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Speaker 1: Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Denis Prager. Here thousands of

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Speaker 1: hours of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs. I

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Speaker 1: had to purchase Denesprager's Rational Bibles. Go to Denisprager dot com.

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Speaker 2: What if the religious system does not pan out?

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Speaker 3: What if it's not valid? What if it's not viable?

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Speaker 3: Is that what you're saying or satisfactory or whatever? All right,

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Speaker 3: there are two very quick issues to comment there, ladies

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Speaker 3: and gentlemen. I am arguing here for the necessity of

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Speaker 3: religion for happiness.

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Speaker 2: In the human being.

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Speaker 3: I am not arguing at this point for a specific

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Speaker 3: religion number one. Number two, I'm not arguing that all

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Speaker 3: religion is valid. Number three, I am not here to

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Speaker 3: prove to you that religion is valid. I'm here to

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Speaker 3: make one case, and one case only. I do not

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Speaker 3: believe that a happy life is obtainable without what religion gives.

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Speaker 3: Religion may in fact be an absolute human creation with

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Speaker 3: in varying degrees of nonsense. I don't believe that. But

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Speaker 3: that's not this course. This course is not on the

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Speaker 3: truth of religiosity. This course is on happiness. And I

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Speaker 3: am arguing to you that in my lifetime, both in

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Speaker 3: theory and in practice, I have not found an ability

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Speaker 3: to obtain any depth of happiness without religion. Religion answers

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Speaker 3: needs that only religion can answer. When we attempt to

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Speaker 3: answer religious needs with others things, we get distorted things.

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Speaker 3: That's why I began last week with the argument. See,

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Speaker 3: sometimes I feel that when I present certain arguments to you,

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Speaker 3: because I don't use melodramatic terms, which is something I

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Speaker 3: weaned myself from over years, it doesn't hit you over

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Speaker 3: the head with the severity that.

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Speaker 2: It ought to.

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Speaker 3: But my friends, I made an argument last week, which,

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Speaker 3: if I am right about.

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Speaker 2: Must cause deep, deep thinking on your parts.

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Speaker 3: If I'm wrong about, then I'm just wrong and you

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Speaker 3: wasted a session. You may end up wasting two and

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Speaker 3: a half sessions. But if I'm right, then it's a

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Speaker 3: very serious challenge to those of you whose lives are

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Speaker 3: bereft of religious meaning, and that is that the human

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Speaker 3: being has a religious need. Every bit is real, as

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Speaker 3: the need for love, as the need for certain physical things.

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Speaker 3: I use love most particularly because you can live without love,

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Speaker 3: and you can live without what religion gives. But I

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Speaker 3: don't believe that you can do so in the fullest

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Speaker 3: way of our association of happiness with depth.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So I'm not here to argue.

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Speaker 3: Therefore all religion is wonderful or all religious people are happy.

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Speaker 2: That's nonsense. There are many people for whom religion is

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Speaker 2: a cause of misery. Okay. I am deeply aware of that.

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Speaker 3: There are people for whom, if they were liberated from

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Speaker 3: the way their family lived religion, they would be a

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Speaker 3: much happier human being.

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Speaker 2: I want that understood here.

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Speaker 3: That is, you know, to argue that aspirin is very

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Speaker 3: powerful in helping headaches is not to argue that every

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Speaker 3: one of you should be taking aspirin because some of

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Speaker 3: you may have terrible allergies to aspirin.

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Speaker 2: All right.

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Speaker 3: I mean it's a lousy metaphor, but but it serves

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Speaker 3: the purpose for the moment. Okay, I want that understood.

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Speaker 3: I'm talking about healthy religion. I'm talking about it in

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Speaker 3: its best sense. I'm not talking about it where it

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Speaker 3: is a vehicle for neuroses. It's not alone for evil.

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Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Brager's timeless wisdom.

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Speaker 3: All right, Yes, religion on your RIDEO show to be

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Speaker 3: indicated without ethics, Is it implicit in what you're staying

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Speaker 3: here that yes, it is implicit here that I'm speaking

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Speaker 3: about religion with ethics because of my argument earlier that

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Speaker 3: goodness is one of the vehicles to happiness. That's why

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Speaker 3: this ties in a lot of that, and that's why

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Speaker 3: the religious part comes at the end of the course

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Speaker 3: on the basis of those other suppositions like depth, especially depth,

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Speaker 3: and especially.

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Speaker 2: What did I just say, goodness? I think that that's right.

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Speaker 2: The two are essential.

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Speaker 3: But there is many more, many more reasons, and that's

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Speaker 3: what I'd like to get to today. I will not

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Speaker 3: get to all of them today. Incidentally, for those of

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Speaker 3: you who, after all of my reasons, will reject my

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Speaker 3: argument for the necessity for a religious commitment. And by

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Speaker 3: the way, did I make it clear that I was

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Speaker 3: speaking of organized religion and not just some vague form

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Speaker 3: of spirituality that I did? I?

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Speaker 2: No, that's important, and I will have to get to that.

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Speaker 3: Let me write that down, you know, I really I

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Speaker 3: really ought to make that clear at the outset. Now,

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Speaker 3: even if you reject my argument after hearing all my reasons,

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Speaker 3: and there will be about ten of them. It will

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Speaker 3: still be worth your while for a number of reasons

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Speaker 3: to have heard all this one. You will have to

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Speaker 3: figure out what you have in your life that answers

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Speaker 3: these needs that I am listing that is not within religion.

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Speaker 2: Are you with me? You may say I don't.

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Speaker 3: You may say I don't need religion because I have

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Speaker 3: answered those particular.

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Speaker 2: Needs in the following ways.

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Speaker 3: So it is still very worth your while to confront

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Speaker 3: the challenge that I'm posing to you in this regard.

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Speaker 3: I don't think there are other ways, and I think

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Speaker 3: that people do attempt to use other ways, and that

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Speaker 3: is t to tell oh what they are is to

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Speaker 3: repeat last week. But uh, the fact by the way

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Speaker 3: that people do so often try to use other vehicles

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Speaker 3: for doing exactly what.

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Speaker 2: Religion does may give you a.

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Speaker 3: A sense of the importance of that innate need as

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Speaker 3: I call it in the human being.

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Speaker 2: Now let me just make something clear here.

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Speaker 3: I am talking about organized religion. I am not talking

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Speaker 3: about spirituality. Is it is you had a question?

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Speaker 2: Is that it okay? Uh? If they were that he

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Speaker 2: were saying theology stay of self.

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Speaker 3: Actualized after a lot of people wish pretty much is

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Speaker 3: a discrision of what you regard.

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Speaker 2: An happy person. You said, just se balance or you

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Speaker 2: or involved organized religion, right, and that.

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Speaker 3: I right. I would say that Maslow and other thinkers

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Speaker 3: from the sixties who spoke in terms of satile factualization

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Speaker 3: have reached.

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Speaker 2: A dead end.

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Speaker 3: Well, look, you know what I suggest the following. Don't

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Speaker 3: trust Prager, don't trust Maslow. Trust something that I'm a

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Speaker 3: big believer in common sense and your own observations.

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Speaker 2: You get around in life, you.

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Speaker 3: Know people, You've seen people ask what I am giving you?

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Speaker 3: He give you his fruit of his research. I'm giving

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Speaker 3: you the fruit of my research. I started reading him

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Speaker 3: in the sixties and gave up. This does not mean

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Speaker 3: he is not brilliant. It just means that I personally

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Speaker 3: did not relate to what I was reading in him.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so it's okay.

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Speaker 3: I really it's unfair to him to even comment on

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Speaker 3: him from my perspective given that fact, All right, I

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Speaker 3: do I want to just finish that thought.

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Speaker 2: You.

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Speaker 3: First of all, it would be you, see, an interesting

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Speaker 3: question would be how many of you know truly religious people.

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Speaker 3: See a lot of secular people live with secular people.

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Speaker 3: A lot of religious people live with religious people. Unlike Maslow,

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Speaker 3: I suspect I have lived very intensely with both. I

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Speaker 3: truly straddle both worlds. I have immersed myself in and

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Speaker 3: immersed myself entirely at times only in one of the

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Speaker 3: two worlds. I don't know any psychologist who has written

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Speaker 3: on self actualization.

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Speaker 2: Or just happiness who has done so.

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Speaker 3: Overwhelmingly those in the secular disciplines like psychology have studied

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Speaker 3: religion from the outside, say or the religious no a key,

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Speaker 3: A key and indispensable. I would put right, but it's

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Speaker 3: not enough alone. Otherwise I would've just spent a religious

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Speaker 3: course on happiness. Yes, where I religious people are able

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Speaker 3: to be or to a lot of people that hear

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Speaker 3: in down okay, I I can't. I I would have

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Speaker 3: to read it. It's like when people alright, okay. So

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Speaker 3: then that's why I don't wanna come in on. And

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Speaker 3: neither of us knows enough about Maslow on that in

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Speaker 3: particular issue.

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Speaker 2: Was there someone else? Yes? Right?

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Speaker 3: Is this this woman has a friend who is Jewish,

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Speaker 3: who UH wishes to be or has become an atheist

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Speaker 3: because he believes that religion has caused uh s most

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Speaker 3: problems and wars and history Okay, Well, first of all,

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Speaker 3: your friend made a very unintellectual decision. Even if he

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Speaker 3: was right, and he's totally wrong. But I'll come back

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Speaker 3: to that a minute. But even if he's right that

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Speaker 3: religion has been the greatest source of evil in history,

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Speaker 3: to conclude therefore that one should be an atheist is

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Speaker 3: a total non sequitur. Even if religions have been the

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Speaker 3: greatest source of evil in the world, what does that

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Speaker 3: have to do with whether or not God exists. It

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Speaker 3: merely has to do with how people have used religion.

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Speaker 3: It is like saying, if someone who had been tortured

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Speaker 3: by a Nazi doctor and Auschwitz had concluded that they

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Speaker 3: no longer believe in medicine. Gee, look at how the

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Speaker 3: doctors at Auschwitz were. By the way, it is a

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Speaker 3: very common non thought through response of those who attack

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Speaker 3: religion to say precisely what your friend says, because religion

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Speaker 3: has been used for evil, therefore they make a conclusion

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Speaker 3: with regard to God. But it is identical to saying,

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Speaker 3: because doctors have been corrupt or used or even evil,

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Speaker 3: as in the case of Nazi doctors, I no longer

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Speaker 3: believe in medicine. Why come we don't do that have

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Speaker 3: come with all the lawyers that many of you think

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Speaker 3: are some of the earth, how come none of you

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Speaker 3: believe we should therefore rough law. It is the only

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Speaker 3: area of life where there is evil, where people say,

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Speaker 3: therefore you have to throw out the source is religion.

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Speaker 3: And the reason I am convinced that is not at

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Speaker 3: all intellectual. It's purely emotional, because nothing arouses as much

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Speaker 3: passion pro ancon as religion does. Now, as regards to

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Speaker 3: the claim, the claim itself is absurd. Human evil is

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Speaker 3: caused by humans. It is not generally caused by religion,

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Speaker 3: though religion has on occasion absolutely caused it. People will

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Speaker 3: be evil, and they will use anything at their disposal,

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Speaker 3: whether it will be totem, pole worship, nationalism, believe in humanity,

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Speaker 3: tell your friend, and this is easily documented. Far more

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Speaker 3: people have been murdered in the name of humanity in

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Speaker 3: progress than have been murdered in the name of God.

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Speaker 3: Should we therefore drop belief in humanity in progress?

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Speaker 2: Far more people?

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Speaker 3: Communism in this century has slaughtered more people than any religion,

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Speaker 3: and accuse me, than all religions in all of history. Therefore, well,

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Speaker 3: then let's drop all of its claims or anything that

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Speaker 3: it believed in.

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Speaker 2: People want to do that with.

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Speaker 3: Religion, and there's a reason people want to do it

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Speaker 3: with religion. Religion is the only thing that tells you

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Speaker 3: you're wrong. People don't like to be told they're wrong.

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Speaker 3: What your friend really doesn't want is something telling him

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Speaker 3: your wrong, your conscience, your brain, your reasoning is insufficient.

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Speaker 3: That is very bad news to your friend, especially if

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Speaker 3: he's Jewish. Jews have a particularly hard time with religion,

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Speaker 3: which is too bad since they brought it into the world.

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Speaker 3: It's a very serious problem in Jewish life. But that

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Speaker 3: is for another course at another time.

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Speaker 1: All right, this episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right

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Speaker 1: after this. Now back to more of Dennis Brager's Timeless Wisdom.

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Speaker 3: People who have found great meaning in their lives are

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Speaker 3: not religious and are happy.

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Speaker 2: I believe that they exist.

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Speaker 3: I believe, however, that the fact that individuals of any

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Speaker 3: variety can exist does not make it a rule. As

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Speaker 3: lawyers say, bad cases make bad laws. I'm not here

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Speaker 3: to pass judgment on others' happiness. I can tell you, though, intellectually,

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Speaker 3: that if someone has found great meaning in life without religion,

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Speaker 3: I think he is fooling. I think what he has

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Speaker 3: done is exactly what John Paul Sautra and the existentialists have.

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Speaker 2: Said you have to do.

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Speaker 3: They have said, as follows, there is no meaning in

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Speaker 3: the universe. It is all accident, which anyone who is

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Speaker 3: an atheist must conclude.

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Speaker 2: It is all accident.

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Speaker 3: In fact, it is accident upon accident upon accident.

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Speaker 2: Stephen J.

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Speaker 3: Gould, the great paleontologist at Harvard, has just written his

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Speaker 3: latest book, and he is the most widely read on

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Speaker 3: evolution in the world, or at least in the English

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Speaker 3: speaking world. And his theory is that even those who

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Speaker 3: believe in Darwin haven't gone far enough. Most people, he said,

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Speaker 3: believe that the human being is a pinnacle of natural progress.

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Speaker 3: He said, Belogney, we are pure accident, absolute accident, a

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Speaker 3: fluke of nature. If you take that seriously, you cannot

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Speaker 3: intellectually hold that life has meaning. No existentialist did. Existentialism

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Speaker 3: posits an honest thing. Existentialists say as follows, there is

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Speaker 3: no God. Therefore life has no meaning. It is all

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Speaker 3: an accident. But you cannot wake up every day, look

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Speaker 3: in the mirror and say good morning you. Coincidence of

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Speaker 3: molecular development it's too depressing. You end up like Woody Allen,

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Speaker 3: the child in the film telling his father about the

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Speaker 3: sun exploding ninety million years from now. That's why I

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Speaker 3: like Woody Allen. He's honest. He confronts. He confronts the

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Speaker 3: questions most irreligious people do not confront. And so you

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Speaker 3: are a meaningless coincidence of molecular development.

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Speaker 2: Molecular development has no meaning. It is pure chance.

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Speaker 3: But since you can't emotionally look in the mirror and

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Speaker 3: admit it, what you do is you make up a meaning.

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Speaker 3: Your friends, whom you claim are not religious but have

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Speaker 3: meaning and happiness, have made up a.

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Speaker 2: Meaning, which is a good thing. They did, let me

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Speaker 2: tell you, they'd go nuts, but they're not being honest.

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Speaker 3: Life is pointless if there is no God, absolutely pointless.

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Speaker 2: You can make up one.

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Speaker 3: I want to help the poor, I want to be

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Speaker 3: nice to my children. Sure, you made it up, but

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Speaker 3: it's just the way you have dealt with the given

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Speaker 3: of meaninglessness. And I'm going to come to that in

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Speaker 3: the last part of the religious part. So let me

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Speaker 3: go ahead now with what I'm going to talk about

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Speaker 3: and get to that later. Now, my friends, let me

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Speaker 3: make this point clear. To you about religion. Those of

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Speaker 3: you who are my age I'm forty one. Those of

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Speaker 3: you who are my age, around my age and younger. Probably,

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Speaker 3: while you have some emotional reaction against, or might have

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Speaker 3: some emotional reaction against, my argument about the necessity for

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Speaker 3: religious meaning in one's life, do not, Probably do not

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Speaker 3: merely as severely react against this claim as you would

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Speaker 3: have twenty years ago. If I would get up in

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Speaker 3: front of an intelligent group of people like yourselves, and

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Speaker 3: you know I'm not patronizing you who you are. If

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Speaker 3: I were to get up in front of a group

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Speaker 3: such as yourself in the nineteen sixties and early seventies,

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Speaker 3: same people or same type of people, same educational background,

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Speaker 3: I take it most of you are not religiously active,

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Speaker 3: in other words, active in an organized religion. I would

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Speaker 3: have been hissed and booed, I think, out loud, not

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Speaker 3: just silently in your mind, to have made the claim

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Speaker 3: that happiness necessitates religious meaning. A lot has happened in

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Speaker 3: the last twenty one of them is purely a function, however,

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Speaker 3: of chronology, and that is the generation that dominated American thinking.

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Speaker 3: My generation of baby Boomers is now, thank god, twenty

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Speaker 3: years older, this country became youth maniad because of the

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Speaker 3: preponderance of baby boomers and one other equally important reason.

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Speaker 3: Adults were so weak that they admitted that the kids

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Speaker 3: were right.

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Speaker 2: First time in the history of humanity that that happened.

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Speaker 3: Educators at major institutions, such as the one I attended,

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Speaker 3: Columbia University, actually said to the students, you're right. We

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Speaker 3: don't know what curriculum to teach you, even though we're

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Speaker 3: two and a half times older than you. You at

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Speaker 3: nineteen years old, twelve years after diapers.

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Speaker 2: You know better.

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Speaker 3: So once the older generation abdicated any notion of having

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Speaker 3: greater wisdom than the kids, kids became the dominant issue.

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Speaker 3: But most of us, not by any means, all have

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Speaker 3: actually grown up.

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Speaker 2: And when that.

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Speaker 3: Happens, questions are asked at forty that aren't asked by

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Speaker 3: most people at twenty. I asked them at twenty, not

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Speaker 3: because I'm wonderful, but because I was raised religious and

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Speaker 3: having to confront the secular world meant I had to

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Speaker 3: ask questions very quickly in my life or either stop

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Speaker 3: being religious or hide from the secular world. I opted

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Speaker 3: for neither. I stayed religious, but live in the secular world. Now,

314
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Speaker 3: at this age, something has happened to my our generation,

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Speaker 3: and that is a certain realization that some of the

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00:21:12,899 --> 00:21:17,060
Speaker 3: presuppositions of our youth and of the past may not

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Speaker 3: be all that valid. For example, a lot of the

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Speaker 3: things that we thought would in fact bring happiness, inner peace, satisfaction.

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Speaker 2: Don't quite turn out that way.

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Speaker 3: Whether it be revolution or a white picket fence dog

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Speaker 3: and two kids.

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Speaker 2: Whichever way sixties kids went left or.

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Speaker 3: Right or center, whether they became arbitrage maneuverers on Wall

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Speaker 3: Street or what have you.

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Speaker 2: Something is gnoying at much of our.

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Speaker 3: Generation, and certainly something is annoying at many who are

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Speaker 3: also somewhat older than us. The annoying is that inter

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Speaker 3: angst something is missing from my equation. There's a real

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00:22:09,939 --> 00:22:12,060
Speaker 3: black hole there, and I don't know how to fill it.

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Speaker 3: And by the way, people will think of many ways

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Speaker 3: of filling it, and I will talk about that in

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Speaker 3: a moment. So something has arisen which has in fact

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Speaker 3: attracted literally millions upon millions of people of this generation.

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Speaker 3: It's called New age thought. New age thought is spirituality

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Speaker 3: without religion. It is one example of it. What you

336
00:22:40,500 --> 00:22:45,139
Speaker 3: have here in theory is the best of both worlds.

337
00:22:45,739 --> 00:22:50,060
Speaker 3: You have the meaning and the transcendence that traditional religion

338
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Speaker 3: gave you, but none of its demands.

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Speaker 2: There is nothing more wonderful. I am God. God is

340
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Speaker 2: in me.

341
00:22:59,859 --> 00:23:02,019
Speaker 3: I don't have to listen to any God outside of me,

342
00:23:02,060 --> 00:23:05,740
Speaker 3: which is exactly what Judaism and Christianity teach. New Age

343
00:23:05,739 --> 00:23:08,619
Speaker 3: in that way is the antithesis of Christianity and Judaism.

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00:23:09,859 --> 00:23:12,539
Speaker 3: Christianity and Judaism teach that God is outside of you

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Speaker 3: and makes moral demands upon you, and you are accountable

346
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Speaker 3: to this God for your behavior in its various incarnations.

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Speaker 3: Whatever the incarnation is that I am aware of is

348
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Speaker 3: fundamentally and they have many variations. But it's within these

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Speaker 3: parameters that each one of us has God within us

350
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Speaker 3: and that we have to get in touch to use

351
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Speaker 3: its lingo with the God within us.

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Speaker 2: Now, that is fun. That's you know what it is.

353
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Speaker 3: It's light lite, like you have light beer, You've got

354
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Speaker 3: light religion. This generation that did not go into traditional

355
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Speaker 3: religious movements and has wanted, however, some sort of spiritual

356
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Speaker 3: and not just this generation, it includes fifties and sixties

357
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Speaker 3: as well, people who were formally secular who have opted

358
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Speaker 3: not to remain entirely devoid of the transcendent and not

359
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Speaker 3: gone into organized religion, will have gone into what I

360
00:24:18,780 --> 00:24:22,459
Speaker 3: call light religion, a religion that gives you some sense

361
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Speaker 3: of the spiritual, yet none of the moral demands, none

362
00:24:26,619 --> 00:24:30,019
Speaker 3: of the judge judgments, if you will, to use the

363
00:24:30,020 --> 00:24:34,340
Speaker 3: dirtiest word from the sixties, none of the judgmentalism which

364
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Speaker 3: traditional religion is filled with. And I say that as

365
00:24:40,179 --> 00:24:43,740
Speaker 3: a given, not as an accusation, not as a defense,

366
00:24:44,100 --> 00:24:49,459
Speaker 3: but as descriptive as you can get. The Judeo Christian

367
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Speaker 3: world is a judgmental world.

368
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Speaker 2: That is correct. Some Jews on the left, some Christians.

369
00:24:55,619 --> 00:24:58,659
Speaker 3: On the left will try to deny it and will

370
00:24:58,699 --> 00:25:02,699
Speaker 3: become new Age Jews or new Age Christians, or just

371
00:25:02,820 --> 00:25:07,099
Speaker 3: call themselves radical within their own religion. But they are

372
00:25:07,219 --> 00:25:09,659
Speaker 3: distorting what is that the essence of it, And the

373
00:25:09,820 --> 00:25:12,379
Speaker 3: essence is there is a God who says thou shalt

374
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Speaker 3: and thou shalt not, and you've got.

375
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Speaker 2: To answer, and if you don't answer right, you pay

376
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Speaker 2: the bill.

377
00:25:18,459 --> 00:25:21,699
Speaker 3: That is as Jewish as it is Christian Christians may

378
00:25:21,699 --> 00:25:24,300
Speaker 3: speak of Helen Heaven more than Judaism, which will speak

379
00:25:24,340 --> 00:25:27,260
Speaker 3: of reward and punishment for a what difference does it make?

380
00:25:27,619 --> 00:25:30,739
Speaker 3: The idea is basically the same. There are certain ways

381
00:25:30,739 --> 00:25:34,379
Speaker 3: to lead a life, and if you don't, there is punishment,

382
00:25:34,739 --> 00:25:35,139
Speaker 3: or if.

383
00:25:34,979 --> 00:25:37,980
Speaker 2: You were better consequences at the end.

384
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Speaker 3: All right, that's not appealing to a generation, in particular

385
00:25:42,820 --> 00:25:46,379
Speaker 3: if people raised secular when you don't have to answer

386
00:25:46,419 --> 00:25:48,699
Speaker 3: to anybody. And after all, what was the motto of

387
00:25:48,739 --> 00:25:51,939
Speaker 3: the sixties. It's still on some Volvo bumper stickers. You

388
00:25:51,979 --> 00:25:53,699
Speaker 3: will never see it on any other car. It is

389
00:25:53,739 --> 00:25:59,899
Speaker 3: only on volpos And that is question authority, right, Well,

390
00:25:59,939 --> 00:26:03,699
Speaker 3: the ultimate authority is God, and that is the last

391
00:26:03,699 --> 00:26:08,540
Speaker 3: thing I want, an invisible, morally judging God count me out.

392
00:26:09,739 --> 00:26:12,619
Speaker 2: I don't want that. I like the one inside.

393
00:26:12,100 --> 00:26:14,059
Speaker 3: Of me that I can get in touch with in

394
00:26:14,139 --> 00:26:15,300
Speaker 3: between orgasms.

395
00:26:15,780 --> 00:26:18,699
Speaker 2: That is the way to do it. And so it

396
00:26:18,780 --> 00:26:20,020
Speaker 2: has a real appeal.

397
00:26:20,699 --> 00:26:25,219
Speaker 3: I understand its appeal, and I believe that in some

398
00:26:25,379 --> 00:26:30,179
Speaker 3: ways it can, in fact even be intoxicating enough to

399
00:26:30,300 --> 00:26:35,219
Speaker 3: help blind you to the real black hole inside of one.

400
00:26:35,659 --> 00:26:37,500
Speaker 3: But I am talking in here. I have to ask

401
00:26:37,540 --> 00:26:39,300
Speaker 3: you to write down the questions jaw. I'll never get

402
00:26:39,340 --> 00:26:42,820
Speaker 3: through the material. Please don't forget it. So therefore, Please

403
00:26:42,899 --> 00:26:47,379
Speaker 3: understand I am talking about organized religion. I don't care

404
00:26:47,379 --> 00:26:48,780
Speaker 3: if the organized I am not.

405
00:26:48,780 --> 00:26:50,979
Speaker 2: Here to advocate. Not in this course, I am not

406
00:26:51,100 --> 00:26:53,099
Speaker 2: advocating a specific.

407
00:26:52,699 --> 00:26:57,299
Speaker 3: Organized religion, and AI have my own preference, which is

408
00:26:57,300 --> 00:27:01,500
Speaker 3: well known to you. But b I also believe that

409
00:27:01,540 --> 00:27:04,379
Speaker 3: within all organized religions as we know them, there are

410
00:27:04,419 --> 00:27:07,780
Speaker 3: some beautiful aspects. So it doesn't matter to me as

411
00:27:07,859 --> 00:27:12,740
Speaker 3: such what the option will be in most cases, though

412
00:27:12,780 --> 00:27:13,659
Speaker 3: obviously I would.

413
00:27:13,780 --> 00:27:16,619
Speaker 2: I think it's healthiest if Jews.

414
00:27:16,540 --> 00:27:21,539
Speaker 3: Look into Judaism first, if Baptist looks into Baptisms faith

415
00:27:22,139 --> 00:27:26,019
Speaker 3: a Baptist Protestantism first, and if Catholics look into Catholicism first.

416
00:27:26,419 --> 00:27:30,460
Speaker 3: If you can't, if after looking seriously, you still wish

417
00:27:30,540 --> 00:27:35,499
Speaker 3: to reject your origins, I respect you, but it is

418
00:27:35,659 --> 00:27:39,899
Speaker 3: very important for your own psychological health. Why look elsewhere?

419
00:27:39,939 --> 00:27:44,419
Speaker 3: If you can find in fact where you came from first,

420
00:27:44,939 --> 00:27:45,340
Speaker 3: that's why.

421
00:27:45,379 --> 00:27:46,619
Speaker 2: By the way, it is very common.

422
00:27:47,340 --> 00:27:51,580
Speaker 3: For example, if a Christian will come to a Rabbi, Reform,

423
00:27:51,699 --> 00:27:54,819
Speaker 3: Conservative or Orthodox, say you know, I want to convert

424
00:27:54,820 --> 00:27:58,779
Speaker 3: to Judaism, A common question will be do you know

425
00:27:58,859 --> 00:28:01,939
Speaker 3: what you're rejecting? Why don't you first look into your

426
00:28:01,979 --> 00:28:06,740
Speaker 3: Catholicism or you're a Methodist tradition, or whatever it will be.

427
00:28:07,340 --> 00:28:13,419
Speaker 3: And then if you find that truly wanting, come back. Priests,

428
00:28:13,540 --> 00:28:15,940
Speaker 3: I know, do the same thing to Jews for example,

429
00:28:15,939 --> 00:28:18,459
Speaker 3: who will come to them? Do you know the Judaism

430
00:28:18,500 --> 00:28:23,419
Speaker 3: you're rejecting before you turn over three two hundred years

431
00:28:23,699 --> 00:28:26,700
Speaker 3: of a way of life. It's worth knowing. Then come

432
00:28:26,699 --> 00:28:28,939
Speaker 3: back and see me if you know it and still

433
00:28:28,939 --> 00:28:31,779
Speaker 3: reject it. So that is my argument for all of you,

434
00:28:31,859 --> 00:28:35,100
Speaker 3: whatever faith you were raised in, if any some of

435
00:28:35,139 --> 00:28:38,739
Speaker 3: you tually were raised I am sure with virtually nothing

436
00:28:38,820 --> 00:28:43,259
Speaker 3: or nothing. So I am when I say religious, I

437
00:28:43,340 --> 00:28:46,860
Speaker 3: mean active in an organized religion, and in terms of happiness,

438
00:28:46,900 --> 00:28:47,739
Speaker 3: which this course is.

439
00:28:47,780 --> 00:28:51,700
Speaker 2: It's not theology. I will explain why, either today or

440
00:28:51,780 --> 00:28:52,380
Speaker 2: next week.

441
00:28:52,900 --> 00:28:59,660
Speaker 3: Why organize religion and not just a spiritual feeling is

442
00:28:59,820 --> 00:29:03,420
Speaker 3: necessary in terms of happiness because there are certain things

443
00:29:03,660 --> 00:29:08,060
Speaker 3: one in particular, that organized religion has that spirituality as

444
00:29:08,140 --> 00:29:09,300
Speaker 3: such does not have.

445
00:29:09,739 --> 00:29:13,780
Speaker 2: That is I believe critical to human happiness.

446
00:29:15,900 --> 00:29:19,259
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.

447
00:29:23,739 --> 00:29:28,900
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Brager's timeless wisdom.

448
00:29:28,940 --> 00:29:39,820
Speaker 2: All right, m the questions, Oh, oh no, no, no, I

449
00:29:39,820 --> 00:29:41,219
Speaker 2: take him at the end of the session and not

450
00:29:41,260 --> 00:29:45,739
Speaker 2: at the end of any given one topic. Okay, last

451
00:29:45,780 --> 00:29:46,979
Speaker 2: week I spoke to you.

452
00:29:52,180 --> 00:29:57,500
Speaker 3: About the human innate need for religion, and secondly that religion.

453
00:29:58,180 --> 00:30:00,900
Speaker 2: Helps to give more than any other thing.

454
00:30:00,940 --> 00:30:06,459
Speaker 3: I know of one of the few indispensable things for happiness,

455
00:30:06,459 --> 00:30:07,580
Speaker 3: and that's gratitude.

456
00:30:07,860 --> 00:30:17,820
Speaker 2: Okay, you will recall that number three. This hearkens back

457
00:30:17,860 --> 00:30:21,620
Speaker 2: to the first half of the course. Those of you

458
00:30:21,660 --> 00:30:22,260
Speaker 2: who took it.

459
00:30:22,300 --> 00:30:27,459
Speaker 3: Will understand this simply more likely some of you simply

460
00:30:27,500 --> 00:30:29,900
Speaker 3: know it on your own who didn't take part one.

461
00:30:30,660 --> 00:30:32,660
Speaker 2: But those of you who took the first part know

462
00:30:34,219 --> 00:30:36,540
Speaker 2: how true. This is certainly.

463
00:30:37,620 --> 00:30:43,219
Speaker 3: Another indispensable and if anyone should know how indispensable it is,

464
00:30:43,260 --> 00:30:49,499
Speaker 3: it should be contemporary Americans. Indispensable thing characteristic for happiness

465
00:30:50,060 --> 00:30:58,459
Speaker 3: is self control. I say no one should know better

466
00:30:58,459 --> 00:31:02,660
Speaker 3: than Americans, because this country is drowning in lack of

467
00:31:02,700 --> 00:31:09,860
Speaker 3: self control. They're called addictions, and now all of a sudden,

468
00:31:10,340 --> 00:31:14,059
Speaker 3: anything that you don't control is called an addiction. The

469
00:31:14,140 --> 00:31:21,860
Speaker 3: latest is sexaholic, which I find basically a joke. Sec

470
00:31:21,940 --> 00:31:25,779
Speaker 3: who wouldn't be a sexaholic if he didn't or she

471
00:31:25,900 --> 00:31:30,579
Speaker 3: didn't control him or herself. Isn't that a joke? I mean,

472
00:31:30,620 --> 00:31:33,979
Speaker 3: I'm sure that there are people who have I'm not sure.

473
00:31:34,020 --> 00:31:36,180
Speaker 3: I know I've been told by psychologists there are people

474
00:31:36,300 --> 00:31:42,060
Speaker 3: who truly have a very relatively weak libidiness drive. Okay,

475
00:31:42,820 --> 00:31:45,059
Speaker 3: but what about for the norm man? What about for

476
00:31:45,180 --> 00:31:49,940
Speaker 3: the many who are beyond the norm? How can a

477
00:31:50,100 --> 00:31:55,700
Speaker 3: civilization which has billions, billions of dollars of pictures of

478
00:31:55,780 --> 00:32:02,140
Speaker 3: naked women on video and in magazines argue that people

479
00:32:02,500 --> 00:32:05,660
Speaker 3: don't have to control themselves in the sexual arena?

480
00:32:05,739 --> 00:32:09,220
Speaker 2: How could a country where how many women will be raped? Now?

481
00:32:09,219 --> 00:32:11,339
Speaker 2: What is the percentage in America? One? And what does

482
00:32:11,380 --> 00:32:17,459
Speaker 2: anyone know? Hmmm? One? And what one and three? Is? That?

483
00:32:17,620 --> 00:32:21,260
Speaker 3: Is that you're definite on that? Let's say it's one

484
00:32:21,300 --> 00:32:25,020
Speaker 3: in ten. Okay, let's say it's one in ten.

485
00:32:26,940 --> 00:32:29,100
Speaker 2: How about this a statistic? I do know.

486
00:32:31,739 --> 00:32:41,300
Speaker 3: Boys at colleges who were asked, Uh, if you were

487
00:32:41,380 --> 00:32:43,820
Speaker 3: certain you could get away with it, would.

488
00:32:43,700 --> 00:32:46,580
Speaker 2: You force a woman on a date to have sex?

489
00:32:47,219 --> 00:32:52,219
Speaker 3: Fifty percent plus in every instance from Ucla to Montana

490
00:32:52,340 --> 00:32:52,980
Speaker 3: answered yes.

491
00:32:54,979 --> 00:32:56,420
Speaker 2: That means an.

492
00:32:56,300 --> 00:33:00,500
Speaker 3: Ability to rape, a willingness to rape, forget ability. Every

493
00:33:00,540 --> 00:33:04,180
Speaker 3: man has the ability willingness to rape, then there is

494
00:33:04,260 --> 00:33:08,539
Speaker 3: no superego, no conscience to stop it. The only issue

495
00:33:08,540 --> 00:33:12,980
Speaker 3: being will I get away with it or not? A

496
00:33:13,020 --> 00:33:15,940
Speaker 3: society that is so run out of control in that arena,

497
00:33:16,620 --> 00:33:18,500
Speaker 3: and of course what does it bring to the men

498
00:33:19,180 --> 00:33:21,020
Speaker 3: and a handful of women, because this is.

499
00:33:20,940 --> 00:33:25,259
Speaker 2: Overwhelmingly a male problem. Women may love too much, but

500
00:33:25,380 --> 00:33:26,420
Speaker 2: men screw too much.

501
00:33:26,500 --> 00:33:28,700
Speaker 3: Okay, let's put it that way, all right, let's be

502
00:33:28,979 --> 00:33:35,340
Speaker 3: very point blank on this issue. The men are They're

503
00:33:35,340 --> 00:33:38,700
Speaker 3: not one whit happier for being led by their genitalia.

504
00:33:38,820 --> 00:33:40,900
Speaker 3: That's what I argue to single men all the time.

505
00:33:42,380 --> 00:33:45,900
Speaker 3: Men are profoundly, by nature, profoundly afraid.

506
00:33:46,420 --> 00:33:50,100
Speaker 2: Both sexes are afraid of commitment today, but men are

507
00:33:50,140 --> 00:33:52,340
Speaker 2: even more so and have always been so.

508
00:33:53,060 --> 00:33:57,539
Speaker 3: Generally, when both get engaged, he gradually before the wedding

509
00:33:57,820 --> 00:34:05,779
Speaker 3: deteriorates into a slithering, wimpy ball of fear. He starts

510
00:34:05,860 --> 00:34:10,140
Speaker 3: dreaming of being hit by trucks, and they're not considered nightmares.

511
00:34:10,500 --> 00:34:11,660
Speaker 2: That's what's so interesting.

512
00:34:17,540 --> 00:34:20,020
Speaker 3: A major part of the reason is a man says

513
00:34:20,060 --> 00:34:25,219
Speaker 3: to himself, I can't sleep with another woman the rest

514
00:34:25,260 --> 00:34:27,899
Speaker 3: of my life. That is a major part of it.

515
00:34:28,779 --> 00:34:31,940
Speaker 3: That is a major part of it. It is absolutely

516
00:34:32,140 --> 00:34:35,899
Speaker 3: animal like. It has no brain. It is located in

517
00:34:35,940 --> 00:34:37,379
Speaker 3: the midsection.

518
00:34:36,980 --> 00:34:40,340
Speaker 2: Of his body. His brain is there when it comes

519
00:34:40,380 --> 00:34:40,540
Speaker 2: to that.

520
00:34:41,100 --> 00:34:46,620
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, the only issue is therefore can he control it.

521
00:34:47,500 --> 00:34:50,339
Speaker 3: If he doesn't, though, he is made miserable. And that's

522
00:34:50,420 --> 00:34:54,660
Speaker 3: my argument to the single guy who feels that you

523
00:34:54,819 --> 00:34:58,620
Speaker 3: want to live your life for your genitals, that's what

524
00:34:58,660 --> 00:35:01,259
Speaker 3: you want to run your life. You will die and

525
00:35:01,380 --> 00:35:04,020
Speaker 3: be able to say you went to bed with X

526
00:35:04,140 --> 00:35:04,940
Speaker 3: number of women.

527
00:35:05,380 --> 00:35:07,939
Speaker 2: Wow, isn't that wonderful?

528
00:35:08,219 --> 00:35:10,779
Speaker 3: And his brain knows what I'm saying is absolutely right,

529
00:35:12,940 --> 00:35:17,899
Speaker 3: But he's being tugged profoundly by hormones that are saying, no,

530
00:35:18,140 --> 00:35:20,499
Speaker 3: listen to him. He's selling you a bill of good

531
00:35:20,940 --> 00:35:23,620
Speaker 3: and certainly don't listen to her. She has an agenda

532
00:35:23,660 --> 00:35:27,739
Speaker 3: to enshrap you. That is why it's verybut it is

533
00:35:27,779 --> 00:35:30,459
Speaker 3: still important to hear it from a man. Men can

534
00:35:30,460 --> 00:35:33,620
Speaker 3: make powerful arguments to men about the importance of.

535
00:35:33,620 --> 00:35:37,100
Speaker 2: Marriage and need to. By the way, it's very important

536
00:35:37,140 --> 00:35:41,299
Speaker 2: that men know this. But that's what it is.

537
00:35:41,339 --> 00:35:44,180
Speaker 3: It's being led by one's genitals and not one's brains.

538
00:35:44,420 --> 00:35:49,380
Speaker 3: That doesn't bring happiness. It brings pleasure, But the minute

539
00:35:49,380 --> 00:35:52,259
Speaker 3: that pleasure is over, is he happier, is he deeper?

540
00:35:53,380 --> 00:35:58,459
Speaker 3: Or is it yet the next time for pleasure. I'm

541
00:35:58,500 --> 00:35:59,900
Speaker 3: not making moral arguments.

542
00:35:59,980 --> 00:36:00,620
Speaker 2: I've told you.

543
00:36:01,299 --> 00:36:05,819
Speaker 3: If these arguments worked, and we're not ethical, then I

544
00:36:05,819 --> 00:36:08,819
Speaker 3: would have to and honesty argue for them, because this

545
00:36:08,940 --> 00:36:11,060
Speaker 3: is a happiness course, not an ethics course.

546
00:36:11,859 --> 00:36:12,860
Speaker 2: But it doesn't work.

547
00:36:13,540 --> 00:36:16,700
Speaker 3: Men who are led like this, Men who have affairs. Oh,

548
00:36:16,779 --> 00:36:19,100
Speaker 3: having affairs, as we all know, is a great source

549
00:36:19,100 --> 00:36:23,660
Speaker 3: of happiness for all concerns. Right, everyone who's having an affair,

550
00:36:23,779 --> 00:36:28,219
Speaker 3: everyone involved is thrilled. The third party is just so happy.

551
00:36:29,020 --> 00:36:32,580
Speaker 3: As we all know from fatal attraction, for example, we're

552
00:36:32,620 --> 00:36:35,700
Speaker 3: aware of the positive impact that it has on the

553
00:36:35,739 --> 00:36:42,020
Speaker 3: outside party. Let's say, and let us say, it doesn't

554
00:36:42,020 --> 00:36:45,020
Speaker 3: matter if it's the husband or the wife.

555
00:36:45,700 --> 00:36:50,259
Speaker 2: The misery of the constant secrecy, what a life, The

556
00:36:50,299 --> 00:36:53,140
Speaker 2: burden that just the burden that is involved.

557
00:36:54,219 --> 00:36:58,060
Speaker 3: That actually, it's one of the few areas of wrongdoing

558
00:36:58,380 --> 00:37:02,379
Speaker 3: that I have massive sympathy for the wrongdoer. I think

559
00:37:02,420 --> 00:37:05,339
Speaker 3: it is so miserable to be having an affair that

560
00:37:05,420 --> 00:37:08,100
Speaker 3: I actually feel sorry for one who is having it.

561
00:37:09,060 --> 00:37:12,500
Speaker 3: I don't say that almost ever about other wrongdoing in life,

562
00:37:12,540 --> 00:37:14,899
Speaker 3: But in that regard, I have to say, well, I

563
00:37:14,900 --> 00:37:17,900
Speaker 3: obviously have sympathy for the one being wrong, the partner.

564
00:37:18,299 --> 00:37:21,060
Speaker 3: I have great sympathy for the one involved in it

565
00:37:21,140 --> 00:37:21,779
Speaker 3: because it.

566
00:37:21,779 --> 00:37:22,580
Speaker 2: Is sheer hell.

567
00:37:23,620 --> 00:37:27,340
Speaker 3: Everyone concerned it is sheer hell. And I'm not making

568
00:37:27,380 --> 00:37:30,339
Speaker 3: any moral judgment. I'm telling you my sympathy even goes out.

569
00:37:30,380 --> 00:37:31,900
Speaker 3: I'm not making a moral judgment.

570
00:37:33,779 --> 00:37:36,860
Speaker 2: But just in terms of happiness, is that happy?

571
00:37:37,219 --> 00:37:41,020
Speaker 3: The ability to conquer your hormones and conquer your drives

572
00:37:41,420 --> 00:37:44,819
Speaker 3: is the greatest gift of happiness the human can have.

573
00:37:46,180 --> 00:37:48,379
Speaker 3: Take it outside of sex as to a much more

574
00:37:48,380 --> 00:37:50,299
Speaker 3: relaxed arena food.

575
00:37:51,219 --> 00:37:53,459
Speaker 2: Who is happier he.

576
00:37:53,580 --> 00:37:56,580
Speaker 3: Or she who says I love cheesecake and will eat

577
00:37:56,660 --> 00:38:00,859
Speaker 3: much of it all day because I love it, I

578
00:38:00,900 --> 00:38:04,339
Speaker 3: will eat it. Or one who says I love cheesecake,

579
00:38:04,779 --> 00:38:08,860
Speaker 3: but I am going to control myself because.

580
00:38:08,620 --> 00:38:12,620
Speaker 2: I want to look better, I wanta whatever feel better, etc. Etc.

581
00:38:12,980 --> 00:38:17,140
Speaker 3: Who's happier now? By the way, like everything else, is

582
00:38:17,140 --> 00:38:20,579
Speaker 3: an extreme to be reached. I believe that some people

583
00:38:20,819 --> 00:38:24,219
Speaker 3: with regard to dieting and at our time have definitely

584
00:38:24,259 --> 00:38:27,740
Speaker 3: gone overboard they'll never touch something that they enjoy.

585
00:38:28,580 --> 00:38:29,859
Speaker 2: And I don't agree with that either.

586
00:38:29,940 --> 00:38:32,380
Speaker 3: I have said all the time I would not trade

587
00:38:32,420 --> 00:38:35,060
Speaker 3: in if you told me, Prager, your half piece of

588
00:38:35,100 --> 00:38:39,620
Speaker 3: cake a day is unacceptable because as a result of that,

589
00:38:39,700 --> 00:38:43,060
Speaker 3: with its cholesterol and fat and sugar, you are knocking

590
00:38:43,100 --> 00:38:46,100
Speaker 3: two years off your life. I will sign a contract

591
00:38:46,180 --> 00:38:48,740
Speaker 3: Prager is willing to give two years of his life

592
00:38:48,940 --> 00:38:52,100
Speaker 3: to half a piece of cake a day. Okay, Hey, folks,

593
00:38:52,180 --> 00:38:54,660
Speaker 3: let me tell you I'm into pleasure. Okay, just in

594
00:38:54,700 --> 00:38:58,260
Speaker 3: case he didn't know, I like pleasure, I like fun,

595
00:38:58,859 --> 00:39:01,379
Speaker 3: I like all the stuff. If I didn't like it,

596
00:39:01,420 --> 00:39:03,939
Speaker 3: I couldn't speak so well on the issue. Okay, I'm

597
00:39:03,940 --> 00:39:05,620
Speaker 3: a closet hedonist.

598
00:39:05,060 --> 00:39:06,539
Speaker 2: All right now, you know, all.

599
00:39:06,460 --> 00:39:09,219
Speaker 3: Right, Freger, And from part of my life I was

600
00:39:09,259 --> 00:39:13,499
Speaker 3: not in the closet all right now. Having said all

601
00:39:13,540 --> 00:39:18,940
Speaker 3: of that, everybody knows that self control is critical to happiness.

602
00:39:19,500 --> 00:39:21,940
Speaker 3: We do not envy the fat person who eats a

603
00:39:21,980 --> 00:39:25,100
Speaker 3: box of donuts. We do not all avay lucky they

604
00:39:25,100 --> 00:39:28,459
Speaker 3: have no hang ups about donuts. That is not what

605
00:39:28,500 --> 00:39:31,980
Speaker 3: we say. We say, too bad she doesn't have a

606
00:39:32,020 --> 00:39:34,779
Speaker 3: hang up about donuts. She'd be a lot happier a

607
00:39:34,859 --> 00:39:40,580
Speaker 3: human being. Let's give her a donut. Hang up to

608
00:39:40,700 --> 00:39:44,700
Speaker 3: use that old sixties term about anybody who exercised self control.

609
00:39:44,460 --> 00:39:48,980
Speaker 2: Remember, was called a hang up. People who have no

610
00:39:49,100 --> 00:39:52,580
Speaker 2: hang ups about exercising what they wish to do in

611
00:39:52,620 --> 00:39:54,419
Speaker 2: life end up addicted.

612
00:39:58,060 --> 00:40:02,060
Speaker 3: I have hang ups about cocaine and about drugs and

613
00:40:02,100 --> 00:40:07,299
Speaker 3: about whiskey. We're living in a society that is the

614
00:40:07,700 --> 00:40:10,859
Speaker 3: world living proof of the need for people to exercise

615
00:40:10,940 --> 00:40:14,500
Speaker 3: self control for happiness. I always find it so interesting

616
00:40:14,580 --> 00:40:17,859
Speaker 3: you think of an alcoholic, for example, person becomes an

617
00:40:17,859 --> 00:40:21,340
Speaker 3: alcoholic and then they spend so much.

618
00:40:21,219 --> 00:40:24,100
Speaker 2: Miserable time, it's painful time.

619
00:40:25,380 --> 00:40:28,419
Speaker 3: Reforming because they say they can never fully not be,

620
00:40:28,500 --> 00:40:31,979
Speaker 3: and that's the term that's used. And finally they say,

621
00:40:31,980 --> 00:40:34,180
Speaker 3: you know, I have achieved the level of happiness.

622
00:40:34,259 --> 00:40:36,580
Speaker 2: I am sober now for eight years.

623
00:40:37,900 --> 00:40:40,060
Speaker 3: And think about the rest of us who have been

624
00:40:40,100 --> 00:40:44,700
Speaker 3: sober our whole lives. You know how much envy they

625
00:40:44,779 --> 00:40:47,060
Speaker 3: must have in that sense of people who don't have

626
00:40:47,140 --> 00:40:47,780
Speaker 3: this battle.

627
00:40:49,620 --> 00:40:50,700
Speaker 2: If you are able not.

628
00:40:50,700 --> 00:40:52,899
Speaker 3: To get involved to begin with, if you're able to

629
00:40:52,940 --> 00:40:58,980
Speaker 3: control yourself, you'll be a happier human being. One final

630
00:40:59,020 --> 00:41:02,460
Speaker 3: word on this, and then given the religious tie. In

631
00:41:02,859 --> 00:41:06,620
Speaker 3: last term, I show the whole thesis of the first term,

632
00:41:06,660 --> 00:41:08,700
Speaker 3: the whole thesis of the first half of the book

633
00:41:08,859 --> 00:41:11,979
Speaker 3: is the major obstacle to.

634
00:41:11,940 --> 00:41:13,740
Speaker 2: Happiness is our own nature.

635
00:41:15,219 --> 00:41:18,660
Speaker 3: Our ability to control our nature is the single most

636
00:41:18,700 --> 00:41:22,900
Speaker 3: important item to becoming happy. You know, I I often

637
00:41:23,020 --> 00:41:27,660
Speaker 3: when I meet somebody who was unhappy, I often say,

638
00:41:28,420 --> 00:41:35,140
Speaker 3: in in so and so's battle with life, life one, I.

639
00:41:35,100 --> 00:41:36,979
Speaker 2: See it as a battle. It is in some ways

640
00:41:37,020 --> 00:41:42,979
Speaker 2: it's a real battle. Can you in the in the

641
00:41:43,020 --> 00:41:45,979
Speaker 2: battle with your own nature? Can you win? Because if

642
00:41:46,020 --> 00:41:52,219
Speaker 2: your nature wins, you're finished in this regard. I know

643
00:41:52,299 --> 00:41:53,540
Speaker 2: of no vehicle.

644
00:41:53,259 --> 00:41:57,180
Speaker 3: That better is that is more capable of having you

645
00:41:57,299 --> 00:41:59,340
Speaker 3: exercise self control than religion.

646
00:42:01,259 --> 00:42:05,979
Speaker 2: So much so that I will tell you, while I.

647
00:42:06,020 --> 00:42:10,660
Speaker 3: Theologically and intellectually am quite remote from some of the

648
00:42:11,020 --> 00:42:16,180
Speaker 3: more fervent Jesus we used to call them Jesus freaks

649
00:42:16,219 --> 00:42:17,379
Speaker 3: in the early seventies.

650
00:42:17,420 --> 00:42:19,899
Speaker 2: You remember that, Remember that term.

651
00:42:20,219 --> 00:42:23,739
Speaker 3: And I don't say that at all pejoratively, just giving

652
00:42:23,779 --> 00:42:26,460
Speaker 3: you an idea of whom we're thinking of, but people

653
00:42:26,540 --> 00:42:30,060
Speaker 3: for whom Jesus is everything, and it constantly spoken about,

654
00:42:30,100 --> 00:42:33,700
Speaker 3: and Hallelujah Jesus to every question that has asked.

655
00:42:33,420 --> 00:42:36,780
Speaker 2: To them, and so on, and praise Jesus. I'll never forget.

656
00:42:36,819 --> 00:42:39,420
Speaker 3: I met a man who was working at a hotel

657
00:42:39,900 --> 00:42:42,259
Speaker 3: in the South. I think he was the guy who

658
00:42:42,339 --> 00:42:44,660
Speaker 3: drove the limousine from the airport to the hotel. And

659
00:42:44,700 --> 00:42:46,299
Speaker 3: he was telling me. He asked me, what are you

660
00:42:46,339 --> 00:42:47,899
Speaker 3: doing here? I said, I was speaking. He said on

661
00:42:47,980 --> 00:42:51,100
Speaker 3: what I said, religion. So, boy, did he have a

662
00:42:51,140 --> 00:42:53,500
Speaker 3: story to tell me. His story was very simple.

663
00:42:54,060 --> 00:42:56,500
Speaker 2: He was the word. He was the lowest.

664
00:42:56,540 --> 00:42:59,580
Speaker 3: He was on drugs, he was on alcohol, he was

665
00:42:59,660 --> 00:43:00,979
Speaker 3: constantly womanizing.

666
00:43:01,020 --> 00:43:02,580
Speaker 2: The guy was an absolute.

667
00:43:02,219 --> 00:43:06,580
Speaker 3: Lost soul, couldn't hold a job, and then he met Jesus,

668
00:43:08,180 --> 00:43:13,380
Speaker 3: and now he is responsible. Monogamous, no whiskey, no drugs,

669
00:43:13,660 --> 00:43:14,500
Speaker 3: ladies and gentlemen.

670
00:43:14,540 --> 00:43:19,339
Speaker 2: I believe every word the guy said. Every word. There

671
00:43:19,380 --> 00:43:20,620
Speaker 2: is no doubt in my mind.

672
00:43:20,700 --> 00:43:25,339
Speaker 3: He was telling me the truth, and I am saying,

673
00:43:25,580 --> 00:43:27,340
Speaker 3: I'm telling you a story where I have no acts

674
00:43:27,339 --> 00:43:27,700
Speaker 3: to grind.

675
00:43:27,739 --> 00:43:33,180
Speaker 2: I don't believe in Jesus, but I know that he

676
00:43:33,259 --> 00:43:33,660
Speaker 2: was right.

677
00:43:35,100 --> 00:43:38,739
Speaker 3: The ability of faith, the ability of religion to conquer

678
00:43:38,779 --> 00:43:41,580
Speaker 3: what nothing else can conquer. My God, that's the secret

679
00:43:41,660 --> 00:43:47,580
Speaker 3: of aa alcoholics anonymous is based upon higher power. They

680
00:43:47,580 --> 00:43:51,580
Speaker 3: don't say Christianity, they don't say Judaism, they say higher power.

681
00:43:51,900 --> 00:43:54,700
Speaker 2: But without the higher power, there is no AA.

682
00:43:56,020 --> 00:43:59,419
Speaker 3: It is all an investment in the higher power in

683
00:43:59,460 --> 00:44:04,939
Speaker 3: this universe. That is what enables them to conquer themselves.

684
00:44:05,100 --> 00:44:07,020
Speaker 3: You need help in conquering yourself.

685
00:44:09,660 --> 00:44:15,779
Speaker 2: I'll put it to you in another arena. When I was.

686
00:44:17,900 --> 00:44:20,540
Speaker 3: When I was single, all throughout my twenties, I used

687
00:44:20,580 --> 00:44:23,580
Speaker 3: to very frequently interview and I don't mean on radio

688
00:44:23,660 --> 00:44:25,979
Speaker 3: or TV privately, but.

689
00:44:25,980 --> 00:44:28,979
Speaker 2: It's the best word I could use married men.

690
00:44:30,259 --> 00:44:33,459
Speaker 3: I was intensely curious about marriage and intensely fearful of

691
00:44:33,460 --> 00:44:37,580
Speaker 3: it as well, and I would ask them very open

692
00:44:37,660 --> 00:44:42,259
Speaker 3: questions privately. Now remember one man, he was then in

693
00:44:42,299 --> 00:44:46,020
Speaker 3: his late forties I believe early fifties. Well, I became

694
00:44:46,140 --> 00:44:49,700
Speaker 3: very friendly with in my twenties, and I said to

695
00:44:49,779 --> 00:44:52,419
Speaker 3: him privately once, I said, listen, if you don't want

696
00:44:52,420 --> 00:44:54,739
Speaker 3: to answer this, police, feel free not to. I'm only

697
00:44:54,739 --> 00:44:59,020
Speaker 3: asking it for my own ability to understand men women

698
00:44:59,060 --> 00:44:59,660
Speaker 3: in marriage.

699
00:45:00,779 --> 00:45:03,980
Speaker 2: Have you been faithful to your wife? Have you always

700
00:45:04,020 --> 00:45:04,660
Speaker 2: been faithful?

701
00:45:05,900 --> 00:45:08,019
Speaker 3: I said, Dennis, I have no reason to lie to you,

702
00:45:09,460 --> 00:45:12,219
Speaker 3: but the truth is I have. But let me tell you,

703
00:45:13,020 --> 00:45:15,899
Speaker 3: I've been very, very tempted on a number of occasions

704
00:45:16,259 --> 00:45:19,939
Speaker 3: to stray. So I said, well, why haven't you? He said,

705
00:45:19,940 --> 00:45:23,540
Speaker 3: you're gonna laugh at me. I said, I promise I

706
00:45:23,540 --> 00:45:25,860
Speaker 3: won't laugh at you. I'm dying to know the real reason.

707
00:45:26,339 --> 00:45:28,620
Speaker 2: I didn't know. I don't know. Maybe thought his organ

708
00:45:28,660 --> 00:45:29,859
Speaker 2: would fall off. I had no.

709
00:45:29,779 --> 00:45:32,299
Speaker 3: Idea what he would say. I was curious why would

710
00:45:32,299 --> 00:45:35,419
Speaker 3: I laugh at him about? So he said, I'll tell

711
00:45:35,460 --> 00:45:38,980
Speaker 3: you exactly why. He said, Look, I'm not all that

712
00:45:39,180 --> 00:45:43,100
Speaker 3: involved in religion, but I have a very basic belief

713
00:45:43,219 --> 00:45:47,140
Speaker 3: in the ten Commandments, and I really believe I'll be

714
00:45:47,219 --> 00:45:51,939
Speaker 3: punished if I violate Thou shalt not commit adultery. So

715
00:45:52,060 --> 00:45:56,500
Speaker 3: whenever it has been tempting to be perfectly honest, fear

716
00:45:56,540 --> 00:45:57,700
Speaker 3: of punishment by.

717
00:45:57,620 --> 00:46:00,459
Speaker 2: God has stopped me. I didn't laugh at him at all.

718
00:46:00,580 --> 00:46:04,100
Speaker 3: Made perfect sense to me, to which, of course, some

719
00:46:04,219 --> 00:46:07,980
Speaker 3: people will say, oh God, is that primitive people.

720
00:46:07,700 --> 00:46:08,219
Speaker 2: Should do it?

721
00:46:08,259 --> 00:46:13,219
Speaker 3: For much more sophisticated reasons. Maybe they should, maybe they shouldn't.

722
00:46:13,500 --> 00:46:16,379
Speaker 3: My own view of life is very bottom line. How

723
00:46:16,420 --> 00:46:19,259
Speaker 3: do you act, why you act? It is much less

724
00:46:19,259 --> 00:46:22,860
Speaker 3: important to me, and whether you do. Ask any woman

725
00:46:23,819 --> 00:46:28,980
Speaker 3: over eleven, Okay, I mean, and I'm some being hyperbolic.

726
00:46:29,020 --> 00:46:31,219
Speaker 3: I'm sure there are twenty year olds who have the

727
00:46:31,259 --> 00:46:34,540
Speaker 3: maturity level of a child who would not.

728
00:46:34,540 --> 00:46:36,539
Speaker 2: Answer this in the way that I expect.

729
00:46:36,859 --> 00:46:39,900
Speaker 3: Ideally, a woman would want her husband to be faithful

730
00:46:39,940 --> 00:46:42,980
Speaker 3: every day of his life solely out of love.

731
00:46:42,779 --> 00:46:47,100
Speaker 2: For her right has already left her in row two.

732
00:46:47,660 --> 00:46:53,700
Speaker 3: Right, right, that's the ideal. And I'm sure women hold

733
00:46:53,700 --> 00:46:56,939
Speaker 3: that ideal when they're fifteen sixteen and brew being a

734
00:46:56,940 --> 00:46:59,859
Speaker 3: bad men and women living happily ever after. And of

735
00:46:59,900 --> 00:47:02,419
Speaker 3: course all those stories always ended that way because if

736
00:47:02,420 --> 00:47:06,339
Speaker 3: you're really peaked in two years later it was much difficult.

737
00:47:06,420 --> 00:47:08,859
Speaker 3: It's always easy to live happily ever after because you

738
00:47:08,940 --> 00:47:10,739
Speaker 3: never had to watch what was really happening.

739
00:47:12,859 --> 00:47:16,739
Speaker 2: Ask a woman, would you rather have your husband? Yes?

740
00:47:16,819 --> 00:47:19,980
Speaker 2: Would you rather have your husband faithful because I've told

741
00:47:20,020 --> 00:47:21,700
Speaker 2: every day of love? Of course? Okay?

742
00:47:22,420 --> 00:47:26,979
Speaker 3: But what if it's because he believes in the ten commandments? Fine,

743
00:47:27,060 --> 00:47:30,899
Speaker 3: that's fine with me. I'll take it. I'll sign on

744
00:47:30,940 --> 00:47:32,379
Speaker 3: a dotted line have him.

745
00:47:32,700 --> 00:47:33,939
Speaker 2: That is fine by me.

746
00:47:34,219 --> 00:47:38,059
Speaker 3: I can't even imagine a man or a woman who

747
00:47:38,100 --> 00:47:43,620
Speaker 3: would object to that. Oh, that's the reason forget it.

748
00:47:43,620 --> 00:47:48,419
Speaker 3: It's so preposterous, of course, But the issue is that

749
00:47:48,460 --> 00:47:52,219
Speaker 3: one wants wants spouse to be to be loyal. Obviously,

750
00:47:52,580 --> 00:47:55,259
Speaker 3: if the reason is religious commitment and fear of a

751
00:47:55,299 --> 00:48:01,060
Speaker 3: god who monitors behavior, what's the difference. In fact, I

752
00:48:01,060 --> 00:48:04,979
Speaker 3: would argue that's a wonderful thing, because if I had

753
00:48:05,020 --> 00:48:09,819
Speaker 3: to rely on my spouse being faithful always solely because

754
00:48:09,940 --> 00:48:13,739
Speaker 3: she loves me, what's gonna happen on some Wednesday in

755
00:48:13,819 --> 00:48:18,980
Speaker 3: May when she doesn't finding it doesn't go by mood,

756
00:48:19,660 --> 00:48:23,100
Speaker 3: He doesn't think any given day, Well, Goddess doesn't watch that.

757
00:48:23,660 --> 00:48:26,020
Speaker 2: He's in Africa today, He's monitoring Africa.

758
00:48:27,299 --> 00:48:30,539
Speaker 3: People don't think that, but people fall in and out

759
00:48:30,540 --> 00:48:34,779
Speaker 3: of love daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, decadely.

760
00:48:38,100 --> 00:48:42,259
Speaker 2: That's a very good binding thing on self control.

761
00:48:42,420 --> 00:48:45,700
Speaker 3: Thinking that I owe it to a religious value system,

762
00:48:46,299 --> 00:48:46,779
Speaker 3: you bet.

763
00:48:48,540 --> 00:48:51,180
Speaker 2: If you have religious parents who are faithful, believe me,

764
00:48:51,299 --> 00:48:51,739
Speaker 2: you know.

765
00:48:51,779 --> 00:48:56,859
Speaker 3: And they know the good part of it. I'm dear

766
00:48:56,940 --> 00:49:01,739
Speaker 3: friends with some with a Mormon couple. I am not

767
00:49:01,940 --> 00:49:04,500
Speaker 3: naive about human nature any other you've ever heard me

768
00:49:04,500 --> 00:49:06,379
Speaker 3: speak now, In any event, I don't even believe human

769
00:49:06,460 --> 00:49:10,299
Speaker 3: nature is basically good, So I certainly can't be charged

770
00:49:10,339 --> 00:49:13,820
Speaker 3: with a rose color view of human nature. I'm pretty

771
00:49:13,859 --> 00:49:16,339
Speaker 3: certain that this couple is going to be faithful, and

772
00:49:16,380 --> 00:49:19,339
Speaker 3: it's very hard to say about any couple in the world.

773
00:49:20,739 --> 00:49:24,580
Speaker 2: In the Mormon search, boy, they if you're an active.

774
00:49:24,259 --> 00:49:28,219
Speaker 3: Member in the Mormon Church, you better not commit adultery.

775
00:49:29,660 --> 00:49:32,900
Speaker 3: There are monthly or whatever is. Certainly there are regular

776
00:49:33,020 --> 00:49:37,099
Speaker 3: procedures whereby you speak about your behavior, and there's a

777
00:49:37,219 --> 00:49:42,020
Speaker 3: very strong system of belief about punishment on these issues.

778
00:49:43,580 --> 00:49:47,939
Speaker 2: That's not bad. What else is going to work? Love,

779
00:49:49,180 --> 00:49:51,739
Speaker 2: Tell me what non religious thing.

780
00:49:51,739 --> 00:49:55,739
Speaker 3: Can compare on keeping people faithful to each other to

781
00:49:55,819 --> 00:50:00,180
Speaker 3: a religious commitment. Because I'm not taking questions now, don't

782
00:50:00,259 --> 00:50:02,620
Speaker 3: raise your hand, but write down if you can think

783
00:50:02,660 --> 00:50:05,140
Speaker 3: I'm serious, I would love to know if you can

784
00:50:05,219 --> 00:50:10,739
Speaker 3: imagine any non religious emotional value. Whatever you will say,

785
00:50:12,060 --> 00:50:16,739
Speaker 3: there is no comparison to a religious binding element.

786
00:50:18,219 --> 00:50:19,939
Speaker 2: None.

787
00:50:20,180 --> 00:50:22,739
Speaker 3: The break out of family life in America, which we

788
00:50:22,859 --> 00:50:25,700
Speaker 3: hold to be a major source of unhappiness in this country,

789
00:50:26,219 --> 00:50:30,780
Speaker 3: is directly attributable in part the secularization of the family. Absolutely,

790
00:50:32,980 --> 00:50:35,579
Speaker 3: I'm not arguing that religion is true. Remember I said

791
00:50:35,580 --> 00:50:38,860
Speaker 3: that in my first answer. I'm arguing that it works.

792
00:50:39,739 --> 00:50:43,140
Speaker 3: We're talking about happiness, not theological truth. I think it's true.

793
00:50:43,180 --> 00:50:46,259
Speaker 3: I believe it's true. That's a separate issue. That's the

794
00:50:46,299 --> 00:50:52,100
Speaker 3: class before this one. By the way, on this binding element,

795
00:50:52,140 --> 00:50:56,060
Speaker 3: I'll give you one example that is not related to happiness,

796
00:50:56,060 --> 00:50:58,540
Speaker 3: but will help you in understanding the role that religion

797
00:50:58,540 --> 00:51:00,859
Speaker 3: plays in people's lives and why I rely on it.

798
00:51:01,700 --> 00:51:03,020
Speaker 2: A lot of Jews were.

799
00:51:02,940 --> 00:51:06,660
Speaker 3: Very suspicious of the Reverend Jerry Fulwell's support of Israel.

800
00:51:09,739 --> 00:51:12,460
Speaker 3: They said, Ah, the only reason Fallwell supports Israel is

801
00:51:12,500 --> 00:51:13,860
Speaker 3: because of his belief in Christ.

802
00:51:13,859 --> 00:51:16,019
Speaker 2: And he believes that if the Jews go to.

803
00:51:16,060 --> 00:51:20,979
Speaker 3: Israel and Israel thrives, then Jesus will come again, and

804
00:51:21,020 --> 00:51:23,140
Speaker 3: that's the only and the Jews will recognize him, and

805
00:51:23,180 --> 00:51:26,299
Speaker 3: that's the only reason he supports Israel, to which I

806
00:51:26,339 --> 00:51:32,700
Speaker 3: said to Jews publicly for years, dummies, that is a great.

807
00:51:32,540 --> 00:51:35,660
Speaker 2: Reason for him to support Israel. What's wrong with you?

808
00:51:35,500 --> 00:51:38,819
Speaker 3: You don't think clearly, which I do believe emphatically on

809
00:51:38,819 --> 00:51:39,380
Speaker 3: this issue.

810
00:51:39,500 --> 00:51:40,739
Speaker 2: Jews didn't think clearly.

811
00:51:42,420 --> 00:51:45,739
Speaker 3: I publicly in a dialogue with the Reverend Jerry Folwell

812
00:51:45,980 --> 00:51:48,219
Speaker 3: in front of a thousand people at the at the.

813
00:51:48,219 --> 00:51:50,540
Speaker 2: Scottish Rite Auditorium here in Los Angeles.

814
00:51:50,580 --> 00:51:53,819
Speaker 3: Made a deal, he said, Reverend Folwell, I mean this

815
00:51:54,580 --> 00:51:57,100
Speaker 3: with no tongue in cheek, well, a little tongue in cheek,

816
00:51:57,140 --> 00:51:58,819
Speaker 3: but I mean it absolutely seriously.

817
00:51:59,380 --> 00:52:01,379
Speaker 2: Will you make the following deal with me.

818
00:52:03,219 --> 00:52:07,020
Speaker 3: You will support the Jewish people on Israel until Jesus

819
00:52:07,060 --> 00:52:11,979
Speaker 3: comes again, and we will recognize him when he does.

820
00:52:14,180 --> 00:52:20,459
Speaker 2: He liked the deal, and I like the deal. Every

821
00:52:20,700 --> 00:52:23,020
Speaker 2: body gained. It was absolutely perfect.

822
00:52:23,140 --> 00:52:27,940
Speaker 3: I have an entire fundamentalist Christian community support till Jesus

823
00:52:27,940 --> 00:52:28,460
Speaker 3: comes again.

824
00:52:28,859 --> 00:52:32,140
Speaker 2: That is fantastic. I can't think of a better deal.

825
00:52:33,540 --> 00:52:36,420
Speaker 3: That is why Jerry Fallwell set on national television in

826
00:52:36,500 --> 00:52:39,219
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy three, while a lot of people were wavering

827
00:52:39,299 --> 00:52:44,339
Speaker 3: in the secular political world on support for Israel, he

828
00:52:44,580 --> 00:52:46,419
Speaker 3: was saying that was during the.

829
00:52:46,380 --> 00:52:49,580
Speaker 2: Arab oil embargo. I heard him say this to his church,

830
00:52:49,700 --> 00:52:50,780
Speaker 2: not to a Jewish group.

831
00:52:51,580 --> 00:52:56,100
Speaker 3: I would sooner be forced and happily ride a bicycle

832
00:52:56,779 --> 00:52:59,220
Speaker 3: and give up my car than given to the Arab

833
00:52:59,219 --> 00:53:04,380
Speaker 3: oil embargo. And it was solely out of religious faith

834
00:53:04,940 --> 00:53:08,819
Speaker 3: in the divine element of the Jews in Israel, and

835
00:53:08,980 --> 00:53:12,460
Speaker 3: whatever Christological element would accompany that.

836
00:53:15,140 --> 00:53:18,259
Speaker 2: When people have religious values, they're pretty strong.

837
00:53:20,660 --> 00:53:24,299
Speaker 3: Religiously believe that you have to suppress certain of your urges.

838
00:53:24,779 --> 00:53:30,700
Speaker 3: That's pretty strong and it helps. However, my friends, like

839
00:53:30,859 --> 00:53:35,140
Speaker 3: every good thing in life, do you hear me? Every

840
00:53:35,180 --> 00:53:39,140
Speaker 3: good thing, it can be warped and used for evil.

841
00:53:39,580 --> 00:53:43,020
Speaker 3: There is nothing in life, nothing that can only be

842
00:53:43,140 --> 00:53:48,859
Speaker 3: used for good, Nothing not love itself. As many of

843
00:53:48,900 --> 00:53:51,219
Speaker 3: you know by parents who have smothered you with love.

844
00:53:54,299 --> 00:53:58,140
Speaker 3: There is nothing in life nothing, just like a knife.

845
00:53:58,779 --> 00:54:01,299
Speaker 3: A knife could be used as a scalpel to take

846
00:54:01,339 --> 00:54:03,740
Speaker 3: out a tumor, and it could be used to butcher

847
00:54:03,779 --> 00:54:04,459
Speaker 3: a human being.

848
00:54:05,859 --> 00:54:06,780
Speaker 2: So to religion.

849
00:54:07,940 --> 00:54:10,820
Speaker 3: That's why a lot of you are suspicious of religion.

850
00:54:11,020 --> 00:54:14,140
Speaker 3: Your right to be suspicious of religion. But to be

851
00:54:14,219 --> 00:54:16,259
Speaker 3: suspicious of it doesn't mean it doesn't work.

852
00:54:17,020 --> 00:54:20,620
Speaker 2: It works. It's gotta be used. Right. You can also

853
00:54:20,819 --> 00:54:21,900
Speaker 2: suppress every urge.

854
00:54:22,060 --> 00:54:25,700
Speaker 3: Some religious people are dead because all they have is

855
00:54:25,739 --> 00:54:29,259
Speaker 3: a life of suppression. It masturbates, you go to hell.

856
00:54:29,980 --> 00:54:33,940
Speaker 3: There's an example that was a terrible doctrine.

857
00:54:34,940 --> 00:54:37,060
Speaker 2: Any religious person who would have made up such.

858
00:54:36,900 --> 00:54:40,259
Speaker 3: A nonsense idea masturbate you go to hell.

859
00:54:40,299 --> 00:54:45,140
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous. Who you kill sperm.

860
00:54:45,180 --> 00:54:48,700
Speaker 3: Wanted for the death of two million sperm mass murderer

861
00:54:48,859 --> 00:54:50,180
Speaker 3: Abe Rosenberg.

862
00:54:53,819 --> 00:54:56,740
Speaker 2: It's an idiocy, idiocy, and women don't even kill sperm.

863
00:54:56,779 --> 00:54:59,339
Speaker 3: I mean, why kind of women's masturbation. I can't even

864
00:54:59,420 --> 00:55:08,299
Speaker 3: think about what wrong on that. Of course, it could

865
00:55:08,339 --> 00:55:13,299
Speaker 3: be misused. It could be used to control children by parents, right,

866
00:55:13,700 --> 00:55:19,620
Speaker 3: don't you know? Not ever or a million don'ts It's

867
00:55:19,620 --> 00:55:22,300
Speaker 3: got to be used, right, It's a very powerful weapon.

868
00:55:22,940 --> 00:55:26,020
Speaker 3: But when used right, there is nothing that helps you

869
00:55:26,100 --> 00:55:29,060
Speaker 3: control yourself as well. I'll give you a few little

870
00:55:29,060 --> 00:55:31,859
Speaker 3: things and then move on. I contend to you that

871
00:55:31,940 --> 00:55:35,739
Speaker 3: most Americans are addicted to television. Then I use my

872
00:55:35,779 --> 00:55:39,580
Speaker 3: words very carefully. Addicted means addicted. And I told you.

873
00:55:39,819 --> 00:55:44,100
Speaker 3: I think I've told you my proof. Most Americans could

874
00:55:44,180 --> 00:55:46,660
Speaker 3: not stop for a month, that's all. That's how you

875
00:55:46,739 --> 00:55:49,060
Speaker 3: prove you're addicted to cigarettes. How you prove you're addicted

876
00:55:49,100 --> 00:55:49,499
Speaker 3: to coke?

877
00:55:50,180 --> 00:55:55,140
Speaker 2: Right, same thing. And by the way, it's so easy.

878
00:55:54,819 --> 00:55:57,140
Speaker 3: To test yourself to see if you're addicted because you

879
00:55:57,180 --> 00:56:00,100
Speaker 3: can use a VCR or record what you missed. Let's

880
00:56:00,100 --> 00:56:02,099
Speaker 3: say after the month, you say, see I missed the month,

881
00:56:02,540 --> 00:56:05,819
Speaker 3: Big deal, No, no skin off my back. Now I'd

882
00:56:05,859 --> 00:56:08,580
Speaker 3: like to resume and see all the wonderful weather reports

883
00:56:08,620 --> 00:56:10,940
Speaker 3: that I missed over the course of the month. Because

884
00:56:11,219 --> 00:56:14,620
Speaker 3: people insist in watching things like weather reports. So you

885
00:56:14,700 --> 00:56:16,939
Speaker 3: have a whole thirty days of weather or whatever you

886
00:56:16,940 --> 00:56:18,660
Speaker 3: will have videotaped, or.

887
00:56:18,700 --> 00:56:20,020
Speaker 2: Baseball games or whatever.

888
00:56:22,540 --> 00:56:25,180
Speaker 3: Different religions have different traditions, but I will tell you

889
00:56:25,180 --> 00:56:26,420
Speaker 3: one from my own life.

890
00:56:26,739 --> 00:56:27,739
Speaker 2: In our home.

891
00:56:27,580 --> 00:56:30,379
Speaker 3: Friday night sunset, when the sabbath starts, we do not

892
00:56:30,540 --> 00:56:33,660
Speaker 3: use radio, television, telephone.

893
00:56:33,980 --> 00:56:36,980
Speaker 2: It is so wonderful, a blessing in our home.

894
00:56:37,620 --> 00:56:39,620
Speaker 3: It is one of the few things in life that

895
00:56:39,859 --> 00:56:42,540
Speaker 3: only has only positive benefits.

896
00:56:43,819 --> 00:56:46,020
Speaker 2: First of all, it's quiet.

897
00:56:47,299 --> 00:56:50,180
Speaker 3: A home with children that is quiet is immediately either

898
00:56:50,299 --> 00:56:56,779
Speaker 3: suspect being abused perhaps, or wonderful our kids are not

899
00:56:56,859 --> 00:57:06,300
Speaker 3: being abused. It's wonderful. It has another beautiful effect. Wives

900
00:57:06,339 --> 00:57:11,420
Speaker 3: don't have don't become football or baseball or basketball widows.

901
00:57:12,420 --> 00:57:15,620
Speaker 3: At least twenty four hours a week, they actually have

902
00:57:15,739 --> 00:57:17,100
Speaker 3: their husband returned to them.

903
00:57:18,380 --> 00:57:19,860
Speaker 2: He cannot cop out.

904
00:57:20,460 --> 00:57:26,900
Speaker 3: Into baseball or football. The story I always tell because

905
00:57:26,900 --> 00:57:28,540
Speaker 3: this is the way I was raised, This is the

906
00:57:28,540 --> 00:57:33,340
Speaker 3: way I'm raising my son. Friday night, two years ago,

907
00:57:33,380 --> 00:57:35,939
Speaker 3: and the Dodgers were in the Pennant race. They were

908
00:57:35,940 --> 00:57:38,700
Speaker 3: playing a Friday night game in New York against the

909
00:57:38,700 --> 00:57:44,300
Speaker 3: New York Mets. Night games are televised here early obviously

910
00:57:44,340 --> 00:57:48,019
Speaker 3: were three hours behind the East coast, so at four

911
00:57:48,020 --> 00:57:51,500
Speaker 3: point thirty we could actually before the Sabbath begins, watch

912
00:57:51,580 --> 00:57:54,740
Speaker 3: a Dodger night game, a reason in and of itself

913
00:57:54,780 --> 00:57:58,060
Speaker 3: for observant Jews to live on the West coast. And

914
00:58:01,860 --> 00:58:04,140
Speaker 3: Carol was it was about the eighth inning, and it

915
00:58:04,300 --> 00:58:09,020
Speaker 3: was about seven point thirty, just as the Sabbath was

916
00:58:09,060 --> 00:58:12,180
Speaker 3: about to begin. Tie game, and my son and I

917
00:58:12,220 --> 00:58:16,060
Speaker 3: are riveted, and my wife announces the Sabbath is beginning.

918
00:58:16,100 --> 00:58:17,140
Speaker 2: She's lighting candles.

919
00:58:17,940 --> 00:58:20,740
Speaker 3: I didn't want to turn that TV off.

920
00:58:20,780 --> 00:58:21,500
Speaker 2: My son didn't.

921
00:58:21,540 --> 00:58:23,620
Speaker 3: I don't even have to tell you I didn't want to.

922
00:58:23,660 --> 00:58:29,900
Speaker 3: I'm a baseball fan. It was exciting. Nothing in the world, literally,

923
00:58:30,340 --> 00:58:35,620
Speaker 3: outside earthquake death. Okay, outside of earthquakes or imminent death.

924
00:58:35,940 --> 00:58:38,340
Speaker 3: It's the only thing that would have taken not dinner.

925
00:58:38,540 --> 00:58:39,459
Speaker 2: If my wife would have.

926
00:58:39,420 --> 00:58:42,860
Speaker 3: Yelled up, it's dinner, he said, Okay, honey, it's a

927
00:58:42,860 --> 00:58:46,460
Speaker 3: eighth inning. It's the eighth inning, right, There's not that question.

928
00:58:46,580 --> 00:58:47,620
Speaker 3: That's what I would have yelled.

929
00:58:49,100 --> 00:58:51,540
Speaker 2: The only thing in the world that would have.

930
00:58:51,500 --> 00:58:55,180
Speaker 3: Gotten my son and me to shut the TV without screaming.

931
00:58:55,300 --> 00:58:57,540
Speaker 2: It's the eighth Inning is religion.

932
00:58:59,060 --> 00:59:02,900
Speaker 3: Nothing else in the world would have brought us downstairs

933
00:59:03,220 --> 00:59:05,780
Speaker 3: for dinner, for.

934
00:59:05,900 --> 00:59:09,420
Speaker 2: Time with the family. It's powerful stuff.

935
00:59:11,660 --> 00:59:16,260
Speaker 3: It works in every arena where we observed the Jewish laws,

936
00:59:16,300 --> 00:59:20,620
Speaker 3: of the Jewish dietary laws kushrut. Let me tell you something.

937
00:59:20,860 --> 00:59:23,740
Speaker 3: It is a very wonderful training in one's life to

938
00:59:23,820 --> 00:59:26,300
Speaker 3: know that you can't have a lot of the things

939
00:59:26,340 --> 00:59:27,419
Speaker 3: you want every day.

940
00:59:28,140 --> 00:59:30,860
Speaker 2: It's good. It's been very good in my.

941
00:59:30,900 --> 00:59:33,980
Speaker 3: Life because I do not innately have much self control.

942
00:59:35,660 --> 00:59:37,860
Speaker 3: But the ability to say, I would love to have

943
00:59:37,900 --> 00:59:41,060
Speaker 3: a hamburger, but once again, we'll have a tuna sandwich

944
00:59:41,100 --> 00:59:46,340
Speaker 3: for the eight millions time is a cultivated ability. It's rough.

945
00:59:47,420 --> 00:59:51,660
Speaker 3: It's also good. Already, at the age of three, my

946
00:59:51,780 --> 00:59:55,099
Speaker 3: son weed in any restaurant, but we'd only eat food

947
00:59:55,140 --> 00:59:57,300
Speaker 3: that is kosher, like tuna, for example.

948
00:59:57,500 --> 01:00:00,620
Speaker 2: Wouldn't need to meet out. And so he was walking vile.

949
01:00:00,780 --> 01:00:01,660
Speaker 2: It was. It was a riot.

950
01:00:01,700 --> 01:00:03,380
Speaker 3: He was walking in the restaurant. He would stop by

951
01:00:03,420 --> 01:00:05,180
Speaker 3: each person. Is that kosher.

952
01:00:05,580 --> 01:00:09,620
Speaker 2: I remember one woman was having a blt is that kosher?

953
01:00:10,700 --> 01:00:12,260
Speaker 2: And I said, don't ask those things.

954
01:00:12,340 --> 01:00:16,860
Speaker 3: You don't ask me, ask me, David, don't ask them.

955
01:00:17,100 --> 01:00:20,979
Speaker 3: But the ability at an early age to immediately.

956
01:00:20,420 --> 01:00:24,140
Speaker 2: Say, hey, hey, that looks good, but I can't have it.

957
01:00:25,020 --> 01:00:26,460
Speaker 2: And it's not because Daddy said so.

958
01:00:27,780 --> 01:00:30,540
Speaker 3: It's a sense of God said so, or the religion

959
01:00:30,620 --> 01:00:35,180
Speaker 3: said so, or my Mormon friends with tea coffee and smoking,

960
01:00:36,740 --> 01:00:41,459
Speaker 3: or Catholic friends with their disciplines or whatever it might be.

961
01:00:42,220 --> 01:00:46,100
Speaker 3: These are very very powerful things in one's life. They

962
01:00:46,180 --> 01:00:48,900
Speaker 3: add a sense of character, of fortitude.

963
01:00:49,100 --> 01:00:49,740
Speaker 2: You know what else?

964
01:00:50,540 --> 01:00:54,500
Speaker 3: You like yourself more? And boy, is this society aware

965
01:00:55,220 --> 01:00:58,340
Speaker 3: of how important self image and self liking is. Everybody

966
01:00:58,340 --> 01:01:01,860
Speaker 3: talks about self love. I don't even understand the concept.

967
01:01:01,940 --> 01:01:06,220
Speaker 3: I understand self like, I understand self image, self respect.

968
01:01:06,500 --> 01:01:11,460
Speaker 3: I don't know what self love well, Dennis, Dennis, I

969
01:01:11,540 --> 01:01:14,020
Speaker 3: must admit, I'm sure some of you are more psychoanalytically

970
01:01:14,060 --> 01:01:16,740
Speaker 3: aware than I think. I'm probably flipped out sick man.

971
01:01:17,100 --> 01:01:20,420
Speaker 3: I just don't understand it. Love is very complex. I

972
01:01:21,420 --> 01:01:25,100
Speaker 3: I understand liking me. Sometimes I like me, sometimes I don't.

973
01:01:25,140 --> 01:01:28,980
Speaker 3: Sometimes I respect me sometimes I don't, but these are things,

974
01:01:29,020 --> 01:01:32,700
Speaker 3: by the way religious disciplines when, after all, nobody would know,

975
01:01:33,580 --> 01:01:35,980
Speaker 3: right who would know? Who would have known? If my

976
01:01:36,140 --> 01:01:38,340
Speaker 3: friend had slept with a woman on one of his

977
01:01:38,620 --> 01:01:41,019
Speaker 3: business trips, whom we'll never see again in his life,

978
01:01:41,020 --> 01:01:42,979
Speaker 3: doesn't know his name, he doesn't know her name, and.

979
01:01:42,940 --> 01:01:45,340
Speaker 2: He's not running for office. Okay, so there were no

980
01:01:46,060 --> 01:01:51,820
Speaker 2: photographers around, okay, who would have known? As Woudy Allen

981
01:01:51,860 --> 01:01:56,860
Speaker 2: puts it in crimes and misdemeanors. God has eyes. That's

982
01:01:56,860 --> 01:01:57,500
Speaker 2: the difference.

983
01:02:00,780 --> 01:02:03,540
Speaker 3: These are very good things in life. It is a

984
01:02:03,940 --> 01:02:07,260
Speaker 3: healthier life. I hope you will understand. It is not

985
01:02:07,340 --> 01:02:10,460
Speaker 3: a dead life. I can't stand religious dead beats, but

986
01:02:10,540 --> 01:02:13,180
Speaker 3: I must tell you, for every religious dead beat, there

987
01:02:13,220 --> 01:02:14,380
Speaker 3: is a secular dead beat.

988
01:02:15,300 --> 01:02:15,700
Speaker 2: Okay.

989
01:02:16,580 --> 01:02:19,740
Speaker 3: For every hung up religious person, there is at least

990
01:02:19,740 --> 01:02:24,860
Speaker 3: one hung up no religious person. Religion doesn't guarantee health

991
01:02:24,860 --> 01:02:27,700
Speaker 3: and happiness. I believe it's indispensable to it.

992
01:02:27,740 --> 01:02:30,820
Speaker 2: That's the difference. So the third thing.

993
01:02:30,660 --> 01:02:35,060
Speaker 3: That it gives that is indispensable to happiness is self control.

994
01:02:38,300 --> 01:02:40,620
Speaker 2: Now number four, which.

995
01:02:42,540 --> 01:02:45,220
Speaker 3: Is why you will understand, or how I will explain

996
01:02:45,900 --> 01:02:51,740
Speaker 3: why religion as opposed to spirituality as such is necessary.

997
01:02:52,700 --> 01:02:57,460
Speaker 2: The word here is community.

998
01:02:58,340 --> 01:03:01,740
Speaker 3: I have read time and time again that the greatest

999
01:03:01,740 --> 01:03:10,059
Speaker 3: affliction in America is loneliness. Loneliness it's a horrible thing.

1000
01:03:10,180 --> 01:03:17,820
Speaker 3: Loneliness horrible. There is no guaranteed answer to loneliness. But

1001
01:03:17,940 --> 01:03:19,780
Speaker 3: the single best answer I.

1002
01:03:19,740 --> 01:03:28,380
Speaker 2: Know is religion. Because organized religion gives you people, It

1003
01:03:28,420 --> 01:03:31,700
Speaker 2: gives you a community.

1004
01:03:32,620 --> 01:03:36,700
Speaker 3: If there's one thing that we associate, even if we

1005
01:03:36,740 --> 01:03:39,980
Speaker 3: don't like them, with religious people, it's.

1006
01:03:39,780 --> 01:03:43,340
Speaker 2: Having comrades, it's having others.

1007
01:03:44,460 --> 01:03:47,460
Speaker 3: Where is the first place you'd say to somebody, Let's say,

1008
01:03:47,500 --> 01:03:51,740
Speaker 3: if a a single calls my program, they say that

1009
01:03:51,860 --> 01:03:53,940
Speaker 3: is I don't know where to meet anybody? My first

1010
01:03:54,020 --> 01:03:56,660
Speaker 3: question is are you religious? If you are, have you

1011
01:03:56,780 --> 01:04:02,459
Speaker 3: tried a church group? Set a good group? And the

1012
01:04:02,460 --> 01:04:06,100
Speaker 3: more religious the community, the more there is a community. Now,

1013
01:04:06,500 --> 01:04:09,620
Speaker 3: let me tell you, at the very outset of this,

1014
01:04:10,620 --> 01:04:13,940
Speaker 3: I know as well as anyone, probably better than almost

1015
01:04:13,980 --> 01:04:16,700
Speaker 3: anyone here, because I've been so involved in religious life

1016
01:04:17,340 --> 01:04:21,060
Speaker 3: that it is a double edged sword. Community come with

1017
01:04:21,180 --> 01:04:28,020
Speaker 3: a lot of prices than Nudnick's busybodies. They know exactly

1018
01:04:28,060 --> 01:04:34,780
Speaker 3: when you last defecated. Okay, community, The more there is community,

1019
01:04:34,860 --> 01:04:37,340
Speaker 3: the more. They know exactly, Oh, when did he come

1020
01:04:37,380 --> 01:04:40,459
Speaker 3: home last night, who was he with, when did he go,

1021
01:04:40,580 --> 01:04:43,740
Speaker 3: why did he do? And this can drive you crazy.

1022
01:04:44,180 --> 01:04:46,340
Speaker 3: So what you try to do, at least I try,

1023
01:04:46,460 --> 01:04:47,300
Speaker 3: is have moderation.

1024
01:04:48,660 --> 01:04:52,260
Speaker 2: But I do know. I'll put it to you this way.

1025
01:04:52,300 --> 01:04:56,540
Speaker 3: I put it very, very honestly and candidly.

1026
01:04:56,620 --> 01:04:57,460
Speaker 2: For my own life.

1027
01:04:59,220 --> 01:05:03,140
Speaker 3: Every Sabbath we have guests over or we go to

1028
01:05:03,180 --> 01:05:07,060
Speaker 3: someone's home. I'd say it's a ratio of eighty twenty

1029
01:05:07,140 --> 01:05:10,860
Speaker 3: we having over versus we going to someone else's. But

1030
01:05:10,980 --> 01:05:14,700
Speaker 3: that is about but it is true every there isn't

1031
01:05:14,740 --> 01:05:15,300
Speaker 3: an exception.

1032
01:05:15,420 --> 01:05:17,100
Speaker 2: I think out of the fifty two of the year.

1033
01:05:18,620 --> 01:05:19,740
Speaker 2: In fact, we had to cut.

1034
01:05:19,580 --> 01:05:22,140
Speaker 3: Down because we wanted more for family Friday nights and

1035
01:05:22,140 --> 01:05:24,980
Speaker 3: now we have it only Saturday afternoons and only on rare.

1036
01:05:24,860 --> 01:05:27,459
Speaker 2: Occasions even Friday nights as well.

1037
01:05:29,020 --> 01:05:32,940
Speaker 3: I have made the point so frequently to my wife

1038
01:05:33,060 --> 01:05:36,260
Speaker 3: and we have and she's realized this as the family has.

1039
01:05:37,860 --> 01:05:40,380
Speaker 3: Most of the people that I have that we have

1040
01:05:40,540 --> 01:05:45,700
Speaker 3: over on the Sabbath we would never associate with if

1041
01:05:45,700 --> 01:05:53,820
Speaker 3: it weren't for religion and the Sabbath. First of all,

1042
01:05:55,100 --> 01:05:57,780
Speaker 3: during the week, people are too busy. How often do

1043
01:05:57,860 --> 01:06:00,059
Speaker 3: you have guests over Wednesday night?

1044
01:06:01,820 --> 01:06:03,540
Speaker 2: It's very rare. People don't have that.

1045
01:06:04,460 --> 01:06:06,900
Speaker 3: Maybe some people will pop eye and maybe they'll watch

1046
01:06:06,980 --> 01:06:09,620
Speaker 3: TV with you, but even that has become uncommon for

1047
01:06:09,740 --> 01:06:12,820
Speaker 3: most people. Most people are alone as singles or alone

1048
01:06:12,820 --> 01:06:15,500
Speaker 3: as couples. And you can be a very lonely couple,

1049
01:06:15,820 --> 01:06:18,939
Speaker 3: just as you can be a lonely single, which couples know.

1050
01:06:22,300 --> 01:06:25,940
Speaker 3: If it were not for the Sabbath and this tradition,

1051
01:06:27,500 --> 01:06:29,620
Speaker 3: eighty percent of the people that we have over we

1052
01:06:29,700 --> 01:06:31,620
Speaker 3: never get to see. And do you know what the

1053
01:06:31,780 --> 01:06:35,780
Speaker 3: interesting thing is? And this is what is so important here.

1054
01:06:35,860 --> 01:06:39,059
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter whether we're close to these people. See,

1055
01:06:39,100 --> 01:06:42,900
Speaker 3: if I would invite people over specially, it would have

1056
01:06:42,980 --> 01:06:44,700
Speaker 3: to be people I really want.

1057
01:06:44,460 --> 01:06:44,820
Speaker 2: To be with.

1058
01:06:45,100 --> 01:06:47,700
Speaker 3: Really, that's the reason for it. I gotta be with

1059
01:06:47,740 --> 01:06:50,260
Speaker 3: these people. I'm so close. How many people are you

1060
01:06:50,340 --> 01:06:52,979
Speaker 3: so close with in life, let's be honest, and how

1061
01:06:52,980 --> 01:06:55,060
Speaker 3: many of them live within one hundred miles of you?

1062
01:06:55,740 --> 01:06:56,340
Speaker 2: In general?

1063
01:06:56,500 --> 01:07:00,380
Speaker 3: Or very frequently, Closeness is in inverse proportion to proximity.

1064
01:07:00,940 --> 01:07:04,180
Speaker 3: All right, Oh, very close to my brother he lives

1065
01:07:04,180 --> 01:07:09,540
Speaker 3: in Madagascar, but we love each other deeply or some friend.

1066
01:07:10,020 --> 01:07:11,900
Speaker 2: Ah, we only see each other once a year, but

1067
01:07:11,940 --> 01:07:14,419
Speaker 2: it's like it's like old times. As soon as.

1068
01:07:14,300 --> 01:07:17,780
Speaker 3: We're together, it's like we never missed each other, right,

1069
01:07:18,420 --> 01:07:18,820
Speaker 3: I mean.

1070
01:07:18,700 --> 01:07:20,939
Speaker 2: That's wonderful and I believe you have it. But it's

1071
01:07:20,940 --> 01:07:23,340
Speaker 2: also once a year. We're not that.

1072
01:07:23,500 --> 01:07:27,419
Speaker 3: Close to many people. That's the human situation. But you

1073
01:07:27,460 --> 01:07:29,900
Speaker 3: don't have to be super close to people in order

1074
01:07:29,940 --> 01:07:35,820
Speaker 3: to enjoy companionship. That's the point. I enjoy having these

1075
01:07:35,860 --> 01:07:39,140
Speaker 3: couples and their kids or it's these singles over even

1076
01:07:39,180 --> 01:07:41,979
Speaker 3: if we're not close at all, and I know, damn well,

1077
01:07:42,020 --> 01:07:43,100
Speaker 3: i'd never see them before.

1078
01:07:43,140 --> 01:07:45,940
Speaker 2: We'ren' for shavis for the Shabbat, for the Sabbath.

1079
01:07:46,500 --> 01:07:49,140
Speaker 3: That's the only reason, because it's the Jewish tradition. You

1080
01:07:49,220 --> 01:07:52,340
Speaker 3: have people over on a Shabbat afternoon.

1081
01:07:53,180 --> 01:07:53,620
Speaker 2: That's it.

1082
01:07:53,980 --> 01:07:57,660
Speaker 3: That's the reason they're over, not because we love them

1083
01:07:57,860 --> 01:07:59,580
Speaker 3: and they know it and we know. I mean, people

1084
01:07:59,580 --> 01:08:01,660
Speaker 3: don't think this through and we're not sitting there thinking, oh,

1085
01:08:01,660 --> 01:08:03,060
Speaker 3: I don't want to be here, but at Shabbat so

1086
01:08:03,220 --> 01:08:05,700
Speaker 3: I'll be there, you know, Oh the pragers, the yeah,

1087
01:08:07,500 --> 01:08:10,740
Speaker 3: all right, it's not the issue. And do you know

1088
01:08:10,860 --> 01:08:13,500
Speaker 3: what has never gone sour do you. Isn't that amazing?

1089
01:08:13,660 --> 01:08:15,140
Speaker 3: Do you know how many people have been over and

1090
01:08:15,180 --> 01:08:18,540
Speaker 3: it has never been bad because we're not looking.

1091
01:08:18,660 --> 01:08:21,780
Speaker 2: I'm not looking. All these are our next close friends.

1092
01:08:22,300 --> 01:08:25,060
Speaker 3: Now, these are people to have a nice Shabbat meal

1093
01:08:25,140 --> 01:08:26,980
Speaker 3: with and let our kids have kids to play with.

1094
01:08:28,580 --> 01:08:29,540
Speaker 2: An end of issue.

1095
01:08:29,740 --> 01:08:34,540
Speaker 3: We have something though already it's called the Sabbath. That's

1096
01:08:34,580 --> 01:08:37,820
Speaker 3: what we can share together. So my question to you,

1097
01:08:38,019 --> 01:08:42,740
Speaker 3: my friends, is tell me one secular thing in the

1098
01:08:42,860 --> 01:08:46,300
Speaker 3: world that unites people like religion.

1099
01:08:45,979 --> 01:08:52,500
Speaker 2: Does stamp clubs, rotary clubs? Politics?

1100
01:08:53,340 --> 01:08:56,460
Speaker 3: If I fellow Democrats over every Saturday afternoon, wouldn't that

1101
01:08:56,500 --> 01:08:58,540
Speaker 3: be fun? We don't have much in common, but we're

1102
01:08:58,580 --> 01:09:01,780
Speaker 3: both Democrats. How what are you going to talk about

1103
01:09:02,620 --> 01:09:05,379
Speaker 3: the next congressional race. By the way, I am convinced

1104
01:09:05,380 --> 01:09:07,979
Speaker 3: that for some people, politics is like a religion. It's

1105
01:09:08,019 --> 01:09:09,620
Speaker 3: their passion, it's their lifeblood.

1106
01:09:09,860 --> 01:09:12,340
Speaker 2: That's what they live for. That's right.

1107
01:09:12,380 --> 01:09:13,780
Speaker 3: I told you, though, that there are people who have

1108
01:09:13,860 --> 01:09:21,460
Speaker 3: substitute religions. There is no secular equivalent. And I told

1109
01:09:21,540 --> 01:09:23,139
Speaker 3: you that there is a bit I told you.

1110
01:09:23,220 --> 01:09:23,740
Speaker 2: I admit it.

1111
01:09:23,939 --> 01:09:27,139
Speaker 3: It's a double edged sword because the more you're involved

1112
01:09:27,180 --> 01:09:30,260
Speaker 3: in a community, the more they know your business. But

1113
01:09:30,380 --> 01:09:32,580
Speaker 3: it is a price to a certain extent, only a

1114
01:09:32,660 --> 01:09:34,740
Speaker 3: certain extent, but to a certain extent, I'm willing to

1115
01:09:34,820 --> 01:09:39,099
Speaker 3: pay for the price of also having people over when

1116
01:09:39,180 --> 01:09:41,820
Speaker 3: there's grief, when there's bereavement.

1117
01:09:43,979 --> 01:09:47,260
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.

1118
01:09:51,820 --> 01:09:55,419
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Brager's timeless wisdom.

1119
01:09:57,220 --> 01:10:02,540
Speaker 3: Right in Jewish life, you've heard of sitting shiver the

1120
01:10:02,700 --> 01:10:05,900
Speaker 3: seven days of morning after an immediate relative has died,

1121
01:10:06,380 --> 01:10:09,300
Speaker 3: and for seven days, people unannounced just show up at

1122
01:10:09,300 --> 01:10:13,059
Speaker 3: your door. The community announces where you're sitting shiver, and

1123
01:10:13,180 --> 01:10:18,860
Speaker 3: people show up for seven days. It's very brilliant. It

1124
01:10:19,099 --> 01:10:23,180
Speaker 3: works incredibly well. I've been so depressed when I have

1125
01:10:23,300 --> 01:10:26,540
Speaker 3: been with people who have lost a loved one who

1126
01:10:26,580 --> 01:10:29,740
Speaker 3: were not religious. I go back home, there was a

1127
01:10:29,860 --> 01:10:32,260
Speaker 3: meal and then they were all alone. And that was

1128
01:10:32,340 --> 01:10:36,460
Speaker 3: if persons died, goodbye. We'll call you, Harry, we'll check

1129
01:10:36,540 --> 01:10:40,500
Speaker 3: on you. Wife just died, and they'll check on Harry

1130
01:10:40,740 --> 01:10:45,299
Speaker 3: the next day. People will be over for seven days

1131
01:10:45,939 --> 01:10:47,939
Speaker 3: in a community. I'll give you an example on the

1132
01:10:47,979 --> 01:10:51,259
Speaker 3: happy side. I have to use my own religion only

1133
01:10:51,260 --> 01:10:54,300
Speaker 3: because it's the one I know best. In Judaism, traditionally

1134
01:10:54,380 --> 01:10:56,540
Speaker 3: you did not take a honeymoon at least for a week,

1135
01:10:57,540 --> 01:11:00,900
Speaker 3: because for seven days you stay within the community and

1136
01:11:01,059 --> 01:11:04,059
Speaker 3: have celebrations at people's homes each night of the week.

1137
01:11:04,540 --> 01:11:05,700
Speaker 2: They're called cheva brakot.

1138
01:11:06,620 --> 01:11:09,139
Speaker 3: A dear couple friend of ours just got married from

1139
01:11:09,180 --> 01:11:12,500
Speaker 3: New York, but they're originally from la and we made

1140
01:11:12,540 --> 01:11:16,099
Speaker 3: one of them the night after the wedding. We made

1141
01:11:16,140 --> 01:11:21,580
Speaker 3: one of those evenings the idea. By the way, I've

1142
01:11:21,660 --> 01:11:23,140
Speaker 3: always been anti honeymoon.

1143
01:11:24,340 --> 01:11:26,660
Speaker 2: It is. Any of you who have taken.

1144
01:11:26,500 --> 01:11:28,939
Speaker 3: Part one of the course know that as a classic

1145
01:11:29,059 --> 01:11:36,380
Speaker 3: example of expectations causing misery. I mean, at best, a

1146
01:11:36,500 --> 01:11:38,860
Speaker 3: honeymoon can only be what you expect it to be.

1147
01:11:39,700 --> 01:11:42,540
Speaker 3: At worst, which is much more likely, it will fail.

1148
01:11:42,979 --> 01:11:45,620
Speaker 3: Because how could anything not fail when it's expected to

1149
01:11:45,700 --> 01:11:49,900
Speaker 3: be so wonderful? Also could how unnatural it is They're

1150
01:11:49,979 --> 01:11:54,700
Speaker 3: finally married and then they leave their world. Let us

1151
01:11:54,860 --> 01:11:58,099
Speaker 3: just love each other up the night after the wedding

1152
01:11:58,180 --> 01:12:00,660
Speaker 3: and for two weeks in the Bahamas.

1153
01:12:01,300 --> 01:12:02,660
Speaker 2: It sounds right on paper.

1154
01:12:03,019 --> 01:12:06,380
Speaker 3: Travel agents love the idea, but it does horrible things

1155
01:12:06,420 --> 01:12:07,259
Speaker 3: to most couples.

1156
01:12:08,180 --> 01:12:18,580
Speaker 2: Most people I know of had to overcome their honeymoon there.

1157
01:12:18,860 --> 01:12:22,939
Speaker 3: The argument is, leave the community, leave everybody you know

1158
01:12:23,140 --> 01:12:27,860
Speaker 3: and love, leave them, be alone with this human that

1159
01:12:27,939 --> 01:12:29,939
Speaker 3: there's a good chance you never lived with before.

1160
01:12:30,059 --> 01:12:31,900
Speaker 2: I mean still there are some people who marry who

1161
01:12:31,939 --> 01:12:38,499
Speaker 2: haven't lived together and now have a good time.

1162
01:12:40,220 --> 01:12:44,620
Speaker 3: Instead of gradually entering into a community that will celebrate

1163
01:12:44,740 --> 01:12:48,299
Speaker 3: with you. It's a very different way of looking at life,

1164
01:12:49,180 --> 01:12:52,099
Speaker 3: and various religious traditions have their ways of doing this.

1165
01:12:53,540 --> 01:12:59,099
Speaker 3: People need people to be happy. Religion supplies people. People

1166
01:12:59,220 --> 01:13:05,299
Speaker 3: need people. Religion gives people. Nothing else gives people like religion.

1167
01:13:07,260 --> 01:13:08,939
Speaker 3: What is it gonna be? What are you gonna share

1168
01:13:08,979 --> 01:13:13,019
Speaker 3: with others? Actors will share acting with fellow actors. Lawyers

1169
01:13:13,059 --> 01:13:16,939
Speaker 3: will enjoy having lunch with fellow lawyers. They usually hate

1170
01:13:16,979 --> 01:13:19,380
Speaker 3: each other, and in any event there is very frequently

1171
01:13:21,220 --> 01:13:24,620
Speaker 3: and in any event, if there isn't rivalry, what's so

1172
01:13:24,860 --> 01:13:31,780
Speaker 3: deep about sharing law discussions or acting or movies? What

1173
01:13:31,979 --> 01:13:34,580
Speaker 3: is it that people will have together? That's why it's

1174
01:13:34,620 --> 01:13:37,939
Speaker 3: so sad to me. Those singles ads, not singles ads

1175
01:13:37,979 --> 01:13:40,139
Speaker 3: as a generic idea, They're not sad at all.

1176
01:13:40,180 --> 01:13:40,780
Speaker 2: I'm a big.

1177
01:13:40,700 --> 01:13:43,339
Speaker 3: Believer in them. I think all singles should put in ads.

1178
01:13:43,340 --> 01:13:46,900
Speaker 3: I'm a big believer in it. What saddens me is

1179
01:13:47,019 --> 01:13:50,660
Speaker 3: on what grounds people are supposed to meet. I love voting,

1180
01:13:51,380 --> 01:13:56,220
Speaker 3: Chinese food and artillery practice. I mean, is it is

1181
01:13:56,620 --> 01:13:57,420
Speaker 3: amazing to me?

1182
01:13:58,140 --> 01:14:00,939
Speaker 2: Like, oh, then we're a match made in heaven. I

1183
01:14:01,140 --> 01:14:01,860
Speaker 2: also like that.

1184
01:14:03,340 --> 01:14:15,939
Speaker 3: I mean, what the hell does that mean in this

1185
01:14:16,099 --> 01:14:21,340
Speaker 3: regard to go to the other extreme? What is the

1186
01:14:21,460 --> 01:14:24,780
Speaker 3: word that is most frequently used to describe these men?

1187
01:14:25,059 --> 01:14:27,059
Speaker 3: And they're all men who were mass murderers?

1188
01:14:29,700 --> 01:14:34,979
Speaker 2: Say it out loud, loners every time you read a

1189
01:14:35,019 --> 01:14:38,099
Speaker 2: description of one of these mass murderers. It's amazing to me.

1190
01:14:38,660 --> 01:14:42,099
Speaker 3: I see the word aloner jee, He was quiet, didn't

1191
01:14:42,099 --> 01:14:43,780
Speaker 3: We really didn't know much about the guy. You know,

1192
01:14:43,900 --> 01:14:46,939
Speaker 3: he went did his job, but nobody really ever knew

1193
01:14:46,979 --> 01:14:51,780
Speaker 3: him that well. It is not good to be alone.

1194
01:14:52,620 --> 01:14:55,340
Speaker 3: It is, incidentally, the first statement God makes about the

1195
01:14:55,420 --> 01:15:00,099
Speaker 3: human being. It is not good for the human being

1196
01:15:00,220 --> 01:15:00,820
Speaker 3: to be alone.

1197
01:15:01,820 --> 01:15:02,219
Speaker 2: It isn't.

1198
01:15:05,380 --> 01:15:08,340
Speaker 3: An older woman called me my show once and gave

1199
01:15:08,380 --> 01:15:10,500
Speaker 3: me a very hard time. Actually she didn't call me.

1200
01:15:10,580 --> 01:15:13,820
Speaker 2: She wrote me a letter said, denis here sanctimonious about

1201
01:15:13,860 --> 01:15:21,300
Speaker 2: television for widows like me? Older widows? That is our companion.

1202
01:15:22,620 --> 01:15:25,219
Speaker 2: Thank God for television money. So what are you telling

1203
01:15:25,260 --> 01:15:29,979
Speaker 2: everybody not to watch television for? What a sad letter?

1204
01:15:32,260 --> 01:15:36,179
Speaker 3: The letter wasn't an argument against my argument. The letter

1205
01:15:36,300 --> 01:15:41,019
Speaker 3: was a description of something terrible. An electric box was

1206
01:15:41,099 --> 01:15:41,860
Speaker 3: her companion.

1207
01:15:43,019 --> 01:15:49,980
Speaker 2: It shouldn't be. It's not right. People should be her companion.

1208
01:15:55,979 --> 01:15:59,179
Speaker 3: And that, as I say, outside of a religious community,

1209
01:15:59,580 --> 01:16:00,940
Speaker 3: which can be smothering.

1210
01:16:01,099 --> 01:16:06,339
Speaker 2: I admit it. But nothing comes with no price. Nothing.

1211
01:16:07,460 --> 01:16:11,019
Speaker 2: Remember that that was in the second part. Everything has

1212
01:16:11,059 --> 01:16:14,979
Speaker 2: a price, including religious community. But I rather have that

1213
01:16:15,180 --> 01:16:21,660
Speaker 2: price with a community than none, no community, and just

1214
01:16:21,820 --> 01:16:24,580
Speaker 2: be a man alone against the world.

1215
01:16:25,620 --> 01:16:30,019
Speaker 3: Do my job, do my work, come back home, stay alone,

1216
01:16:30,460 --> 01:16:32,059
Speaker 3: or just be alone as a couple.

1217
01:16:33,660 --> 01:16:34,139
Speaker 2: And that's it.

1218
01:16:38,860 --> 01:16:50,860
Speaker 3: Related to this is number five. Religion gives another critical

1219
01:16:53,260 --> 01:16:56,019
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if it's indispensable. I think it is,

1220
01:16:56,180 --> 01:17:03,460
Speaker 3: but I'm not certain quality for happiness. And that is roots.

1221
01:17:10,140 --> 01:17:11,059
Speaker 2: In a discussion with.

1222
01:17:11,140 --> 01:17:15,660
Speaker 3: A teenage girl the other week, I was making an

1223
01:17:15,780 --> 01:17:21,620
Speaker 3: argument against I think it was on the air, but

1224
01:17:21,939 --> 01:17:26,139
Speaker 3: I don't recall exactly. I was making an argument against

1225
01:17:26,340 --> 01:17:31,180
Speaker 3: T shirts that have obscenities on them. My argument was

1226
01:17:31,939 --> 01:17:34,860
Speaker 3: forgetting the concept of the holy and religion and anything like.

1227
01:17:34,939 --> 01:17:37,700
Speaker 2: That, that it offends certain people.

1228
01:17:39,059 --> 01:17:44,019
Speaker 3: And just like you could not walk around naked even

1229
01:17:44,059 --> 01:17:47,980
Speaker 3: though you're not hurting anybody, because it would be offensive

1230
01:17:48,019 --> 01:17:51,620
Speaker 3: to certain people, so till you can't wear a shirt

1231
01:17:51,700 --> 01:17:57,099
Speaker 3: that has a four letter word on it. And I

1232
01:17:57,220 --> 01:18:03,540
Speaker 3: wasn't getting very far because I was arguing that this

1233
01:18:03,740 --> 01:18:05,540
Speaker 3: girl would have to.

1234
01:18:05,660 --> 01:18:08,940
Speaker 2: Have a commitment to outsiders.

1235
01:18:12,580 --> 01:18:15,260
Speaker 3: The idea that she has an obligation that I have

1236
01:18:15,380 --> 01:18:19,500
Speaker 3: an obligation that we all do to the community at

1237
01:18:19,620 --> 01:18:25,340
Speaker 3: large increasingly foreign to young people in our society. I'm

1238
01:18:25,380 --> 01:18:27,780
Speaker 3: not here to tell you this generation is the worst

1239
01:18:27,860 --> 01:18:31,019
Speaker 3: that ever grew up. They think, Okay, that is not

1240
01:18:31,140 --> 01:18:34,820
Speaker 3: my argument. But I do think one thing is gradually

1241
01:18:34,979 --> 01:18:41,219
Speaker 3: happening in America. A sense of community is increasingly dying.

1242
01:18:42,780 --> 01:18:45,500
Speaker 3: I grew up with one because of my religious roots.

1243
01:18:46,300 --> 01:18:48,219
Speaker 3: My wife grew up with one because she was raised

1244
01:18:48,260 --> 01:18:52,259
Speaker 3: in a small town in Kansas. Different people had different things, though.

1245
01:18:52,260 --> 01:18:54,979
Speaker 3: A lot of my generation were already beginning to lose roots.

1246
01:18:55,820 --> 01:18:57,900
Speaker 3: And it's a very interesting thing to see in a

1247
01:18:58,019 --> 01:19:02,500
Speaker 3: very terrible one. People sense less and less a sense

1248
01:19:02,580 --> 01:19:08,380
Speaker 3: of rootedness in any community. Americans increasingly, ever more, even

1249
01:19:08,460 --> 01:19:12,220
Speaker 3: more than in the past. Are all individuals. We are

1250
01:19:12,260 --> 01:19:18,660
Speaker 3: all individuals. That's wonderful to be an individual. Remember one

1251
01:19:18,700 --> 01:19:20,780
Speaker 3: of the things I said for happiness is march the

1252
01:19:20,820 --> 01:19:25,740
Speaker 3: beat of your own drummer. In many ways, but there

1253
01:19:25,820 --> 01:19:28,260
Speaker 3: is still a sense of obligation to a community. This

1254
01:19:28,380 --> 01:19:31,059
Speaker 3: girl could not fathom what I was talking about. She

1255
01:19:31,220 --> 01:19:32,100
Speaker 3: has no community.

1256
01:19:33,260 --> 01:19:33,860
Speaker 2: There is none.

1257
01:19:35,540 --> 01:19:38,820
Speaker 3: The typical kid in Beverly Hills High what community does

1258
01:19:38,900 --> 01:19:43,860
Speaker 3: he or she have? There is no community. They are friends,

1259
01:19:45,420 --> 01:19:49,099
Speaker 3: but there's no community. The world outside is a bunch

1260
01:19:49,180 --> 01:19:52,860
Speaker 3: of individuals. Part of the reason is America is truly

1261
01:19:52,979 --> 01:19:57,660
Speaker 3: the most diversified, heterogeneous society on Earth. It's true of

1262
01:19:57,900 --> 01:19:59,939
Speaker 3: Western Avenue. You might as well be in Soul, Korea.

1263
01:20:01,380 --> 01:20:03,380
Speaker 3: I think there's more English and sold than there is

1264
01:20:03,460 --> 01:20:09,780
Speaker 3: on Western Avenue. This is a remarkable society. That is

1265
01:20:09,860 --> 01:20:12,860
Speaker 3: a great thing in America. I am very pro immigration.

1266
01:20:13,420 --> 01:20:16,740
Speaker 3: I'm purely selfish American grounds, quite aside from moral grounds.

1267
01:20:18,660 --> 01:20:22,460
Speaker 3: But you see, those who believe in pluralism as I do,

1268
01:20:23,260 --> 01:20:26,940
Speaker 3: have to understand what pluralism means. It means plural communities.

1269
01:20:27,660 --> 01:20:31,019
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean no individual is related to anything else.

1270
01:20:33,099 --> 01:20:35,500
Speaker 3: In this regard, Jews have done a very bad job,

1271
01:20:35,580 --> 01:20:40,300
Speaker 3: in particular in raising their children to be non Jewish Americans.

1272
01:20:40,540 --> 01:20:43,939
Speaker 3: From a very early age, a very deep belief in

1273
01:20:44,099 --> 01:20:47,500
Speaker 3: universalism has been distorted into believing that the opposite of

1274
01:20:47,620 --> 01:20:51,939
Speaker 3: universalism is rootedness. So it is almost as if there

1275
01:20:51,979 --> 01:20:54,539
Speaker 3: has been a conscientious effort on the part of American

1276
01:20:54,660 --> 01:20:56,580
Speaker 3: Jews to deprive their children of roots.

1277
01:20:57,220 --> 01:20:57,939
Speaker 2: In this regard.

1278
01:20:58,099 --> 01:21:01,740
Speaker 3: I haven't recommended a book. I will recommend one. It

1279
01:21:01,860 --> 01:21:08,219
Speaker 3: is written by Paul Cowan, Coowa, n. He wrote an

1280
01:21:08,380 --> 01:21:13,700
Speaker 3: Orphan in History. Paul Cowan was a leftist writer for

1281
01:21:13,780 --> 01:21:17,460
Speaker 3: the Village Voice in New York. He was raised by

1282
01:21:17,620 --> 01:21:20,380
Speaker 3: a leftist father who was a Jew, who taught him

1283
01:21:20,380 --> 01:21:24,259
Speaker 3: nothing about his Jewish roots. He married a non Jewish

1284
01:21:24,340 --> 01:21:30,620
Speaker 3: woman later in life. Poor guy, terribly tragically. He died

1285
01:21:30,660 --> 01:21:33,219
Speaker 3: of leukemia a few years ago, and in his forties.

1286
01:21:33,300 --> 01:21:38,259
Speaker 3: It's a terrible tragedy. But before he died, he wrote

1287
01:21:38,300 --> 01:21:43,059
Speaker 3: this book about his being an orphan in history. It's

1288
01:21:43,099 --> 01:21:46,580
Speaker 3: a perfect title. You know how many Americans are orphans

1289
01:21:46,620 --> 01:21:49,059
Speaker 3: in history? I wouldn't be surprised if many of you are.

1290
01:21:49,099 --> 01:21:52,740
Speaker 3: Whether you are Jewish or not, you have no history,

1291
01:21:52,820 --> 01:21:55,740
Speaker 3: you have no roots, You have no communal ties.

1292
01:21:57,860 --> 01:22:00,260
Speaker 2: If I feel for you, that's the only word I

1293
01:22:00,340 --> 01:22:01,860
Speaker 2: could use. And you know I don't mean this.

1294
01:22:01,979 --> 01:22:07,780
Speaker 3: God forbid patronizingly or condescendingly knowing the joy of community

1295
01:22:07,860 --> 01:22:08,379
Speaker 3: and roots.

1296
01:22:08,979 --> 01:22:13,660
Speaker 2: I know what you're missing. You may not know, but for.

1297
01:22:13,780 --> 01:22:16,340
Speaker 3: Those of us who have it, and for those of

1298
01:22:16,460 --> 01:22:18,460
Speaker 3: us who see the difference in having it and not

1299
01:22:18,620 --> 01:22:22,820
Speaker 3: having it, it is a major, major area of problem

1300
01:22:22,860 --> 01:22:25,580
Speaker 3: in America. It's part of the reason that it is

1301
01:22:25,740 --> 01:22:28,979
Speaker 3: difficult to raise kids today. They have no sense of

1302
01:22:29,099 --> 01:22:34,139
Speaker 3: obligation to anybody. This girl said, why do I owe

1303
01:22:34,180 --> 01:22:35,939
Speaker 3: anybody whom I don't know anything?

1304
01:22:36,059 --> 01:22:37,660
Speaker 2: It was an honest, open question.

1305
01:22:40,300 --> 01:22:43,059
Speaker 3: The beauty of community is you owe the people you

1306
01:22:43,180 --> 01:22:46,660
Speaker 3: don't know something. We have people over for Saturday afternoon

1307
01:22:46,740 --> 01:22:50,580
Speaker 3: that we don't know. That's the beauty of it. But

1308
01:22:50,660 --> 01:22:55,979
Speaker 3: they're part of the community. This is very deeply needed.

1309
01:22:56,099 --> 01:22:58,620
Speaker 3: It is not good for our children. They may grow

1310
01:22:58,700 --> 01:23:03,900
Speaker 3: up to be brilliant on Wall Street, brilliant lawyers, brilliant doctors.

1311
01:23:04,460 --> 01:23:05,339
Speaker 2: But they are.

1312
01:23:06,820 --> 01:23:09,939
Speaker 3: I have an image of so many of my peers

1313
01:23:10,660 --> 01:23:15,500
Speaker 3: of just drifting aimlessly in the world. They're rooted nowhere,

1314
01:23:15,580 --> 01:23:19,500
Speaker 3: They have no ties, family alone, isn't good because where

1315
01:23:19,580 --> 01:23:23,179
Speaker 3: is your family tied to and the family needs these

1316
01:23:23,300 --> 01:23:27,660
Speaker 3: ties as well. This has been the greatest singal problem

1317
01:23:28,260 --> 01:23:31,740
Speaker 3: of the last generation of Jews that was raised, because

1318
01:23:31,780 --> 01:23:37,259
Speaker 3: even if their parents were irreligious, they felt ethnic ties,

1319
01:23:38,540 --> 01:23:42,300
Speaker 3: they felt communal ties to the Jewish community. The Catholics

1320
01:23:42,340 --> 01:23:46,219
Speaker 3: who were not, who were eating meat on Friday, still

1321
01:23:46,340 --> 01:23:51,660
Speaker 3: had some sense to their ethnic community. But gradually all

1322
01:23:51,780 --> 01:23:57,059
Speaker 3: that is broken, and what you have is individual individual, individual, individual, unrooted, unrooted, unrooted,

1323
01:23:58,540 --> 01:24:03,259
Speaker 3: and that is a terrible price. Happiness needs people. Happiness

1324
01:24:03,380 --> 01:24:07,580
Speaker 3: needs not to be an orphan in history. And here too,

1325
01:24:08,580 --> 01:24:12,780
Speaker 3: I know of nothing that gives you roots quite like

1326
01:24:12,939 --> 01:24:14,540
Speaker 3: this does quite like religion.

1327
01:24:14,660 --> 01:24:21,059
Speaker 2: What else is going to give it to you? Alumni

1328
01:24:21,140 --> 01:24:25,099
Speaker 2: association people try to do that. People try to make

1329
01:24:25,180 --> 01:24:30,340
Speaker 2: associations of everything else, anything possible. People know they need

1330
01:24:30,460 --> 01:24:31,620
Speaker 2: it badly, and they do.

1331
01:24:32,340 --> 01:24:36,300
Speaker 3: I'm not against alumni associations, but it doesn't compare to

1332
01:24:36,420 --> 01:24:45,580
Speaker 3: the roots and the people. All right, I'll take two

1333
01:24:45,700 --> 01:24:54,140
Speaker 3: three questions. If anybody has nobody, yes, okay, I'm sorry.

1334
01:24:53,939 --> 01:24:56,180
Speaker 2: What would what? What?

1335
01:24:56,300 --> 01:24:58,059
Speaker 3: What an ad that I would take out look like

1336
01:24:58,260 --> 01:25:00,420
Speaker 3: in a singles thing that's a great question.

1337
01:25:01,340 --> 01:25:02,860
Speaker 2: I actually thought of that.

1338
01:25:03,380 --> 01:25:07,220
Speaker 3: If I had been single longer in between marriages, I

1339
01:25:08,140 --> 01:25:09,259
Speaker 3: would have taken out an ad.

1340
01:25:09,939 --> 01:25:12,180
Speaker 2: My only problem was I didn't want to make it.

1341
01:25:12,460 --> 01:25:15,019
Speaker 3: You know, you know I could have said, radio talk

1342
01:25:15,099 --> 01:25:21,059
Speaker 3: show host who believes an ethical monotheism looking for like

1343
01:25:21,180 --> 01:25:23,380
Speaker 3: minded woman right now.

1344
01:25:23,500 --> 01:25:25,820
Speaker 2: Obviously it would have you know, I had to think

1345
01:25:25,900 --> 01:25:26,979
Speaker 2: of things. I would have.

1346
01:25:27,740 --> 01:25:33,700
Speaker 3: I would have emphasized, well, you're asking a very personal question.

1347
01:25:33,740 --> 01:25:34,460
Speaker 2: I would I think of it.

1348
01:25:36,900 --> 01:25:40,540
Speaker 3: I would not have put in the hobbies except maybe

1349
01:25:40,620 --> 01:25:44,340
Speaker 3: classical music, but I would not have I would have

1350
01:25:44,420 --> 01:25:48,700
Speaker 3: stressed I would have had to walk a very fine

1351
01:25:48,780 --> 01:25:53,660
Speaker 3: line between sounding like a dud because I care about

1352
01:25:53,780 --> 01:25:56,939
Speaker 3: values and on the other hand, denying what is the

1353
01:25:57,099 --> 01:26:01,420
Speaker 3: essence of my life certain very deeply held values. I

1354
01:26:01,540 --> 01:26:03,580
Speaker 3: also would have written that I would not have it

1355
01:26:03,700 --> 01:26:07,180
Speaker 3: did not matter to me whatsoever whether the woman was

1356
01:26:07,260 --> 01:26:10,019
Speaker 3: professionally successful or if she made a nickel or ten

1357
01:26:10,099 --> 01:26:13,059
Speaker 3: million dollars. That would have been a very emphatic part

1358
01:26:13,099 --> 01:26:15,259
Speaker 3: of what I would have what I would have written.

1359
01:26:15,340 --> 01:26:17,420
Speaker 3: And I suggested that to a single friend of mine

1360
01:26:17,460 --> 01:26:20,179
Speaker 3: in New York who did take out such an ad

1361
01:26:20,260 --> 01:26:25,420
Speaker 3: in New York magazine he was deluged with responses of women.

1362
01:26:25,580 --> 01:26:28,220
Speaker 3: So glad that finally a guy actually said that it

1363
01:26:28,300 --> 01:26:30,379
Speaker 3: did not matter to them in that regard.

1364
01:26:30,460 --> 01:26:33,900
Speaker 2: He just wanted a good loving woman. So all these

1365
01:26:33,979 --> 01:26:36,980
Speaker 2: good loving women wrote in, none of whom were unemployed.

1366
01:26:37,540 --> 01:26:50,780
Speaker 2: It was, it was very successful. Yes, can I give

1367
01:26:50,780 --> 01:26:53,700
Speaker 2: you a one or two word interpretation of the word culture?

1368
01:26:55,019 --> 01:27:01,979
Speaker 3: Oh kosher? Oh, yes, kosher? Well the good you said,

1369
01:27:02,019 --> 01:27:06,500
Speaker 3: interpretation not translation. The translation is the best translation is

1370
01:27:06,900 --> 01:27:11,220
Speaker 3: fit or proper kosher in terms of Jewish food, and

1371
01:27:11,300 --> 01:27:15,339
Speaker 3: it only applies to food, and it doesn't apply to style.

1372
01:27:15,460 --> 01:27:19,939
Speaker 2: There's no such thing as kosher style. Okay, kosher. That

1373
01:27:20,220 --> 01:27:21,939
Speaker 2: is one of the great crackups, you know.

1374
01:27:21,979 --> 01:27:26,019
Speaker 3: It's like kosher style bacon, lettuce and tomato on a bagel.

1375
01:27:28,979 --> 01:27:35,379
Speaker 3: Kosher means two things. Certain types of animals are permitted

1376
01:27:35,580 --> 01:27:38,780
Speaker 3: and certain are not. And secondly, those that are permitted

1377
01:27:38,860 --> 01:27:41,660
Speaker 3: have to be killed in a certain way that ensures

1378
01:27:41,700 --> 01:27:44,540
Speaker 3: that they're not wounded. If an animal is wounded, it

1379
01:27:44,620 --> 01:27:47,380
Speaker 3: is not kosher because it's suffered in the attempt to

1380
01:27:47,500 --> 01:27:50,500
Speaker 3: kill it. That's why hunting is banned in Judaism, both

1381
01:27:50,620 --> 01:27:54,540
Speaker 3: for sport and for food, and as far as the

1382
01:27:54,620 --> 01:27:56,979
Speaker 3: animals are concerned. They have to have split hooves and

1383
01:27:57,059 --> 01:28:00,420
Speaker 3: chew their cud if they are land animals, they have

1384
01:28:00,540 --> 01:28:03,380
Speaker 3: to have fins and scales if they are fish, and

1385
01:28:03,500 --> 01:28:06,420
Speaker 3: they have to not be birds of prey to be

1386
01:28:06,820 --> 01:28:08,019
Speaker 3: if they are birds.

1387
01:28:09,260 --> 01:28:10,139
Speaker 2: The reason for that.

1388
01:28:12,180 --> 01:28:15,059
Speaker 3: He is very complex, but it basically has to do

1389
01:28:15,420 --> 01:28:19,860
Speaker 3: with something that you will find very interesting. Every single

1390
01:28:19,979 --> 01:28:26,059
Speaker 3: kosher animal kocial land animal is vegetarian, and every single

1391
01:28:26,180 --> 01:28:32,219
Speaker 3: carnivorous land animal is not kosher. Judaism is profoundly interested

1392
01:28:32,260 --> 01:28:37,219
Speaker 3: in separating life and death. Anything that smacks of death

1393
01:28:37,820 --> 01:28:40,380
Speaker 3: must be separated from that with smacks of life. That's

1394
01:28:40,380 --> 01:28:41,780
Speaker 3: why milk and meat cannot.

1395
01:28:41,540 --> 01:28:42,219
Speaker 2: Be eaten together.

1396
01:28:43,260 --> 01:28:47,500
Speaker 3: Milk is life and meat is death. That is why

1397
01:28:47,580 --> 01:28:51,259
Speaker 3: you can have fish with milk. Fish don't produce milk,

1398
01:28:51,979 --> 01:28:57,179
Speaker 3: therefore milk and the birds, by definition birds of prey

1399
01:28:57,660 --> 01:29:03,900
Speaker 3: are the killer birds. Judaism constantly the essence of Judaism

1400
01:29:04,019 --> 01:29:07,820
Speaker 3: is separation. The word for holy in Hebrew means separate,

1401
01:29:09,300 --> 01:29:14,900
Speaker 3: and that's next term. I'm giving a course eight sessions

1402
01:29:14,979 --> 01:29:18,420
Speaker 3: on the case for Judaism, so you're invited to take it.

1403
01:29:19,580 --> 01:29:22,700
Speaker 2: Let me just take boy, we are.

1404
01:29:24,700 --> 01:29:28,580
Speaker 3: Who wants to ask publicly, because I'll happily take privately

1405
01:29:28,660 --> 01:29:31,660
Speaker 3: who who is? Well, that's not fair, because I'm asking

1406
01:29:31,740 --> 01:29:33,979
Speaker 3: some of you to be no more noble, and I

1407
01:29:33,979 --> 01:29:36,540
Speaker 3: should choose the noble ones. Let me take one more.

1408
01:29:36,740 --> 01:29:46,939
Speaker 3: I saw her, and then the others come up here. Yes, yeah, right.

1409
01:29:47,140 --> 01:29:49,700
Speaker 3: When I order a tuna fish sandwich in a restaurant,

1410
01:29:49,740 --> 01:29:51,219
Speaker 3: how do I know that tuna didn't suffer?

1411
01:29:52,019 --> 01:29:54,660
Speaker 2: The answer to that is, I raise fish. Fish are

1412
01:29:54,740 --> 01:29:59,300
Speaker 2: so stupid to even speak of.

1413
01:29:59,300 --> 01:30:03,059
Speaker 3: Their suffering is to stretch the term beyond limits that

1414
01:30:03,140 --> 01:30:03,820
Speaker 3: I'm prepared for.

1415
01:30:04,580 --> 01:30:06,460
Speaker 2: I'll see you next week, everybody. Thank you.

1416
01:30:07,900 --> 01:30:12,180
Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit dennispragger

1417
01:30:12,260 --> 01:30:15,740
Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours off Dennis's lectures, courses

1418
01:30:15,820 --> 01:30:19,780
Speaker 1: in classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational

1419
01:30:19,979 --> 01:30:20,459
Speaker 1: Bibles