Dennis Prager Show - Would You Save a Stranger or Your Dog?
Aired: 2025-06-24
Duration: 03:51

[00:00:00]  So first, let me state what I have often.
[00:00:02]  If you can't make generalizations, you have no wisdom.
[00:00:08]  That's the ability to make generalizations means the ability to make sense of life.
[00:00:18]  It's a big deal.
[00:00:22]  What is a generalization?
[00:00:24]  It is when you see a pattern.
[00:00:28]  I believe that I have a gift, and so I don't take credit for it.
[00:00:33]  I'm calling it a gift.
[00:00:34]  I see patterns based on a few examples.
[00:00:41]  I'll give you one of the biggest examples in my life.
[00:00:45]  In my twenties, I was on an airplane, and I was seated next to a woman who had a vegetarian meal.
[00:00:53]  And wanting to make conversation, I just said to her, Are you a vegetarian?
[00:00:59]  Not everyone having a vegetarian meal is vegetarian.
[00:01:02]  And I asked her, yeah, she said yes.
[00:01:04]  So my enjoyment in life is to find out why.
[00:01:10]  Whatever the issue is, why?
[00:01:12]  So I asked her, and may I ask why are you a vegetarian?
[00:01:16]  She said, sure.
[00:01:18]  Because we have no right to kill animals.
[00:01:23]  And I and I remember thinking when I heard that part, that I respect that.
[00:01:29]  We could live on non-animal food.
[00:01:34]  So she says, we have no right to kill animals.
[00:01:36]  But she didn't stop there.
[00:01:38]  She said, who are we humans to say that we are more valuable than animals?
[00:01:46]  I remember my shock.
[00:01:50]  I was shocked.
[00:01:51]  I had never heard that before.
[00:01:54]  And so I said to her, well, wait a minute.
[00:01:58]  I totally get it that we may not have a right to kill animals when we have an alternative.
[00:02:03]  Source food, food, food source.
[00:02:07]  But we're not more valuable than animals?
[00:02:11]  Well, let me ask you a question.
[00:02:14]  Thinking this was a rhetorical question.
[00:02:17]  Which would you say first if both were drowning?
[00:02:21]  A person or an animal.
[00:02:25]  Or I think I specifically said a stranger, or your dog, or a dog, or your dog.
[00:02:34]  I guess it was your dog.
[00:02:36]  And there was no answer.
[00:02:38]  She just was, she was just quiet.
[00:02:41]  I said, I'm sorry, did you hear my question?
[00:02:44]  She said, Yes, I'm thinking.
[00:02:47]  And the skies opened up.
[00:02:52]  And I thought, she's just thinking?
[00:02:56]  You mean there's something to think about?
[00:02:59]  Would you save a dog or a person first?
[00:03:04]  And then what I did based on one example is I made a gigantic generalization that this woman represents vast numbers of people because we live in a secular age.
[00:03:20]  And when you drop people being created in God's image, you end up with human animal equality.
[00:03:31]  That's that's the based on one experience.
[00:03:38]  One example, I made this gigantic generalization.
[00:03:42]  I've turned out to be right.
[00:03:44]  So the question isn't can you generalize from one or two examples?