Dennis Prager Show - The Decline Of Religious Activity In America And How We Can Change It
Aired: 2023-12-26
Duration: 08:21


=== Decline of Religious Intellect (08:05) ===

[00:00:00]  But I'd like to talk to you today on this final day prior to Christmas about the decline in religious activity in the United States of America.
[00:00:13]  Fewer Americans attend church weekly than at any time in American history.
[00:00:20]  I've pointed out to my fellow Jews that when Americans went to church, Jews were more secure.
[00:00:27]  The Judeo-Christian America that we've had, if you want to call it Christian America, it was in values Judeo-Christian, and it's part of the reason America's Christianity was so much more pro-Jewish than Europe's Christianity historically, because that was...
[00:00:47]  Not nearly as Judeo-based as the American Christianity.
[00:00:51]  You just read the Founding Fathers on quote-unquote the Hebrews or the Israelites.
[00:00:58]  Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, neither of whom were Trinitarian Christians, designed a great seal of the United States of America.
[00:01:10]  You can see it on the Internet.
[00:01:13]  And the seal depicts the Israelites, Hebrews, Jews, whatever term you wish to use, leaving Egypt, being guided at night by a pillar of fire.
[00:01:26]  And to think that two of the least doctrinally Christian founders were so steeped in the Hebrew Bible This was a Judeo-Christian country.
[00:01:47]  And there is not a single positive aspect to the decline in religious activity and faith in the United States.
[00:01:58]  Notice I put activity before faith because I am more action-oriented.
[00:02:04]  Whatever people's doubts with regard to faith, going to church each week was more important in my view.
[00:02:12]  Not in everybody's, than how much they believed.
[00:02:19]  I judge people by their behavior rather than by their theology or level of faith.
[00:02:27]  So I want to talk to you today about that decline.
[00:02:30]  I'll bet virtually every one of you who is religious either has in your immediate family or knows a family Where at least one of the children has left religion.
[00:02:47]  So this is what I have done all of my life to persuade people to take the Bible seriously.
[00:02:59]  My agenda has not been specifically to make anyone a member of any given faith.
[00:03:07]  How people express their Their biblical-based beliefs is, from my perspective, their business.
[00:03:14]  My business is to get them to take biblical beliefs and values seriously.
[00:03:22]  For me, the Bible is the bigger issue even than God.
[00:03:25]  There are vast numbers of people around the world who believe in God, and it has nothing to do with the God of the Bible.
[00:03:33]  It's usually some deity in heaven whom they...
[00:03:38]  Invoke for protection.
[00:03:40]  And that's not what the purpose of belief is.
[00:03:48]  So I want to talk to you about what has happened and what we can do about it.
[00:03:55]  I have been successful with very, very many people, but not nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly enough.
[00:04:03]  I don't walk around thinking how many people I've influenced.
[00:04:08]  I think much more about how many people I have not.
[00:04:12]  But I know how to influence some people, at least.
[00:04:18]  And let me give you my methodology.
[00:04:21]  And you are free, indeed welcome, to react and to give your own testimony to some alienated child that you might have.
[00:04:34]  So my approach, first of all, has been entirely toward the intellect.
[00:04:38]  I don't know any other approach because it is my mind that has given me faith.
[00:04:52]  I approach God through the mind much more than through the heart.
[00:04:58]  Now, I'm well aware that my approach will not work with everybody.
[00:05:04]  But it certainly works with many bodies.
[00:05:08]  An appeal to the mind.
[00:05:10]  Because many people in the modern age use their mind to reject God, the Bible, etc.
[00:05:18]  So if the mind, if they think that it is their mind that cannot accept God, God-based morality, etc., then I have to appeal to their mind.
[00:05:33]  If the mind is the source of the rejection, then the mind has to be approached, right?
[00:05:42]  So, the number one in my approach to having people take religion, specifically the Bible, seriously, is through the intellect.
[00:05:56]  That's why I title my biblical commentary, Three out of five volumes are out.
[00:06:03]  The fourth volume is coming out next year.
[00:06:05]  The first five books are the basis of everything else.
[00:06:09]  Everything, everything and everything.
[00:06:12]  It's called the Torah and I call it the Rational Bible because I use reason to make the case for why it is The greatest work ever written.
[00:06:27]  And it's transformative if you take its values seriously.
[00:06:32]  From the beginning, from the very first sentence.
[00:06:36]  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
[00:06:39]  The amount that is stated in that sentence is astonishing.
[00:06:44]  It didn't all come about on its own.
[00:06:48]  It is amazing that people who reject God as irrational, not provable, That's their famous statement.
[00:06:59]  Can you prove to me God exists?
[00:07:02]  Of course not.
[00:07:04]  But I can't prove to you beauty exists.
[00:07:07]  I can't prove to you a whole host of positive things.
[00:07:11]  I can't prove to you that good and evil exist.
[00:07:15]  Where's the proof?
[00:07:16]  Show me the measuring stick.
[00:07:18]  Show me the chemical basis.
[00:07:21]  What is the chemical?
[00:07:24]  Constituents.
[00:07:25]  What are the chemical constituents of good or evil?
[00:07:30]  There is very little that matters that can be proven.
[00:07:33]  But there are arguments that are persuasive.
[00:07:37]  And I try to make those.
[00:07:39]  But that sentence alone says so much.
[00:07:43]  It means that God created nature.
[00:07:46]  God is above nature.
[00:07:50]  An amazing thing, because in every ancient world, In every ancient society, God was a natural deity, God of rain, God of wind, the sun god, the moon god, etc.

=== People Who Act Know How (00:13) ===

[00:08:08]  So the first thing I have done, and many people have not done, in trying to make the case, and I don't blame them at all, they don't know how.
[00:08:19]  You can't do what you don't know how to do.