Fireside Chat Ep. 305 — How Can We Explain Bad Religious People? | Fireside Chat — Transcript

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1. 0:00hi everybody the fireside chat Dennis
2. 0:02Prager here and
3. 0:04Snoopy is in position I hate to say it
4. 0:08but he might be on some relaxant he's
5. 0:13not
6. 0:14wow I'm impressed
7. 0:18one day Mr Tubbs hopefully will take his
8. 0:21seat but it's happy good to have snoopy
9. 0:25well my friends this is an opportunity
10. 0:28to uh do what I do every week with you
11. 0:30I'm very committed to the fireside chat
12. 0:33and I and I have a sense that many of
13. 0:36you are because so many people make
14. 0:38reference to Otto the late Otto and to
15. 0:42the fireside chat Wherever I Go
16. 0:45very tough subject that I'm going to
17. 0:47open up with before I take your
18. 0:48questions very tough
19. 0:50but it's so important that there are
20. 0:54many many important subjects
21. 0:56and so I won't say this is the most
22. 0:58important but I don't know of one that's
23. 1:00more important
24. 1:02and people don't like to deal with it
25. 1:04certainly religious people don't like to
26. 1:06deal with it and that is I guess it's a
27. 1:10two-part question it's the same
28. 1:12they're related they're not identical
29. 1:16how do you explain bad religious people
30. 1:20isn't religion supposed to make people
31. 1:22good
32. 1:24and if it doesn't make people good I
33. 1:27don't mean perfect I mean good
34. 1:29then
35. 1:31why what's its primary use some people
36. 1:34will have different Answers by the way
37. 1:37to me the primary question is does it
38. 1:39make good people that's why to be honest
39. 1:41and I know not all of you will agree
40. 1:43that's just it's fine it doesn't matter
41. 1:46we have to understand that on many
42. 1:49issues this agreement is fine on some
43. 1:52issues it's not if you think that it is
44. 1:55okay to put kids on hormone blockers
45. 1:59that's not a disagreement I respect
46. 2:01you're not only wrong you're you are
47. 2:05promoting evil a term I rarely use
48. 2:09just accept it you know really terrible
49. 2:12things
50. 2:13so
51. 2:14sometimes disagreement is is necessary
52. 2:18and unbridgeable and sometimes it's
53. 2:20necessary but does it does it's okay
54. 2:24so I'll just give one example then I'll
55. 2:26then I'll go back to the subject
56. 2:29so people very frequently will speak
57. 2:31about searching for the true religion
58. 2:34and I have a different view on that
59. 2:37subject and I brought more people to
60. 2:39religion I think than than any other
61. 2:41living American so I have a very good
62. 2:43track record bringing people to religion
63. 2:46part of the reason is I'm not advocative
64. 2:49of any one faith
65. 2:52if it's bible-based and it will make you
66. 2:55a better person
67. 2:57I'm happy
68. 2:58that that's that's all I ask
69. 3:01but people will say the true you have to
70. 3:04find the True Religion okay fair enough
71. 3:08to my definition is if
72. 3:11if the religion makes you
73. 3:14a a considerably more decent human being
74. 3:19than
75. 3:21that to me suffices
76. 3:23I don't use the word true because it's a
77. 3:26matter of Faith it's true that I that I
78. 3:29have five fingers on each hand that's
79. 3:31not a matter of Faith but religion is
80. 3:35not empirically verifiable I believe God
81. 3:38gave Moses the Ten Commandments but I
82. 3:41believe it
83. 3:42I don't know it I know I have 10 fingers
84. 3:45I don't know that God gave the Ten
85. 3:48Commandments to Moses I believe it
86. 3:51deeply
87. 3:53but I acknowledge that I don't know it
88. 3:55and that's why it's not the same when
89. 3:58you say you you're looking for truth
90. 4:01in religion it's not the same as truth
91. 4:04empirically this is true five fingers
92. 4:08religion by definition involves faith
93. 4:12so I judged everything by its fruits
94. 4:15that's why I've always said if the left
95. 4:17made good people I'd be a leftist
96. 4:20to be honest
97. 4:21but it doesn't it makes bad people
98. 4:23liberalism is not here or there
99. 4:25conservatism is mixed but leftism makes
100. 4:29bad people
101. 4:31the doctrines
102. 4:33are embittering they make ungrateful
103. 4:36people and in great
104. 4:39are all mean there's no nice ingrate on
105. 4:43the face of the Earth
106. 4:45so I I do that's my judgment I admit it
107. 4:48because my deepest religious belief is
108. 4:51called ethical monotheism God's primary
109. 4:54demand is that we treat each other good
110. 4:57or well depending on which which word
111. 5:00you wish to use the adjective or the
112. 5:03adverb
113. 5:06by the way if you're a parent you you
114. 5:08can relate to that all right you aren't
115. 5:11you most moved by the way your children
116. 5:14treat your other children
117. 5:16and other people
118. 5:20isn't it painful when your children
119. 5:23have terrible Rifts
120. 5:26that's how God feels
121. 5:29so given that
122. 5:32one of the fruits if not the primary
123. 5:34fruit
124. 5:35you would think of the tree of religion
125. 5:38is goodness not perfection
126. 5:42there's no such thing as a perfect
127. 5:44person god is perfect
128. 5:46there's no such thing I don't aim for
129. 5:48Perfect People
130. 5:50just people
131. 5:52who are decent because I divide the
132. 5:54world not by religion not by race not by
133. 5:58sex
134. 5:59but by decent and indecent
135. 6:03that was the famous line of Viktor
136. 6:05Frankl as if he hated the German race
137. 6:07because he went through the Holocaust
138. 6:11and his book man search for meaning is
139. 6:13one of the 10 books that most influenced
140. 6:15me and his answer was no there are only
141. 6:17two races the decent and the indecent
142. 6:20that's how I look at the world okay
143. 6:23so how do you explain bad religious
144. 6:26people
145. 6:27so listen to this this is
146. 6:29something I'm sure you're not familiar
147. 6:31with except maybe a tiny fraction of you
148. 6:34but is fascinating
149. 6:38so let me remind you at this point that
150. 6:41the rest of the fireside chat and these
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158. 7:03they've done it in the past and
159. 7:06only God knows when and if they will do
160. 7:08it in the future
161. 7:09so please go to prageru.com now and
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165. 7:19thanks