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Decay Of Secular Society
00:03:00
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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. | |
|
Why Belief Matters Less
00:06:50
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| 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. | |