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Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager - Suffering, Spirituality & Silly Questions | Dennis AMA · Salem Podcast Network

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life audio on today's episode of timeless wisdom.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: How can one get past issues with god if they
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: have some anger issues with god.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: At the moment i have a really big problem with
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: you making a correlation between the feminist movement and why
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: derogatory terms towards women are being used in rap songs
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: right and.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: This strong belief that adopted children shouldn't seek out a birth.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Parent what is your favorite vegetable.
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: Russell Sprouts.
• 0:36
  Speaker 6: That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome
• 0:40
  Speaker 6: to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours
• 0:44
  Speaker 6: of Dennis' lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. And to
• 0:48
  Speaker 6: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: What is on your mind? Anything you want to ask
• 0:57
  Speaker 5: me about. Anything. Anything you want to talk to me about.
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: From my favorite pipe tobacco to the meaning of life
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: to Terry Shivo to the Pope to death to life
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: to life to life. 1-8 Prager 776 is the number.
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: 1-8 P-R-A-G-E-R 776. This is the hour. What would you
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: like to talk to me about? What would you like
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: to ask me? Let's go here. Got some very heavy
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: ones here. Hey, you know what? We need some frivolous ones.
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: I mean, if you have a silly question you want
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: to ask, like, do I like asparagus? I mean, I'm really...
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: I mean, this is a human hour. Is there anything
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: you wonder about? How about... Oh, Sean. Sean, digital cameras.
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: Sean wants me to talk about digital cameras for three hours.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: And Sean is hoping that... He is hoping that both
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: of us go on unemployment insurance. Okay, let's go to
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: Sacramento and Keith. Hello, Keith. Dennis Prager.
• 2:08
  Speaker 7: Oh, hi, Dennis. I just wanted to let you know
• 2:11
  Speaker 7: my mother-in-law committed suicide about.
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: A little over a week ago. Oh, my God. Oh,
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: my God.
• 2:17
  Speaker 7: I was the one that got to discover the body, too.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: How did she kill herself?
• 2:23
  Speaker 8: She hung herself.
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: Oh, my God. Yeah.
• 2:28
  Speaker 7: But I just wanted to let you know that when
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: my wife and I were driving back up from her house,
• 2:35
  Speaker 7: we were listening to your show. My wife found great
• 2:39
  Speaker 7: solace in what you were saying. She's a lapsed Catholic,
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: but it really meant a lot to her, and I
• 2:47
  Speaker 7: just wanted to say thank you.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Oh, that's so sweet of you. Well, if I could
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: do anything to give your wife solace after that trauma,
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: then for that alone it's worth my having a radio show.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: That is a very, very, very difficult trauma to endure.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: And I'm very happy to hear that. You know, folks,
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: I get letters all the time from people who, after
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: listening to the program for either a short time or
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: a long time, do reconsider the religion that they rejected
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: when they were a child. And it means a great
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: deal to me. And I am very touched by that. That, too,
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: is important. And let's see here. Oh, yeah, here we go. Well,
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: let's go to Santa Barbara, California, and Alan. Hello, Alan.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: Dennis Prager.
• 3:38
  Speaker 8: Dennis, it's a pleasure to talk to you.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 3:40
  Speaker 8: If I could say one thing, you've added joy to
• 3:42
  Speaker 8: my life.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: Well, that means a lot to me. Thank you.
• 3:46
  Speaker 8: Dennis, this may be a whole hour's worth, but the
• 3:48
  Speaker 8: other day I was listening to some old doo-wop songs
• 3:51
  Speaker 8: out of the 50s and 60s and heard songs like
• 3:54
  Speaker 8: Earth Angel. and women were held in very high esteem.
• 3:59
  Speaker 8: And that being 40 years ago, if I turn on
• 4:02
  Speaker 8: MTV and hear hip-hop and rap, where women are... Dennis,
• 4:08
  Speaker 8: what happened in 40 years?
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: Wow, that's a great question, and I think a one-word
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: answer is feminism. You see, the moment that women said, hey,
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: we're just like you, then men felt no need to
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: have that pedestal or to engage in romantic melody and words, apparently,
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: and just let the lower parts, the natural parts of
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: the male, predominate. You know, it's very hard. You see,
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: feminism said, we don't want to be on any pedestal.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: We are just like men. You treat us just like men.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: And so if women are announcing, and obviously not all women,
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: needless to say, but if that's the announcement that the
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: society is making, and feminism took over the schools, that
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: is what is taught from elementary school to high school
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: to college to you, it's what dominates the media. Remember,
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: the women in media are almost by definition going to
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: be women with feminist inclinations. And so... if that is
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: all that men see and hear, along with the sexual revolution, which,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: you know, when I was a kid, and I'm younger
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: than you, but, you know, not by much, and when
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: we were kids, you know, it was like more or
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: less an honor for a girl to let you touch her. Today,
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: you know, it is, you know, she's there to be used.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: I mean, today, one reads these things about oral sex
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: being common in the upper middle class and upper class
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: middle schools. You know, this is astonishing. And it's all
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: one way, where she is servicing the boy.
• 6:13
  Speaker 8: Is this a case of where you get what you
• 6:16
  Speaker 8: ask for?
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: Well, apparently it is. I mean, I would have to
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: say that it is a case of getting what one
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: asks for. The notion, you see, once men and women
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: are announced as the same, then they're treated similarly. Not equal. Remember,
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: equal is incredibly important to be taught. Same is the problem.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: And when added, of course, I think to the sexual revolution,
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: which said that, you know, sex is just a physical act,
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: no different from relieving yourself or eating. That has also
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: added to it. I often lament the lyrics. I mean,
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: when I think of the lyrics of the songs that
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: my parents grew up with, you know, the love songs, the,
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: you know... And you're right, even the rock and roll
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: of the 50s and before the revolution of the later
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: 60s and 70s, and now the lyrics. And, oh good,
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: this is important. Let's go to Miami and Jessica. Hello Jessica,
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: Dennis Prager, thanks for calling.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Hi, how are you?
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: Okay, thanks.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I have a really big problem with you making a
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: correlation between the feminist movement and why derogatory terms towards
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: women are being used in rap songs. In the feminist movement,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: I'm a feminist, and I listen to rap music, and
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: I can make a differentiation. So can any young woman
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: in my family know that we're not, you know, the
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: terms that are used in there. And to even understand
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: that the people singing these songs are from a completely
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: different socioeconomic, cultural background than myself. One in which there
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: are members of their families that are strippers or prostitutes,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: things like that, that have nothing to do with anything
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: I or anyone around me was raised in.
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: You know what? This call is worth an hour. Jessica,
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: there is something called the law of unintended consequences. A
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: movement may start and end up with results that it
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: never could have foreseen That's number one. Number two, what
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: happens is the elite, the highly educated, the affluent come
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: up with ideas, and then the underclass is the one
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: that has the pathological after effects of those ideas. So
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: there can be correlations, even though in your family there
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: are none. But even in the highest cultural... Would you.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Say most women in your family, most girls, any young girls,
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: would actually think of themselves in the.
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: Terms that are being used? No, of course not. But
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: that's irrelevant, because it's not the young girls who were
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: singing those words. It's males who were singing those words.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: So the question was asked to me, why, 50 years ago,
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: were the songs that were sung and popular among young
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: people So all about loving a girl. And today they
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: are unbelievably demeaning to females. What's happened?
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: My answer to that is not the feminists.
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: All right, what is your answer?
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: My answer to that is in terms of what record
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: sales are, the people who are in charge of buying,
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: giving record labels.
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: No, but wait, wait, wait. No, Jessica, Jessica. That doesn't
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: make sense because They sold incredible numbers of Frank Sinatra
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: records in past generations. It's the taste that has changed
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: and what is acceptable. It's not just the records will sell.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: Of course they would sell.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: But there's a lot of differences in what's acceptable now.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: Yes. All right, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: So why is it.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: It's difficult for a black man to date a white woman,
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: which would never have been the case before. You know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: and there are way more.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: Non-blacks dating blacks.
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: Right, you're right.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Much more to the rap industry and all of that.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: That wasn't popular.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Even growing up, I wasn't even able to think of that,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: to even see that.
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: You're right. That's a wonderful development. Interracial dating is a
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: very wonderful, and interracial marriage is a wonderful development. But
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: I don't know how that's related to the question. As
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: I said, it is worthy of an hour, Jessica. Let
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: me just make clear here. Feminism helped create the sexual revolution.
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: The sexes are the same. Women have sexual desires just
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: like men. Women can have unemotional, uncommitted sex just as
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: enjoyably as men. This message was sent to men. Don't
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: open the door for women. It's patronizing. It is acting
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: like we can't even open our own door. Don't pull
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: a chair out for us. Don't do anything like that.
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: Don't treat us to a meal. We are perfectly capable
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: of paying for our own meal. And the message was,
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: over and over, it was just drummed into males, a
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: growing generation of males. They have the same sexual desires
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: you do. They are just as happy to have uncommitted,
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: meaningless sex. They objectify sex just as much as male
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: nature does. And those things have had tremendous impact. And it's...
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: It's worth discussing. I really do wish we had more time, Jessica.
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: I'm glad you called. And we should pursue that. Alan,
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: put that down as a subject, and I hope Jessica
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: will call in then, too.
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. Now,
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: Christopher in Minneapolis. Hi, Chris. Dennis Prager.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Pardon me?
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: Dennis Prager.
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: Hi.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry about that, Mr.
• 12:17
  Speaker 9: Prager.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: Don't worry about it.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: You caught me by surprise there for a second.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: I can imagine.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: My name is Christopher. I'm in Minneapolis. And my basic question,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I will change slightly because it was originally intended for
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: the happiness hour. But first, let me ask you just
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: a silly question since you're asking for those. What is
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: your favorite vegetable?
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: Brussels sprouts. I'm one of the few people who loves
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: Brussels sprouts.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: I would imagine that you are.
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: Yes, but they have to be buttered, however. Buttered?
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Do you prefer them steamed or boiled?
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: I don't know. I have no idea. Is there a difference?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I don't eat Brussels sprouts, so I don't know.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: No, no.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: Is there a difference between steamed and boiled? You cannot
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: ask me any question of what happens inside the kitchen.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: Only the final product. All right, go ahead.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: My question basically is, how can one find happiness, and
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: how can one get past issues with God if they
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: have some anger issues with God at the moment?
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: Well, those are two separate questions, although they're related. Let's
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: begin with the God one. So why are you angry
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: at God? Well.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Today is my 15th year of sobriety. I celebrated 15
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: years of sobriety.
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: Congratulations. That's magnificent.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Each year in doing that, I
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: sit down and kind of reaffirm my relationship with God
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: and try to move forward. However, in the last several years,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: I've had many things that have happened that have really
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: kind of made me question where I am with God
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and why these things continue to happen. I mean, I'm
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: kind of feeling like Job, right? You know, all of
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: these things just keep happening, but I kind of keep
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: going on, and lately I've just been feeling really disconnected,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: and I'm really kind of questioning where that is and
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: why I'm allowed to experience that.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: Give me some of the Job-like experiences that you've suffered.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll say this. Forgive me for stammering here for
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: a moment. I saw you at the event here at
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: the Patriot a few weeks ago.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: Uh-huh.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: At dinner, and I was the gentleman who came up
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: during dinner and handed you a letter.
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you recall which letter that was.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: Well, because I am given a fair number of letters,
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: I would have to know the content to remember. Right.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: It dealt with a woman that I'm seeing and a
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: tragic event that a strange man had tried to kill
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: me and then tortured her.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: And, you know, ended up killing himself there, and, you know,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: it is... obviously created some problems in our relationship, which
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: she has now kind of left to take some time
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: on her own. I now have to file for bankruptcy.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: I had, a couple years ago, I suffered one of
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the worst depressions I've had, where for over a year
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I couldn't actually, you know, I actually didn't leave my
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: house and lived with the shades drawn. So I've had all,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I've had these series of events that have just kind
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: of seemed to keep happening. Fifteen years ago, I embarked on,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: you know, a spiritual relationship with God trying to change
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: my life. Yet I seem to have all these dark
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: clouds that kind of seem to keep coming in. So
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: in that way, I guess, is why, you know.
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: Have you read Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: Good People?
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I have not. I'm currently reading your Happiness is a
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Serious Problem.
• 15:45
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: Well, I'm glad you are, but it doesn't address directly
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: the God issue. And I would recommend that even though
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: I don't agree with some of his suppositions, I He
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: lost a child, so he knows suffering. It doesn't get
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: much worse than losing a child.
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: I've heard you mention that book before.
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: Yes. In fact, I just had lunch with him this week,
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: so it's ironic. He's a very, very decent man. He
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: will make you realize that God is not there to
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: prevent bad things. God is there when those things happen
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: for you to know that a good God cares and
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: is with you. That's powerful to me. That is exceedingly powerful.
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: But as to being the preventer of these bad things,
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: that's not what God is for. We'll be back in
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: a moment. I'm Dennis Prager.
• 16:57
  Speaker 10: Dennis, this is Marina from Los Angeles. I've listened to
• 17:01
  Speaker 10: you for a long, long time. I'm so glad I
• 17:04
  Speaker 10: can listen to you at 10 o'clock. I have some questions,
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: but that will have to wait for another day when
• 17:12
  Speaker 10: I write them down because I have.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: A whole list.
• 17:16
  Speaker 10: Okay, thanks for hanging in there, and we're praying for you. Okay, bye.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: Hi, Dennis.
• 17:26
  Speaker 10: My name is Debbie Fierro-Narone. I have prayed for you.
• 17:29
  Speaker 10: I know many of us hurt for you. I couldn't
• 17:32
  Speaker 10: believe you came back so strong. I mean, God and
• 17:36
  Speaker 10: your positivity and, you know, great doctors. But I'm listening
• 17:41
  Speaker 10: to you right now, and I'm praying that you get better, Dennis.
• 17:44
  Speaker 10: Bless you, Dennis.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 17:46
  Speaker 10: Keep touching lives.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Are you enjoying timeless wisdom? We'd love to hear from you.
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: Call 877-243-7776 and leave a review, share your thoughts, or
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: just even an encouraging word for Dennis. Your voicemail might
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: just make it on the show.
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: That's 877-243-7776. That's 877-243-7776.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and for your support.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: Dennis Prager here, and this is the hour of the
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: week where you ask me anything you would like. And
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: thus far, it did include what's my favorite vegetable. It
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: also included a very deep problem of a man angry
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: with God. I have... My view of God has never
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: been that he will take care of me. I have
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: to say, it's just not been. I think that that's
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: the problem. God disappoints you when you have an expectation
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: of him that is, I don't think, tenable. What was
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: that great movie? Oh, man, me and names, I tell you.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: It has nothing to do with getting older. It absolutely
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: is true when I was 18. My brother has the
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: same thing, so I know it's somewhat genetic. Oh, Jim
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: Carrey gets to be God. Was it with Morgan Freeman?
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: Bruce Almighty. It is a brilliant movie, actually. Brilliant. And
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: it shows what happens if God says yes to everything.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: requests the chaos that would ensue it's a very powerful
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: a moment in that film I get great comfort from
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: the fact that God is there God and I believe
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: that God revealed his will I you know I am
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: religious and That gives me a great deal of comfort.
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: It means that life has meaning and purpose. But I've
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: never really looked to God to fulfill requests. I've never
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: actually made a personal request of God. It's not true.
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: I have asked for wisdom. That I have on a
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: number of occasions. Anyway, let's continue here. Let's go to Minneapolis.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: And Pete in Minneapolis, this is Dennis Prager.
• 20:50
  Speaker 11: Hi.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 20:52
  Speaker 11: Good afternoon, Dennis.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: Pleasure to speak with you.
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: I saw you at RF Moeller a couple years ago,
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: and it was a pleasure to see you in person.
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: Yes, I recall that very well. Thank you.
• 21:03
  Speaker 12: All right.
• 21:04
  Speaker 9: Hi.
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: I mean, I recall being at RF Moeller. I'm not implying,
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: I don't recall you exactly. I don't want to, I'm
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: not going to patronize you, but I thank you for
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: being there. Go ahead.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: You might, because I'm the fellow who greeted you with
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: Baruch Haba B'Shem Adonai.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: Oh, yes, that's true. I don't get that greeting very often.
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: That is correct. A biblical Hebrew greeting.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: You responded in Hebrew.
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know enough Hebrew to know what you said.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: Do you recall what you said to me?
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: I probably said, I think your shoelace is untied.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: I have a question for the deeply religious and spiritual
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: man that you are. I commend you, and I admire
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: you immensely. I'm Christian, but I'm puzzled, and I see
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: this with a number of Jewish people, yourself included, that
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: have this strong belief that adopted children shouldn't seek out
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: a birth parent.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: Uh-huh.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: I'm a little bit puzzled. Why do you not think
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: that they should? And the reason I'm asking the question is,
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: as a Christian and a spiritual person, it is my
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: belief that there is a connection in the spirit realm.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: Even though that child may never have had any opportunity
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: to see a birth parent or know anything about them,
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: there's still in the spirit realm a connection that can
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: never be severed.
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: Well, the truth is I don't think it's a Jewish
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: or Christian divide on this. I think it's truly a mixture,
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: and it's not guided much by Judaism or Christianity. So
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: while I absolutely believe, for example, I think that Jews
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: are far more likely to, as soon as they see
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: a person who's single, try to match them up. I
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: believe that there are Jewish traits involved. and Protestant traits
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: and Catholic traits and so on, but I don't think
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: this is one of them. But putting that aside, I
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: don't say that people shouldn't try to find a birth parent.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: I just am very, very wary about the search and
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: think that if one is bonded with one's appearance, that
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: the search is pointless. Now, I understand the curiosity part.
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: That's a separate issue. People are curious about But let
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: me give you an example. Do you believe that someone
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: who was conceived via artificial insemination from a sperm bank
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: should seek the sperm donor, that they have a spiritual
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: connection to somebody who auto-erotically ejaculated into a cup?
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah. That's a very, very good question. I don't know
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: if I would, you know, say that I would encourage
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: somebody to seek out.
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: But why is that any different?
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, let me qualify it just a little bit.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: But I would say that, let's say that I was.
• 24:12
  Speaker 12: A product of that.
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: I would like to know the spiritual heritage.
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: But it's not spiritual. It's not a spiritual heritage. It's
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: a sperm heritage.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: It's genetics, Dennis.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: Well, genetics is... No, no, I don't... This notion that
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: genetics and spirit are connected is a new one to me,
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: and it's certainly not a religious idea. The whole spiritual
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: idea transcends genes, transcends the physical. That's the brilliance of
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: the spiritual, is that it is not rooted in the physical.
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: So I, you know, if I.
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: That's what I would ask people who think that there
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: is this major importance in finding out who a birth
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: father or birth mother is. Well, do you feel that
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: way about a sperm donor? It's the same thing. There's
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: no difference. You want to know whose semen it was
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: and you want to know whose egg it was. What
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: if it's an implanted egg from another woman? Is the
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: egg donor a spiritual connection? So I.
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: I believe that the vast majority of searches are done
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: except for those where there is just intense intellectual curiosity.
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: But I think the vast majority are done because one
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: is seeking something that they feel that they are missing
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: when in fact they are not. Or maybe they really
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: are missing. Maybe they're not bonded with their parents and
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: they think, ah, I'll have the bond with my birth
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: mother that I just didn't have with my mother. Or
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: I'll have a bond with a birth father that I
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: didn't have with my father. Or there is great happiness
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: to be found there in this new family that I
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: will discover at the end of this search. And interestingly, overwhelmingly,
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: it is females who go on this search. Because females
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: believe that there is this great bond between carrying And
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: between carrying and the baby or the offspring. No, I
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: am a big believer in love and values. I have
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: a very powerful story. A very powerful story to make
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: my point. And I will as soon as we return
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: and take more calls. We'll be back in a moment.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: 1-8 Prager, 776-Pete. I'm very pleased that you called, and
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: we shall return. You are listening to the Open Hour
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: on the Dennis Prager Show. Okay, let's go to Miami.
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: Miami and a rabbi, Rabbi Rafi. Hello, Rabbi Rafi, Dennis Prager.
• 27:00
  Speaker 11: Hi, Dennis Prager.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: Hi.
• 27:02
  Speaker 11: First of all, I'm so happy that we finally get
• 27:05
  Speaker 11: you down here in Miami.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: I'm not happier than I. Thank you so much.
• 27:09
  Speaker 11: I really, really love your show, and I love listening
• 27:11
  Speaker 11: to everything you have to say.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: Thank you. What denomination are you?
• 27:14
  Speaker 11: I'm Orthodox.
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: Great. Thank you for calling.
• 27:17
  Speaker 11: And although I don't disagree with some of the psychology
• 27:22
  Speaker 11: that you were mentioning regarding the looking for adoptive parents.
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: You mean for birth parents?
• 27:28
  Speaker 11: For birth parents.
• 27:29
  Speaker 13: Thank you.
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 27:30
  Speaker 11: I'm not sure that I agree with you completely regarding
• 27:34
  Speaker 11: the fact that there's no spiritual relationship.
• 27:37
  Speaker 14: I think that the.
• 27:39
  Speaker 11: The spiritual and the physical are very, very much united.
• 27:42
  Speaker 11: And because of that, I think that there may be
• 27:47
  Speaker 11: a very strong spiritual relationship with somebody, even if they
• 27:50
  Speaker 11: haven't raised you.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: Well, let me ask you the question I asked the
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: earlier caller. Would you hold that for a sperm donor?
• 27:56
  Speaker 11: Absolutely.
• 27:57
  Speaker 14: Hmm.
• 27:58
  Speaker 11: Without even thinking about it. I mean, thinking about it,
• 28:00
  Speaker 11: of course.
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: Now, and is that... You see, do you have that
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: because you feel that strongly as a person, or do
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: you have that from your religious roots?
• 28:10
  Speaker 11: No, it's from my understanding of my religious roots.
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: Well, I have written on this from the religious standpoint
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: as well as from the psychological and others, and I
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: offer you two very interesting... facts that I know you're
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: aware of, but I want to present to you. One
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: is that the Jewish tradition, in fact, even the Tanakh,
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: the Bible, the Old Testament, actually holds that the mother
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: of Moses is the daughter of Pharaoh. Batya is the
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: name given. I mean, that is a very powerful thing,
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: because he wasn't even given away at birth. No, no, no, absolutely.
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: So here we have the daughter of Pharaoh regarded by
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: Jewish tradition and the Bible as Moses' mother. Second, when
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: the Jewish people speak about the matriarchs, we speak of
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: four matriarchs, correct? Correct. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Yet
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: the 12 tribes also come from Bilhah and Zilpah. Why
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: aren't they mentioned as the matriarchs if who gives birth
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: is so important?
• 29:23
  Speaker 11: It's an excellent question, and I definitely do not disagree
• 29:28
  Speaker 11: that the person who raises you, in many ways, is
• 29:31
  Speaker 11: considered to be your parent.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: Well, in every way, as I understand the Jewish tradition,
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: in every way.
• 29:40
  Speaker 9: Way.
• 29:41
  Speaker 11: Well, you know, one of the big problems that modern
• 29:45
  Speaker 11: Jewish law is dealing with when it deals with a
• 29:49
  Speaker 11: lot of the new technology in terms of creating children
• 29:56
  Speaker 11: is exactly that problem. who's considered the actual parent. And
• 30:02
  Speaker 11: so in terms of Jewish law and as well as
• 30:04
  Speaker 11: Jewish mysticism, there's a lot to say that there's still
• 30:08
  Speaker 11: a very strong relationship with the physical, the actual birth parent,
• 30:15
  Speaker 11: even if that relationship was not necessarily nurtured.
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: Well, not only not nurtured, in the case of the
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: sperm donor, it was an anonymous ejaculation.
• 30:26
  Speaker 11: Anonymous ejaculation or not, I think that there's still a relationship.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: Okay, listen, that's why I always say that so much
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: of religion is through the eyes of those interpreting it.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: I'm honored that you listened, Rabbi Rafi, and I'm honored
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: that you called. Send me an email. I'd like to
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: know who you are. We'll be back in a moment.
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: Anything on your mind this hour of the Dennis Prager Show, 1-8-PRAGER-776.
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: This is, of course, the Dennis Prager Show. All righty, everybody.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show. 1-8 Prager 776.
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: And let's continue here with whatever is on your mind.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: That's what the hour is about, whatever is on your mind.
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: Kyle in Dallas. Dennis Prager, hi.
• 31:17
  Speaker 11: Hi, how are you today, Dennis?
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: Okay, thanks for calling.
• 31:20
  Speaker 14: Yeah, listen, not to beat a dead horse or anything,
• 31:23
  Speaker 14: I've been listening to the program the last hour or so,
• 31:26
  Speaker 14: and I actually disagree with the use of the term handicap,
• 31:30
  Speaker 14: and I'll tell you why. I'm a self and blind,
• 31:35
  Speaker 14: and the more appropriate term that's used these days since
• 31:40
  Speaker 14: the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act is disabled,
• 31:44
  Speaker 14: and there's actually a movement that was put forth that
• 31:48
  Speaker 14: says that you should use person-first terminology, meaning you would, like,
• 31:52
  Speaker 14: in the instance of myself, if you referred to me,
• 31:54
  Speaker 14: you would say, he is a man who is blind,
• 31:57
  Speaker 14: or that is a person who has multiple sclerosis, or
• 32:01
  Speaker 14: who is disabled.
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: I like that. I hate political correctness, but this, to me,
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: is enhancing human dignity. You see, we have a problem
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: in English. And that is, it's one of the only
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: languages whose adjectives precede the noun. Uh-huh. In most languages,
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: the adjective comes after the noun. And so they don't
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: have any problem. They would say a person who is blind. Right.
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: Whereas we have, oh, he's a blind man, as opposed
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: to a man who is blind. Right. And so what
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: happens is, the first thing you hear about someone is
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: that they're blind. Not that they're a man who happens
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: to be blind.
• 32:50
  Speaker 14: And that causes you to focus on the disability and not.
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: On the person. Yes, I have no problem with that.
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: That is correct.
• 32:57
  Speaker 14: I was explaining to Eva that handicap actually is an
• 33:01
  Speaker 14: old dated word that comes from World War II. It
• 33:04
  Speaker 14: actually inferred that the person is begging. They have a
• 33:07
  Speaker 14: cap in hand and.
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: They're asking for handouts and whatnot. Well, yeah, disabled, I
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: guess disabled is better. But you see, ironically, the gentleman
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: who objected to my use of the word crippled, I
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: was describing me.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: And to this moment, I can't think of a good word.
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: You see, I was explaining how my disc problem caused
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: me so much pain that I said it crippled me,
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: or I was crippled. I don't remember the exact terminology.
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: I can't say I was disabled. No, no.
• 33:41
  Speaker 14: I think this is where political correctness goes overboard.
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: That's right. In that case. But I never go and say, oh, so-and-so,
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: he's crippled.
• 33:51
  Speaker 13: Correct.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: No, that's different. I was describing me in a certain circumstance. Right. Anyway,
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: I'm very glad. You're blind, right? Yes, sir. Let me
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: ask you. Are you blind from birth?
• 34:02
  Speaker 14: Yeah, well, from very young, about four months old, I
• 34:05
  Speaker 14: was burned. My parents' house caught on fire, and my
• 34:09
  Speaker 14: eyes were burned as a result of the fire. So
• 34:12
  Speaker 14: practically from birth, yes.
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: Do you have any recollection of anything that you saw? No.
• 34:18
  Speaker 11: No, no.
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: So it's for all intents and purposes. You know, I
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: have tremendous curiosity, and I don't mean the usual, which
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: is normal for people to wonder what it's like to
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: be something else. Everybody wonders. But I've always, there are
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: a few things that I've always wanted, and I may
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: do an hour on the perceptions of people who are
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: blind of various things versus ours, because I think in
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: some ways, I know some ways, you have heightened responses
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: in terms of hearing and smell, for example. Right.
• 34:48
  Speaker 14: Those things have become more sensitive.
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: Let me ask you, this is one of those that
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: I've always, the word color, does that mean anything to you?
• 34:56
  Speaker 14: Color, well, you know, it has meaning. You know, I
• 35:01
  Speaker 14: can appreciate that something is a different color. You know,
• 35:05
  Speaker 14: of course, I don't know, like, you know, the color
• 35:07
  Speaker 14: red from the color blue or whatever. I don't, in
• 35:10
  Speaker 14: my mind, picture that. However, you know, I can understand
• 35:13
  Speaker 14: that something is different, you know, in the same way
• 35:17
  Speaker 14: the textures are different. You know, fuzzy is different than smooth.
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: Right, but here's the question. You see, here's what I
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: always wonder, though. You see, those of us who can
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: see have a sense that you don't have, correct?
• 35:33
  Speaker 9: Yes.
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: Okay. Now, I'm imagining, let us say somebody had a
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: sense that I don't have. I can't imagine in any
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: way imagining what it did. Can you imagine what it's
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: like to see?
• 35:45
  Speaker 14: No, not exactly. I imagine, like, for example, when I dream.
• 35:54
  Speaker 14: I dream... in shapes and not shapes that you see,
• 36:00
  Speaker 14: but I dream in, like, perceptions as if I were awake. Like,
• 36:06
  Speaker 14: I can perceive what it's like to walk around my house.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: Right, of course, of course.
• 36:10
  Speaker 14: And whatnot.
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: Well, listen, I've got to take a break, but Kyle,
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: I'm thrilled that you called. Thank you, and thanks for listening.
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: And yes, some of my books are on tape. I
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: know you wanted to know about that. We'll be back.
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: All righty, everybody, you're listening to The Dennis Prager Show,
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: and this is the hour where you call in on
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: anything on your mind. Anything you'd like to ask me about.
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: And a number of you just abandoned calls, so we've
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: got full again. And let's go to some more of
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: your calls here. Nelson in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Dennis Prager, hi.
• 37:03
  Speaker 9: Hello, Mr.
• 37:03
  Speaker 6: Prager.
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: Hi.
• 37:04
  Speaker 9: Enjoy listening to you.
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 37:06
  Speaker 9: Do you draw a distinction between the Christian church and,
• 37:11
  Speaker 9: let's say, the Catholic church that the Jews and Christians
• 37:15
  Speaker 9: suffered under during the Inquisitions?
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: You mean Jews and Protestants? Well, the Protestants didn't come
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: until after the Inquisition, but is that what you're referring to?
• 37:27
  Speaker 9: Yes, I think you were speaking to her about that.
• 37:30
  Speaker 9: You like living in a Christian society, I guess.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: Oh, I have many answers to this, and I'll try
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: to be very succinct. I believe that American Christians have
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: created something new in Christian history and in world history,
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: something particularly extraordinarily good. And it is not coincidental that
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: the Christians of this country have so often used the
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: term Judeo-Christian. This was a very Judeo-based Christianity that was
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: formed in this country, beginning with a quote from the
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: Torah on the Liberty Bell, in fact, beginning earlier than that,
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: the preoccupation with studying Hebrew, for example, which you never
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: found anything near that in all the years of European
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: Christian history.
• 38:19
  Speaker 9: Well, may I make a point about that?
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 38:21
  Speaker 9: And my point simply would be, as a Christian, and
• 38:23
  Speaker 9: I'm talking about as a biblically-based, born-again, believe it or not,
• 38:28
  Speaker 9: going by the name Christian, that it's not something new
• 38:31
  Speaker 9: that has been created in this country, but it's simply
• 38:33
  Speaker 9: the fact that the Christian Church, true Christian Church, re-emerged
• 38:38
  Speaker 9: after Catholicism took it into the Dark Ages.
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: Well, let me say... There was very little true.
• 38:43
  Speaker 9: Christianity in the world during that time.
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: Well, let me say on behalf of the Catholic Church, though,
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: that it's very interesting you should mention that. I want
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: you to read a book. I announced already that this
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: was one of the most important books of my life,
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: and I'm reading it now. I'm in the middle of it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: I'm on page 159 because I'm reading every page four times.
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: Not because it's hard, because I want to memorize it.
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: For the Glory of God. And he is a professor
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: who wrote this. And he points out that there's been
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: a lot of propaganda against the Catholic Church. And he's
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: not a Catholic. A lot of propaganda. For example, the
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: term the Dark Ages. He said it's nonsense. he says
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: there were no dark ages there was tremendous amount of
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: learning and creativity going on during the so-called dark ages
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: but it's a term that protestants felt too happy to
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: use to uh to defame the catholic church now listen
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: he goes through a series of of of uh shenanigans
• 39:49
  Speaker 5: and corruption in the Catholic Church in the course of
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: hundreds of years, which is actually almost funny, it is
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: so pathetic, how, in fact, there were popes who had brothels.
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: Not only didn't they remain celibate, they had brothels set
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: up in the Vatican. I mean, so one does not
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: have to... This guy is not here to whitewash Catholic history,
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: but he is here to give credit where it is due,
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: and the Catholic Church... made a better world in many ways.
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: And for me, a Jew, in any event, I'm never
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: going to take the position, who's the real Christian?
• 40:29
  Speaker 9: Oh, you don't have to.
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: I'm not asking you to do that.
• 40:31
  Speaker 9: Within Christianity, we do have that right. But my problem,
• 40:36
  Speaker 9: and I've got plenty of Catholic friends, I don't mean
• 40:38
  Speaker 9: this to be bashing the Church, but the reason why
• 40:40
  Speaker 9: I say this, most of the people killed during the
• 40:43
  Speaker 9: Inquisitions were Christians. Christians that did not agree with Catholicism.
• 40:47
  Speaker 9: I mean, they were killed by the.
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, dissenters. Yeah, right.
• 40:51
  Speaker 9: But they dissented because they biblically dissented. That's the difference.
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: That's true. He points that out. That is true. But
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: you know what? Any group that has total power is
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: going to have corruption. Total power corrupts totally. It's Lord Acton.
• 41:09
  Speaker 9: As a Christian, I can say Jews are always welcome
• 41:11
  Speaker 9: anywhere I am. You are correct. Jews and others can
• 41:15
  Speaker 9: flourish in this society because Christianity, even though if I
• 41:21
  Speaker 9: were meeting you face-to-face, I would certainly have no qualms
• 41:25
  Speaker 9: in discussing these things with you.
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: Oh, I know that. Oh, I know that. Oh, God knows.
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: I mean, I know that. That's why I'm in the
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: vanguard of working this new Jewish-Christian alliance that I believe
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: will change history. I thank you for your call. And
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: in that alliance will be many Catholics. I mean, there's
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: no question. I'm really glad that you called. All righty. Paul,
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: I'm going to let Paul go. This is one of
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: my three top drama movie choices and top three comedy. Actually,
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: I don't know on the drama. I would have to
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: consult with Alan, who's a professor at the American Film Institute. Comedy,
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: that's a good one. I love funny The movies that
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: make me laugh, I'll give you some off the top
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: of my head. I want you to know I have
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: tremendous respect for people who can make me laugh. So
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: I'll put him on, actually. Paul, I'll give you the
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: comedy one, okay? Paul in Granada Hills, California, are you there?
• 42:27
  Speaker 12: Hi, Dennis, how are you?
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: Okay, I want to... You're asking about my top three drama,
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: top three comedy. I was saying... I don't know the drama.
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: I'd have to think of that at length. But hold
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: on and I will give you some comedy. I was
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: saying that I have tremendous regard, respect for the achievement
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: of making me laugh. I think it's harder to do
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: comedy than it is to do drama. It's easy to
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: make a viewer cry. Just have a character they love
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: die and people cry. But to make people laugh... That's difficult.
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: So I'm going to think up some of the ones
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: that really make me laugh, and I'll tell them to
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: you when we come back.
• 43:11
  Speaker 6: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: All righty, my friends, this is the hour of the week.
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: Anything on your mind? Dennis Prager here. And, uh, back
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: to you, Paul and Granada Hills, California. Uh, yeah. Now
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: you're asking, uh, my favorite three drama, favorite three comedy.
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: Let me give you the comedy. I have to think
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: through the drama much more. And I, I have seen
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: a greater proportion of funny movies than I have of
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: other movies. Cause there are so few really funny movies.
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: All right. Are you ready?
• 43:55
  Speaker 7: Ready?
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: Okay. Uh, this is not an order of, of importance. Uh,
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: But these films truly make me laugh. And for some listeners,
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: I will undoubtedly go down in their estimation, but so
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: be it. Rat Race makes me laugh out loud. In fact,
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: it made me laugh so much, Rat Race, and I've
• 44:19
  Speaker 5: seen it so often that I actually had the producer,
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: Jerry Zucker, on the show to ask him why it
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: wasn't one of the top grossing films of history. Because
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: I thought it ought to be. So if people want
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: to laugh, I would be interested to know if someone
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: saw it and didn't laugh. I mean, you know, there's
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: no accounting for taste. I know that. But I just,
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: I think the thing is a riot. Now remember, I
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: love irreverent humor. You must understand that. I love dark humor.
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: I love irreverent humor. There are people who do not.
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: It makes them a little queasy. So you need to
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: know that about me. Another one. is the two films
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: of Monty Python that absolutely make me laugh out loud.
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: And that is The Holy Grail and Life of Brian. Now,
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: I do want to warn listeners that Life of Brian is,
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: in fact, an irreverent takeoff on the story of Jesus.
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: But if you understand that there is no insult meanted whatsoever,
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: it's just a crack-up. then I think one can deal
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: with it. But those are truly, are you familiar with
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: them at all?
• 45:34
  Speaker 12: No, I'm not, and I've seen Rat Race, and it
• 45:36
  Speaker 12: is obviously a great movie.
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: Okay. Here's one that you probably didn't see that I
• 45:42
  Speaker 5: find very funny, and that is Bedazzled. Bedazzled actually is now,
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: it was first released in the 70s, and now has
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: been redone a few years ago. And it is about
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: making seven wishes with the devil, selling your soul for
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: seven wishes, and what happens. It's very well done and
• 46:09
  Speaker 5: very funny. I don't remember the old version, which was excellent.
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: Dudley Moore was in the first one. Who was the
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: guy in this one? Yeah, Brendan Fraser. He is excellent, excellent.
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: And who's the.
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: Elizabeth Hurley is the devil. Yes, who's also excellent. So
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: that's another one. Another one. Well, I was going to
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: do Woody Allen, but I think Bananas, which made me
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: laugh many times when it came out, is dated for today.
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: So I'm not putting it on the list. Oh, good.
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: I'm glad you do. I think it's hilarious. The next
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: one is What About Bob? Are you familiar with What
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: About Bob?
• 46:50
  Speaker 14: No.
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: Okay. Do you know any comedies other than Rat Race?
• 46:56
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I've watched many of the Woody Allen films, and
• 47:00
  Speaker 12: I thought Bananas was certainly.
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, absolutely. Bananas is very good. And if it's
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: not dated for the viewer, they'll crack up, absolutely. What
• 47:09
  Speaker 5: about Bob? Who's in what about Bob? Oh, Bill Murray.
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: Bill Murray is the patient. That's correct. It is, that's
• 47:22
  Speaker 5: a very, it's a dark, hilarious movie, What About Bob? So,
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: all right, so you let me know how you react
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: to those, okay, Paul?
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: I will.
• 47:30
  Speaker 5: All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 47:33
  Speaker 5: By the way, I would love to know, oh, Liar Liar.
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: I had Liar Liar also. But Liar Liar is almost
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: a great movie, in fact. But it is more, well,
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: it is serious. It has a serious message.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Untimeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: My subject today is why I call the age in
• 48:02
  Speaker 5: which we live the Age of Stupidity. You know, there
• 48:05
  Speaker 5: are many eras. There was the Renaissance. There was the
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: Age of Reason. There was what was called the Enlightenment.
• 48:13
  Speaker 5: And the Romantic Age. There were all sorts of periods
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: in Western history. We now live in the Age of Stupidity.
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: And this is not meant as a funny line, a
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: throwaway line, or anything like that. It is, we do live,
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: and I will try to make my case, I will
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: give you idea after idea that has permeated the intellectual life,
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: and especially the intellectual life, of Western society in the
• 48:42
  Speaker 5: last 40 years or so, ushered in by the baby boomers,
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: as they're called, although they had to pick up these
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: ideas from people who lived before them. They didn't manufacture them,
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: so these are not brand new ideas, but they blossomed
• 48:59
  Speaker 5: in the baby boomer generation.
• 49:03
  Speaker 13: One reason I love your show is that you're always
• 49:05
  Speaker 13: so precise with language. So I was kind of curious
• 49:09
  Speaker 13: as to why you used the word stupidity instead of
• 49:13
  Speaker 13: just saying the age of the unwise or something like that.
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: Because it would have no, it would have no meaning
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: for most people. Wisdom is not even a value that
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: my generation held. So what? So unwise? Oh, big deal.
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: It means nothing. It would mean something to people who
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: value wisdom. But my generation and the universities don't value wisdom.
• 49:40
  Speaker 5: They value politically correct positions and they value emotion. How
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: does your heart feel about it, which is the antithesis
• 49:48
  Speaker 5: of wisdom? So the age of unwisdom is almost like
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: saying the age of non-chiropractic. It just has no meaning.
• 49:57
  Speaker 6: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
• 50:01
  Speaker 6: Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis' lectures, courses,
• 50:07
  Speaker 6: and classic radio programs and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: We want to take just a second to thank the
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on
• 50:20
  Speaker 6: the podcast. Go to lifeaudio.com to find dozens of other
• 50:24
  Speaker 6: faith-centered podcasts and their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
• 50:29
  Speaker 6: and more.