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May 19, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
09:36
What Keeps People from being Religious?
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Ultimately, the whole thing is about your outlook on life.
All the tension in America is based on that.
Do you see people in terms of race, in terms of character?
These are all ultimate issues.
Everything comes down to that.
And so, we established this hour, I don't know how many years ago.
About 12 years ago, more.
And today's topic is about one of my favorite subjects, perhaps my favorite religion.
I hope you realize the decay that secular society inevitably ends up as.
It just does.
Not every secular person has rotten values.
Not every religious person has great values.
But we're talking about society, not every individual.
If you talk about every individual, you can say nothing.
You can't generalize at all, and then you have no wisdom.
Wisdom rests on generalizations, on correct generalizations, however.
All whites are racist is a generalization, but it's a lie.
So, that's what matters.
Correct generalization.
Anyway, given the staggering significance of religion, or as I have put it for years in speeches around the world, when Christianity died in Europe, we got fascism, communism, and Nazism.
When it dies in America, what will we get?
And I'm a Jew asking this.
Well, we got last year almost a year of riots, of destruction, of mayhem.
That's one of the things we got.
What you really get is the left.
But that's not my subject.
My subject is religion, but it's not that.
My subject is you.
Today, what stops you, what prevents you from being religious?
Notice I didn't say spiritual, a word for which I have no use.
I don't even understand the word.
It means nothing to me.
When I hear someone say it, and very nice people say this, it's not an attack on people saying it.
By the way, the phone number is 1-8 Prager 776. From being religious.
Or for that matter, prevents your son or daughter.
If you have an answer to that one.
It's very important for me to confront that question.
Thank you.
Because I would like you to be religious.
Spiritual to me.
I'm not religious, but I have some sense.
I have a strong sense of the spiritual.
But what does that mean?
I'm not being cute.
I don't even understand what that means.
You're not Christian.
You're not Jewish.
I'm talking about the Western world now.
But you're spiritual.
Anyway, I don't know what it means.
Nice people say it.
My issue is not whether you're nice, it's whether society can survive.
So I'm not asking what prevents you from being spiritual.
I'm not even asking what prevents you from believing in God.
You can believe in God and not be religious.
Religious means active in a religion.
For the first time in American history, fewer than 50% of Americans are religious.
Or go to church or synagogue on a weekly basis, whatever criterion you wish to choose.
That's a significant demarcation in American history.
One possible answer is, I don't believe in God, why would I be religious?
I actually have an answer to that.
Whether you believe in God or not, I think you should be religious.
This goes so contrary to what most people think.
Frankly, I'm more interested that you be religious than that you believe in God.
I believe in God very strongly.
But for your sake and the sake of society, I'd rather you be actively religious.
You need a religious community like you need a good diet and exercise.
Every single study I have seen, and remember my view of studies is either they confirm the obvious or they're wrong.
Every single study.
Has affirmed the obvious.
People with a religious community live longer and more healthfully.
I know that.
I flew from Hawaii on Saturday night.
I hate red eyes.
And I flew a red eye so that I would be back on Sunday because Sunday night was a Jewish religious holiday, Shavuot or Pentecost.
And I wanted to be with my religious community that night.
So I just made sure I would get home in time.
And I did it for selfish reasons.
Partially altruistic, because people like when I'm with them.
I grant that.
But it's mostly selfish.
I need it.
I need it every Friday night.
I need it every Saturday.
And I get it.
So, my question is not what prevents you from believing in God, it's what prevents you from being religious.
So I have an answer to you if your answer is, because, well, Dennis, I can't believe in God, so why am I going to be religious?
I don't know, it's like saying to me, I can't read music, why listen to Beethoven?
You'd have to read music to love Beethoven.
The benefits of great music are there.
If you don't know an F-sharp from a C, it's irrelevant.
Yes, you can get more out of it if you read music, obviously.
But it's a misconception.
And anyway, if you do get religious...
You might well end up believing in God.
You find a church or synagogue that elevates you, and one criterion is that they don't talk about politics.
They talk about elevating.
That may very well have an effect on your belief in God.
I'm a behaviorist.
You know, act happy, you'll be happier.
Act religious, you'll be a bigger believer.
Acting is everything.
I don't mean acting as in phony.
And it's not phony to be religious if you have an issue with whether God exists.
Why is that?
One can have a lot to do with the other or may not.
Another one I get is that people have bad experiences in their religion.
Okay, so I want you to know something, my friends.
Who hasn't?
Who has not had bad experiences within their religion?
Hey, I'm curious.
Do you have any bad experiences in your secular life?
Why does that prevent you from being secular?
Bad experiences in religious life.
Oh, my nun wrapped my knuckles.
Why would I continue in the Catholic Church?
The rabbi, I don't know, my rabbi had an affair.
Oh, okay, now I get it.
That's just, that's just silly.
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