're supposed to be mean-spirited, but I'm actually a nice guy, and that's also disorienting. Then we're supposed to not be intellectual, but it turns out I am intellectual. So just the human part is already challenging. Then I always make sure to thank them, because every one of them who is a voting Democrat is engaged in an act of altruism. That is almost unprecedented in world history. That they are taking on the debt of my generation with such joy, so willing to pay for everything that we have spent, is something they should— they really— we need to thank them. I need to thank them. That's disorienting. Then I might often, depending on the subject, I then make the case for the American value system of the three values on all of our coins and paper money of the Liberty and God We Trust and E Pluribus Unum and show them how what they're learning at the university is the antithesis of all three of those. We have our Trinity, In God We Trust, Liberty, E Pluribus Unum, and the college has its Trinity: race, gender, class. A lot of trinities. Fighting for our allegiance out there. I wish the Christian Trinity were doing better, frankly, and I'm Jewish. But those are the— that's— and I wish the American Trinity were doing well. And I— so I talk to them, and I— everything that they're hearing, I know they're hearing largely for the first time. And my hope is that if nothing else, they'll just leave thinking there really is a decent other way to look at life. That's the reason that the parents forbid the grandparents to play talk radio for their children. They won't admit this, but the real reason is the slightest exposure to a non-left-wing idea may in fact bring down the whole house of cards, because it is a house of cards. That, that's the point. As soon as a black realizes that the entire left policy has only harmed blacks, that's all it's done. If they realize that the opposition to their sending children to a better school is entirely coming from the left, then they may begin to say, so why am I supporting the left if their policies are hurting me? But that's why it's so important to keep up this libel of conservatives as racist, because you can't win black votes on your policies. The policies are awful for blacks. You can only win black votes by reinforcing daily that Republicans and conservatives are racist. So as soon as that leftism is so fragile because it's not intellect-based, it's feelings-based, it's actually hate-based, it's hatred of whatever conservatives stand for, that the moment You challenge it. You, in your own life, you will move. There was a woman— I write for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, which is run by liberal Jews, and most of its readers are liberal Jews. So that's the reason I accepted their invitation to write for it. And about 2 years ago, a woman who writes for it wrote that she is in a state of shock. She has fallen in love with a Republican. To her great credit, she was totally honest. She said, "I was led to believe that Republicans have no hearts, but my boyfriend is one of the sweetest human beings I've ever met." She's entering a cognitive dissonance. She can't believe it. She said, and I'll never forget her line, "The ultimate nightmare, will I ever carry a Republican baby?" So I wrote my column in response to her saying that this is exactly the point. She was lied to about Republicans and conservatives her whole life. You know, hate radio. Why do they call talk radio hate radio? Am I a hater? Is Michael Medved a hater? I'm just talking about my Salem colleagues. Michael Medved a hater? Is Bob Bennett— not Bob Bennett, Bill Bennett. Bob is his brother. Bill Bennett a hater? Bill Bennett wouldn't know how to hate if you taught him. You know, just always— Hugh Hewitt a hater?

Yeah, Hugh Hewitt hates me.

Yeah, I steal his cigars. Toot toot toot. It's disgusting. I mean, it's somewhat of a joke. It's a bad joke. So why do they say hate radio? So that no one will tune in. So that their side will not tune in. They already know what we say. We just speak hate. Of course, we have them on all the time. We constantly have folks from the left on. Every big leftist who would come on has been on my show. But it's never vice versa. We're never invited to their shows. I don't blame them, by the way. They're entirely right not to, because it's so easy to shatter their world. They're afraid. So, uh, I hope that goes in some way to answer you. It was very long. I'll try to be shorter. I'm gonna go there and come back. Yes, please. Yes. Sure. Yes, absolutely. Oh, there's a mic. Oh, great. Even better. I don't have to repeat the question. You are sophisticated here.

Yes. My question has to do with Judaism. My husband was raised Christian. I was raised Catholic, but neither of us are practicing. However, I work at a Reform Jewish temple. I play the piano there. So bar mitzvah, Shabbat service, high holy days. I get told all the time that I'm an honorary Jew. Because every time I'm there, I just love it. Like, I know all the music and I know some of the prayers. Is that a real thing? Like, is being an honorary Jew—

Oh, that's adorable.

Can we be one too?

Can our baby be an honorary Jew? Oh, that— I can't tell you. That is one of the sweetest. I'm often asked, are you ever asked a new question? I was now. That's really beautiful. Yes, you can be an honorary Jew, but it doesn't have any theological clout. It's a term of endearment toward you, and it should be accepted as such, but it doesn't have any status. But you see, here's the thing: we welcome converts totally, but since there's very little that Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews would agree on, Very little. There is one thing, at least one, and it's the only one I can think of, is that you don't have to be Jewish to go to heaven. You have to be good. And that's ethical monotheism, and Judaism is very adamant about that. So, if you're not— I always tell my callers who come from Christian backgrounds, and I include Catholic as Christian, backgrounds. Before you change to anything, please study and live what you rejected, what you were raised with. If then you cannot abide by it for intellectual or theological reasons, then thank God it's a free country. But for family reasons, for comfort reasons, First, see what you're leaving. I would say this to a Jew, I'd say it to a Catholic, I'd say it to a Mormon, I would say it to an evangelical, I would say it to anybody. First, see what you're leaving. But I would tell you this: I want you to bring your child up in a religion. Not in an honorary religion, but in an actual one. Is it a him or a her? It's good for him. So that's the way I would put it. Thank you. Okay, so if we have a microphone, let's come up here. We have a— I'm sorry?

I don't think they need a microphone.

That's true. The living microphone, who is actually a member of the congregation that I attend.

It's not a question, just a statement. And I think I told you this, what I noticed in the United States, a lot of Israelis who came from kibbutzim who did not have any religion there have somehow got magnetized to Scientology because they needed something that they didn't have. And your point, your point that a human being needs religion is just totally proof in that.

Wow.

They become so obsessed with Scientology Fascinating. Unbelievable.

What's two in a row? I didn't know that one either. Really? That, that is— that those raised the most secular homes in Israel and then moved to America are disproportionately attracted to Scientology? No, that's what I just did, but I'll do it again. That there's a disproportionate number of Israelis raised in fully secular homes like kibbutzim who then coming to America will be attracted to Scientology. I don't know, I don't know how statistically large it is, but you're an Israeli-American and you, you— I take your word for it. On the other hand, I will also say, yeah, yeah, no, they do proselytize. I know that, but that Scientology insists that you proselytize. Uh, I will say though that there is a truth that I have experience is that a lot of Israelis coming to America become more Jewish when they come to America. And I've had this long-time belief of saying we should send all American Jews to Israel and all Israeli Jews to America for about 2 years. Americans become Jewish in Israel and Israelis become Jewish in America. And then they can live wherever they want, but it's a very interesting thing that we do this reciprocally. Yes, please. Want to bring a mic there? That's great. You too. Very confident group here. Okay, yes. This is kind of an odd question, but we live in a world in which we do not have ritual nor tradition, but still have a belief in God. And are we confusing secularism with the fact that— You know what? I want people to hear with a microphone. As confident as you are, they'll hear it better, especially this gentleman over there. I'm thinking of you. Okay, I'm sorry. That's louder. That is louder. My question was, can we live in a world in which we have no tradition or ritual but still have a belief in God? And are we confusing the secular world with those who do believe in God and are still practicing that internally rather than showing up in an organized fashion in a religious organization? Yeah, they're related but separate questions. So let me take the second one first. By secular, you're technically right. Secular doesn't mean atheist. Secular means not religious. It's possible to be secular and have God-based values in your life. The chances of your continuing it for two generations are close to zero. Theology and ritual are the ships that carry the values across the stormy seas of life. I don't know any other way to do it without one or both of them. Christianity has relied on theology. Well, Protestantism has fully relied on theology, Catholicism on theology and sacraments, and Judaism overwhelmingly on law and ritual. And that's true. Look, we are losing American memory because we don't have rituals anymore. The Fourth of July is now hot dogs and fireworks. It's not a celebration of 1776 and what happened. So, uh, that's why, by the way, we've started with Prager University really a July Fourth Seder. We don't call it Seder, we call it the Declaration, but that's what it is. We've worked it out just like a Seder. For people to make it meaningful on July 4th. The Jews have survived because they ritualized memory. That's— now, I'm not Orthodox because I think there are about 250 times too many rituals, and you forget the forest for the trees, in my opinion. But you have to have some. I mean, America was a better country when it had a Sabbath and blue laws on Sundays. You know, that you can shop and work 7 days a week is not a bonus to America. It's a terrible development. As I always say to people who, if you're a millionaire and you work 7 days a week, according to Judaism, you are As much a slave as the Jews were in Egypt, just you're a very wealthy slave, but you're a slave. So the Sabbath is incredibly important. And I don't know, how do you do the Sabbath without ritual? Hey, it's Friday night, hi everybody. The one ritual is for family and friends to get together Friday night and/or Saturday afternoon. That's a ritual. And I love— the thing I most love in Judaism is the Sabbath. It's the only ritual in the Ten Commandments. If the Jews kept the Sabbath, Judaism would survive. If the Jews ate pork and kept the Sabbath, Judaism would survive. That's how important it is. That's why Acharam said— I'm not advocating pork eating, incidentally. Lobsters, yes, but A chad ha'am, completely secular. Asher Ginsberg was his real name. He was a totally secular, pre-Israeli Jew. He was secular. Very famous phrase: "The Sabbath has watched over Israel more than Israel has watched over the Sabbath. Without it, we wouldn't exist." So yeah, ritual For every— for America. America without ritual won't survive. And it's that— and that's only 230 years. We've been around 3,000, and it's because of ritual. Kids say at the Passover Seder, Avadim hayinu, hayinu. We were slaves, not they. Not Avadim hayu. Not They were slaves. We were slaves. That's powerful. I was at Sinai. I was a slave. That's why they continue to survive. Good question. But I will just say there's a very terrible possibility of ritual overshadowing the values. And this is as old as Judaism. That's what the prophets yelled about. God said, says Isaiah, I don't need all your sacrifices because you're not acting ethically. Ritual is great if you're ethical. Yes. Okay, two more. Okay. By your mouth. You can comment if you wish, but I have three beautiful children and one of them married to Nanjo and he's atheist. And I thought I'm coming to Nigeria to pick up some ammunition so I can discuss, but I get completely confused. What confused you? Everything about religious, you know. There's so much to blame that that's not enough ammunition for me to sit and discuss it in that manner. Well, too bad they didn't— do they live in this area? You should have bribed them to come. I'm not kidding, because they just merely meeting I mean, I'm sorry, I hope it doesn't sound arrogant. I'm intelligent. So just meeting an intelligent religious person is a little shocking. And your atheist son-in-law would have to either laugh at or actually grapple with a question I posed: if there is no God, why is rape wrong? He has no answer, your son-in-law. None. Zero. I would leave Judaism if he had a coherent response to that question. I give you my word, standing in front of the Torah. There is no secular response to that question. They lie to themselves if they think that there is a coherent response. His only response is, 'Cause I think it's wrong. So what? The rapist doesn't. If there's no God above you and the rapist that says it's wrong, what makes it wrong? Animals rape all the time. They do it for a living. They do not ask permission from the female that they screw. Okay? We're animals, aren't we? Isn't that the secular view of the atheist? We are just animals with a bigger brain. So why should we have a rule against rape when no other animal does? Let him answer that. And if he has an answer, I will become an atheist along with him. I will give him membership in Atheists United.

I just have a comment, and that is that I am one of the very, very few conservative clinical social workers in the United States.

You are rarer— yes, you are rarer than conservative African American.

And when you were speaking earlier about needing to have meaning in your life, it is so clear in my practice that when I work with people, it really doesn't make any difference what the disorder is. To really get to the other side, they have to have something to believe in greater than themselves.

That's right. Look, what was Nazism and communism? They gave you something bigger than yourself to believe in. The atheists need to understand, it's the great line of G.K. Chesterton: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything." That's the history that we're living. You gotta fight, everybody. And to fight, it takes courage. And I'll end with an insight that I came up with about, maybe just 15 years ago. There are many good traits: kindness, Honesty, integrity, they are far more common than courage. Courage is the least common of all the good traits, and here's the bummer: all the good traits are useless without courage. Thank you for having me. Thank you again. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all. Hey, Albright. Best painters in America. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.