Speaker 1: Life audio in today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Is there meaning to life if there is no God?
Speaker 2: And the answer is no.
Speaker 3: Personally, I'm an atheist and I see meaning to everything
Speaker 3: that exists.
Speaker 4: Tree.
Speaker 2: I think that's great. I think that means well, now
Speaker 2: that you mentioned that, what meaning do you see in
Speaker 2: a tree?
Speaker 3: There's meaning beyond just looking at the tree and seeing
Speaker 3: the tree as a physical entity. There's an essence beyond
Speaker 3: our human understanding. So the thought I had, well, it
Speaker 3: doesn't make.
Speaker 2: Any sense to me. There's an essence, there's an essence
Speaker 2: to a tree that is beyond there a human understanding.
Speaker 2: But there is no God. So you find God irrational,
Speaker 2: but you find your comment to be rational.
Speaker 3: Well, my point is this is obviously we're trapped within
Speaker 3: our senses and we cannot understand the tree, uh the
Speaker 3: way that God would.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, but you don't believe in God, So why
Speaker 2: are you saying that?
Speaker 1: That's coming off? On Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours
Speaker 1: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
Speaker 1: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. Go to Dennisprager dot com.
Speaker 2: You are listening to the Ultimate Issues Hour each week
Speaker 2: at this time on the Dennis Prager Show, I talk
Speaker 2: about some great ultimate issue of life, some great eternal,
Speaker 2: powerful question. Welcome to the Welcome to the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 2: And today it is as ultimate, as ultimate as you
Speaker 2: can get. This is Dennis Prager. Thank you for being
Speaker 2: with me, and that is can there be? Is there
Speaker 2: meaning to life? If there is no God? And the
Speaker 2: answer is no. So let me explain this to you
Speaker 2: because for many people this will sound bizarre, because an
Speaker 2: atheist or agnostic will surely say, and can say, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, you mean to tell me the love I
Speaker 2: have for my family, my love of music, or of
Speaker 2: my work, my attempt to better my society, these are
Speaker 2: not meaningful. Who are you to tell me that these
Speaker 2: are not meaningful? They are meaningful to you, But that's
Speaker 2: not my question. My question is not can you find
Speaker 2: any given act in life personally meaningful? Of course you can,
Speaker 2: whether you're an atheist or a believer. That's not my question.
Speaker 2: So don't tell me that you find meaning in family
Speaker 2: and meaning in your work and meaning and doing good acts.
Speaker 2: I know that I know that that's not my question.
Speaker 2: So again, clarity before everything. Does life itself have meaning?
Speaker 4: Not?
Speaker 2: Does any given act that you do make you feel meaningful?
Speaker 2: Of course it does, and it should, and that's fine.
Speaker 2: But life itself is pointless if there is no God.
Speaker 2: That's all you can subjectively feel meaning in helping the poor,
Speaker 2: in raising a child, in making a life with your partner,
Speaker 2: your spouse, in life that's wonderful. But in the final analysis,
Speaker 2: that is all subjective feeling. There is no objective meaning
Speaker 2: to life. It doesn't exist. If there is no God,
Speaker 2: there is no design. It is all coincidence. I remember
Speaker 2: I had on I once had a national TV show,
Speaker 2: and I remember having Carl Sagan, who was the America's
Speaker 2: most popular astronomer. He was He was on public TV,
Speaker 2: and he was very Every book he put out was
Speaker 2: a national best seller. He was a professor of astronomy.
Speaker 2: I was at Dartmouth, I don't remember exactly where, and
Speaker 2: he was very eloquent, and he was a good looking guy.
Speaker 2: And then was he knew his astronomy and he was
Speaker 2: he was an atheist. And I remember having him on
Speaker 2: my show, and I'll never forget him saying something to
Speaker 2: this effects is Dennis's I want you to know when
Speaker 2: I look out at the at the cosmos. That was
Speaker 2: his favorite word, cosmos. That there's the name of one
Speaker 2: of his books. If I'm not mistaken, when I look
Speaker 2: out at the cosmos, Dennis, and I see the vastness
Speaker 2: of the universe. The more that I know about the universe,
Speaker 2: and the more I see and here into it, the
Speaker 2: more I realize how insignificant we humans are. So there
Speaker 2: you go. That's exactly right. He realizes how insignificant we
Speaker 2: people are. He was an honest atheist. He looks at
Speaker 2: the universe and realizes we we we we have no significance. Now,
Speaker 2: he wouldn't say that his life was insignificant, or your life,
Speaker 2: or my life, or if he had children, his children's life.
Speaker 2: Of course it's significant to me. But ultimately we're insignificant.
Speaker 2: We have no we have no importance. And that and
Speaker 2: he would he would. That's what I call an honest atheist.
Speaker 2: And there are such believe me. So here is on
Speaker 2: the Ultimate Issues hour. Here is my my first point,
Speaker 2: my point for this hour. If there is no God,
Speaker 2: life itself is meaningless, it's all random chance. You have
Speaker 2: no more ultimate meaning than a pebble? Does it came
Speaker 2: about by accident? You came about by accident if there
Speaker 2: is no God? And that's it. And it boggles my
Speaker 2: mind that more secular people don't acknowledge this very very
Speaker 2: awful consequence of secularism, insignificance leading to boredom. That's why
Speaker 2: the more secular the society, the more the need for amusement.
Speaker 2: Those with religious meaning are less a less inclined to
Speaker 2: need a fantastic amount of amusement in their life to
Speaker 2: while away the boredom. It was who wrote in Bluebeard's Castle,
Speaker 2: Oh yes, Alan, give me that is one of the
Speaker 2: great books. I'll get you that in a moment. And
Speaker 2: he he makes this point in this in this magnificent book.
Speaker 2: I think I have it as one of the ten
Speaker 2: that most affected me in Bluebeard's Castle. George, Oh it's killy,
Speaker 2: It's killy. I'll have it momentarily. And he makes this
Speaker 2: point that we should never never underestimate the significance of
Speaker 2: George Steiner. I remember, not George Steiner. That's it. Boredom
Speaker 2: on we has a very powerful effect. And secularism breeds
Speaker 2: on we. The great French word for something deeper than boredom.
Speaker 2: But it comes from a realization, whether it is conscious
Speaker 2: or not, that really nothing matters. Nothing really matters, so
Speaker 2: you might as well just have as much fun as possible.
Speaker 2: If nothing really matters, then you maximize excitement and fun
Speaker 2: in life. There are consequences. What I'm saying is there
Speaker 2: are consequences to a godless view of the world. There
Speaker 2: are many consequences that will be a major theme of
Speaker 2: the Ultimate Issues Hour talk about all sorts of things,
Speaker 2: but that will be certainly one of them. And Alan,
Speaker 2: I think that male sexual nature should be one of
Speaker 2: the themes too, that we should do so if you
Speaker 2: would put that down all right? One eight prayer seven
Speaker 2: seven six is the number one eight p r A
Speaker 2: g e Er seven seven six. I have put before
Speaker 2: you the thesis of the hour eight seven seven two
Speaker 2: four three triple seven six if I especially, I'm happy
Speaker 2: to hear from anybody, but I especially want to hear
Speaker 2: from those of you who do not believe that there
Speaker 2: is a God who designed the world? Do you? Does
Speaker 2: it make sense to you when I say that if
Speaker 2: there is no God, then there is ultimately no meaning
Speaker 2: to life? Is that I want to know if whether
Speaker 2: you agree or disagree, I don't want to know. Does
Speaker 2: it make sense to you? Because this is a very
Speaker 2: big deal. That is one of my arguments for God's existence,
Speaker 2: the fact that I believe that there is meaning to life.
Speaker 2: I can't believe, and I don't mean emotionally. I intellectually
Speaker 2: cannot accept the idea that life really is pointless. But
Speaker 2: I have to accept that idea if there is no God.
Speaker 2: So since I am sure that there is ultimately some
Speaker 2: point to this human creature, therefore I conclude there must
Speaker 2: be a God. I go through it as it were
Speaker 2: the other way around, not that since there is a God,
Speaker 2: life is meaningful. I am convinced life has meaning. Therefore
Speaker 2: there must be a God, because there is no meaning
Speaker 2: if there is no God. Again, we are just coincidences
Speaker 2: here one eight prayer seven seven six is the number.
Speaker 2: This is something that needs to be conveyed. And by
Speaker 2: the way, this is not conveyed to kids at college.
Speaker 2: It is amazing. It's amazing. This idea is just not conveyed. Phoenix, Arizona, John,
Speaker 2: Hello John, thanks for calling.
Speaker 4: Dennis Brager. All right, how are you okay? Simple question.
Speaker 4: I just want to know how you feel that you
Speaker 4: can validate someone's meaning to their life.
Speaker 2: I can't. I acknowledge that everybody has subjective meaning in
Speaker 2: his life, raising children, doing good, being kind to the neighbor,
Speaker 2: having a hobby. I said that three times.
Speaker 4: Okay, Now, so what in your opinion? And I think
Speaker 4: I know the answer, but I'd rather have you reiterate.
Speaker 4: Is the difference between someone who is a believer and
Speaker 4: in your opinion, has meaning and someone who is not
Speaker 4: a believer and does not have meaning.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, it's not a matter of whether I have meaning.
Speaker 2: It's whether there is meaning to It's not denis who
Speaker 2: has meaning or doesn't. As I acknowledged, an atheist can
Speaker 2: feel tremendous meaningfulness in his life. Okay. The question is
Speaker 2: does life itself have any meaning? Okay?
Speaker 4: And in your opinion, what is that meaning? Not to
Speaker 4: you but life itself.
Speaker 2: Well, if there is a God who designed us, then
Speaker 2: there is a purpose, and then the purpose may ultimately
Speaker 2: be only knowable to God. By the way, I don't
Speaker 2: sit here and say to you I know the exact
Speaker 2: purpose and meaning of all of life. I don't. It
Speaker 2: is sufficient for me to know that there is a
Speaker 2: God and there is meaning, and then that gives me
Speaker 2: a great deal of intellectual and emotional comfort. If this
Speaker 2: is clear to you, stay on, or don't stay on.
Speaker 2: If it's not, stay on. But I really want to
Speaker 2: make this clear to everyone listening. You are listening to
Speaker 2: the Ultimate Issues Hour of the Dennis Prager Show.
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Hi everybody, Dennis Prager. This is the Ultimate Issues Hour,
Speaker 2: one hour a week on the great questions of life,
Speaker 2: just as I have one hour a week on the
Speaker 2: issue of happiness. And it is this hour. And the
Speaker 2: question today is or not? The question, well, yeah, I
Speaker 2: guess the question is is their meaning? If there is
Speaker 2: no God, is there meaning to life? And the answer
Speaker 2: is no, that doesn't mean I have to say I'll
Speaker 2: have to say this every time. I really I ask
Speaker 2: your forgiveness for the many of you, for whom it
Speaker 2: is obviously clear. But I know that it is not
Speaker 2: clear to many people. I am not saying that if
Speaker 2: you're an atheist you can't feel that things are meaningful.
Speaker 2: Of course you can, I pray you do. You can
Speaker 2: find a million things meaningful. You can find a sunset meaningful,
Speaker 2: raising children, having a relationship with your spouse, with with
Speaker 2: somebody else, with friends, love, art, reading, travel, I could
Speaker 2: find a thousand things meaningful. That's not the issue. The
Speaker 2: issue is is their meaning to life period not do
Speaker 2: you personally experience meaningful moments? Those are two entirely separate questions.
Speaker 2: So I will return here in Phoenix, John, Is it
Speaker 2: clear now or do you still want to pose a
Speaker 2: question now?
Speaker 4: It's it's pretty clear after your explanation. But I'm still
Speaker 4: looking for the answer of that, that meaning which you
Speaker 4: probably can't answer.
Speaker 2: I can't answer that. That goes into the into the
Speaker 2: framework of if I were God, if I knew God,
Speaker 2: I'd be God. I don't know exactly why, and that
Speaker 2: will do that another time. Why did God create the world?
Speaker 2: Why did God create the man? I don't have. I have,
Speaker 2: I have some answers, I don't have the full answer.
Speaker 2: It doesn't bother me. Those there are questions that people
Speaker 2: ask that don't bother me, and bother them. That doesn't
Speaker 2: bother me. It's if it is utterly intellectually and emotionally
Speaker 2: satisfying to know that God designed the world and God
Speaker 2: told me how to live a good life. That's all
Speaker 2: I ask from God. Okay, all right, all right, John,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate very much your call, and let's go
Speaker 2: to Tom and San Mateo, California. Tom Dennis Prager Height.
Speaker 3: Hey, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: Okay? Thanks?
Speaker 3: My question is it's obvious that we see meaning in everything.
Speaker 3: And I'm not just talking about the sunset thing.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: Personally, I'm an atheist and I see meaning to everything
Speaker 3: that exists.
Speaker 2: I think that's great. I think that means well, now
Speaker 2: that you mentioned that, what meaning do you see in
Speaker 2: a tree?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 3: There's meaning beyond just looking at the tree and seeing
Speaker 3: the tree as a physical entity. There's an essence beyond
Speaker 3: our human understanding. So the thought I had, well.
Speaker 2: That doesn't make any sense to me. There's an essence,
Speaker 2: there's an essence to a tree that is beyond there
Speaker 2: a human understanding. But there is no God. So you
Speaker 2: find God irrational, but you find your comment to be rational.
Speaker 3: Well, my point is this is obviously we're trapped within
Speaker 3: our senses and we cannot understand the tree the way
Speaker 3: that God would.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, but you don't believe in God, so why
Speaker 2: are you saying that.
Speaker 3: Well, here's my point. There's things outside of us that
Speaker 3: we don't necessarily understand pretty much all of existence. But
Speaker 3: we know that there's a meaning to them because we're
Speaker 3: seeing them, and we're kind of seeing them in a
Speaker 3: watered down Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: This is an utterly unscientific view. You are talking as
Speaker 2: if there is a god and then fooling yourself into
Speaker 2: thinking you don't think there's a god.
Speaker 3: Well, my point is this, we know that there is something.
Speaker 2: Else as a way we know why wait wait, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 2: don't we don't know any What do you mean we
Speaker 2: know there is something else? The comment doesn't make sense
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 3: We know there is something more to the tree or
Speaker 3: to the person.
Speaker 2: No, we don't. Not. If there's no god, there is
Speaker 2: nothing more. It is a series of molecules that have
Speaker 2: organized themselves into a tree. There's nothing more whatsoever.
Speaker 3: If there's no god, well, there's something more than we
Speaker 3: can understand.
Speaker 2: No, that's not true. We understand. As soon as science
Speaker 2: tells us exactly what makes a tree, we understand it.
Speaker 3: You think we can understand a tree absolutely without a
Speaker 3: shadow of a doubt, you can, Well, I don't even.
Speaker 2: Well, you're using terms that the mystic uses. And then
Speaker 2: you deny that there is anything transcendent of science. So
Speaker 2: you're you like, live in two worlds but don't realize it.
Speaker 2: I don't know why you don't accept that there is
Speaker 2: a God. You certainly talk that way. You're more mystical
Speaker 2: than I am. For me, a tree is a tree. Okay,
Speaker 2: I appreciate your call. We'll go to Bedford, Texas and
Speaker 2: Mike Kellow, Mike, Dennis Prager, Hi, Dennis, Hi.
Speaker 5: Well that was fast. Okay. First of all, this is
Speaker 5: the best hour you have by far.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you love it. And I want everybody
Speaker 2: to have their own favorites, ideally fifteen favorites. Oh okay,
Speaker 2: go ahead.
Speaker 5: And by the way, I agree with you, but I
Speaker 5: can't explain why. Okay, However, I wanted just to just
Speaker 5: ask you a question. It's something I've been struggling with
Speaker 5: for a long time. If God is the source of
Speaker 5: objective meaning in life, then exactly how does God's existence
Speaker 5: produce that objective meaning as opposed to simply a subjective
Speaker 5: need to believe in God?
Speaker 2: Yes? Because God? If God exists, and God objectively exists,
Speaker 2: so is that correct? Well, yeah, and the key if well,
Speaker 2: of course, the keyword is if my whole thing is
Speaker 2: predicated on and if if there is a God, there's meaning.
Speaker 2: If there's no God, there's no meaning.
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, there's no ultimate meaning.
Speaker 2: Yes, no ultimate meaning. I see, that's right. You can
Speaker 2: find baseball meaningful, bringing up kids meaningful, love meaningful of course.
Speaker 5: So really, this whole thing boils down to people who
Speaker 5: simply want to believe in God versus people who don't
Speaker 5: want to believe in God.
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't boil that to that at all. It
Speaker 2: boils down to the question of do you do you
Speaker 2: acknowledge the simple truth that if there is no God,
Speaker 2: life is ultimately pointless. That's what it boils down to.
Speaker 2: It has nothing to do with what you will.
Speaker 5: I what I acknowledge is that if God does not exist,
Speaker 5: then life exists for its own sake. That's it.
Speaker 2: Well, well, I don't know what for its own sake means,
Speaker 2: but it just exists. It just exists to exist. It exists,
Speaker 2: It has no design, It has no ultimate meaning. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if Earth blows up tomorrow, it's meaningless, right, Okay, fine,
Speaker 2: So that's all I ask I'm not trying to convince
Speaker 2: you of anything except that one point you apparently accept.
Speaker 5: I choose to believe God.
Speaker 2: Ex Okay, fine.
Speaker 5: And then because it makes me feel.
Speaker 2: Better, Okay, that's fine, Okay, great, I think that there
Speaker 2: I think that there are there are better arguments that
Speaker 2: makes you feel better. But I'm glad you feel better.
Speaker 2: I care, frankly, does it make you act better more
Speaker 2: than whether it makes you feel better, But that that's
Speaker 2: a separate subject and we will deal with that another
Speaker 2: time too. I appreciate your call very much, Mike, and
Speaker 2: let's go to Angie in Cleveland. Hello, Angie, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 6: Hi, I agree with you. I'm an atheist. I have
Speaker 6: that same kind of feeling that there is no meaning
Speaker 6: if there is no God. And as much as I
Speaker 6: try to do good things, try to be a decent person,
Speaker 6: that idea still lingers in the back of my mind.
Speaker 6: I tend to shove it away. But I'm just wondering,
Speaker 6: what do you do at that point to just change
Speaker 6: my mind about my beliefs. Isn't something that's easy for me?
Speaker 2: In other words, because you have faced the abyss, you
Speaker 2: would like to believe in God. Correct, Okay, hold on,
Speaker 2: You're you're the ideal call, as it were. See that
Speaker 2: that's exactly the point. That's what I ask atheists to
Speaker 2: honestly do, face the abyss, the darkness that their lack
Speaker 2: of belief in God must in fact rationally lead to.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in a moment. I'm Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show, the Ultimate Issues
Speaker 2: hour every week at this time, an hour devoted to
Speaker 2: the great questions of life. This time it is can
Speaker 2: there be meaning in life? And I don't mean meaning
Speaker 2: in your individual life about things you find meaningful? Of course,
Speaker 2: that's a subjective thing. There's beauty in life. There's a
Speaker 2: whole of things that you can you feel, and I
Speaker 2: don't deny that. My question is, is there any ultimate meaning
Speaker 2: to life itself? If there is no God? And of
Speaker 2: course the answer is no, because we're all we are
Speaker 2: simply physical beings who happen to have a mind. But
Speaker 2: we're just physical beings who who came by accident and
Speaker 2: who died by accident. And that's it. That's all we
Speaker 2: are if there's no God and be honest enough to
Speaker 2: acknowledge it. Now here is the great question, or one
Speaker 2: of the great ones from Angie back to you, Angie
Speaker 2: in Cleveland. So you, I am curious you have have
Speaker 2: Did you recognize the what we what I call the
Speaker 2: abyss of of a an atheistic view of life? Did
Speaker 2: you realize this before this hour? Or or this is
Speaker 2: just reinforcing or what?
Speaker 6: No, Probably within the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: Right, So it's become clear to you if there's no
Speaker 2: God there right, So this is good? So this is
Speaker 2: this is perfect? Then? So you want to know, then,
Speaker 2: how can a person who doesn't believe but acknowledges the
Speaker 2: the the rather sad reality of life if there is
Speaker 2: no God, you would like to be able to believe
Speaker 2: in God?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Right? Well, Alan, put that down. I'm not getting away
Speaker 2: from this, Angie. I just want to put this down.
Speaker 2: I would like to do that for one of the
Speaker 2: hours of this Ultimate Issue's hour. How How would one
Speaker 2: who is inclined to atheism come to take God seriously?
Speaker 2: Were you raised in a religious home?
Speaker 6: My mother was Catholic. We went to Catholic Mass, but
Speaker 6: only on holidays. I never did confirmation or any of
Speaker 6: those things. Right, So, no, we never talked about religions and.
Speaker 2: Right and and did you I assume you went to college. Yes,
Speaker 2: And of course, now that's an entirely secular experience. What
Speaker 2: I think you need to realize before you would do
Speaker 2: anything in the direction of trying to take God seriously
Speaker 2: is realize what a thorough going secular brainwash you've had.
Speaker 2: The society, the media are thoroughly secularized, and the education
Speaker 2: you received were thoroughly secularized. So you've really never had
Speaker 2: a chance to encounter sophisticated.
Speaker 6: Belief Yeah, your show was actually the first time I've
Speaker 6: ever heard anyone speak about religion, about the Bible, about
Speaker 6: those types of beliefs. But I do have to say
Speaker 6: that I didn't come upon the realization that I was
Speaker 6: an atheist so much like I think most people do.
Speaker 6: I actually was about fourteen or fifteen when I realized
Speaker 6: that people believed in God differently than I did. I
Speaker 6: never sat down and thought, does God exist? No, I
Speaker 6: don't think he does. I just always assumed that it
Speaker 6: was some kind of myths. I mean, I don't mean
Speaker 6: to be disrespectful, but it just that's how it always
Speaker 6: presented itself.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly that, and that's how it was presented to you.
Speaker 2: That is the typical American educational experience. That it's either
Speaker 2: ignored because you weren't taught about God in college or
Speaker 2: high school any more than you were taught about astrology.
Speaker 2: They're regarded as the same as just the beliefs of buffoons.
Speaker 2: Maybe well intentioned, maybe non well intentioned, but of buffoons.
Speaker 2: The first thing that you need to realize, and I
Speaker 2: can't answer you fully now because I want to take
Speaker 2: time to do that properly, but the first thing you
Speaker 2: need to realize is that you have not been able.
Speaker 2: You have not been offered the opportunity to intellectually weigh
Speaker 2: the arguments for and against God. It has been weighted
Speaker 2: ninety nine to one against.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I see, so you constantly need to have that reinforcement.
Speaker 2: Well no, it's well, well, all you need to know
Speaker 2: is that you have not You have disqualified God without
Speaker 2: giving him a fair trial. You have rendered him non
Speaker 2: existent without ever having a trial. Okay, Okay, now now
Speaker 2: in that regard, I mean, I may there's so much
Speaker 2: I could recommend to you. C. S. Lewis is terrific
Speaker 2: from the Christian side as an example, but I certainly
Speaker 2: would recommend my tape the case for God's existence. I'd
Speaker 2: like you to hear it, send me, send me an
Speaker 2: email or through a Preger radio. We will, we will continue,
Speaker 2: and I will deal with that subject on another Ultimate
Speaker 2: Issues Hour. How does a sophisticated person today take God seriously?
Speaker 2: But that's not the subject of this specific hour. We continue.
Speaker 1: Are you enjoying timeless wisdom? We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Call eight seven seven two four three seventy seven seventy
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Speaker 1: for your support.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show, the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 2: This hour of the week, I talk about the great
Speaker 2: questions of life, and it doesn't get greater than this.
Speaker 2: Is there any meaning to life? And I don't mean
Speaker 2: meaning to your individual feeling meaning about your individual life?
Speaker 2: Of course, most people do, they feel that the love
Speaker 2: of their family is meaningful, that they feel that their
Speaker 2: work is meaningful, they feel that anything that happens in
Speaker 2: any given day is meaningful, and you should feel that.
Speaker 2: And I'm not here to knock that. I'm not asking
Speaker 2: about whether you feel meaning in your life. I'm asking
Speaker 2: whether life itself does have any meaning in the final analysis,
Speaker 2: not whether you feel it in your individual life. Please
Speaker 2: understand that. And there God becomes the question. If there
Speaker 2: is no God and we are here as coincidences. Coincidences
Speaker 2: don't have meaning just chance. Random chance has no ultimate meaning.
Speaker 2: A designer designing has meaning, not random coming together of molecules.
Speaker 2: So that's the point. I mean, it's to me so
Speaker 2: self evident, and most I think most honest atheists acknowledged this.
Speaker 2: In fact, that's how you got the concept of existentialism.
Speaker 2: Since this, since life has no meaning, according to the atheist,
Speaker 2: you have to take meaning from your own existence. That's
Speaker 2: what existentialism is about. Existencesm take meaning from existence. But
Speaker 2: it doesn't work for the thinking person. It doesn't even
Speaker 2: work from any non thinking persons because they though they
Speaker 2: don't realize it's one of the reasons they get so
Speaker 2: bored when you really do believe that life is a
Speaker 2: sheer sheer fluke, it doesn't make life quite as interesting.
Speaker 2: In the final analysis, take this challenge from Denver and
Speaker 2: David Hi David Dennis Prager.
Speaker 7: Hy Dennis, how you doing today?
Speaker 2: Okay? Thanks?
Speaker 7: Yeah, interesting topic for sure. And you know, when I
Speaker 7: look at it from the way you're speaking, there, I
Speaker 7: kind of see two choices that we have in life.
Speaker 7: There either is no God or there is a God.
Speaker 7: And of course, if there is no God, then there
Speaker 7: is no meaning in life. But if there is a God,
Speaker 7: then I don't know. Do we have two more choices
Speaker 7: that God is here to has left us here to
Speaker 7: fend for ourselves or is God directly involved in our lives?
Speaker 7: And if He's left us here to fend for ourselves
Speaker 7: with no purpose or meaning, then there is no purpose
Speaker 7: or meaning. I mean, did he just yeah?
Speaker 2: So in other words, it is possible that there is
Speaker 2: a God who created life, but created it with no meaning.
Speaker 7: A greater being of some kind. And we have you know,
Speaker 7: we take speculation at it. We we look at all.
Speaker 2: Right, look, look, of course it's possible. Then God, then
Speaker 2: God is is the biggest sadest that ever existed.
Speaker 7: Well, that's kind of where I was going with this.
Speaker 2: Is this. Okay, you're right if if that's what you
Speaker 2: believe in, you would have to conclude the world was
Speaker 2: made by a sadist.
Speaker 7: But my problem is I don't know what to believe
Speaker 7: because there's so much confusion out there. You have your faith,
Speaker 7: I know a dozen other people, each one with their
Speaker 7: own view of it. I mean, I have one very
Speaker 7: close friend who actually talks to God and in conversations and.
Speaker 2: Well, wait does he get answers?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's just right there in his eyes.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like, look he well, then he's he's
Speaker 2: on a different level than I am, I must say.
Speaker 2: But no, the fact I don't see what the confusion
Speaker 2: is because what I'm saying is so broad based. This
Speaker 2: is acceptable to anybody anyone listening the anyone in any
Speaker 2: God based religion can accept what I'm saying. I'm not
Speaker 2: advocating any specific religious affirmation. I am not. I have
Speaker 2: no agenda for any given specific religion. Here. I am
Speaker 2: talking to you simply with the best of the honesty
Speaker 2: that I can I can appropriate. If there is no God,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 7: That's how I come back at you.
Speaker 2: I know you are. I know you are. But I'm
Speaker 2: just trying to answer that when you say there are
Speaker 2: all these competing claims out there, There are no competing
Speaker 2: claims on what I'm saying. There are completing claims on
Speaker 2: the which revelation is true, but there is no competing
Speaker 2: claim on this specific doctrine that I'm offering to you,
Speaker 2: which is not even a doctrine, it's it's it's a
Speaker 2: logical assertion. If we're not designed, if there is no God,
Speaker 2: then life has no ultimate meaning. You don't have to
Speaker 2: be a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim, you don't have
Speaker 2: to be anything to acknowledge that. You could be an
Speaker 2: atheist and acknowledge that. So there's no competing claim to
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. The only competing claim would be irrational. Well,
Speaker 2: life is ultimately meaningful, and in fact it's a total coincidence,
Speaker 2: But that's absurd, and so that I don't regard absurdity
Speaker 2: as a competing claim. So, David, there are no competing claims.
Speaker 2: There are competing claims as to which God, which revelation.
Speaker 2: That's not my business right now. Okay, let's go to Longwood,
Speaker 2: Florida and Lisa, Hello Lisa.
Speaker 8: Dennis Prager, Hello Dennis, how are you well?
Speaker 2: Thank you good.
Speaker 8: I consider myself an agnostic. I just don't know if
Speaker 8: there's a god. I can't acknowledge it.
Speaker 2: Well, you're not asked to know. At least this may
Speaker 2: help you. You're not asked to know. I don't know
Speaker 2: that there is a god. I believe there is a god.
Speaker 8: I guess I can't believe that there is and I
Speaker 8: can't believe this there.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're not talking about knowledge, you're even talking
Speaker 2: about beliefs. So so, if you had to bet all
Speaker 2: your money, you had to bet everything that you own
Speaker 2: and and your future health on whether or not it
Speaker 2: all came about on its own, or or some higher
Speaker 2: intelligence designed it. Which would you bet? Or would you
Speaker 2: flip a coin?
Speaker 8: I would bet that there is some sort of higher intelligence,
Speaker 8: but nobody on this planet understands it. I don't think
Speaker 8: anybody has.
Speaker 2: Well wait wait wait, wait, woo woo woo wooh wait
Speaker 2: wait wait wait, So if you had to bet your
Speaker 2: future health and all your possessions right now, you would
Speaker 2: bet that we were designed. So fine, Well, then you're
Speaker 2: not an agnostic. An agnostic would flip a coin.
Speaker 8: My mother tells me, if I don't take the Bible
Speaker 8: and the God of Israel as the true and only God,
Speaker 8: then I'm I'm an atheist.
Speaker 2: That's my That's between you and mom. But I mean
Speaker 2: you and me right now is I want to establish
Speaker 2: that you're not an agnostic. So to begin with, if
Speaker 2: you had to bet everything of importance to you, you
Speaker 2: would bet that we were not sure, we are not
Speaker 2: self created.
Speaker 8: I would bet that that's great.
Speaker 2: Okay, fine, So the next question becomes, do you believe
Speaker 2: that that which created us cares about us or just
Speaker 2: created us and is currently playing chess in another dimension?
Speaker 8: I would bet that he's or seeing or them they
Speaker 8: are just playing chess in another dimension.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, then your mother's right. You are fortunately an atheist.
Speaker 2: I love this call. God blow hopes. Oops, excuse me.
Speaker 2: May the chess players bless you, Lisa. We will return.
Speaker 2: Final segment coming up on this edition of The Dennis
Speaker 2: Praeger Show's Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue now back to
Speaker 1: more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: The final segment here of this edition of the Ultimate
Speaker 2: Issues Hour of the Dennis Prager Show one to eight.
Speaker 2: Praguer seven seven six is the number, and it has
Speaker 2: been a really important hour as indeed, I try to
Speaker 2: make all the hours of my show, but especially the
Speaker 2: Ultimate Issues hour, because it's about ultimate issues of life.
Speaker 2: And I'm just asking you to acknowledge a rather important
Speaker 2: thing that you don't have to be religious to acknowledge.
Speaker 2: You just have to be intellectually honest. If there is
Speaker 2: no God and we are just coincidences in the universe,
Speaker 2: then that life has no meaning. And to repeat it's
Speaker 2: probably the fifth time I'm saying it because people don't
Speaker 2: hear it or people just tune in. That doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that you cannot personally find and feel meaning in your
Speaker 2: own lives. Of course you can. You can find a
Speaker 2: thousand different things meaningful. That's very different from whether or
Speaker 2: not there is any ultimate meaning to life itself, and
Speaker 2: there isn't. If it came about on its own, and
Speaker 2: it will die on its own, then that's it. We
Speaker 2: just visit for a tiny period of time and drop dead.
Speaker 2: And you have to be honest and face that fact.
Speaker 2: But it has consequences, and I believe it has huge consequences,
Speaker 2: consciously or not I'd be very interested. For example, just
Speaker 2: to bring it down to a very very mundane level,
Speaker 2: I would be very curious to know if a deeply
Speaker 2: committed to God, a God centered home is as likely
Speaker 2: to watch as much television as a secular home. I'd
Speaker 2: be very curious. Now, there are other factors as well
Speaker 2: about television watching. I have no doubt about it. There
Speaker 2: are other factors that could be involved as well. But
Speaker 2: on the same socioeconomic and educational level. Let's say a
Speaker 2: person who only went through high school who has a
Speaker 2: God centered home versus only through high school non God
Speaker 2: centered home, which do you think we'll have more TV?
Speaker 2: And I'm the reason that I raise it is because,
Speaker 2: in the final analysis, the sense of pointlessness and the
Speaker 2: need to be constantly drugged, and it is a drug
Speaker 2: by entertainment, by amusement, is going to be more felt
Speaker 2: by somebody who does not have God in his or
Speaker 2: her life. This is not a criticism, this is not
Speaker 2: an attack. This is not to make anybody feel bad,
Speaker 2: nothing like that. I want you to open your ears
Speaker 2: to what I'm saying. That's all. Open your minds to
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. And yes, therefore, if we are just coincidence.
Speaker 2: Then we are as Carl Sagan said to me, Dennis,
Speaker 2: I look up into the cosmos, and the more I
Speaker 2: see how grand and how large it is, the more
Speaker 2: I realize how insignificant we human beings are. Well, that
Speaker 2: was an honest atheist, and that's what I have asked for.
Speaker 2: How do you come to believe in this God? If
Speaker 2: you find it difficult, that's for another hour. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: I hope this woman has been beneficial. I'm Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, I talk about the real, real issues of
Speaker 2: men and women on the Male Female Hour, and I
Speaker 2: want to read to you a letter I received after
Speaker 2: last week's show. You mentioned that you would like to
Speaker 2: do an hour on modesty. I am really looking forward
Speaker 2: to that one. Well, broh, here is your request is granted.
Speaker 2: I feel sort of like a Laddin's lamp here she
Speaker 2: rubbed on and voila, which, by the way, shows I
Speaker 2: read your mail, folks. I can't respond. I didn't even
Speaker 2: get the chance to respond to her, but I do.
Speaker 2: And if you have thoughts and reactions, they are absolutely invaluable.
Speaker 2: To me. I was asked this question a long time ago,
Speaker 2: and I'm very open on these issues, and that's why
Speaker 2: people ask me. Well, Dennis, so, as a man, do
Speaker 2: you like when women were very revealing clothing? And I said,
Speaker 2: and this is this was a key answer. The male
Speaker 2: in me loves it. The man in me doesn't.
Speaker 1: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager, visit Denispragger dot com for thousands of hours
Speaker 1: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
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