Dennis Prager Show - Religious Are Better Prepared for Disruptions
Aired: 2020-04-10
Duration: 08:36


=== Comments Are Touching (03:48) ===

[00:00:00]  All right, y'all.
[00:00:01]  Dennis Prager here.
[00:00:05]  And there's no question I'm in your life.
[00:00:10]  I fully acknowledge that.
[00:00:12]  And I'm honored to be and I want to be of good use to you.
[00:00:17]  Incidentally, if you missed it, I conducted a Passover Seder on the internet.
[00:00:22]  You can get it at PragerU or YouTube or Facebook.
[00:00:27]  Smoke signals.
[00:00:30]  How else are things transmitted?
[00:00:34]  And it's very touching, actually.
[00:00:37]  People all over the world watched, mostly non-Jews, from the reactions.
[00:00:45]  That's my assumption.
[00:00:47]  But it's very touching.
[00:00:51]  The comments are very touching on YouTube.
[00:00:53]  Are there comments on Facebook?
[00:00:57]  Yeah, I should look there too.
[00:00:59]  I gotta look there too, yeah.
[00:01:01]  There are comments everywhere.
[00:01:02]  Comments here, comments there, comments everywhere.
[00:01:06]  All right, y'all.
[00:01:08]  Dennis Prager here.
[00:01:09]  So the obvious topic for today's Happiness Hour.
[00:01:12]  Come on, give me a break.
[00:01:13]  You can guess it yourselves.
[00:01:16]  The meaning of the spring solstice.
[00:01:22]  Why that would bring people happiness.
[00:01:26]  Is it the spring solstice?
[00:01:28]  Wait, so when is the equinox?
[00:01:30]  When is solstice and when is equinox?
[00:01:33]  I admit my ignorance on the air.
[00:01:37]  Oh, the equinox is closed.
[00:01:39]  You know, you're thinking of the health club.
[00:01:44]  This is what I have to deal with, ladies and gentlemen.
[00:01:46]  If you knew what went into my earphones on a daily basis, you would send me a cigar.
[00:01:52]  Yes, cigars have been a very good thing.
[00:01:55]  Do you know, by the way, this is of human interest, I admit it is not of colossal note.
[00:02:02]  I've actually eaten less during this time than more.
[00:02:08]  I totally get it that people look to food for comfort.
[00:02:12]  I mean, I don't get it personally because I look to cigars for comfort.
[00:02:15]  But I get that people would.
[00:02:19]  I have just found that...
[00:02:21]  I don't have an interest in eating.
[00:02:25]  Because, you know, it's a fairly sedentary existence right now.
[00:02:30]  Which is my fault.
[00:02:31]  I mean, I do walk, but I don't walk enough.
[00:02:35]  Not that if I walk more, I don't think I'd even want more food.
[00:02:39]  Well, you don't eat much anyway, so it wouldn't affect you.
[00:02:42]  I don't eat much anyway either, but I even eat less.
[00:02:47]  Yeah, the Equinox is twice a year.
[00:02:51]  That I was wrong.
[00:02:52]  It's the spring equinox.
[00:02:54]  It's the winter solstice.
[00:02:55]  So I was totally wrong.
[00:02:57]  Those of you who celebrate the spring equinox, please forgive me.
[00:03:02]  I had a feeling I was wrong.
[00:03:04]  Because I remembered the term winter solstice.
[00:03:06]  It couldn't be both spring and winter.
[00:03:09]  It has to be spring and fall.
[00:03:12]  Alright, now the topic on the Happiness Hour today is religion and happiness.
[00:03:18]  Now this is a very great test.
[00:03:20]  We're all equally, well not equally, but it has nothing to do with secular or religious.
[00:03:27]  In that sense, we're all equally affected, correct?
[00:03:32]  There are religious poor people, religious rich people, religious middle class people.

=== Religious Community Advantage (05:02) ===

[00:03:38]  There are secular poor people, secular middle class, secular rich people.
[00:03:43]  So the distinction has nothing to do with whether you're religious.
[00:03:47]  So therefore, it's a good test.
[00:03:50]  Are religious people better capable?
[00:03:56]  Do they have advantages in coping with a situation like this that secular people do not have?
[00:04:05]  That's my question.
[00:04:08]  Now, my...
[00:04:11]  Even putting God aside, which is a big deal to put aside, I get it.
[00:04:17]  There is something that we have, we religious folks, not all but most, that secular folks don't have, not all but most, again, and that is community.
[00:04:33]  I have a synagogue that I attend.
[00:04:38]  I'm very close to many of the people who attend it.
[00:04:42]  I teach there every week.
[00:04:44]  And we have a Zoom service every Saturday.
[00:04:52]  Well, now we do.
[00:04:53]  No.
[00:04:54]  And while I'm talking now, during this period, obviously, we don't have a Zoom service when we can be together.
[00:05:00]  I'd much rather be together.
[00:05:02]  I'm a big hugger.
[00:05:05]  According to Dr. Fauci, we won't even be able to shake hands ever again.
[00:05:09]  Ever again.
[00:05:10]  That's why you never have experts make policy.
[00:05:13]  Never.
[00:05:14]  Never.
[00:05:17]  I'd rather have, as Buckley said, the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than 2,000 Harvard professors.
[00:05:27]  Experts overwhelmingly lack wisdom.
[00:05:31]  There are a handful of experts with wisdom.
[00:05:34]  That's a very tiny fraction.
[00:05:38]  They should have nothing to do with policy.
[00:05:40]  They should just tell us what they know and then wise people make policy.
[00:05:50]  Can you think of something more foolish than we will never shake hands again?
[00:05:57]  Yes, I can think of something more foolish.
[00:05:59]  The man who ran Obamacare for the...
[00:06:05]  The doctor who ran Obamacare and now was the health advisor to Joe Biden said that we should stay in place for 18 months.
[00:06:15]  He admits it will affect the economy.
[00:06:18]  Shelter in place.
[00:06:20]  That's right, shelter in place.
[00:06:24]  Anyway, you see, religious people I think are better prepared For things like this.
[00:06:41]  One of the things, it's very interesting, one of the things that, I think this generalization is accurate.
[00:06:52]  The vast, the disproportionate majority of those who are panicking, like the woman who wrote in the New York Times today, Nebraska should have shelter in place.
[00:07:08]  And she's angry at the Republican governor for not.
[00:07:11]  The vast majority are secular.
[00:07:14]  I think secular people panic more.
[00:07:17]  I think they want a more intrusive government.
[00:07:22]  There's a very big difference between secular and religious.
[00:07:25]  I mean, there are secular conservatives and there are religious leftists.
[00:07:28]  I understand that.
[00:07:29]  But, nevertheless...
[00:07:32]  There really is a difference between the religious and the secular.
[00:07:35]  Not to say that secular are bad and religious are good.
[00:07:38]  There are bad religious people and there are wonderful secular people.
[00:07:42]  But in the ability to cope with life, I think religious people have better shock absorbers.
[00:07:51]  I think that our expectations of non-tragedy, although there are people who are religious who expect no tragedy because they think By being religious, God will protect them.
[00:08:03]  So I have knocked that many times.
[00:08:07]  There isn't a shred of thought in me, a deeply religious person, that God will protect me from all evil.
[00:08:16]  I don't even know why people would believe that.
[00:08:22]  It doesn't make any sense to me.
[00:08:25]  So what do you think?
[00:08:27]  religious or secular better capable of dealing with the crisis we're in that's the happiness our subject