Dennis Prager Show - Sunday Fireside Chat: The Importance of Religion in Modern Society
Aired: 2026-03-22
Duration: 41:55


=== Welcome to Fireside Chat (04:08) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey there, this is Marissa Streit.
[00:00:02]  I am the CEO of PragerU and you are about to listen to a special edition of Fireside Chat with Dennis Prager.
[00:00:08]  Those of us here at PragerU are continuing to do the very important work that we've been doing with him for over 10 years.
[00:00:15]  We are educating millions of young people online.
[00:00:18]  We have state partnerships to bring our content into schools and so much more.
[00:00:23]  You can head over to PragerU.com to see the progress that we've been making.
[00:00:27]  Also, I'd love to invite you to support our mission by donating to our 501c3.
[00:00:32]  It is a non-profit.
[00:00:33]  Your tax-deductible donation will go to an institution of higher learning that actually shares your values.
[00:00:40]  So enjoy your podcast and thank you so much for all your support.
[00:00:45]  Welcome to my home.
[00:00:47]  I'm Dennis Prager.
[00:00:48]  This is my home.
[00:00:49]  This is as informal as you can.
[00:00:50]  Well, it's not as informal as you can get.
[00:00:53]  After all, I could be here in pajamas, but I don't wear pajamas, so I certainly couldn't be here.
[00:00:57]  So it's really, really informal.
[00:01:01]  I love this.
[00:01:02]  A lot of people are watching, and that means a great deal to me because I really get a chance to talk from my heart and from my mind because you have to do both in life.
[00:01:13]  So anyway, welcome to my home.
[00:01:15]  And maybe you'll get to see the Bulldog or the Basset Hound at some point, but who knows?
[00:01:22]  So listen to this.
[00:01:24]  I just flew in from Australia.
[00:01:27]  In case you didn't know, Australia is very far away.
[00:01:32]  I just thought I would share that with you.
[00:01:36]  It's from LA.
[00:01:38]  You can take a non-stop.
[00:01:39]  I gave a speech in Melbourne just the other day.
[00:01:44]  And I went to Australia for three days just to give a speech.
[00:01:49]  And I want to say something to the Prager Force people in Melbourne, Australia.
[00:01:53]  Anyway, the flight is 16 and a half hours.
[00:01:56]  So you sort of live on an airplane for all that time.
[00:02:00]  That doesn't include the time you're on the ground.
[00:02:02]  So you're on the plane about 18 hours.
[00:02:06]  And thank God I don't go economy class.
[00:02:08]  I have to admit it.
[00:02:10]  At 6'4, that would not be possible, at least for me.
[00:02:16]  Anyway, I'm really dedicated to these fireside chats so that even flying in from Australia, I didn't want to go to bed.
[00:02:24]  I wanted to be here to do this with you.
[00:02:27]  And hi, everybody.
[00:02:29]  By the way, before I go on with that, I want to thank publicly Stephen Crowder of Louder with Crowder.
[00:02:39]  I come home and I see a beautiful box of cigars awaiting me.
[00:02:44]  I would love to read you the note, but I don't know.
[00:02:50]  It was so warm and so filled with kind things that if I read it, it would sound like I'm boasting.
[00:02:58]  But I would like to read it to credit him, not me.
[00:03:01]  Anyway, Stephen, you are one good man, and thank you for that.
[00:03:07]  There were members of Prager Force in Melbourne who wanted to come to my speech, but the problem was, and I really would have loved it, if I could have been decisive, of course I would have said yes.
[00:03:19]  But I was the keynote speaker, but another speaker on the program was the Israeli ambassador to Australia.
[00:03:27]  It was a speech to the Jewish community of Melbourne, Australia for their annual big event.
[00:03:33]  And he came from Canberra, the capital of Australia, to give a speech.
[00:03:37]  And tragically, Israeli diplomats need a great deal of security for reasons that are obvious to everyone.
[00:03:46]  And so if your name wasn't on the list way in advance, they didn't allow anybody to come in.
[00:03:52]  So those of you Prager Force in Melbourne, thank you.
[00:03:55]  I wish I had met you and you could have come to the talk.
[00:03:59]  Okay, now that we got some of the preliminaries talked about, I think all the time, what would I like to open with?

=== God and the Ten Commandments (14:29) ===

[00:04:09]  And I rarely open with things in the news.
[00:04:12]  I sometimes do, but I don't feel a compulsion to do that this time.
[00:04:18]  What I want to talk to you about, especially to those of you who are young, what does young mean?
[00:04:23]  I don't know.
[00:04:24]  Oh, under 40, under 35, whatever you want to choose.
[00:04:28]  It doesn't matter.
[00:04:29]  The truth is, what I'm about to say, if you're under 70, it would apply.
[00:04:34]  But it's particularly true for you who are young.
[00:04:38]  I know you never thought of what I'm about to say.
[00:04:41]  By the way, was that clear or was my cigar eating up my words?
[00:04:46]  Yes, it was.
[00:04:47]  Okay.
[00:04:49]  I'll bet 99% of you, whatever your religious conviction or no religious conviction, I'll bet you never thought of this.
[00:04:59]  You are growing up in the most secular, the most irreligious, the most godless generation in recorded history anywhere on earth.
[00:05:11]  We do not have records of a society that is as irreligious as the modern Western world.
[00:05:20]  No religion, no God.
[00:05:22]  They play no role.
[00:05:24]  You go to secular elementary school, secular high school, secular college, secular graduate school.
[00:05:30]  Most don't go to church or synagogue.
[00:05:34]  It is a new world.
[00:05:38]  Now, you may say, so what?
[00:05:40]  That's fine.
[00:05:40]  I'll deal with that in a moment.
[00:05:42]  But at least be conscious of something.
[00:05:45]  That this is new in human history.
[00:05:49]  And it's true for the United States, which is, one moment, almost went out.
[00:06:01]  Which is the most religious of the advanced industrialized democracies.
[00:06:08]  It's even true in the United States.
[00:06:10]  Forget Sweden and Norway and many other countries.
[00:06:14]  And for that matter, in some ways, in Asia as well.
[00:06:18]  China, the communist regime worked to stamp out religion, though at this time, from what I'm told, there were 200 million Christians in China, many of them surreptitiously so.
[00:06:31]  Anyway, if you're intellectually curious and you want to know about life and your wisdom desiring, you have to ask yourself a question.
[00:06:44]  Is that a good thing?
[00:06:46]  Simple as that.
[00:06:47]  Is it a good thing to essentially have a completely irreligious, secular, and even godless life?
[00:06:56]  And I don't think it's a good thing because I know the role that religion and God and the Bible have played in my life.
[00:07:04]  And I actually, oh, I want to choose my words carefully because I don't, what I want to say is, I'll tell you what I want to say, and then I'm not going to say it.
[00:07:16]  I want to say, I feel sorry for people who don't have this.
[00:07:20]  But this is, it sounds like it's a condescending statement, and it's not condescending at all.
[00:07:24]  Listen, I feel sorry for people who don't have music in their lives.
[00:07:28]  So, you know, are there wonderful people who don't have music in their lives?
[00:07:32]  Of course.
[00:07:34]  Wonderful people who don't have any art in their lives?
[00:07:36]  Yes.
[00:07:37]  But you have a richer life if you have art and beauty in it.
[00:07:40]  So it's not a statement against the individual.
[00:07:44]  It's a statement observing the situation that people find themselves in.
[00:07:52]  And so let me give you a few examples why, and then I'm going to go simply to your questions.
[00:07:58]  First of all, there is the issue.
[00:08:02]  Can I give you this?
[00:08:03]  Thank you.
[00:08:05]  First of all, there is the issue of meaning.
[00:08:12]  See, every atheist philosopher that I have read acknowledges if there is no God, ultimately there is no ultimate meaning to life.
[00:08:22]  That doesn't mean you can't make up a meaning.
[00:08:26]  People do, and pardon the pun, thank God that they do.
[00:08:31]  People make up all sorts of meanings to do well in their profession, to get ahead in life, to raise a family.
[00:08:38]  These are all wonderful things.
[00:08:40]  But in the final analysis, if we're only matter, and that's all we are, I was just reading, you know, who was it?
[00:08:52]  The great British genius, the physicist who had ALS.
[00:08:57]  Stephen Hawking.
[00:08:58]  Yes, Stephen Hawking.
[00:08:59]  Thank you.
[00:09:00]  She's two for two.
[00:09:01]  She gave me the cigar and took the cigar and came up with Stephen Hawking.
[00:09:07]  So he just passed away.
[00:09:08]  May he rest in peace and may he realize he was wrong about there not being any God.
[00:09:13]  Anyway, he said in one of his, one newspaper in Britain had four quotes from him.
[00:09:21]  One is, all we are is matter.
[00:09:23]  We human beings are just matter.
[00:09:26]  We're particles.
[00:09:27]  That's it.
[00:09:27]  Particles of matter.
[00:09:29]  He's right.
[00:09:30]  If there's no God, we're just particles of matter.
[00:09:34]  We are no different from this cigar, except that we have self-consciousness and the cigar has no self-consciousness.
[00:09:40]  That's the only difference.
[00:09:42]  Now, that should matter.
[00:09:45]  That should matter to people.
[00:09:47]  There are a lot of young people, and for that matter, not so young people in the Western world walking around aimless and pointless.
[00:09:55]  Why do you think, for example, that the only large-scale programs that have ever gotten people sober from drugs, from alcohol, are 12-step programs, and they are rooted in faith in, quote, something higher, that there is a God.
[00:10:16]  You don't want to call it God, call it something higher.
[00:10:18]  We can deal with that another time.
[00:10:21]  Because ultimately, that gives your life in the final analysis, meaning.
[00:10:28]  So this is a big deal.
[00:10:30]  So what have we substituted?
[00:10:32]  We substitute other things for meaning.
[00:10:34]  For example, I'll give you one that may affect a lot of you young people.
[00:10:39]  And I felt it when I was your age.
[00:10:43]  A lot of my peers, a lot of my peers lived for basically one big thing, and that was to get into a good college.
[00:10:54]  This is what gave their life meaning.
[00:10:56]  Oh, I'll get into Stanford.
[00:10:58]  Oh, I'll get into the University of Michigan.
[00:11:00]  Oh, I'll get into Yale.
[00:11:01]  Oh, I'll get into whatever the prestigious university, Duke, you name it, the Ivy League universities.
[00:11:08]  And I always, even when I was a kid, and I never bought it, I didn't give a damn about my grades in high school.
[00:11:15]  And it showed, by the way.
[00:11:17]  But even then, I didn't understand.
[00:11:19]  Because I remember thinking, okay, so you'll get into a prestigious college, and then what?
[00:11:25]  What's your aim in life then?
[00:11:27]  A prestigious graduate school?
[00:11:28]  Okay, so then you're in a prestigious graduate school.
[00:11:31]  What's your aim in life then?
[00:11:34]  What are you going to lead the rest of your maybe 70 more years of life?
[00:11:40]  Probably at least 70 more years.
[00:11:42]  70 and 25.
[00:11:44]  Well, from colleges to 70 and 21 from grad 20, 25 is in your 90s.
[00:11:49]  Those of you who are 20 today can easily expect to live probably in the 90s and 100s.
[00:11:55]  What are you going to do to the rest of the 75, 80 years?
[00:11:59]  Get into another graduate school, get another degree.
[00:12:04]  Think about it.
[00:12:06]  But when I speak to kids who have a religious essence, they march to a different drummer.
[00:12:13]  Some of them get great grades.
[00:12:15]  I don't have anything against great grades.
[00:12:17]  I have something against living for great grades.
[00:12:21]  We substitute sort of what I call false gods when we don't have one God.
[00:12:29]  Anyway, that's one consequence of your being raised in the most secular generation in the history of the world, of any society that we have ever known.
[00:12:40]  And then there's the moral issue.
[00:12:42]  People can't stand my video.
[00:12:44]  People love it and can't stand it.
[00:12:45]  I mean, obviously, millions love it.
[00:12:47]  But if there is no God, is murder wrong?
[00:12:51]  You should all watch it because it's unassailably accurate.
[00:12:54]  It's not a matter of opinion.
[00:12:56]  It may be opinion whether there is a God, but it's not opinion that if God is not there to say murder is wrong, it's just an opinion.
[00:13:04]  I think murder is wrong.
[00:13:05]  You think murder is right, or I think murder is right.
[00:13:08]  So people knocked me.
[00:13:10]  You could watch this on the internet.
[00:13:11]  So many comments and so many videos even against my video at the Prager U site.
[00:13:17]  And they say, oh, so what?
[00:13:19]  Prager would kill if it weren't for God?
[00:13:21]  What kind of guy is he?
[00:13:23]  So they mock it.
[00:13:24]  They think it's absurd.
[00:13:25]  Well, let me tell you something.
[00:13:28]  I wouldn't murder if there were no God.
[00:13:31]  I was raised to believe how terrible murder is.
[00:13:36]  However, I'll tell you a few areas where it does matter.
[00:13:40]  I had, like most people, I had a rocky period with my parents when I was young.
[00:13:46]  This is very common.
[00:13:48]  But because I believe that God said, honor your father and mother, that it's in the Ten Commandments, I did.
[00:13:54]  Even at the rockiest times with relations with my parents, where we might have been emotionally adrift, but I never dishonored them.
[00:14:04]  I never disrespected them.
[00:14:06]  And the reason was God.
[00:14:09]  Yes, because it says, honor your father and mother, and I think God is behind that.
[00:14:13]  That's a big deal.
[00:14:16]  People could give any number of reasons.
[00:14:18]  I asked a guy, I'll never forget, I asked a guy, I got married first when I was 32.
[00:14:24]  So in my 20s, I would ask married people privately so many questions about marriage because I knew I didn't know anything about marriage.
[00:14:34]  And anyway, I asked a friend of mine when I was about, I would say, I would say I was 30, 29, 30.
[00:14:45]  He was about 40 years.
[00:14:47]  It was about 10 years older than I.
[00:14:50]  So I said to Bob, we'll call him Bob.
[00:14:55]  He might be Bob.
[00:14:56]  He might not be Bob.
[00:14:57]  Anyway, I said, Bob, you and I are very open with each other.
[00:15:03]  I want to ask you something.
[00:15:04]  Did you ever cheat on your wife?
[00:15:08]  I'll never forget his answer.
[00:15:11]  Guy was a completely irreligious guy.
[00:15:14]  And I was just curious what he would say, how he would answer my question.
[00:15:19]  He said, you know, Dennis, it's interesting.
[00:15:20]  You should ask.
[00:15:22]  As you know, I never pray.
[00:15:26]  I'm an agnostic.
[00:15:28]  I have no religious affiliation.
[00:15:32]  But believe it or not, I have never committed adultery.
[00:15:39]  And you know why?
[00:15:41]  Believe it or not, Dennis.
[00:15:42]  And he was almost embarrassed to say, because I actually think that God said, do not commit adultery.
[00:15:51]  I actually, I think there may be a God who demands that we not commit adultery.
[00:15:56]  Made perfect sense.
[00:15:59]  Now, you'll say, oh, I don't need a God to tell me not to cheat on my wife or my husband.
[00:16:03]  Oh, really?
[00:16:05]  When things are rocky in a marriage and there's somebody extremely attractive who is attracted to you, Let me tell you something.
[00:16:12]  It's damn helpful to believe that the God in the universe told you not to do something.
[00:16:20]  I mean, that's real life, okay?
[00:16:22]  That's not make-believe.
[00:16:24]  The notion, oh, you know, I could do it without, yes, there are people who do it without.
[00:16:28]  I understand that.
[00:16:29]  There are good atheists.
[00:16:31]  I always acknowledge that.
[00:16:33]  There are bad religious people.
[00:16:34]  There are good atheists.
[00:16:36]  But nevertheless, the addition of having a God who tells you to be a good person is immense in one's life.
[00:16:46]  So I think about that a lot.
[00:16:49]  I'll give you one more example.
[00:16:51]  Again, from the Ten Commandments.
[00:16:53]  And you know what?
[00:16:54]  Can I have my book?
[00:16:55]  I'd just like to mention it.
[00:16:58]  This is coming out.
[00:16:59]  This is the, I'm going to show it.
[00:17:02]  This is the hardest thing.
[00:17:06]  The second hardest was writing my book, not think a second time, still the best hope about American values, left-wing values, and Islamist values.
[00:17:17]  And I hope you read it.
[00:17:18]  But this is the work of my life, teaching the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah, all of my life from the Hebrew, and making sense of it so that people will understand it'll give them a better life.
[00:17:33]  So this is coming out in two weeks.
[00:17:34]  It's gorgeously printed.
[00:17:36]  And is this correct?
[00:17:37]  Is it up nicely?
[00:17:39]  And it's called the Rational Bible because I only use reason.
[00:17:42]  I never ask people to take anything on faith.
[00:17:46]  I have never promoted a book like this.
[00:17:49]  And believe me, nobody writes a commentary on the Bible to get rich.
[00:17:53]  I wrote this because I think it's so necessary.
[00:17:57]  The Bible was the most important book in American history.
[00:18:01]  And you can't deny that.
[00:18:04]  Lincoln kept it.
[00:18:05]  Lincoln didn't go to church, but kept it on his nightstand.
[00:18:08]  Read it every day or every night.
[00:18:12]  We've lost that.
[00:18:13]  Why is it the wisest book on earth?
[00:18:15]  Anyway, the rational Bible, I really hope you'll get it.
[00:18:17]  You can pre-order it at Amazon.
[00:18:20]  Costco is even going to make it available, I'm very happy to say.
[00:18:24]  So I'll give you one more example.
[00:18:26]  One of the commandments is keep the Sabbath day.
[00:18:31]  Keep the Sabbath day holy.
[00:18:33]  That's really dead.
[00:18:35]  The concept of the Sabbath in America and the West is totally dead.

=== Reading the Bible Daily (12:10) ===

[00:18:38]  Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, the same thing.
[00:18:41]  Let's just repeat.
[00:18:42]  Whatever you do, you know, there's nothing, there's no holy time, so to speak.
[00:18:48]  So I have had Sabbath, Friday night meals.
[00:18:54]  In Judaism, Sabbath starts at Friday night and ends at Saturday night.
[00:18:59]  And I have had a Friday night meal and a Saturday meal with people either at my home or at their home my whole life.
[00:19:08]  I don't work.
[00:19:09]  I don't broadcast on the Sabbath.
[00:19:11]  I don't even read a newspaper because that's my work.
[00:19:15]  I leave the world for a day and it has saved my life.
[00:19:21]  It is a source of incredible pleasure and meaning.
[00:19:26]  Saturday afternoons, I have had Sabbath lunch, in other words, lunch on the Sabbath, with the same couples for about 25 years.
[00:19:35]  We are truly like family.
[00:19:38]  If we didn't think it was in the Ten Commandments, you think we'd get together every single week?
[00:19:43]  We'd always find reason to be busy.
[00:19:45]  I'm a busy guy.
[00:19:46]  They're busy people too.
[00:19:49]  Believing that God wants you to do X or Y or Z, that's a big deal in your life.
[00:19:56]  So anyway, I just thought I'd open up today, today's fireside chat with that.
[00:20:04]  I may be one of the only talk show hosts, people in the secular media, who does push religion like this.
[00:20:13]  Because I know the consequences of the death of God.
[00:20:16]  They ain't good.
[00:20:17]  You know what happened in Europe when Christianity died?
[00:20:21]  We got Nazism and Communism.
[00:20:26]  God doesn't die easily or peacefully.
[00:20:30]  Okadoke, time for your questions on anything.
[00:20:35]  And I should probably press a button.
[00:20:39]  Okay, problem is I need the owner.
[00:20:46]  Which I can light up while we're looking for the owner.
[00:20:49]  You did it?
[00:20:50]  Yes.
[00:20:50]  You're not even the owner.
[00:20:52]  Okay, here to book.
[00:20:55]  Okay.
[00:20:59]  So I, H-U-Y, how would that be pronounced?
[00:21:02]  Hi?
[00:21:05]  Hugh?
[00:21:05]  Hugh.
[00:21:06]  Hugh?
[00:21:07]  No.
[00:21:08]  Isn't it an Asian name?
[00:21:09]  Vietnamese.
[00:21:10]  So, all right, whatever it is.
[00:21:13]  Hi.
[00:21:13]  Hi.
[00:21:15]  17 years old, Melbourne, Australia.
[00:21:17]  Prague or force.
[00:21:18]  Hi, Dennis.
[00:21:18]  I've been struggling.
[00:21:19]  I wish I'd have met you.
[00:21:21]  Hi, Dennis.
[00:21:21]  I've been struggling with a moral dilemma.
[00:21:23]  I'm a Buddhist.
[00:21:24]  And I've recently met some missionaries that are willing to help me convert.
[00:21:26]  I really want to convert, but the problem is my family is also Buddhist, and they don't want me to convert.
[00:21:31]  What do you think I should do?
[00:21:34]  This is a very heavy-duty question, and it applies to anybody converting from the religion of their family.
[00:21:41]  And I, let me say at the outset, I completely sympathize with the feelings and emotions of your family.
[00:21:50]  And there's no easy answer.
[00:21:54]  Whatever, this is, but here is a guideline.
[00:21:59]  Since, after all, you're going to be converting to a religion that holds the Ten Commandments as divine, you've got to honor your parents.
[00:22:09]  There's no asterisk that says, honor your father and mother only if they're the same religion as you.
[00:22:16]  You honor your father and mother if they're atheist, if they're Buddhist, if they're Shinto, if they're Muslim, whatever they are.
[00:22:25]  That's just the way it is.
[00:22:27]  So, for example, you partake, I think you should still partake wherever possible in the rituals with your parents so that you show, I'm not leaving you.
[00:22:42]  I'm accepting something else, but I'm not really leaving you.
[00:22:47]  And perhaps that could be of some help in your conversion experience.
[00:22:54]  I hope that helps.
[00:22:57]  Jackson, 14, Winchester, Kentucky.
[00:23:01]  Didn't I just ask you the other day, how come we don't get questions from Winchester?
[00:23:06]  I'm really happy to hear from you, Jackson.
[00:23:09]  What's the most impactful thing young people can do in today's society to improve the world?
[00:23:15]  Oh boy.
[00:23:18]  I have so many answers.
[00:23:21]  The most important thing you can do is develop yourself into a good person.
[00:23:27]  That's the most important thing you can do.
[00:23:30]  See, the left has taught people that from the earliest age, the most important is to be out there demonstrating for some great cause.
[00:23:40]  No.
[00:23:41]  In America, it's a good country, America.
[00:23:44]  We really don't need massive demonstrations.
[00:23:47]  We need, we and every other country in the world needs more than anything else.
[00:23:52]  Are you ready?
[00:23:54]  Good people.
[00:23:56]  That will make a good...
[00:23:58]  Good society is composed of good people.
[00:24:01]  So making yourself into a good person, developing your character and your wisdom.
[00:24:06]  Wisdom is key.
[00:24:07]  You can't be good without wisdom.
[00:24:10]  You can want to be good, but without wisdom, it won't work.
[00:24:15]  So that's what I would say.
[00:24:20]  Next, Danny, 25, Amsterdam.
[00:24:24]  Is that Amsterdam, Holland?
[00:24:27]  Great.
[00:24:28]  Prager Force in Amsterdam.
[00:24:31]  Love to meet you.
[00:24:32]  What should be perceived as true beauty in a woman?
[00:24:36]  Okay.
[00:24:37]  Well, first of all, I'm going to give you an answer you don't expect.
[00:24:42]  And it's an important answer because I have been talking to young men and young women my whole life since I was a young man.
[00:24:49]  And this issue has come up a lot.
[00:24:51]  So let's begin with.
[00:24:53]  True beauty is the same in men and women.
[00:24:57]  True beauty is a beautiful person.
[00:25:00]  If I say someone is a beautiful person, you don't think looks.
[00:25:04]  You think character.
[00:25:06]  Correct?
[00:25:06]  So that's clear.
[00:25:08]  However, and this is painful, however, but I would be of no use to you if I only told you things that aren't painful.
[00:25:20]  Since the human being is physical, physical matters as well.
[00:25:25]  I remember when I spoke, I directed a religious retreat center in my late 20s and early 30s.
[00:25:37]  So I had kids, college-age kids, who were a little younger than me, actually, come for a month at a time and study, in this case, Judaism.
[00:25:48]  But I spoke about a lot of things, happiness, meaning, sex, a lot of things.
[00:25:54]  So I remember young women would say to me, because they felt totally free to ask me anything, just as you do, and I've always welcomed that.
[00:26:02]  So she would say, well, if a man really loves me, he won't care how I look.
[00:26:07]  He will only see my heart.
[00:26:10]  He will see what a beautiful heart I have.
[00:26:12]  And I said, that's only true in heaven, where we're spiritual beings, perhaps.
[00:26:18]  But so long as we're physical beings, the physical matters.
[00:26:22]  And it's not fair, but it would be doubly unfair if I deluded you into thinking it doesn't matter.
[00:26:31]  It does matter.
[00:26:34]  So it all matters.
[00:26:36]  It's like saying if a man were to say, it doesn't matter if I have a job.
[00:26:42]  What matters is she'll see what a good heart I have.
[00:26:46]  But that's not true.
[00:26:48]  On earth, a woman cares.
[00:26:50]  Most women do care if at 30 you're living with your parents and not working and playing video games, even if you have the kindest heart in the world.
[00:27:00]  It's not a perfect analogy, but it's a valid one.
[00:27:04]  So everything matters.
[00:27:07]  But true beauty is character.
[00:27:08]  I fully acknowledge that in either sex.
[00:27:12]  But the physical matters as long as we have eyeballs anyway.
[00:27:18]  Morgan, 21, Boca Raton, Florida.
[00:27:21]  Boy, do I know Boca Raton well.
[00:27:24]  Prager Force as well.
[00:27:25]  What books do you highly recommend young adults read for pleasure?
[00:27:29]  Listen, if it's for pleasure, you choose.
[00:27:32]  I can tell you the books to read for wisdom, but I can't tell you the books to read for pleasure.
[00:27:38]  You know, I'm the wrong guy to ask because I really don't get into popular novels.
[00:27:44]  And I'm not saying that's a good thing about me.
[00:27:47]  I just don't.
[00:27:48]  I never did.
[00:27:49]  Right now, I'm reading a 900-page book, actually listening to it.
[00:27:54]  A 900-page book that just came out on Erasmus and Luther.
[00:28:03]  I am mesmerized by this book, and it gives me great pleasure because it deals with the great issues of life, and I love them.
[00:28:11]  But that's my pleasure.
[00:28:13]  Another person's not going to get so much pleasure from that book.
[00:28:16]  They may read it, but maybe because they feel they need to.
[00:28:20]  So that's your choice.
[00:28:25]  I think that the pursuit of wisdom is pleasurable.
[00:28:31]  Once you start, I know you will agree with me.
[00:28:34]  The trick is to start.
[00:28:37]  You start feeding, it's like a hunger.
[00:28:39]  I think there's a built-in hunger in most people for wisdom, but they don't know it.
[00:28:44]  They know they have hunger for pizza, and they know they have hunger for sex, and they know they have hunger for other pleasures, but I don't know if they feel they recognize that there is a hunger for that as well.
[00:28:58]  Veronica 21.
[00:29:01]  By the way, if you're over 25, you are allowed to send in a question, just for just letting you know.
[00:29:08]  I mean, I'm thrilled with this, but I just want those of you over 25 to know that.
[00:29:13]  Veronica 21, Palmdale, California.
[00:29:16]  How should a person determine if the choices they're making are morally right or wrong during times when making that distinction might be difficult?
[00:29:23]  Here is my, here is a guideline that is not religious.
[00:29:29]  Here is a non-religious guideline on determining whether what you're going to do is right or wrong or doing already.
[00:29:37]  And that is ask if everybody did it, would the world be better or worse?
[00:29:49]  So, for example, I'll give you an example of something that I find awful.
[00:29:54]  People will go into a store and they'll take the, I'll take a female example.
[00:30:03]  A woman wants a dress for a Saturday night event or a fair or date or whatever it might be, and she sees what she really likes.
[00:30:14]  She, quote-unquote, buys it at the store, wears it Saturday night, and returns it on Monday or even Sunday.
[00:30:22]  Now, that's wrong.
[00:30:24]  I think it's actually stealing.
[00:30:26]  You're stealing from the department store, even though you say, well, I returned the item, but you really are stealing.
[00:30:32]  And the best way to realize it, what if everybody did that?
[00:30:35]  What if every woman who wanted a dress for a special event got the dress for a day or two for the special event and then returned it saying, oh, it doesn't fit.
[00:30:44]  I don't like it.
[00:30:45]  The material isn't comfortable or whatever.

=== The Heart of Atonal Music (03:39) ===

[00:30:48]  So it's a good example.
[00:30:50]  Ask that question.
[00:30:51]  What if everybody did it?
[00:30:53]  See, if everybody smoked a cigar, the world would be a better place.
[00:31:01]  By the way, part of me believes that.
[00:31:03]  I know that sounds bizarre.
[00:31:04]  And by the way, for the record, I don't say that about cigarettes because cigarettes are inhaled and this is not.
[00:31:10]  But that's another subject, which I think I might even talk about one time.
[00:31:14]  But anyway, I'm largely kidding about the cigar, but not entirely.
[00:31:19]  Noah 21, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
[00:31:22]  I was in Tuscaloosa.
[00:31:23]  I'll never forget when the great legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant was having a football clinic, and I couldn't get into any hotel in Tuscaloosa because it was, I was in my 20s.
[00:31:38]  I was driving through the South, and I couldn't get into any hotel in Tuscaloosa because Bear Bryant was having a football clinic.
[00:31:49]  And I ended up sleeping in Utah, Alabama, which if you're in Tuscaloosa, you probably know of, E-U-T-A-W.
[00:31:57]  And I ended up sleeping in a room above the city jail.
[00:32:02]  That was the closest room I could find.
[00:32:05]  Dennis, you have spoken against contemporary music that is atonal or even experimental.
[00:32:10]  You say that it's a product of the left.
[00:32:11]  Why do you feel so negatively about music from composers such as Schoenberg and Webrin?
[00:32:16]  What makes it so terrible?
[00:32:17]  Wow.
[00:32:18]  Noah 21?
[00:32:20]  Congratulations to you for even knowing Webrin and Schoenberg.
[00:32:30]  Schoenberg wrote, and so did Webron.
[00:32:32]  They wrote some accessible, beautiful music.
[00:32:36]  They're not the best examples.
[00:32:37]  I know they did atonality.
[00:32:39]  I agree with Leonard Bernstein about nothing.
[00:32:42]  He is the greatest, he was the greatest popularizer of classical music when I was a kid in America.
[00:32:49]  He was the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, very famous classical musician.
[00:32:54]  And he was a man of the left, and I didn't like a lot of his views.
[00:32:58]  But on this issue, he said, atonal music is an oxymoron.
[00:33:06]  It's a self-contradictory phrase.
[00:33:10]  And I agree with that.
[00:33:11]  And by the way, the proof is most, the vast majority of people who love classical music don't like this music because it doesn't talk to their heart.
[00:33:22]  Music can't only talk to your brain.
[00:33:24]  Music has to talk to your heart, to your emotions.
[00:33:28]  Does anybody cry at the end of an atonal piece?
[00:33:32]  Well, sometimes I have cried at the end of atonal pieces, to be honest.
[00:33:36]  Somebody would spend their time playing it.
[00:33:38]  But I mean, seriously, get the chills from, you know, electronic music.
[00:33:48]  I'm talking about classic electronic or the atonal music of some of these guys.
[00:33:54]  It's like a substitute for passion.
[00:33:58]  You know, I tear up sometimes at the end of Beethoven's Ninth.
[00:34:02]  Do you tear up at the end of atonal music?
[00:34:06]  I would love to know.
[00:34:08]  If there's no capacity to make you tear up or get chills, then music is not speaking to your heart, and it has to speak to your heart.
[00:34:19]  I think to your mind as well.
[00:34:21]  That's why I love classical.
[00:34:22]  It speaks to both.
[00:34:23]  But it has to speak to your heart.

=== Sexual Compatibility Before Marriage (07:27) ===

[00:34:28]  Ken, with two N's.
[00:34:30]  Is that correct?
[00:34:32]  58.
[00:34:33]  Ah, an elder statesman in Arizona.
[00:34:37]  Lighthouses are special to me.
[00:34:40]  Hmm, that makes one of us.
[00:34:42]  I'm just ribbing you.
[00:34:44]  I used to collect lighthouse figurines like the one I've seen behind you in many firesides.
[00:34:49]  Is that right?
[00:34:50]  Oh, not lighthouse, just figurines.
[00:34:53]  Yes.
[00:34:53]  These are animals from all over the world.
[00:34:55]  We have a lighthouse?
[00:34:58]  It's my own house, and I don't know I have a figurine of a lighthouse.
[00:35:02]  That's pathetic.
[00:35:03]  Thank God my wife isn't here.
[00:35:04]  She'd be laughing herself silly.
[00:35:08]  Is there any significance to the one that you display in your bookcase?
[00:35:11]  I guess I answered that already, didn't I?
[00:35:14]  I feel a little silly.
[00:35:15]  What was the first logo of Prigger U?
[00:35:18]  It was the first logo of Prager U a Lighthouse.
[00:35:20]  No, I'm kidding.
[00:35:22]  When I said makes one of us, I was just ribbing you.
[00:35:24]  Lighthouses are a very romantic type of building.
[00:35:30]  There's no question.
[00:35:31]  Out at the very edge of the land, a beacon in the darkness.
[00:35:35]  I get it.
[00:35:36]  So I don't know.
[00:35:38]  Is that because of Prague's original logo?
[00:35:40]  Is it like it?
[00:35:40]  I don't know why we have it.
[00:35:42]  Thank you for telling me about my own study.
[00:35:45]  It's a little sad.
[00:35:47]  Last question.
[00:35:48]  James in London.
[00:35:50]  What is your opinion on premarital sex and its impact on this generation?
[00:35:54]  Oh, boy.
[00:35:55]  Should have ended with the lighthouse.
[00:36:02]  Well, I got to light up for that one.
[00:36:06]  Okay, I'll tell you.
[00:36:07]  Are you ready?
[00:36:08]  I don't know if this will, I think that my answer will please almost nobody.
[00:36:13]  But this is what I believe.
[00:36:15]  You asked me, so I'll tell you.
[00:36:20]  I think that having no sexual experience before marriage is generally unwise, but I believe that saving intercourse for marriage is a good thing.
[00:36:34]  So I believe, in other words, too many people who have done nothing sexual prior to marriage have then found out that they're not compatible with their spouse sexually.
[00:36:47]  And that's part of marriage.
[00:36:50]  I'm sorry, it is.
[00:36:52]  And if you haven't kissed somebody or, I don't know, does the word to make out used anymore?
[00:37:01]  Yeah, if you have never made out.
[00:37:04]  Now, let me say quickly, I know religious Christians and Jews who have never done any of that.
[00:37:10]  And many of them have wonderful marriages.
[00:37:13]  And God bless them.
[00:37:14]  I'll use my own parents who were Orthodox Jews.
[00:37:18]  They dated for four years until they married, and then they were married for 69 years.
[00:37:25]  My parents were a quintessential love affair and both religious people.
[00:37:30]  But my father, who was extremely open about sexual matters, which is why I am, I got that trait from him, may he rest in peace, because he just knew it's part of life.
[00:37:40]  Why shouldn't it be talked about?
[00:37:41]  There's nothing to hide.
[00:37:42]  God made it.
[00:37:44]  It's to be talked about.
[00:37:47]  And he told them my brother and me, the two children that he had, that my parents had.
[00:37:54]  He said, your mom and I did everything except.
[00:37:59]  That was the way he put it.
[00:38:00]  And I bought that.
[00:38:03]  I bought that.
[00:38:04]  And I'm not saying everything.
[00:38:06]  You'll decide on religious grounds what you choose.
[00:38:09]  But they didn't do nothing.
[00:38:13]  That's clear.
[00:38:16]  But I do believe that intercourse should be regarded as very special.
[00:38:21]  And it is very special.
[00:38:22]  By the way, you know what is special in life?
[00:38:25]  This is really important.
[00:38:28]  What is special in life is what you deem special.
[00:38:34]  Nothing is inherently special.
[00:38:37]  If you make it special, it is special.
[00:38:40]  If you make it another night, another night to have intercourse, another hookup, then it becomes less special.
[00:38:49]  I mean, obviously, for men and for women.
[00:38:53]  That's just the nature of anything.
[00:38:55]  And common and special are somewhat mutually exclusive.
[00:39:02]  So I think that with the right persons or person, I don't mean persons at one time, but persons or person, that something be done.
[00:39:14]  I can't tell people don't do anything.
[00:39:16]  I can't do it with a straight face.
[00:39:18]  If your religious scruples say do nothing, I respect that.
[00:39:22]  But I'm not saying that because I know too many cases where the incompatibility in that arena came out.
[00:39:32]  People call my show.
[00:39:33]  I have a male-female hour on my radio show.
[00:39:36]  And you can hear my radio show either on your AM dial in most of the cities of the country.
[00:39:44]  Or you can just go to the Dennis Prager app.
[00:39:48]  Or you could get Prager Topia.
[00:39:50]  You could download my show for $5 a month.
[00:39:52]  I know I sound selling.
[00:39:54]  I don't care.
[00:39:55]  But I got to tell you, it's not free.
[00:39:57]  But Prager Topia.
[00:39:58]  And you can get all the shows.
[00:40:00]  And you get them whenever you want with no commercials.
[00:40:02]  So you could listen very quickly, as it were.
[00:40:06]  Anyway, one of my hours every week is the male-female hour.
[00:40:10]  And you have no idea.
[00:40:12]  You don't, especially those of you who are young.
[00:40:15]  I know, because I speak to so many people.
[00:40:18]  How many people have sexual problems in their marriage?
[00:40:22]  And I asked them, well, did you know about this beforehand?
[00:40:27]  No.
[00:40:29]  Well, it would have been better if they did know beforehand.
[00:40:34]  That's one argument in that favor.
[00:40:36]  But again, I do think intercourse is a special thing.
[00:40:42]  If that's the only way you can attain sexual pleasure is through intercourse, you are a very unimaginative sexual being.
[00:40:51]  There is great joy to be had in many ways.
[00:40:54]  So that's my answer in that regard.
[00:40:58]  And as I said, I'm sure that a lot of people are not happy with it.
[00:41:04]  And I just ask your forgiveness.
[00:41:06]  But I'm never going to say something that I don't believe.
[00:41:13]  All right.
[00:41:14]  What have I forgotten?
[00:41:15]  Anything?
[00:41:16]  Okay.
[00:41:18]  So are we on next week?
[00:41:21]  Am I in town?
[00:41:22]  What a rarity.
[00:41:24]  Great.
[00:41:25]  Hey, if I'm this full of life flying in from Australia, imagine next week when I'll be rested.
[00:41:32]  Actually, God gave me a lot of stamina, and I'm very grateful for it.
[00:41:36]  So thanks for watching.
[00:41:39]  And watch our PragerU videos, needless to say, and help fund us because everything is free.
[00:41:46]  And the more funds we have, the more we're likely to change lives.
[00:41:51]  Because that's what we're trying to do.
[00:41:53]  Thanks for watching.
[00:41:54]  I'm Dennis Prager.