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Episode 1: Consequences of Secularism, Part I | Master's Program | PragerU — Transcript

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0:00If we don't get our rights from God, who
0:02do we get them from? Man. But guess
0:05what?
0:07If man gives you your rights, [music]
0:08man can take them away.
0:13[music]
0:18[music]
0:24>> [music]
0:39>> Hi, welcome to the Mast's program. I'm
0:41Dennis Prager. This is part one of what
0:44I call the consequences of secularism or
0:49to be precise the terrible consequences
0:53of secularism.
0:56So I'm sure you've all heard that some
0:58people are religious extremists.
1:08Have you ever heard of secular
1:10extremists
1:12or secular [music] extremism?
1:15No. And you know why? Because the
1:19general modern belief is [music]
1:21you can be too religious, but you can't
1:24be too secular. It's like being too rich
1:27or too happy or too healthy. You can't
1:31be too secular. But it's not true. If
1:34society gets too secular, it ends.
1:38That's right. It ends. It is the end of
1:41the civilization as we have known it, it
1:43is a catastrophe.
1:48First, I want you to understand I am not
1:50making the case here for the existence
1:53of God or for the truth of any given
1:56religion. I know that sounds odd, but I
1:59want you to understand this. I am
2:01appealing to your intellect, not to your
2:04beliefs, not to your theology or lack of
2:07theology. If you are an honest atheist,
2:11you can agree with every single thing I
2:13am about to say. And there are religious
2:15people who won't agree with everything I
2:17am about to say. Secondly, I fully
2:20acknowledge that there are wonderful
2:23secular people and there are some awful
2:26religious people. I fully acknowledge
2:28that. This is not an argument that there
2:30are no [music] good secular people or
2:33that all religious people are wonderful.
2:35That is not the argument because I live
2:37in the real world and I know that that
2:40would not be the case. Nor am I making
2:42number three, I am not making an
2:44argument for any one religion. If you
2:48understand the consequences of
2:49secularism and [music] then decide to be
2:52a committed Catholic, a committed
2:54Protestant Christian, [music] a
2:56committed Jew, a committed Mormon, I'm
2:58fine with that. I am not here to sell
3:01you a given religion. I'm not here to
3:04sell you anything.
3:06I'm here to convince you that the
3:09consequences of the death of the God of
3:13the Bible, the Judeo-Christian God, has
3:16been a calamity for civilization [music]
3:19and for people individually. I believe
3:21that every one of these arguments is
3:23unassalable. That's why I'm appealing to
3:25your intellect. I'm not trying to make a
3:27case for any given religion. I happen to
3:30be a committed Jew, but I'm I'm not here
3:32to to sell you on Judaism or
3:35Christianity. I'm just here to sell you
3:38on the certitude
3:41that it's been a calamity that God and
3:44the Bible have died [music] as operative
3:46elements in Western civilization. I'm
3:49also here to explain another thing. I'm
3:51only talking about the Judeo-Christian
3:52[music]
3:53world. I'm not talking about any other
3:55religious civilization, any other
3:56religion. By the way, I would welcome
3:59more secularism in in a place like Iran.
4:02I'm well aware of that. Between the
4:05Islamic extremism of Iran at the time of
4:08this video and a secular Iran, I would
4:12prefer a secular Iran. So, I'm not
4:14making the case for anything but the
4:16bases of Western civilization. They have
4:19been based on the God of the Bible, the
4:20Bible, Judeo-Christian values. How often
4:23have you heard, believe me, if you went
4:25to college, you heard this, more people
4:27have been killed in the name of of God
4:29or in the name of religion. And they're
4:31specifically usually referring to
4:33Christians killing all sorts of people
4:35and so on. Christians have killed people
4:38and they've done some terrible things.
4:40There's no question about that either.
4:42As a Jew, I particularly know that I've
4:44written, one of my books is on
4:45anti-semitism. It has a big chapter on
4:48Christian anti-semitism. [music]
4:49By the way, for the record, it has a big
4:51chapter on left-wing anti-semitism. It
4:54has a big chapter on Islamic
4:55anti-semitism. This has not been a
4:57monopoly of Christianity. But let me
4:59give you an example of how exaggerated
5:01things are. You know how often people
5:03give the example of the Spanish
5:07Inquisition. Oh, Christianity. Oh my
5:09god. The number of people that has
5:11killed the Inquisition and the Crusades.
5:14You know how many people were killed in
5:15the 250 years of the Spanish
5:17Inquisition?
5:19about 3,000. Now, every one of those
5:21deaths is a horror. That's true, but
5:24let's keep it in perspective. That's
5:26about 12 a year.
5:29That's that's not exactly uh what we
5:32call genocide.
5:34People don't know that though. The
5:36greatest genocides of the 20th century
5:38and indeed of of basically of history
5:41occurred in the 20th century. And
5:43virtually everyone was caused by a
5:45secular regime. How often have you
5:47learned that at high school or college?
5:50The answer [music] is never. They never
5:52tell you that. In fact, they probably
5:54don't even discuss these genocides.
5:57>> Yes, communism is responsible alone for
5:59about 100 million non-combatants,
6:03just civilians,
6:05being starved, tortured, shot, [music]
6:07beaten, frozen. Communism is a secular
6:10doctrine. It was an [music]
6:12anti-religious doctrine. The first thing
6:14that communist regimes did in in almost
6:17any country was to kill [music] the
6:18clergy. When Lenin came to power and
6:20then Stalin, Russian Orthodox priests
6:23were were murdered in the thousands.
6:26Churches were either converted into
6:28[music] some communist building or just
6:30destroyed.
6:32That's the first thing the communist
6:34regimes have done almost everywhere they
6:36took over was destroy religion. Nobody
6:39talks about that. It's as [music] if
6:41these 100 million people don't matter.
6:43You know, Stalin said, at least it's
6:46[music] attributed to Stalin.
6:48He said, "Oh, one death is a tragedy. A
6:52million is a [music] statistic."
6:56That's the problem.
6:58When I tell you a 100 million people
7:00were murdered by secular regimes,
7:03it's just a number.
7:10The human mind is not capable
7:13of appreciating the the staggering
7:16amount of suffering and evil 100 million
7:19[music] entails.
7:22So when you hear next time, oh religion
7:24has killed more people than anything
7:25else, it's just not true. It's a it's a
7:28lie. Actually,
7:30secularism has killed more people
7:32[music] than anything else. I'd like to
7:34read to you from Douglas Murray. Douglas
7:37Murray is not a religious man to the
7:39best of my knowledge. He's a major
7:40thinker, a British thinker, and he has
7:43written a very powerful work, the war
7:45against the West. The Christian faith
7:47has an uncommonly long tradition of
7:50opposition to slavery. [music]
7:52St. Bethilda was a former slave herself
7:55who campaigned for the abolition of
7:57slavery in the 7th century. [music] St.
8:00Anzel outlawed slavery in 1102 while
8:03Archbishop of Canterbury William
8:05Wilburforce and the Clappam sect spent
8:09all their energies and resources
8:11fighting to bring an [music] end to the
8:12practice inspired in this vision by
8:15their Christian faith. And again, I'm a
8:17Jew telling you this. I have no axe to
8:19grind here. My axe to grind is what is
8:22true. That's my biggest [music] axe just
8:24as a general statement. My beliefs, you
8:27got to tell the truth. So people talk
8:30about all the bad Christianity did, but
8:32you never learn of all the good that
8:33Christianity did. What is the world in
8:37which human rights were enshrined, where
8:39women were elevated from second class
8:42status? These developed in the west, the
8:45west was formed by Christianity which
8:47was ultimately formed by by the Jewish
8:50scriptures known as the Old Testament or
8:51the Hebrew Bible. It's why Margaret
8:53Thatcher said, "The West is a
8:55Judeo-Christian civilization. You drop
8:58the Judeo-Christian roots. You dropped
9:00this civilization. Slavery. Every
9:03society had slavery. Every
9:06in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America
9:10before it was Latin America, Meso
9:12America, South America, everywhere.
9:16Native Americans, [music]
9:17blacks, everyone had slaves. Muslims had
9:20an immense number of slaves. So the
9:23question is not who had slaves, not what
9:27country or nation or civilization had
9:29slavery. What nation or civilization
9:32abolished slavery?
9:34And the answer was the Christian or
9:37Judeo-Christian one of the West. That's
9:40what mature people will ask is the
9:42question. You don't ask how is any group
9:44like everybody else. You ask how were
9:48they different?
9:51And now on to consequences of
9:55secularism.
9:57Let's begin with numbers killed.
10:01If you care about human beings, why
10:03would you not care about what happens
10:05when you kill the fundamental bases of
10:09the idea that human beings are precious,
10:11which I'm going to come to. The very
10:13notion that human beings are precious is
10:16is a fairly rare ideal [music] which
10:19emanates again from the Judeo-Christian
10:21world.
10:23But if you care about people, you won't
10:26advocate a secular world.
10:30You could be angry at your, you know,
10:32the your Catholic nun who wrapped your
10:34knuckles. [music] You could be angry at
10:37at some rabbi who yelled at you or your
10:40grandmother when they were kids.
10:41>> [music]
10:42>> You could be angry at what some pastor
10:45did to to embezzle funds in a church. I
10:49mean all of that I understand. But you
10:51can't allow such ideas, such facts to
10:56cloud your vision. If you love humans,
10:59you can't love secularism.
11:03Secularism may be great for government.
11:05It's not great for society. It's not
11:08great for people's happiness.
11:09>> [music]
11:09>> I will come to
11:11it's an unhealthy idea.
11:15GK Chesterton, great British thinker,
11:18end of the 19th and the beginning of the
11:2020th century. I could not establish that
11:22he actually said this, but he's the one
11:25who it's often attributed to. Whoever
11:28said it, it's brilliant. When people
11:30stop believing in God, we're talking
11:32about the God of the West, the God of
11:35the Hebrew and and Bible and the New
11:37Testament.
11:39When people stop believing in God, they
11:42don't believe in nothing. They believe
11:45in anything. That is one of the great
11:48truths of our time. They believe [music]
11:51in anything.
11:56>> Have you noticed how much chaos is out
11:58[music] there today? Like defund the
12:01police. Religious people, you don't
12:04identify the idea of defund the police.
12:07an idea that only increases [music]
12:09human suffering. If you're a big fan of
12:12rape and murder and theft, [music] you
12:15should be an advocate of defunding the
12:17police. I can't think of a stupider
12:20idea. I can in fact think of many
12:22[music] ideas that are as stupid or if
12:24you will as absurd, but that's a big
12:27one. And this is all a function of the
12:31secular world in which we live. We
12:34become stupid as we depart from the
12:37wisdom bases of the west which are
12:40located in that book that people laugh
12:43at called the Bible. So let me give you
12:45a number of the absurd ideas to
12:48vindicate the line when people stop
12:50believing in God they don't believe in
12:52nothing they believe in anything. So
12:55here are a few. Men give birth.
13:00Men don't give birth. If men give birth,
13:03why do we only know this now? Why didn't
13:06all the scientists of history
13:09know that? Did we just discover that men
13:13give birth? How did they miss it for all
13:15of these centuries? How did every single
13:18great doctor and biologist of the past
13:21miss it? Isn't that remarkable? We've
13:24now discovered that men give birth. It's
13:26an absurdity. Do trans men give birth?
13:29Fine. So then say trans men. Don't say
13:31men. Be honest. But that's a very
13:34different story when you say trans men
13:36give [music] birth than if you say men
13:38give birth. Men do not give birth.
13:41Period. It's the secular [music] world
13:43that has enabled us to say such things.
13:46And the most absurdity.
13:48What else? Oh yes, it's fair to allow
13:51biological men to compete against women
13:54in women's sports.
13:57That is an absurdity.
14:00We all know it's unfair.
14:03We all know it. It's impossible to think
14:06clearly and think it is fair for a
14:08biological man to compete against women
14:10[music] in let us say track or in
14:13swimming. And yet we are supposed to
14:15believe it's fair.
14:19How about one of my favorite latinkics?
14:22Have you heard about that one? Yeah.
14:24That's the way the New York Times and
14:25and other secular institutions have
14:29decided to spell Latinos,
14:32people of Latin descent, not as Latinos,
14:35but as Latinx. L A T I NX. When I first
14:38heard it, I thought it was a Latin
14:40Kleenex.
14:42Latinx.
14:44[laughter]
14:45Think about that. Are there any Latinos
14:48who uses it? Do you think anybody in
14:50Argentina or Colombia or Brazil says
14:54latinks?
14:55What other absurdities of our time? Oh
14:58yes, here's a beauty. Racial segregation
15:01is anti-racist.
15:04Opposition to racial segregation is
15:07racist. Proof. Columbia University,
15:09which I attended. Columbia University
15:12has an all black dorm.
15:16An all black dorm. That's racial
15:18segregation, isn't it? Ah, are religious
15:22Christians [music] and Jews for that?
15:24No, they're not. Now, there are secular
15:26people who oppose it, but virtually
15:28everybody who who agrees with it is
15:31secular. And Colombia is totally [music]
15:34secular. It's profoundly anti-religious
15:36in its outlook. It has contempt
15:39basically for religious Christians and
15:42for that matter religious Jews. But
15:43religious [music] Christians are far
15:44more numerous.
15:46And if you oppose an all black dorm,
15:49you're the racist. The again, this is
15:52all just one consequence of secularism
15:56that we believe in anything. You know
15:58who believes in all black dormitories?
16:00[music] The Ku Klux Clan and the woke.
16:04That color of your skin is important.
16:07Why is it important? What does it tell
16:09about you? Tell me [music] one thing
16:11that the race of your skin tells me
16:13about you. Does it tell me if you're
16:14kind or cruel? Does it tell me if you're
16:17smart or stupid? [music] Does it tell me
16:19if you're honest or corrupt? Does it
16:21tells me about your passions, your
16:23loves, your pains, your hurts, your
16:26anything? What does it tell me about?
16:27Nothing. I know nothing about you if I
16:30know your skin color. [music] Nothing.
16:32It's as unimportant and perhaps less
16:35important [music] than your shoe color.
16:38Cuz there must have been a reason you
16:40chose the color of the shoes you're
16:41wearing today. That's another example of
16:44an absurdity in our post relligious age
16:48that [music] we live in. If America is
16:50systemically racist, and that's it's an
16:52absurdity, [music]
16:53but if it's true, why have 3 million
16:56blacks moved to the United States
16:57[music] of America in the last few
16:59decades from Africa and the Caribbean?
17:02Why are they stupid? If you think
17:04America is systemically racist, [music]
17:06every black who's moved here voluntarily
17:08is an idiot. Ask them, "Are you an
17:11idiot?
17:14No Jews moved to Germany in the 1930s.
17:16Correct. Not one. No matter how bad they
17:19had it in Eastern Europe, they didn't
17:20move to Germany because Germany was
17:22systemically racist.
17:24America is not systemically racist. It
17:27is the land of opportunity for people of
17:30every race, creed, color.
17:33Diversity is our greatest [music]
17:34strength. How often have you heard that?
17:36So, here's a beauty for you. If
17:38diversity is our greatest strength, why
17:40did the New York Times recently publish
17:42a piece [music] that said the happiest
17:45countries in the world are Finland,
17:47Norway, Denmark, and Iceland? They led
17:50the 2018 ranking of the World Happiness
17:53Report, [music] which is a joke. The
17:54World Happiness Report, it cracks me up.
17:57Anyway, fine. [music] So, you can't hold
17:59both. You can't say that Finland,
18:01Norway, Denmark, and Iceland are the
18:03happiest countries in the world and then
18:05tell me that diversity is our greatest
18:07strength because there's no diversity in
18:10those four countries and they're the
18:11happiest in the world. Virtually
18:13everybody is the same color. Virtually
18:15everyone's the same race. Virtually
18:17everyone is the same religion whether
18:18they believe in it or not, the same
18:20stock, the same language. They're as
18:22undiverse as you can get in the Western
18:25world, those four countries. And they're
18:27the happiest. I'm not against diversity
18:30at all. Diversity can be a great
18:33strength [music] if people share the
18:34same values. E pluribazunum one of the
18:37mottos of America out of many [music]
18:38one. Oh, if we all buy basic moral
18:43values emanating from Judeo-Christian
18:46values and is reflected in the
18:48Constitution of the United States, for
18:49example, I I think diversity [music] can
18:52be a tremendous strength,
18:56but not if it's used [music] to divide
18:58people as it now is and we don't share a
19:01common value system any longer. Next
19:03time you hear about the happiest
19:05country, you say, "Hm, they don't strike
19:07me as very diverse.
19:09free speech. Here's another absurdity. I
19:12This is all part of what happens with
19:14the secular [music]
19:16onslaught.
19:17People believe in anything. 45% of
19:20American young people say they don't
19:23believe in [music] free speech for hate
19:25speech. They believe in free speech,
19:27they say, but not for hate speech. They
19:30don't realize how foolish a comment that
19:32is. If you don't believe in free speech
19:35for hate speech, you don't believe in
19:37[music] free speech. What do you believe
19:40in free speech for love speech?
19:43And who determines what's the hate
19:45speech? You do. So you don't believe in
19:47free speech. Capitalism is evil. You
19:50can't get more absurd than that. People
19:53who say that don't really care about
19:55human beings suffering. Just like with
19:57the the genocide issue, people really
20:00don't care. The only thing that has
20:02lifted billions of people from abject
20:04poverty in the history of the world is
20:06capitalism. The only thing [music]
20:10the death of meaning. If there's no God
20:14who created the human being and who
20:16cares about the human being,
20:19there's no ultimate meaning to life.
20:22We're all a coincidence. That's all we
20:24are. [music] We die and for eternity
20:27we're in oblivion.
20:29We're here for a tiny tiny blink of an
20:33eye and then die and it's as if we
20:37didn't exist. If there is no God, and
20:40I'm talking again about the God of the
20:42Bible, if there is no God
20:46who created us and who cares about us
20:48and who dispenses [music] ultimate
20:50justice, there's no meaning in life. And
20:52by the way, every secular philosopher
20:54that I know of [music] has acknowledged
20:56this. If they were honest, there's no
20:58God. There's no meaning. Of course not.
21:01There's no ultimate meaning. You can
21:02make up a meaning. That's called
21:03existentialism because you can't look in
21:06the mirror in the morning and go, "How
21:07you doing, meaningless one?" You'll go
21:10crazy. People have to make up a meaning.
21:12[music] And some of them are beautiful.
21:14You'll have meaning in your work. You'll
21:15have meaning in being a mother or a
21:17father. You'll have meaning in being a
21:19good neighbor. There whole host of
21:21beautiful things that can give you
21:22meaning, but ultimately there's no
21:24meaning. You're no different from from
21:26[music]
21:27an ant. Do ants have ultimate meaning? I
21:30don't [music] think so. This is a major
21:33crisis because people seek meaning. The
21:36desire for meaning is greater
21:40than the desire for anything else in
21:42life other than food. It [music] is even
21:45greater than the sex drive. There are
21:48people who have voluntarily or even
21:49involuntarily in the case of some people
21:51who are widowed for example who do not
21:54have do not have sex but if they have
21:57meaning they can lead a happy life
21:59[music] but you could have all the sex
22:01you could even fantasize
22:04and if you don't have meaning in your
22:06life you're not going to [music] be a
22:08happy human being.
22:10The drive for meaning is the most
22:13intense. People ache for it. It was a
22:16given in the religious world that
22:18preceded our secular world.
22:21Not anymore.
22:28People seek meaning in the secular world
22:31that has been killed by the secular
22:33world.
22:36What they do is they make up substitute
22:38or secular religions.
22:41No more Christianity, no more Judaism.
22:43But that doesn't mean no more religion.
22:46Now it's secular religion.
22:48Feminism, science, [music] Marxism,
22:51socialism, communism, environmentalism.
22:55These are isms.
22:57They are like a religious doctrine. They
23:01are substitutes
23:02for the disappeared Christianity in most
23:06cases and Judaism [music] in in smaller
23:09number of cases.
23:12That's where people derive their meaning
23:14from feminism, socialism, Marxism,
23:17environmentalism.
23:19Oh, the environmentalist movement.
23:20[music] Oh, they have everything. They
23:22have a new god. Not the god of the
23:23Bible. It's Gaia, the goddess of earth.
23:28And not only that, they're saving the
23:29world. You can't get better than that.
23:31Yeah, that's what they believe. You will
23:34save the world if you go green. That it
23:37is the end of the world if we don't go
23:40green. I'm not denying that there is
23:42climate change. I'm not denying that the
23:44world is getting warmer. But yes, it's
23:46hysteria
23:48that we are on the brink of the
23:50extinction of biological species,
23:53including our own. But hey, once you
23:57acknowledge that, you have less meaning
23:59in being an environmentalist.
24:01I have a riddle I I made up a few years
24:03ago. What do you call a religious person
24:05who says the world is coming to an end?
24:09You call him a religious fanatic. What
24:12do you call a secular person who says
24:14the world is coming to an end? An
24:17environmentalist.
24:19They're both fanatics. The world is not
24:21coming to an end. But it gives you
24:24meaning to believe that it is and that
24:27you will save it by not using plastic
24:30straws and the like.
24:33[music]
24:34the death of human preciousness.
24:40[music]
24:42There's an irony about secular humanism.
24:46It doesn't do much to value the human.
24:50The Judeo-Christian [music]
24:52world gave us the biblical notion that
24:54we are created in God's image. That
24:56means every single person is of infinite
24:59preciousness.
25:05The human being is infinitely precious.
25:09This is dying
25:12in the post-Christian world in which we
25:14live.
25:20A writer named Julian Bagghini wrote in
25:23his book Freedom Regained that for many
25:26modern scientists, quote,
25:29consciousness is just the noise made by
25:32the firing of neurons. That's all we
25:35are. Please understand,
25:38you feel that you love your child or you
25:40love your husband or you love your wife.
25:43That's just firing neurons. [music]
25:47And if the secular scenario is true, God
25:51didn't make us. We just [music] evolved
25:54from we don't know from what because we
25:56have no idea how we got to organic
25:58matter, from inorganic matter. But let's
26:00[music] say you feel one day we'll know.
26:03Fair enough.
26:05But it's still it's meaningless. Every
26:08passion, every love, every deep emotion
26:11you have is just firing neurons. Or as
26:15the famous atheist [music]
26:16anti-religious scientist Richard
26:18Dawkins, human beings are just gene
26:22machines. That's it. You're a gene
26:24machine. At least he's honest. We're
26:26nothing more than a gene machine. We're
26:29[music] just stellar matter. The only
26:31difference between us and a pebble is
26:34that the pebble doesn't think it's
26:35important. We think we [music] are the
26:39pebble has no self-consciousness.
26:41We have self-consciousness.
26:46Human worth [music] is dependent
26:49ironically upon the existence of a God
26:53creator of us. Otherwise, we are nothing
26:59in terms of meaning and [music] in terms
27:01of specialness.
27:03We're not so special. We think we're
27:06special, but we're deliluding ourselves.
27:08But that specialness [music]
27:10came from being created in God's image.
27:15We are losing freedom.
27:18Freedom is a Judeo-Christian value. On
27:22the Liberty Bell, the iconic symbol of
27:24the United States of America, there's
27:27only one thing written [music] aside
27:28from the company that made the bell. one
27:31thing, a verse from the Torah, the first
27:35five books of the Hebrew Bible in
27:38Leviticus, which nobody knows today or
27:42unless they're religious. They knew
27:44their Bible, the founders of America,
27:46cuz that was their [music] book. That
27:48was Abraham Lincoln's book. He very
27:50rarely went to church, but his tome of
27:53reference was the Bible.
27:57On that bell, on the liberty bell, is
27:59this verse, "And you shall proclaim
28:02liberty throughout the land unto all its
28:05inhabitants."
28:06Leviticus 25. The United States, the
28:10freest country in the history of the
28:12world, the country to which France gave
28:15the Statue of Liberty, didn't [music]
28:16give it to itself, didn't give it to
28:18another country, gave it to America.
28:21That country was founded on the belief
28:24that God wants us to [music] be free.
28:27That's why the Exodus, the Jews leaving
28:30Egypt, and slavery was so central to
28:33American history.
28:35Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin [music]
28:36Franklin were not believers in the
28:39Christian Trinity. They were cultural
28:42Christians, but they were deep admirers
28:45of the Bible, which was the basis of
28:47their values. They made a design for the
28:51great seal of the United States of
28:53America. And it was the Jews leaving
28:55Egypt because they said like the Jews
28:57left Egypt, we left Europe. There was a
29:00complete identification with this
29:03yearning for freedom, [music] which by
29:05the way was quintessentially American.
29:08Human beings do not yearn to be free.
29:10That is a myth. Human beings yearn to be
29:13taken care of, which is the opposite of
29:16freedom. Even in the Bible, when the
29:18Jews got out of Egypt, within months
29:20they were yelling, "We want to go back.
29:21The food was better." Yeah. They
29:24preferred good food as slaves to mana in
29:27the desert. [music]
29:28Oh, it was better food back there. So
29:30what if we were slaves?
29:33By the way, that trade is made often.
29:36You give me goodies, government, and
29:38I'll give you my freedom.
29:42Most people don't yearn to be free.
29:44Judeo-Christian values yearn for
29:46freedom. The Bible yearns for freedom.
29:50And we have seen that during the
29:51lockdowns, the people who most
29:54accepted the draconian lockdowns were
29:57the most secular of the regimes or
30:00administrations or governments of the
30:02country like New Zealand and Australia
30:06and various states in the United [music]
30:08States. The more religious the state,
30:10the more it rebelled against the truly
30:13absurd lockdowns that took place that
30:15crushed children and crushed small
30:18businesses and crushed people's hopes.
30:22Freedom is another victim
30:26of the increasingly secular age. And you
30:29know why? Because the bigger the
30:32government, the smaller the God. or if
30:35you will, the smaller God is, the bigger
30:38the government is. Again, I'm talking
30:41about in the Western world, the founders
30:44of the United States, the people who
30:46most believed [music] in small
30:47government because they so believed in
30:49big freedom were the people who most
30:51believed that God is the author of our
30:55rights.
30:56God is the author of freedom. You get
30:59rid of God, I promise you, you will get
31:03rid of freedom. We are living through
31:05that right now. The consequences of
31:09secularism
31:10are huge
31:13and disastrous.
31:17So let me put it this way. In the west,
31:22the bigger the god, the smaller the
31:25state. The bigger the state, the smaller
31:27the god. If you love freedom, you cannot
31:31love the big state. The bigger the
31:33state, the less the freedom. That's a
31:35given. This shouldn't even be debatable.
31:38If you give a handful of people more and
31:41more and more power, you have less
31:43freedom. I that that's it's amazing that
31:46one would have to make this argument. It
31:48should be so self-evident.
31:52And what ensures a a smaller government
31:57is when people believe that there is a
31:59God to whom they are accountable. Cuz if
32:02you're not accountable to God for your
32:04behavior, then you will have to be
32:06accountable to people for your behavior,
32:08to [music] the state. So the bigger the
32:11God, the smaller the state, the more the
32:13freedom. That was the founding
32:15principle. Big God, little state in the
32:19It's not a theocracy. Has nothing to do
32:21with theocracy. Zero.
32:24It has to do with how people live their
32:26lives. In Washington's farewell address,
32:29he spoke about the religious foundations
32:32for a moral society. All the founders
32:35did. The chaos that we're seeing is a
32:38result of secularism. But people so
32:40believe in secularism, you are so taught
32:42from the earliest age [music] that
32:44religion is for dummies that the truly
32:47intelligent person is [music] just
32:48definitionally secular.
32:51Who needs this bearded man in the sky? I
32:54know it because I get all this email and
32:56I hear that so often. Oh, he believes in
33:00this uh this big uh big old man in the
33:02sky.
33:05That's that's how they think of it. The
33:07[music] big old man in the sky,
33:11not the creator of the human being who
33:13was endowed us
33:16with
33:17infinite [music] worth and with rights.
33:22Which brings me to death of greatness in
33:26art, music, and architecture. A
33:29celebration of the ugly. In fact, a
33:32celebration of poop.
33:36I'm very serious. You have no idea,
33:39unless you follow this subject as I do,
33:42how much scatological art there is in
33:47the last half century. Scatological
33:50means related to excretion. So there's a
33:54a a vast amount [music] of poop art, pea
33:57art, urine art, menstrual blood art, and
34:02the like. So one of the most famous of
34:05these was called piss Christ.
34:10Oh, this was already late 20th [music]
34:12century.
34:15And it was a jar with the quote unquote
34:19artist, the artist's urine. And in the
34:23urine was a crucifix.
34:26So it's titled inventively piss Christ.
34:32This thing went from museum to museum to
34:36museum around America. The most
34:40cherished symbol of Christians in a jar
34:42of urine. By the way, there's a very
34:45important side point to be made here.
34:48Can you imagine any artist in the West
34:52doing something equivalent
34:55with an illustration of Muhammad or a
34:58Quran? [music]
34:59Of course not. You know why? Because all
35:02of these anti- religious
35:06activists in [music] in the in the West
35:09are cowards. That's why they pick on
35:13Christians because they know they won't
35:14get hurt. They don't pick on Muslims
35:16because they know they probably will get
35:18hurt. Piss Christ was an example. This
35:21inventive idea. Brilliant. I tell you, I
35:24don't know. [music] This guy's guy's
35:26modern Michelangelo.
35:28So why is there so much
35:32urine [music] and turd in modern art?
35:37Because the ugly is beautiful and the
35:41beautiful is irrelevant.
35:43And that is all a function of the
35:45secular,
35:47no god, no religion, no [music] Bible
35:49world in which we live. There's nothing
35:53to elevate the artist to since there's
35:57nothing above the artist. [music] Music
36:00is my field outside of what you may
36:03associate me with. I conduct orchestras
36:06periodically. I'm very involved in
36:08classical music. I know a lot about
36:10classical music. So, I'll give you an
36:12example. Arguably the greatest composer
36:13[music] who ever lived, Johan Sebastian
36:16Bach, wrote for the glory of God on the
36:19manuscript of [music] every piece he
36:20ever wrote. So did Joseph Heayen, one of
36:23my three favorite composers, on every
36:25piece for the [music] glory of God.
36:28These people wrote music to elevate the
36:32human spirit [music] because there's
36:33something to elevate the human spirit
36:36toward, namely God. No God, no
36:39elevation. You get turds. And in music,
36:43you get a tonal cacophony, just notes.
36:48No melody, no harmony, no tonality
36:51notes. There's even one piece by a
36:54modern 20th century composer in the
36:56United States [music] where a person
36:58sits at a piano and plays nothing for
37:02those 4 minutes and whatever seconds.
37:04[music] Nothing. And then the audience
37:07applauds. This is considered deep. In
37:11the secular world, it is deep.
37:15at the Museum of Contemporary Art in
37:17[music] Orange County, California. They
37:20have in front of it or had, I don't know
37:21if they still do, but for a long time, a
37:24giant sculpture of a dog. And the dog is
37:28constantly peeing right [music] in front
37:31of the museum.
37:33How fitting. That's what that museum
37:37earned, a dog peeing on it.
37:43to think that [music] we once had a
37:44Michelangelo or a Bach.
37:47Of course, these people were infused by
37:50the elevating [music]
37:52belief
37:53that there is the creator above them.
37:57And [music] they would design things
37:59with that in mind.
38:02We don't have that anymore. Noise in
38:05music, ugly in art, and ugly in
38:09architecture.
38:10and they're celebrated.
38:13I want to catch the turd exhibit,
38:15though. Shouldn't miss that before
38:17[music] you leave this earth.
38:22If there's no God who says [music] do
38:24not steal, stealing isn't wrong. Same
38:27with murder. Same with any of the Ten
38:29Commandments or any commandment. This
38:31drives people crazy cuz I've done a
38:33video just on this and I and I saw the
38:36comments, none of which understood. I
38:38find it very
38:39>> the education system is so poor in our
38:42time. People don't even understand
38:44logic.
38:45I made the point and I do always and I
38:47made it in the beginning of this talk.
38:50There are some wonderful atheists. There
38:52are some wonderful [music] secular
38:54people.
38:55Of course, that's true.
38:58That's not my point. My point is that if
39:01there is no God who says do not steal or
39:03do not murder, stealing and murder are
39:06not wrong. That doesn't mean that people
39:08who [music] don't believe in God will
39:09necessarily steal and murder.
39:12Of course, you can think that [music]
39:13stealing is wrong and you can feel that
39:16murder is wrong if you don't believe in
39:18God, but it's just what you think and
39:20what you feel. It's your opinion.
39:22They're not objectively wrong. There's
39:25no objective moral truth if [music]
39:27there is no God. That's the whole point.
39:30It's not an attack. It's just a fact.
39:33Now, you'll say, "Well, but God doesn't
39:35exist." Okay. So, if God doesn't exist,
39:38then neither does objective morality.
39:42That's all I'm asking people to
39:43understand. But that's a big deal.
39:47It's a very big [music] deal. When you
39:49think that there is no objective
39:51morality, that it is all what you make
39:53up or your society makes up.
39:56Yes. That's when you can start robbing
39:58children of their sexual innocence
39:59[music] as they're doing now in in
40:02America and other English-speaking
40:04countries. Because you are the author of
40:06morality. If there is no God who is the
40:08author of right and wrong, then you are
40:11the author of right and wrong. Oh, but
40:13you'll say, "But I have a conscience."
40:15To which I will say, "So what?" Everyone
40:18who does bad has a conscience.
40:22That's
40:24it's amazing how much evil is done by
40:26people with clear consciences. The
40:29conscience is not a terribly powerful
40:31thing in [music] most people. I'm a big
40:33believer that there is a conscience. But
40:36if the conscience is not informed by the
40:38question, what does God want me to do?
40:41God doesn't want you to steal and God
40:43doesn't want you to murder.
40:46Then it's going to be a problem.
40:50[music] The death of objective morality
40:53is ultimately the death of morality.
40:55[music] When people, as they are now, as
40:58I speak to you,
41:01stealing in greater numbers than ever
41:03before, hold groups of kids just go into
41:06stores and wipe the shelves clean and
41:09take stuff away.
41:12[music]
41:13Do you think that they believe that
41:14there is a God who said, "Do not steal."
41:17I'll bet they don't.
41:21You will live a life differently if you
41:23believe God said, "Do not steal.
41:26Most likely there are people who may
41:28believe that and still steal. That's
41:30true. The human condition is very
41:33complex.
41:34I still will place my bet [music] that I
41:38will get better behavior on a person who
41:40believes
41:41that God said to him or her, "Do not
41:46steal." We know the consequences of
41:49religious extremism.
41:51We don't know the consequences of
41:54secular extremism. The real danger to
41:58survival of Western civilization. This
42:01whole thing, this whole project is in
42:04danger.
42:06When you tear flowers
42:08out of the soil that nurtured them,
42:12those flowers will die.
42:14We're tearing the flowers out of the
42:18Judeo-Christian soil that nurtured them.
42:23I'm Dennis Prager.
42:29[music]
42:36[music]
42:50>> [music]
42:51>> Heat.
42:56[music]
43:00Heat.
43:05Heat. [music]
43:11[music]
43:17[music]
43:20Heat.
43:23[music]
43:30>> [music]
43:39>> Hallelujah.
43:51Heat.
43:59[music]
44:06[music]
44:09Heat.
44:13[music]
44:15Heat. Heat.
44:19[music]
44:25[music]
44:33[music]

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