Why Do People Do Good?

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On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.

You're my radio sage. I actually, I've been thinking of presenting you with a bill. I spend hours in my car when I should be working.

Wait a minute. I should then present you with a bill. You got that reversed.

Go ahead. Either way, I think that people do good. Because we're wired with a sense of ought. And what I mean is, is I ought to do what—

I know, I don't think we're wired with a sense of ought. I think that that's taught to us. You ought to share your candy. No, very few children have a built-in sense of I ought to share my candy.

Well, here's the thing is that Ought, I think, is, is something that's within all of our hearts, and it only runs in one direction. It's something that you can't do evil or sin because you ought to. You can share your toys or your candy because you ought to, but you can't cheat or steal your, your brother's candy because you ought to.

That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort. It may be your metabolism. After years of stress, dieting and lack of sleep, the body adapts. It slows down and holds on to fat. That's why PhD Weight Loss focuses on your metabolism first so your body stops working against you. Mention Prager today and receive 2 free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value. Call 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900.

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 International Bibles. Go to DennisPrager.com.

You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show, the Ultimate Issues Hour. Hi everybody, this is it. Every week at this time, I talk to you about the great issue, some great issue of life, to try to make us understand life better and talk about the great issues, because a lot of people never do that since they left college. You know, in college you have these what they used to call bull sessions. You sit around with other, other kids and you, you know, well, is there a God? What is this all about? Is there a good and an evil, or is it all subjective? Well, what am I here for? And then you get busy. And then after college you get busy. And there's no more time to talk about the great questions of life. And, and, and that's why so many people establish certain patterns of thought in college and they never challenge them. Right, left, center, religious, atheist, secular, whatever it is. But I, I think you, we have to constantly, constantly rethink the great issues of life as we get older in light of the greater wisdom that we've gotten from life's experiences. Now here's the question today, and it will seem to you to be very odd, and that's part of the beauty of the question that I'm posing today. And it's to, to, to talk about with you. And that is, here is the question, and you never hear this question. We have discussed the question, why do people do bad? That was, and that is a great ultimate issue, right? So we have discussed that. Now I want to discuss though something that people never ask. Why do people do good? Now, why is it that we ask all the time, why do people do bad, but we never ask why do people do good? Because we have inherited a secular mindset from the— what's the so-called Age of Enlightenment, 200 years ago. We have received in the West a basic mindset that people are basically good. If people are basically good, you never have to ask the question Why do people do good? Just as you never ask the question, why do cars go? You ask, why do cars break down? Because the nature of a car is to move. The nature of the human is to do good. That's what we were told, basically good. Rousseau's noble savage and the whole Enlightenment, the Age of Reason. We are in rejecting Christianity and being born into sin. We have the whole vision of not that we are born innocent, that's the opposite. Rather, we are born good, which is irrelevant to the question opposed by Christianity. So people believe, hey, we're born basically good, and that is what is the most widespread belief. So the question, why do people do good, is as silly as why do cars move? Cars move because they're built to move People do good because they're built to do good. But I don't believe we're basically good, and that was one of the Ultimate Issues Hours. That was the first Ultimate Issues Hour. Are people basically good? By the way, it's no sin to repeat an idea on one of these, obviously. And so people believe that we are basically good, so there is no question as to why people will do good. Of course people will do good. That's the way we are made. But I don't believe that. I don't believe we're born basically bad either. I believe we are born with tendencies in both directions. So therefore, I have a legitimate question: why do people do good? But I want you to think about it for a moment. Think about it. Why is What Mother Teresa did, and I'm using an extreme example of good, leaves her home, goes to India to take care of the dying on the streets of Calcutta. I've been to Calcutta and they do die on the streets of Calcutta. And that, or even more amazing, the, take the, the non-Jews who risked their lives in the Holocaust to save the lives of Jews. I mean, that's even more remarkable than what Mother Teresa did. Mother Teresa did not risk her life and the life of her family. How do you explain good? We had one of the ultimate issues hours on the subject of how do you explain bad. I'm asking how do you explain good? I am mystified by it. I am as mystified as I am by extreme good mystifies me as much as extreme bad does. They both, they both mystify me. So I have, I have some answers, and I'm curious to know even if you've ever asked the question. I am curious. Why do— I am sure every one of you has asked, why do people do bad? How do you explain the existence of bad? Has anybody— have you ever asked, how do you explain the existence of good? If you said that to a friend, the odds are your friend would say, what are you talking about? I don't understand what you mean. What do you mean about how do you explain— how do you account for good? How do you account for bad? How do you account for evil? I mean, it's one of the basic subjects of life. 1-800-DENNIS-PRAGER, 776-877-243-7776. I have a list here. What do I have? I have 5. I have 5 answers I'm going to give you over the course of this hour. Very interested to hear if you have thought this, this, uh, this through, and I will react to you as well. Hannibal, Missouri, and Bo. Hello, Bo. Dennis Prager.

Hey, how are you?

Oh, well, thank you, man.

I tell you, I'm just kind of a lowly landscaper, I guess, and I get to listen to, uh, the radio all day long whenever I'm I have ear protection, they've got radio, so I get to listen to you and be trained by you. It's a huge privilege to even talk to you.

Well, that's very kind. You are not lowly being a landscaper.

Well, I'm not Mexican either, so.

Well, no, well, even Mexican or not Mexican, well, that's true that you're in a minority of landscapers in major cities, but maybe Hannibal's not a major city, so.

No, it's not.

Okay, go ahead.

My, being 25, obviously I think we always have all the answers, but I believe that society, uh, used to expect you to be good, and so everybody just did good because it's what was expected of them. And people naturally probably felt more good as a, as a society. Today we've gone extremely to the selfish in all sorts of areas, but I think even good now is selfish. People do good because how it makes them feel, and All right, let me ask you a question about that.

People do good because of how it makes them feel.

Yes.

What's wrong with that?

No, nothing. I'm just saying, whereas it used to be expected— you ask why do people do good, and I, I believe on a, on a major scale that the majority of them do good because of how it feels. I mean, you just ask the question, why do they do it? I just think it's because of it, because of why we feel when we do good. And I think that that's a blessing from God that he put within us that we would actually enjoy doing well. And I think had he not put that in us, we wouldn't be as inclined to want to do good.

Yeah, well, that's very well thought through. I happen to agree. That's one of the 5 things I wrote down, that we do feel good, we do feel better when we do good. Of course, there was also, you know what the rejoinder to that is? No good deed goes unpunished. I bet every one of you have experienced a time where you went out of your way to do good and got clobbered for it. Boy, do I know about that. Nevertheless, nevertheless, I like respecting myself. I always did. If you would have asked me when I was in high school, and I'm just being open here, when I was in high school, I did not cheat on tests. And if you really would have opened up my psyche and my mind, Do you know the single biggest reason? Well, I think they were tied. One is I really did believe it's unethical. I did believe that, and I have a very strongly developed sense of ethics. But absolutely at least as much as that reason was dignity. I felt that I was undignified, I lost self-respect if I cheated on a test. And I think that this is a huge factor with regard to trying to inculcate people the desire to do good, is that they have to associate self-worth with, with goodness. See, that is where the self-esteem movement, in my opinion, failed dismally. It asked people to feel good about themselves, assuming that if they felt good about themselves, they would do more good. I know that movement very well. John Vasconcellos, the, the California legislator who started this, I knew him, I interviewed him a number of times, and he wanted a better society, and he thought that if you felt better about yourself, you would do good. But he missed a huge, huge part, a chunk of this idea. Only if you feel good about yourself because you associate it with doing good will then there be good results. We'll continue in a moment on the Ultimate Issues Hour.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort. It may be your metabolism. After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body fats. It slows down and holds on to fat. That's why PhD Weight Loss focuses on your metabolism first so your body stops working against you. Mention Prager today and receive 2 free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value. Call 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

I'm Dennis Prager. This is the Ultimate Issues Hour, an hour each week devoted to the great questions of life, the really important stuff. We ask all the time, gee, why do people do bad? How do you account for evil? But we never ask, why do people do good? How do you account for good? And to me, that's just as much a puzzle. Why do people do good? Since I don't believe that it's all that natural, why do people do good? We better ask it because it's as important a question as why do people do bad. I mean, if we can answer why do people do good, then we can know how to do it. It's not so easy. It's been grappled with since, since people began thinking. 1-8-Prager-776. Keep trying if you didn't get in. It's been offered— one notion has been offered, and it's correct, that people do good because it feels good. That's true, but bad feels good too. That's the problem. Bad feels good. Believe me, if bad didn't feel good, people wouldn't do it. So the fact it does feel good, but it's not enough because both feel good. Now I would argue that good feels better than bad, having done both. I actually haven't done much bad. I've done sinning. That's another one. Put that down. The difference between sin and evil. You know, you're nodding, but you're not writing it down. That's already down. Okay, fine. All right, all right. You know, just checking on them. Okay, let's see what else you have to, uh, have to say about this. Oh, oh, here's a one. You know, uh, who was Alan Dershowitz, whom I debated a number of years ago, and I've had him on the show a number of times. His— he has written, because he's, he's an atheist or at least an agnostic. And he said it is a much higher form of good to be an atheist and do good than to be a believer in God and do good. The believer in God believes he'll get rewarded. The atheist doesn't believe he'll get rewarded. Therefore, the good atheist is a better human than the good religious person. I'm just offering— I don't believe that. I don't believe that. But, uh, but that is his— that is his argument. Because you can— you see, folks, let's be honest, everybody thinks in some sense there is something in it for them to be good. Not everybody, nearly everybody, if nothing else than feeling good about yourself. He would argue that an atheist who does good feels good about himself, so he gets a reward there too. There is always some degree of self or self-oriented or even selfish component to goodness. It's, it's not fully removable. I guess there can be acts of such utter altruism, but I can't even think of one because you still have the issue of self-respect. So it's okay, by the way, it's okay if there is an issue of feeling good. I want people to feel good about doing good. I, I have no problem with that whatsoever. Alrighty, let's go to some more of your calls here. And in Orange, California, it's Jim. Hello, Jim, Dennis Prager.

Oh, great. Hey, what a pleasure to speak with you, sir.

Great, thanks.

You're my radio sage. I actually, I've been thinking of presenting you with a bill. I spend hours in my car when I should be working.

Wait a minute, I should then present you with a bill. You got that reversed.

Oh, okay.

Go ahead.

Either way, I think that people do good because we're wired with a sense of ought. And, um, that what I mean is, is I ought to do what—

I know, I don't think we're wired with a sense of ought. I, I think that that's, that's taught to us. You, you ought to share your candy. No, very few children have a built-in sense of I ought to share my candy.

Well, here's the thing, is that, um, ought I think is, is something that's within all of our hearts and it only runs in one direction. It's something that you can't do evil or sin because you ought to. You can share your toys or your candy because you ought to, but you can't cheat or steal your brother's candy because you ought to. There's, I think, a sense of rightness that we describe as "ought" that only runs in one direction, and I think that's part of our wiring from God. And it's not always a pleasurable sense.

So wait, you think we're wired good?

No, I don't. I think we're wired with a sense of right and wrong, and the pull of good is the sense of ought. I don't know how else to put it.

All right, the conscience.

The conscience, okay, yeah.

In other words, so there is a built-in sense of conscience. Oh, okay, that's good. That's good. That's really good, Jim. I believe that. If I didn't believe that there were a built-in conscience, then I could not blame people for the evil they do if they weren't taught it. I believe, I believe that the conscience says that murder is wrong even if nobody taught you thou shalt not murder. We have to teach it because the conscience is not going to be decisive in most people's cases because it runs against the brain. The brain is the animal, the animal part. The mind is the human part. That's the division that I make. And the brain just wants things. The brain wants— I want that man's field, I'll kill him. I want that man's woman, I'll kill him. I want that woman, I'll take her. Married, unmarried, doesn't matter. I will take her. The animal brain wants that female in the male brain, and, and, and so it's a brain versus, versus conscience issue. All right, we continue, and let's go to Baron or Darren in Minneapolis.

It's Darren.

Hi, Darren, Dennis Prager.

Nice to talk with you. I just want to say, I mean, I can relate it to my own experience and why I do things when I do them that are good, or things that I do that wouldn't necessarily have to be done, but I do them. And the reason is, is because I honestly believe if I've been given $20 extra on somebody making a mistake and giving me $20 at a cash register for whatever reason, or whether it's donating charity for something, is because I really do believe One action of one person hopefully will influence somebody else, and long-term, it makes the world a better place.

You know what? As corny as it sounds, that is a very big factor in my own life.

And I don't doubt that. I wanted to use an example of your show. You've got 3 hours on the radio every day. There's many people that use that time, they get great ratings, as you I'm sure do. But look what you do with your show. In my— that's the epitome of doing good. Wow.

That's very touching because I will say that is exactly what I want to do with the program and that I have, I have on a number of occasions faced very, very real possibilities of leaving radio if I would not bend my standards because that's all I want to do with it. So I, I, you're— I wasn't thinking of me in radio, but thank you. Yes, I will tell you that's the truth. Do you know when I give That's a good example. If when I, when I tip the guy at the— I go to hotels a lot because of travels to speeches. When I tip the guy a little extra who brings me to my room, who brings up my car, it is a big part. I want to reward him for working. Forget it, I feel for him and his family. I want to It's a social sense. I want to reward good hard work. Back in a moment, the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort. It may be your metabolism. After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts. It slows down and holds on to fat. That's why PhD Weight Loss focuses on your Metabolism first so your body stops working against you. Mention Prager today and receive 2 free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value. Call 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show.

Dennis Prager.

People always ask, why do people do bad? How do you explain evil? Well, this hour on the Ultimate Issues Hour, the hour of the week where I talk about some great question of life, the question is, why do people do good? How do we explain good? At least as important a question if you care about making a better world as the question of why do people do bad. 877-243-7776. That's the number. You're welcome to call. And let us go to James in Phoenix. James, why do people do good? Dennis Prager, hi.

Hey Dennis, a real pleasure to speak with you.

Thank you.

Enjoy your show.

Thank you.

You know, as soon as I heard your subject, I asked myself, why do I do good and why do I, you know, deliberately even go out of my way to try to help people? And the first thing that came to my mind is if I don't, I feel guilty. And then the second question is, then why do I feel that way? And I can only say it's because I, I have been so blessed. And I can only go back to my, my religious upbringing, I guess, my belief in God, that if I was given this, I was supposed to share.

Now it's interesting because this is a little different from what you told Eva, and that was that you fear God's judgment.

Well, I think it all ties in, Dennis, and I, I, maybe I should not have used the word fear.

Oh no, I don't have a problem. You know, I, I think it's a good thing to fear God's judgment. I wish everybody did.

Yeah, sure. And it really and truly does tie in because I think there will be an accounting, uh, an accounting for bad and an accounting for good. And is, is, it may sound a little, uh, odd, but you know, if you drive by somebody who's broken down in a car on some highway and they clearly need help, and you just keep on going. Um, I somehow feel like that they're— that's going to be written somewhere in eternity.

You know, I— James, you're a good man. I don't know how people will react to this. So far, everything that everybody has said, I agree with. And that one too, Alan. I'm telling you, if I'm driving by and there's somebody stranded I think God is looking and thinks, Dennis, what the hell is the matter with you? And takes note of the fact that I, I missed an opportunity to do good. Now, do I fear punishment? I don't think of that much, but because I don't go to the next step, it's simply enough for me to know God expects better from Dennis. It does. Does that play a role for you? Now, the atheist listening will think, well, what's the matter with you guys? You mean if it weren't for God, you, you would leave— you would pass that guy by? Now, it may— and I don't know the answer. I'm being, you know, even self-condemnatorily honest. I don't think I will get rewarded from God. I have nothing like that. Oh, there are people who believe they do, they believe correctly, or they act religiously correctly, God will protect them from cancer. I don't believe that for a nanosecond. It never even occurs to me. Nor do I really think about, well, I'll get a reward in an afterlife. I won't get one in this life, but maybe I'll get one. Maybe I will. I mean, I do believe in reward and punishment in an life. That's true. But back to that, would I— if I— you see, here's the point. If I were convinced that there is no God, I would be so aware of how meaningless life is that good and evil would start to become meaningless, at least on a philosophical level, because nothing matters. It's, it's, uh, if there is no God, I am merely a self-conscious pebble That's all I am. And it doesn't matter how a pebble treats a pebble. So nothing matters. And I'm sure I would be different. I don't think the average atheist thinks through the consequences of atheism, how utterly and totally meaningless it all is if we are just self-conscious pebbles. So in that sense, of course God plays a role in, in, in the good that I try to do. Of course, not in the base or basic sense of, oh, I'll get good for doing that from God, or even worse, I'll be rewarded here for it. I mean, there are many religious people who believe that, that if they have— if only they have sufficient faith or sufficient ritual acts, depending on the religion, religious acts, then, then they will— then good will come to them and they won't get diseased or they'll cure their disease. Or, or something analogous to that. But yeah, there would be consequences to me, and I, and I care about goodness more than anything else. But I know there would be consequences to me if I believe there was no God, only because I would despair of anything meaning anything. 1-800-PRAGER-776, the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show. We continue.

Dennis, I have been enjoying the Timeless Wisdom again. I listened for years. You have impacted my life positively with your humility, intellect, ability to communicate, your sense of humor, fascinating subjects. But I am a physician who would, with sleepless nights, do jigsaw puzzles listening to your recordings. I have done no jigsaw puzzles since your injury, but now maybe I can resume that I have found timeless wisdom again. I've mod podged those jigsaw puzzles and plastered them on the wall of our grandchildren's playroom. But I want you to know that we pray for you here in Utah, and I am grateful to know that you still have your intellect despite the other tragedy. We've all experienced tragedies, but we love you and want you to know of your importance to us. Thank you.

Are you enjoying Timeless Wisdom? We'd love to hear from you. Call 877-243-7776 and leave a review, share your thoughts, or just even an encouraging word for Dennis Prager. Your voicemail might just make it on the show. That's 877-243-7776. That's 877-243-7776. Thanks for listening and for your support.

You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show. When all is said and done, I think goodness is the most important human issue, that people treat each other good. I think— do you say people treat each other well? Would that be the right way of putting it? I'm not being sarcastic. I know adverbs, but because by well, it doesn't connote goodness as much. That's the reason that I wanted to do it. But all right, doesn't matter. That, that's what I still think. I, and I also believe that's what God thinks is most important, that we treat each other well, just as parents care most how their children treat each other. And God is our Father. But putting aside religion, I, I do believe goodness is the most important question. That's why I spent so much time on this program talking about fighting evil. That's part of being good. You can't be good if you don't fight evil. I mean, as kind as you are, that's wonderful, and that cannot be taken away from you, but part of goodness is fighting evil. The notion that the good don't fight is, is, is actually self-contradictory. I said I wrote down prior to the hour some reasons, and you've been giving them, which is wonderful, and I've been telling you how I relate to them, or whether I do or not. Here are the re— here are some of the reasons. First of all, there is some degree of natural goodness in people, some more than others. We all know that there are kids who were born kinder than others. That doesn't mean the ones who were not born kind can't be taught to be kind. They can, of course they can. But there is an element of that. Second is values. Do you think it's important to be good? Do you think that good actions are important? Is that a value in your life? Third, people feel good, and there's nothing wrong with that. I want people to feel good by doing good. 'Cause after all, the bad feel good doing bad. Fourth is God and religion, uh, the, the element of God and religion in people's lives to the extent that they are associated with goodness. Religion is not necessarily associated with goodness. It can be associated with a whole host of other things and in fact can be associated with evil. Ancient religions, all, all, all Essentially demanded child sacrifice. There's a, there is a segment of Islam today that demands child sacrifice so long as the child is sacrificing himself while blowing up other innocent people. So religion can be used in both directions, but religion can also be the greatest force for good. And society's expectations, that was, that was raised by a caller as well. The society make good important. All right, let's go to more calls. Steve, Temecula, California. Dennis Prager, hi.

Hi, how you doing, Dennis?

Okay, thanks. Go ahead, Steve.

Well, my comment was just that I believe there's really two reasons that people do good. One is selfishness, which is to please others, which is basically to make themselves look good or feel good.

Okay, give me an example.

Well, uh, somebody might, um, donate a lot of money to a church in order to have their name put on a plaque.

And now, do you think that that is, is, is less good or not good?

I believe that it's born out of selfishness, and therefore, and therefore it is, uh, Just that is the purpose. It—

all right, let me ask you a question. I, I have dealt with this with a lot of people, so hear me out. And I'm— I, I'm— it's one of those rare times I want to change your mind. Okay, sure. Let us say we have a millionaire, a multi-millionaire, who gives a million dollars to, uh, let us say, uh, a cancer center, a cancer research center. And you know, or you're certain that he has done so because of the selfish reasons you just mentioned— he will get honor from society, right?

Right.

Okay, now let's take another millionaire who does not give to a cancer research center, but out of his selfishness buys himself a yacht. Okay, I want you to morally compare the two actions.

Well, I would say that there's definitely, uh, gradation. He's a— the first guy is— it's good.

Okay, so I don't want you to knock the guy who gives to a hospital center because he wants his name on a plaque there. Don't knock it at all because the man has done so much good.

Now, the result— the result is good, but I only measure goodness by results.

Because there are so many bad things done by people with good motives. People who believe— people who've believed in communism were often real true believers that it was good what they were doing. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. If we're going to assess motives, then a lot of people who do bad will be assessed as wonderful.

That's why goodness can be relative.

Well, of course it's relative, because there's greater goodness and less goodness.

But I—

all I'm saying to you, Stephen, you're right that there is an element of selfishness, but I think there's an element of selfishness in all goodness. What if you— what— there's an element of selfishness in, in, in religion. There's an element of selfishness in action. Let us say that somebody does good because they think it will please God and they will get rewarded in the afterlife. That's selfish. Now others will say, ah, but that doesn't please God. Faith pleases God. All right, so let's say somebody adopts faith in order to be saved. Isn't that selfish? I want to be saved. If we can't assess goodness based on whether or not there's a selfish element, there will always be a selfish element. I have to, I have to judge goodness based on results. Steve, you have raised such an important item, and I know, I know you wish you could talk more with me, and I feel the same, but of course the constraints of radio, you'll understand. So this notion, folks, that we have to somehow dig out, extirpate, to use a fancy term, selfishness from, from goodness is not correct. There is an element of, of what will be in it for me in virtually any act of goodness anybody does. How will I feel about myself? How will I respect myself? What will God think about me? And, and so that's inevitable. We'll be back in a moment. Final segment of this edition of the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort. It may be your metabolism. After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts. It slows down and holds holds on to fat. That's why PhD Weight Loss focuses on your metabolism first so your body stops working against you. Mention Prager today and receive 2 free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value. Call 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

I realize speaking about this subject— and this is the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager show, the third hour of my show each Tuesday is devoted to the issue of ultimate issues or some great question of life. This one is so huge that of course I will be revisiting it a number of times, and that is why do people do good. But what I really am focusing on now, in light of that last important call from Steve, is that we have to measure goodness by its results much more than by its motives. So much bad is done with good motives. Do you think that the Taliban had bad motives? You— do you think that the— that communists all had bad motives? Dennis Prager, or even Nazis all had bad motives. They believed, they believed that they were doing good in many ways. So the issue of motives is, is not— is secondary. It's just secondary. In order to do good, you have to ask the question of will it do good? Will this act do good? Alan, put it down as another— that's another subject for this Ultimate Issues Hour. Understanding what good is, because of the motives issue, confuses people. If somebody gives money for the sake of building a hospital, that is so good, folks, so good, and I want their name on the building. I want it. It's, you know what, it's selfish. It's wrong to give all that money to make a hospital and not have the world know you did it. I want models of goodness out there. I want to know whom to thank. If I enter the, you know, the Bill Cohen bathroom at a hospital, he gave the money for that bathroom, as I am at that urinal, I'm thanking him. This is not a good or healthy thing to analyze. Well, they wanted to be known. Of course, that's okay. Did Mother Teresa not want her works known? Did she go by Mother Anonymous? Did she hide from the world? It's a good thing we know who she is. We need human models of goodness. Well, Mark and Paul and Orly and Suzanne and Dan, I, I wish I could have gotten your calls. Why do people do good? I want you to think about it. Love to get your emails, even if I can't respond to everyone. It's been another edition of the Ultimate Issues Hour. Good is when good is done. Thank you for listening. I'm Dennis Prager.

Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

Now I have to give a slight warning. Sometimes it's a complete warning. Sometimes I tell you just the following is not for little kids. Here I would have you make the judgment. But I think kids could hear it. And when I mean kid, I mean under 10. Beyond that, I think, in fact, teenagers should hear these things to have an idea of what men and women are like. And especially men, because I know men very well, partially because I am one. But that's not the only reason. The other reason is I'm honest. And therefore I, I don't have an agenda other than trying to tell you what, what at least this one sex is like. And I think I have a fair take on parts of women's nature, which is more complex, fully acknowledged.

I—

today, today's topic is the power of the visual for men.

Join us tomorrow to hear more on 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. We want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. Go to LifeAudio.com to find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.

If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort. It may be your metabolism. After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts. It slows down and holds on to fat. That's why PhD Weight Loss focuses on your metabolism first so your body stops working against you. Mention Prager today and receive 2 free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value. Call 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900.