Dennis Prager Show - Are People Basically Good?
Aired: 2026-05-12
Duration: 39:48


=== The Ultimate Issues Hour (01:28) ===

[00:00:00]  On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
[00:00:03]  Just like there is an hour each week devoted to happiness, I'm going to devote an hour each week at this time on Tuesdays to the great ultimate issues of life.
[00:00:17]  This is the ultimate issues hour, and I feel that the best way to inaugurate this series is with a great question that people have not thought through clearly enough.
[00:00:27]  That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:00:30]  If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort, it may be your metabolism.
[00:00:37]  After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts, it slows down, and holds on to fat.
[00:00:43]  That's why PhD weight loss focuses on your metabolism first, so your body stops working against you.
[00:00:48]  Mention Prager today and receive two free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value.
[00:00:54]  Call 864-644-1900.
[00:00:57]  That's 864-644-1900.
[00:01:00]  Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:01:04]  Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
[00:01:08]  And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.
[00:01:15]  Well, hello, everybody.
[00:01:16]  This is Dennis Prager.
[00:01:20]  And I have a big smile on my face as I inaugurate the Ultimate Issues Hour.

=== Goodness and Badness in Human Nature (11:38) ===

[00:01:28]  Just like there is an hour each week devoted to happiness, we're going to devote An hour each week at this time on Tuesdays to the great ultimate issues of life.
[00:01:42]  Give it to me, Sean.
[00:01:43]  Give it to me.
[00:01:55]  Yes, indeed, everybody.
[00:01:56]  This is it.
[00:01:57]  This is the ultimate issues hour because I believe, in conjunction with happiness, that what people need is a philosophy of life.
[00:02:07]  We need to be clear on the great questions of life, and that is what this hour will be, is to take a great question, whether it has to do with religion, whether it has to do with morality, whether it has to do with human nature, whether it has to do with men and women, whether it has to do with whatever.
[00:02:22]  The timeless great questions of life.
[00:02:26]  And I think you'll love it as much as you love the Happiness Hour.
[00:02:29]  Wherever I go, people tell me that hour, they just love it.
[00:02:33]  Absolutely, they don't want to miss it.
[00:02:35]  I mean, I want you to feel that about every hour of my radio show, to be perfectly honest.
[00:02:40]  But I have a particular affection for the Happiness Hour, as you do, and I hope that it's likewise for the Ultimate Issues Hour, the ultimate issues of life.
[00:02:51]  And I feel that the best way to inaugurate this series is with a great question that people have not thought through clearly enough.
[00:02:59]  And that is the question of are people basically good?
[00:03:04]  Are people basically bad?
[00:03:06]  Are people basically in the middle?
[00:03:09]  And I learned long ago in my radio life, long ago I learned that the difference on the views on that one issue, perhaps more than any other single question, will help people determine whether they are liberal or conservative, whether they are right or left, whether they will have a liberal or conservative position on.
[00:03:33]  On most social issues.
[00:03:35]  Hey, listen, if you believe people are basically good, here, listen clearly.
[00:03:41]  If you believe people are basically good, if we are born good, then you will attribute human evil to outside influences.
[00:03:51]  Why do people murder?
[00:03:52]  Why do people rape?
[00:03:54]  Why do people burglarize homes?
[00:03:58]  Why do they mug?
[00:03:59]  Why do they do all these evil things?
[00:04:01]  Well, if we're basically good, something must have distorted that person's goodness.
[00:04:11]  But if you believe that we're not basically good, then you'll say that, well, the person who murders, the person who steals, that person is in fact giving in to his nature.
[00:04:24]  Because it's natural to kill.
[00:04:26]  It is natural to steal.
[00:04:29]  Natural to rape.
[00:04:33]  So it is a huge, it is one of the great, huge questions.
[00:04:37]  And that's what I want to talk to you about on this Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:04:42]  Are people basically good or not?
[00:04:43]  Now, here are the different positions as I have learned them over the course of my lifetime.
[00:04:48]  There are those who believe, and they tend to be secular people.
[00:04:52]  There are those who believe we are born basically good.
[00:04:56]  They are very fond, for example, of quoting Anne Frank, the famous Anne Frank from the diary of Anne Frank, the teenage Jewish girl in Holland who was murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
[00:05:08]  Who kept the most famous diary ever written in history?
[00:05:13]  And her diary includes the line that even though she sees such darkness and she is hiding in a little tiny attic from people who wish to murder her and her whole family just because they're born Jews, still in all she says, I believe that people are basically good.
[00:05:30]  And she is cited by people who believe that people are basically good.
[00:05:33]  She's cited all the time.
[00:05:36]  Now, who can't love Anne Frank?
[00:05:38]  But to cite a teenage girl's view of humanity as.
[00:05:42]  As an argument for that view, I've never found that terribly compelling.
[00:05:46]  I just happen not to agree with her.
[00:05:49]  I also wonder if when the poor thing was sent to a Nazi concentration camp where she was murdered, I wonder if she believed till the end that people were basically good.
[00:05:59]  But literally only God knows the answer to that question.
[00:06:04]  On the other side are those who believe that we're born bad, that human nature is utterly corrupt, and only with a religious affirmation can one deal with a.
[00:06:22]  a dark, sinful nature, and there are all views in between.
[00:06:30]  Tell you my view.
[00:06:33]  My view is that we are not born basically good, and we are not born basically bad.
[00:06:40]  By the way, the view that we are born sinful, of course we're born sinful.
[00:06:43]  I mean, that's, yes.
[00:06:46]  Whether or not one needs a specific religious affirmation to undo it is not my topic today, so don't even call with it.
[00:06:55]  I'll happily deal with that on another occasion.
[00:06:57]  That's not the question.
[00:06:58]  We stick to the question.
[00:07:01]  How is human nature?
[00:07:03]  Is it good or bad?
[00:07:04]  I believe it has kernels of both.
[00:07:10]  We have bad tendencies and we have good tendencies.
[00:07:15]  And the human being is responsible, therefore, for his goodness or his badness.
[00:07:24]  And this is a view that in real life works.
[00:07:29]  It works because then you blame people for the bad they do, but you understand as well that there is goodness that you can appeal to in people.
[00:07:39]  If there is no goodness in human nature, then how can you appeal to people to be good?
[00:07:46]  Religiously or secularly, how could you appeal to people to be good if there's no goodness in their nature that will hear you?
[00:07:54]  In fact, let me tell you something.
[00:07:56]  The irony is that there is a lot of goodness in human nature, and it is perverted very often by value systems, by philosophies that say that evil is good, and people think they're doing good when they're doing bad.
[00:08:11]  Yep.
[00:08:13]  I mean, there's no.
[00:08:14]  I mean, terrorists think they're doing good.
[00:08:17]  They're saving the world for their religion.
[00:08:20]  They think they're doing good, they don't think they're doing bad.
[00:08:23]  They're doing staggering evil.
[00:08:25]  But they have been given a philosophy of life that tells them that it's really good when you blow up people in trains.
[00:08:34]  The Nazis thought, they said, we're doing good.
[00:08:36]  Ridding the world of Jews is a good act.
[00:08:40]  So, ironically, there really is goodness in human nature, but it is easily perverted by a philosophy or by psychology or something else.
[00:08:51]  But there is also badness in human nature.
[00:08:53]  We are born with jealousy, we are born with greed.
[00:08:57]  We are hardly born, especially men, with a monogamous nature.
[00:09:03]  I said earlier that rape is natural.
[00:09:05]  It is.
[00:09:07]  It is natural.
[00:09:08]  For a man to take the object of his sexual desire and have sex with that object is natural.
[00:09:18]  You need a value system to say, hey, man, you can't do that.
[00:09:23]  That is why those of us who don't believe people are basically good are so keen on teaching values to people.
[00:09:32]  That we don't think that love alone will work.
[00:09:34]  You have to also give people values.
[00:09:38]  You can actually end up with well loved barbarians if you just give them love and you don't give them a value system.
[00:09:48]  1 8 Prager 776.
[00:09:51]  And here is what I'd like you to do, like on the happiness hour, is more or less react to what I'm saying because a lot of you already called because I know everybody has a view on this and I fully respect that.
[00:10:05]  But I want to give the benefit of a lifetime of.
[00:10:08]  Thought on these issues, on this, the Ultimate Issues Hour, which I am inaugurating today, an hour on the great questions of life to help people develop a philosophy of life.
[00:10:18]  Because otherwise, life is very confusing.
[00:10:22]  It's something one needs in life to have a philosophy of life and to really think it through.
[00:10:29]  So, when I say that I believe that people aren't basically good, I am not saying I believe people are basically bad.
[00:10:36]  I am saying that people are torn and that we have to do everything we can.
[00:10:43]  Give value systems, reinforce goodness, punish bad.
[00:10:50]  We have to do everything we can in order to help people go toward the good side of their nature, which does exist too.
[00:11:03]  There are, I will acknowledge, psychopaths, people who are conscience free.
[00:11:10]  That is another issue, by the way.
[00:11:12]  I do believe there are people who are.
[00:11:14]  That apparently have, for whatever reason, there is no goodness inside of them.
[00:11:21]  They are truly pathologic.
[00:11:23]  But that is a fairly rare breed.
[00:11:25]  1 8 Prager 776, welcome.
[00:11:29]  And email me through the new website address pragerradio.com if your reactions to the Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:11:38]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:11:44]  If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort, it may be your metabolism.
[00:11:51]  After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts, it slows down, and holds on to fat.
[00:11:56]  That's why PhD weight loss focuses on your metabolism first, so your body stops working against you.
[00:12:02]  Mention Prager today and receive two free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value.
[00:12:08]  Call 864-644-1900.
[00:12:10]  That's 864-644-1900.
[00:12:16]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:12:22]  All righty, everybody, welcome to the second segment of the Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:12:27]  I am inaugurating, and I am aching for your feedback since there are obviously a limited number of calls that could be taken at any given time.
[00:12:35]  Please do just send me a letter, an email on what you think about the idea of this hour each week, just as I do one dedicated to happiness.
[00:12:47]  One now dedicated to the ultimate issues of life.
[00:12:51]  And that's to pragerradio.com.
[00:12:53]  Just send me an email through that.
[00:12:55]  And spell Prager Radio with one R or two R's.
[00:13:00]  Also, I'm curious to get your feedback on the opening theme that I have at least tentatively chosen.

=== Born in the Image of God (09:01) ===

[00:13:07]  It's a great piece by Franz Liszt, L I S Z T, Les Preludes.
[00:13:13]  Sean, if you have that, I want to play it here.
[00:13:56]  I love it, but we're open to reactions.
[00:14:00]  And let's talk about this people basically good or not.
[00:14:05]  The widely accepted version in the secular West is that people are basically good, born good.
[00:14:14]  The reason for that is that if you can't believe in God, you better believe in humanity.
[00:14:20]  It makes perfect sense.
[00:14:21]  Either you believe in a good God or good humanity.
[00:14:22]  There are people who believe in both, I understand.
[00:14:24]  But if you don't believe in a good God, you better believe in a good humanity or you're really. going to end up in despair.
[00:14:31]  So secular society, not believing in a good God, has decided to believe in a good humanity.
[00:14:37]  And that is not rational based on the moral record of humanity.
[00:14:43]  On the other hand, I don't believe that we are born evil either.
[00:14:47]  We have a choice and the human being is born with that choice.
[00:14:53]  Although we certainly have to work very hard to make sure the choice goes against nature and is a good one.
[00:14:59]  All righty, let's take your calls here, and we'll begin with Jim in Minneapolis.
[00:15:04]  Jim, Dennis Prager, you are the first caller to the Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:15:09]  Thank you, and shalom, Dennis.
[00:15:10]  Thank you.
[00:15:11]  Just wanted to give my thoughts.
[00:15:13]  I think we are both as well, for the reason that I think that we were created in the image of Yahweh, and that in that image we are given a conscience, and a conscience broken down, conned with science knowledge.
[00:15:27]  And so whenever we do wrong, we do wrong with knowledge.
[00:15:30]  But we have a sin nature, a propensity to do wrong.
[00:15:33]  Okay, we're together on that one, but let me just explain to a lot of people who argue with me and say that, well, we are born basically good because they believe in the Bible and they will say that we're created in God's image, so we must be good.
[00:15:50]  But that's not what created in God's image means.
[00:15:53]  Created in God's image means two things.
[00:15:55]  One, that like God, we know good and evil.
[00:16:00]  Animals don't.
[00:16:01]  There's no such thing as a good or a bad dog.
[00:16:03]  I'm sorry, I know this is painful to many of you.
[00:16:08]  But there's no such thing.
[00:16:09]  A dog is a dog.
[00:16:10]  Dogs do not morally contemplate their actions, nor do cats or hamsters or gorillas.
[00:16:17]  They do not think, you know, my nature is to grab that female, but I won't because I don't really know if she feels comfortable having me.
[00:16:29]  It doesn't happen.
[00:16:31]  But human beings are capable of saying no to their nature.
[00:16:38]  So that is one in God's image definition.
[00:16:42]  The other is that unlike animals, we are created in God's image, means human life is more sacred than animal life, which bothers a lot of people today in secular life as well.
[00:16:53]  But I'm just explaining what that means.
[00:16:56]  Okay, let's go to Matt in Chino, California.
[00:17:01]  Matt, Dennis, Prager, thank you for calling.
[00:17:04]  Hi.
[00:17:04]  Hi.
[00:17:04]  I totally agree that we're both good and bad inclination.
[00:17:09]  That we are in the image of God and that's the root of our good, but because of the fall, we can also do bad.
[00:17:16]  I shared this with one of my classes.
[00:17:19]  Yeah, but we were able to do bad before the fall.
[00:17:24]  That's why Adam and Eve went against God's will before the fall.
[00:17:28]  That's how they fell.
[00:17:31]  Okay.
[00:17:32]  Well, I never thought of it that way, but my understanding is that it was the choice.
[00:17:41]  To sin against God.
[00:17:42]  Well, that's right.
[00:17:43]  But so then, how do you make that choice if you're all good?
[00:17:48]  Okay, listen, this is very important.
[00:17:51]  This is, I am asking all of you, religious, secular, I'm asking you to do what I believe in any event, if you believe in God, God wants us to do is to think.
[00:18:06]  Secular people too often just repeat what they were taught secularly, and religious people too often repeat what they were taught religiously.
[00:18:16]  And we are allowed, in fact, it is a credit to whatever we believe in.
[00:18:22]  If we think a second time about it.
[00:18:27]  And that is a big deal.
[00:18:30]  Big deal to do that.
[00:18:31]  And it's credit to your religion when you do it.
[00:18:33]  It doesn't upset it or anything.
[00:18:36]  Anyway, I thank you.
[00:18:37]  I thank you, Matt.
[00:18:39]  I appreciate that.
[00:18:40]  And let's go to the Poconos.
[00:18:44]  Oh, my God, is that touching to me?
[00:18:46]  You're in the Poconos in Pennsylvania?
[00:18:48]  Yes.
[00:18:49]  How are you doing?
[00:18:50]  You know, I went to camp in the Poconos as a kid.
[00:18:54]  Oh, yeah?
[00:18:56]  Are you near Tannersville?
[00:18:59]  I live 15 minutes from Tannersville.
[00:19:01]  I live in Effort.
[00:19:02]  In Effort?
[00:19:03]  I went to camp in Effort.
[00:19:05]  I can't believe it.
[00:19:06]  I have the chills.
[00:19:08]  Maybe you went behind my house.
[00:19:09]  Oh, it's no longer there.
[00:19:11]  Maybe it's a different camp, but I went to camp for three years in Effort, Pennsylvania.
[00:19:16]  Okay, there's a lake close to Tannersville.
[00:19:18]  That's right, exactly.
[00:19:20]  All right, Carlos, go ahead.
[00:19:22]  Okay, Dennis.
[00:19:23]  Well, I'm glad you told this guy that just called.
[00:19:27]  You put him right on the spot because this is supposedly a guy that believes in God, and he tells you that Adam and Eve sinned, and you told him that they sinned before they were evil.
[00:19:39]  Yeah.
[00:19:40]  Because, well, I believe the reason I call this is because I believe that we're neither good or evil.
[00:19:45]  It's all a perspective of how we perceive life together with our emotional and our behavior, how we thought since we were children, is what's going to determine and also balance mental, chemical balance.
[00:20:01]  Will dictate how we behave.
[00:20:03]  Right, so do you believe that we have a free moral will?
[00:20:08]  No.
[00:20:10]  Ah, very interesting.
[00:20:11]  I didn't think so.
[00:20:12]  Yeah.
[00:20:13]  So you feel.
[00:20:15]  So therefore, the more we learn, the more logic that we learn to react better, the better human beings that we will be.
[00:20:26]  So you don't blame anybody for the bad they do, or you do?
[00:20:30]  Well, I agree that people have to be taught, and they have.
[00:20:35]  To be stopped.
[00:20:36]  But what about blame?
[00:20:37]  But what about blame?
[00:20:40]  Blame is something that is useless.
[00:20:41]  Okay, alrighty, wonderful.
[00:20:43]  We'll be back.
[00:20:45]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:20:51]  If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort, it may be your metabolism.
[00:20:58]  After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts, it slows down, and holds on to fat.
[00:21:04]  That's why PhD weight loss focuses on your metabolism first.
[00:21:07]  So, your body stops working against you.
[00:21:09]  Mention Prager today and receive two free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value.
[00:21:15]  Call 864 644 1900.
[00:21:18]  That's 864 644 1900.
[00:21:23]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:21:30]  All righty, everybody, you're listening to The Dennis Prager Show.
[00:21:33]  Love your feedback when you get a chance to internet me, to email me.
[00:21:38]  Try it through pragerradio.com, which you should visit anyway because you can download shows now.
[00:21:43]  It's a lot of fun.
[00:21:44]  You could play it.
[00:21:45]  You could send it to friends.
[00:21:48]  A lot of new things available with the show and the Internet.
[00:21:52]  I am introducing today the Ultimate Issues Hour, the great questions of life.
[00:21:58]  One hour a week on them.
[00:22:00]  I have chosen this hour on Tuesdays, just as we have a certain hour on Fridays on the subject of happiness.

=== Innocence, Sin, and Sacred Life (14:51) ===

[00:22:09]  Today, the great Ultimate Issues question is, are people basically good, basically bad, or in the middle?
[00:22:16]  I choose for the middle.
[00:22:19]  But it is for many people, of course, harder to be good.
[00:22:23]  But I do not believe that we are created with all bad.
[00:22:29]  I do not believe, and certainly not all good.
[00:22:31]  I mean, that notion that we're basically good cracks me up.
[00:22:35]  It is the choice of the secular world to believe that largely because they have dropped the belief in a good God.
[00:22:44]  And if you can't believe in a good God, you better believe in a good humanity or you will despair.
[00:22:51]  1 8 Prager 776.
[00:22:53]  1 8 P R A G E R 776.
[00:22:57]  The hours go so fast that I have to get another point in here before I take more calls, and that is those who argue, well, we are born innocent.
[00:23:03]  Look at a baby.
[00:23:05]  There are no bad babies.
[00:23:08]  Ah, of course there are no bad babies.
[00:23:10]  Babies don't murder.
[00:23:11]  Babies, you know, except for, what's his name?
[00:23:14]  Stewie.
[00:23:17]  Stewie on Family Guy.
[00:23:19]  Yeah, he's a bad baby.
[00:23:21]  But that's a.
[00:23:23]  That's a riot.
[00:23:24]  It's a joke.
[00:23:25]  Of course, you're not going to see a baby's picture up at a post office wanted.
[00:23:32]  But babies aren't good.
[00:23:33]  They're innocent.
[00:23:34]  I acknowledge they're innocent, but they're not good.
[00:23:36]  And innocent and good are not the same thing at all.
[00:23:39]  Innocent means doesn't know about evil.
[00:23:42]  But it doesn't mean you're not.
[00:23:45]  Or it doesn't mean anything about whether you're good or bad.
[00:23:48]  You can be innocent and bad and do bad.
[00:23:51]  Did any baby ever say, you know.
[00:23:53]  Gee, you know, I've been throwing up and coughing and vomiting for the last, I already said throwing up, but, you know, just causing a riot here, and my parents haven't had any sleep, and they haven't had sex in the last three weeks or three months because of me, so I think I'll just shut up tonight.
[00:24:12]  Of course not.
[00:24:13]  Now you say, well, a baby can't do that because if they shut up, they'll die.
[00:24:16]  I mean, whatever the reason, but babies don't think that way.
[00:24:19]  So don't give me babies as a model of goodness.
[00:24:22]  They're adorable.
[00:24:23]  Thank God they're adorable.
[00:24:24]  It'll be a lot more infanticide.
[00:24:27]  Okay, let's go to more of your calls here.
[00:24:32]  And let's go to Shahzad in Bloomington, Minnesota.
[00:24:37]  Hello, Shahzad.
[00:24:37]  Dennis Prager.
[00:24:38]  Hello, sir.
[00:24:39]  How are you doing?
[00:24:40]  Okay, thank you.
[00:24:43]  I believe that just because we're made in the image of God means we are just made in the image of God, doesn't mean we have his conscience.
[00:24:52]  Basically, the Indian thought is I heard some Indian guys say this that you have a good dog and a bad dog, every person has that.
[00:25:00]  It depends what dog you feed more.
[00:25:02]  The dog you feed more is going to overcome the other dog.
[00:25:06]  I like that.
[00:25:07]  I like that.
[00:25:08]  And the people you said that are lost conscience, those are the guys who fed the bad dog so much that the bad dog killed the good dog for good.
[00:25:18]  They don't have a conscience anymore.
[00:25:21]  So, is that a Hindu view?
[00:25:24]  Is that a Hindu teaching?
[00:25:25]  No, it's not.
[00:25:27]  I heard of.
[00:25:28]  I'm Indian, and that's an Indian school of thought.
[00:25:31]  It's just a.
[00:25:32]  Well, how do you distinguish.
[00:25:34]  How do you distinguish between Indian and Hindu?
[00:25:36]  That's what I'm asking, I guess.
[00:25:39]  Indian is somebody who has the Indian culture in them, and Hindu is somebody who could be an American, yet.
[00:25:47]  No, no, no.
[00:25:48]  It's Hindu then, because the truth is you can't be a Hindu if you're not Indian.
[00:25:54]  You can learn from Hinduism, but you can't be.
[00:25:57]  Only Indians can be Hindus.
[00:25:58]  That's just like only Persians could be Zoroastrians.
[00:26:03]  But anyway, thank you, though.
[00:26:05]  I think it's a wonderful teaching.
[00:26:07]  That's a very good point.
[00:26:09]  It is.
[00:26:09]  I agree with that.
[00:26:10]  If you feed the good.
[00:26:12]  Of us, we have this good dog, bad dog inside of us.
[00:26:15]  I like that.
[00:26:15]  It's a very good metaphor.
[00:26:17]  And it comports with exactly what I was saying earlier.
[00:26:20]  I think that we, in fact, have both.
[00:26:23]  And that's where nurture does come in.
[00:26:26]  Which do we feed?
[00:26:27]  Which do we teach?
[00:26:28]  Which do we reward?
[00:26:31]  Which do we foster?
[00:26:32]  Absolutely.
[00:26:34]  That's why it's so important to monitor the goodness of your children and don't assume that if you just love them, they'll be good.
[00:26:41]  Oh, boy, have I seen that not work.
[00:26:46]  Thank God I'm not talking about my own, but I've seen it.
[00:26:48]  1 8 Prager 776, the Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:26:51]  I'm Dennis Prager.
[00:26:52]  I welcome you back.
[00:26:53]  This is the inaugural hour of the Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:26:57]  Love your feedback.
[00:26:58]  Send it to me.
[00:27:00]  And call in if you can.
[00:27:02]  Other lines are taken, but every so often there's a clear line for obvious reasons.
[00:27:06]  Either I've spoken to somebody or somebody just gives up waiting.
[00:27:11]  And on this, the first Ultimate Issues Hour, on the great questions of life.
[00:27:16]  Every Tuesday at this time.
[00:27:19]  It is are we basically good?
[00:27:21]  Are we basically bad?
[00:27:23]  Are we in the middle?
[00:27:24]  I think we're in the middle.
[00:27:26]  And it is a challenge to be good.
[00:27:29]  But we have lived in a secular Western world that has argued for us being basically good.
[00:27:36]  One of the great consequences of that is that we blame society or something else for all the bad that people do.
[00:27:45]  After all, if good people. do bad things, it must be society's fault.
[00:27:51]  Now, I'm not saying society plays no role.
[00:27:53]  Of course it does.
[00:27:54]  It certainly does.
[00:27:55]  The values of a society have a very deep impact on people.
[00:27:59]  But in the final analysis, we are still free to choose.
[00:28:02]  Also remember, and this is unbelievably important, if we cannot hold people responsible for the bad they do, then we cannot credit people or hold them responsible for the good they do.
[00:28:20]  If society is to blame for the bad people do, then society is to be praised for the good people do, and not the person.
[00:28:33]  All righty.
[00:28:35]  And let's go to San Diego.
[00:28:36]  Tony.
[00:28:37]  Hi, Tony.
[00:28:37]  Dennis Prager, thanks for calling.
[00:28:39]  Yeah, Dennis.
[00:28:40]  Earlier you said that a man was a sinner prior to the fall.
[00:28:45]  Right.
[00:28:47]  In the Old Testament, as a Christian, I believe that the woman was taunted by Satan, therefore, when Satan.
[00:28:54]  Or when the woman ate of the fruit, she then was a sinner at that point.
[00:28:59]  And she fell.
[00:29:00]  Yeah, but how did she let herself get taunted if she was all good and perfect?
[00:29:06]  She still had a choice.
[00:29:07]  Exactly.
[00:29:08]  She had a choice.
[00:29:09]  So that's why I agree with you.
[00:29:11]  Wait, We have to go step by step.
[00:29:14]  So she made a sinful choice.
[00:29:17]  She made a choice of being sinful, yes.
[00:29:19]  But she wasn't sinful until she ate of the fruit.
[00:29:22]  No, but she made a sinful choice prior to eating.
[00:29:28]  So, you're saying that she made not a sinful choice, but a bad choice?
[00:29:32]  I don't know what the difference between bad and sinful is, but yeah.
[00:29:37]  Okay.
[00:29:38]  Well, I don't completely agree with you, but.
[00:29:43]  But at least you understand why I say it.
[00:29:44]  I understand what you're saying.
[00:29:46]  Okay, thank you.
[00:29:46]  Appreciate that a lot.
[00:29:48]  All righty, and let's go to.
[00:29:55]  Let's see here.
[00:29:56]  All righty, let's go to Linda.
[00:29:58]  Linda, Plainfield, Illinois, Dennis Prager, hi.
[00:30:01]  Hi, I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but like the last caller, I think Eve was not sinful until she made the choice.
[00:30:11]  She had the capacity of.
[00:30:13]  Well, of course.
[00:30:14]  But that's what sinful means.
[00:30:16]  That you have a nature that enables you to make bad choices, wrong choices.
[00:30:21]  But my understanding is that the gift of free will is what is part of our being created in the image of God.
[00:30:28]  That is exactly what the image of God means.
[00:30:30]  And that human life is sacred.
[00:30:32]  I agree.
[00:30:32]  That was my explanation.
[00:30:35]  But until we make that choice, we have not become sinful.
[00:30:40]  Well, all right, but I'm talking about our nature.
[00:30:44]  Okay.
[00:30:45]  The nature that Eve was given was capable of committing sins just like your nature is.
[00:30:51]  That part is true.
[00:30:52]  Okay, that's all I'm saying.
[00:30:54]  However, in my tradition, we would say that we were created good since all creation in Genesis is affirmed that way.
[00:31:02]  But, well, God wants us to do good.
[00:31:05]  He was happy with the creation.
[00:31:07]  But the moment God gave us freedom, we could do bad.
[00:31:10]  That's what freedom means.
[00:31:12]  True.
[00:31:13]  Okay, that's all I'm saying.
[00:31:14]  Thank you for your call.
[00:31:15]  I appreciate that a lot.
[00:31:17]  And let's go to Phoenix and David.
[00:31:19]  Hello, David Dennis Prager.
[00:31:21]  Yes, good afternoon or good morning, Dennis.
[00:31:23]  Thank you for such a thought provoking program today.
[00:31:25]  Thank you, thank you.
[00:31:26]  You like the Ultimate Issues Hour?
[00:31:27]  You like the idea?
[00:31:28]  I do.
[00:31:28]  I think it's a very interesting idea, and I think the whole question about free will would be a great one for another show.
[00:31:33]  Yes, that's the toughest.
[00:31:34]  It's the toughest.
[00:31:34]  With regard to good and evil or good and bad, I think that we're struggling because you have failed to correctly define the terms.
[00:31:44]  How would you define what good is?
[00:31:46]  Well, you know what?
[00:31:48]  The reason that I don't get hung up on that is because there is no one listening who doesn't have his own definition.
[00:31:54]  So, whatever your definition, the question remains the same.
[00:32:00]  Are we basically good or bad?
[00:32:02]  Okay, well, so I've been thinking about this and struggling with it as we go on, and there's been a lot of talk from people from the Judeo Christian background, and that certainly is part of my own frame of reference.
[00:32:13]  And we talk about being born in sin.
[00:32:17]  And was Adam and Eve sinners prior to the fall in the garden?
[00:32:22]  And that sort of a question.
[00:32:24]  And so maybe if we relate, if we say that bad is sin and good is not sin, so what does that mean?
[00:32:33]  And to me, a sinful nature is something that is entirely self centered.
[00:32:38]  It's all about me.
[00:32:39]  I'm doing what I'm doing.
[00:32:40]  I agree.
[00:32:42]  I agree with you.
[00:32:43]  It's a huge element in bad or in sin or whatever term we wish to use.
[00:32:48]  You are 100% right, or at least let's put it to be more humble, and I mean sincerely humble, not fake it.
[00:32:58]  Yes, that is what I would also hold to be at a major root of bad the inability to think outside of oneself.
[00:33:09]  There are people who have it built in.
[00:33:11]  Now, here's a tough one.
[00:33:12]  You want a tough question, folks?
[00:33:13]  Here's a tough one for you.
[00:33:17]  While I don't believe that we are born good or bad, that we are born with tendencies in both directions, I have to look at reality.
[00:33:25]  I can't live in theory alone.
[00:33:26]  I have to respond to reality, and the reality says to me, Dennis, that there are people who seem to be born with a kinder disposition than others, or others with a more self centered one.
[00:33:41]  Maybe I'm wrong, and God knows I hope I'm wrong.
[00:33:45]  I wish we all had an equal chance to be good.
[00:33:50]  But it does seem at least that way that for some, goodness is a much tougher struggle than for others.
[00:33:58]  But I live and die on the proposition that there is something in the human that wants to be good.
[00:34:05]  Otherwise, anything that I talk about is pointless.
[00:34:08]  So while I don't believe we're basically good, I believe there's goodness there that can be appealed to.
[00:34:14]  Back in a moment, the Ultimate Issues Hour on The Dennis Prager Show.
[00:34:18]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:34:24]  If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, The problem may not be your effort, it may be your metabolism.
[00:34:31]  After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts.
[00:34:35]  It slows down and holds on to fat.
[00:34:37]  That's why PhD weight loss focuses on your metabolism first, so your body stops working against you.
[00:34:43]  Mention Prager today and receive two free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value.
[00:34:48]  Call 864 644 1900.
[00:34:51]  That's 864 644 1900.
[00:34:56]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's.
[00:34:58]  Timeless wisdom.
[00:35:03]  If you got in, do not hang up because at least I will summarize your thought because there are very good calls here.
[00:35:10]  This is the first, the inaugural edition of the Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:35:14]  Love your feedback.
[00:35:15]  Internet me.
[00:35:17]  The ideal place right now is pragerradio.com.
[00:35:19]  That is the new address of the website.
[00:35:22]  But you can use whatever you're used to as well.
[00:35:26]  But I'd like to have your feedback.
[00:35:29]  On the idea of this one hour a week on ultimate issues.
[00:35:32]  Today it has been on are we basically good or bad, a critically important question.
[00:35:37]  Catherine in Flower Mound, Texas says there's a universal notion of good and evil.
[00:35:41]  When you say everyone has their own notion of good, that's relativism.
[00:35:43]  Catherine, you're right, but that wasn't my point.
[00:35:45]  Of course that's moral relativism.
[00:35:48]  I was only making the point that I didn't need to define good in order to deal with the question of whether we are basically good.
[00:35:54]  Whatever your definition, we still acknowledge that there is a good and a bad.
[00:36:00]  Of course I believe in universal good.
[00:36:02]  That's one of the great.
[00:36:03]  In fact, that's an issue, Alan, we ought to put as that's one of the great issues we'll have to put on the Ultimate Issues Hour, is my arguments against moral relativism.
[00:36:13]  Ken, LDS scripture, it's Mormon scripture, says natural man is enemy to God.
[00:36:18]  It gives me hope because when I mess up, it's easier to forgive myself.
[00:36:21]  Very good.
[00:36:22]  I totally agree with you.
[00:36:24]  I totally agree.
[00:36:26]  I remember when my older son came home one day from Jewish school and elementary school, and I asked him, What did you learn today?
[00:36:35]  And usually the answer, of course, is nothing.
[00:36:37]  Then one day he said, Well, I learned that I have a bad inclination and a good inclination.
[00:36:42]  And I said, Fantastic.
[00:36:43]  That's great.
[00:36:44]  Because if you know you have a bad inclination, that actually helps you in understanding, A, that you have to battle it, but B, also that you can forgive yourself because that's part of being human.
[00:36:58]  That's right.
[00:36:59]  That's a very important point.

=== Self-Care as a Moral Duty (02:47) ===

[00:37:00]  Bill in Denver, why is 99% of murder and mayhem in the world done by men, not women?
[00:37:05]  Because male nature is far more aggressive, far more physically aggressive.
[00:37:11]  But women are not one whit better.
[00:37:14]  For every murderer out there, there's a woman who was going to make love to him that night.
[00:37:19]  Just remember that.
[00:37:19]  Believe me, if women boycotted sexually all the bad men in the world, we have a very good world.
[00:37:29]  So, you know, and women cause mayhem in their way.
[00:37:33]  Believe me.
[00:37:36]  Mayhem is not at all the monopoly of men.
[00:37:41]  Charles in Dallas, I think you could be self centered and still be good.
[00:37:45]  Example, I can want to get into heaven but act good to achieve that goal.
[00:37:50]  It's an interesting point.
[00:37:51]  I think you can be, you have to care about yourself to be good.
[00:37:56]  But if you only care about yourself, then you won't be good.
[00:37:59]  That's what was said.
[00:38:00]  And Chris, since you agreed with me and San Diego, forgive me, but that's why I didn't think because we both believe we're free to choose good and bad.
[00:38:09]  I will be on Chris Matthews Hardball discussing Mel Gibson if you want to watch tonight.
[00:38:16]  And I thank you for listening and send me an email on your thoughts on having this Ultimate Issues Hour.
[00:38:22]  I'm Dennis Prager.
[00:38:23]  Thanks for listening.
[00:38:25]  Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:38:28]  You know, I cook one way, she cooks another.
[00:38:31]  Which is one of the downsides in our marriage because I put on 50 pounds.
[00:38:35]  You put on 50 pounds because you cook?
[00:38:39]  I cook and she cooks a different way, but we taught each other how we cook, and we both cook very well.
[00:38:45]  I see.
[00:38:45]  You put on 50 pounds in four years?
[00:38:48]  Yeah.
[00:38:48]  You need more yard work.
[00:38:50]  See, that's your problem.
[00:38:54]  You're sharing the yard work.
[00:38:56]  Join us tomorrow to hear more on timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:39:02]  This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:39:05]  Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis' lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.
[00:39:19]  If you're eating less, staying disciplined, and the weight still isn't coming off, the problem may not be your effort, it may be your metabolism.
[00:39:25]  After years of stress, dieting, and lack of sleep, the body adapts, it slows down, and holds on to fat.
[00:39:31]  That's why PhD weight loss focuses on your metabolism first, so your body stops working against you.
[00:39:37]  Mention Prager today and receive two free weeks plus free food, a $1,500 value.
[00:39:43]  Call 864-644-1900.
[00:39:45]  That's 864-644-1900.