Speaker 1: On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Just like there is an hour each week devoted to happiness,
Speaker 2: We're going to devote an hour each week at this
Speaker 2: time on Tuesdays to the great Ultimate issues of life.
Speaker 2: This is the Ultimate Issues Hour, and I feel that
Speaker 2: the best way to inaugurate this series is with a
Speaker 2: great question that people that have not thought through clearly enough.
Speaker 3: That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome
Speaker 3: to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours
Speaker 3: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
Speaker 3: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to Dennisprager dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, hello, everybody, this is Dennis Prager, and I have
Speaker 2: a big smile on my face as I inaugurate the
Speaker 2: Ultimate Issues Hour. Just like their is an hour each
Speaker 2: week devoted to happiness, We're going to devote an hour
Speaker 2: each week at this time on Tuesdays to the great
Speaker 2: ultimate issues of life. Give it to me, Sean, give
Speaker 2: it to me. Yes, indeed, everybody, this is it. This
Speaker 2: is the Ultimate Issues Hour. Because I believe, in conjunction
Speaker 2: with happiness, that what people need is a philosophy of life.
Speaker 2: We need to be clear on the great questions of life,
Speaker 2: and that is what this hour will be. It's to
Speaker 2: take a great question, whether it has to do with religion,
Speaker 2: whether it has to do with morality, whether it has
Speaker 2: to do with human nature, whether it has to do
Speaker 2: with men and women, whether it has to do with whatever,
Speaker 2: the timeless great questions of life. And I think you'll
Speaker 2: love it as much as you love the Happiness this hour.
Speaker 2: Wherever I go, people tell me that that hour they
Speaker 2: just love it. They absolutely they don't want to miss it.
Speaker 4: That's what I mean.
Speaker 2: I want you to feel that about every hour of
Speaker 2: my radio show, to be perfectly honest, But I have
Speaker 2: a particular affection for the Happiness Hour as you do,
Speaker 2: and I hope that it's likewise for the Ultimate Issues Hour,
Speaker 2: the ultimate issues of life. And I feel that the
Speaker 2: best way to inaugurate this series is with a great
Speaker 2: question that people that have not thought through clearly enough,
Speaker 2: and that is the question of are people basically good?
Speaker 2: Are people basically bad? Are people basically in the middle?
Speaker 2: And I learned long ago in my radio life. Long
Speaker 2: ago I learned that the difference on the views on
Speaker 2: that one issue perhaps more than any other single question
Speaker 2: will help people determine whether they are liberal or conservative,
Speaker 2: whether they are writer or left, whether they will have
Speaker 2: a liberal or conservative position on most social issues. Hey, listen,
Speaker 2: If you believe people are basically good, here listen. Clearly,
Speaker 2: if you believe people are basically good, if we are
Speaker 2: born good, then you will attribute human evil to outside influences.
Speaker 2: Why do people murder? Why do people rape? White do people?
Speaker 2: Why do people burglarize homes? Why do they mug? Why
Speaker 2: do they do all these evil? Well, if we're basically good,
Speaker 2: something must have distorted that person's goodness. But if you
Speaker 2: believe that we're not basically good, then you'll say that, well,
Speaker 2: the person who murders, the person who steals, that person
Speaker 2: is in fact giving in to his nature because it's
Speaker 2: natural to kill, it is natural to steal, natural to rape.
Speaker 2: So it is a huge it is one of the great,
Speaker 2: huge questions, And that's what I want to talk to
Speaker 2: you about on this Ultimate Issues Hour A. People basically
Speaker 2: good or not? Now Here are the different positions as
Speaker 2: I have learned them over the course of my lifetime.
Speaker 2: There are those who believe, and they tend to be
Speaker 2: secular people there are those who believe we are born
Speaker 2: basically good. They are very fond for example, of quoting
Speaker 2: Anne Frank, the famous Anne Frank from the Diary of
Speaker 2: Anne Frank, the teenage Jewish girl in Holland who is
Speaker 2: murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust, who kept the
Speaker 2: most famous diary ever written in history. And her diary
Speaker 2: includes the line that even though she sees such darkness
Speaker 2: and she is hiding in a little tiny attic from
Speaker 2: people who wish to murder her and her whole family
Speaker 2: just because they're born Jews, still in all she says,
Speaker 2: I believe that people basically good.
Speaker 4: And she is.
Speaker 2: Cited by people who believe that people are basically good.
Speaker 2: She's cited all the time. Now. Who can't love Anne Frank,
Speaker 2: But to cite a teenage girl's view of humanity as
Speaker 2: an argument for that view, I've never found that terribly compelling.
Speaker 2: I just happened not to agree with her. I also
Speaker 2: wonder if when she, the poor thing, was sent to
Speaker 2: a Nazi concentration camp where she was murdered. I wonder
Speaker 2: if she believed till the end that people were basically good.
Speaker 2: But literally only God knows the answer to that question.
Speaker 2: On the other side are those who believe that were
Speaker 2: born bad, that human nature is utterly corrupt, and only
Speaker 2: with a religious affirmation can one can one deal with
Speaker 2: a dark, sinful nature. And there are all views in between.
Speaker 2: Tell you my view. My view is that we are
Speaker 2: not born basically good, and we are not born basically
Speaker 2: bad by the way the view that we are born sinful.
Speaker 2: Of course we're born sinful. I mean that's yes. The
Speaker 2: whether or not one needs a specific religious affirmation to
Speaker 2: undo it is not my topic today, So don't even
Speaker 2: call with it. I'll happily deal with that on another occasion.
Speaker 2: That's not the question. We stick to the question how
Speaker 2: is human nature? Is it good or bad? I believe
Speaker 2: it it has kernels of both. We have bad tendencies
Speaker 2: and we have good tendencies, and the human being is
Speaker 2: responsible therefore for his goodness or his badness. And this
Speaker 2: is a view that in real life works. It works
Speaker 2: because then you blame people for the bad they do,
Speaker 2: but you understand as well that there is goodness that
Speaker 2: you can appeal to in people. If there is no
Speaker 2: goodness in human nature, then how can you appeal to
Speaker 2: people to be good? Religiously or secularly. How could you
Speaker 2: appeal to people to be good if there's no goodness
Speaker 2: in their nature that will hear you. In fact, let
Speaker 2: me tell you something. The irony is that there is
Speaker 2: a lot of goodness in human nature, and it is
Speaker 2: perverted very often by value systems, by philosophies that say
Speaker 2: that evil is good. And people think they're doing good
Speaker 2: when they're doing bad. Yep, I mean there's no comman.
Speaker 2: Terrorists think they're doing good. They're saving the world for
Speaker 2: their religion. They think they're doing good. They don't think
Speaker 2: they're doing bad. They're doing staggering evil, but they have
Speaker 2: been given a philosophy of life that tells them that
Speaker 2: it's really good when you blow up people in trains.
Speaker 2: The Nazis thought, they said, we're doing good. Ridding the
Speaker 2: world of Jewss is a good act. So ironically, there
Speaker 2: really is goodness in human nature, but it is easily
Speaker 2: perverted by a philosophy, or by by psychology or something else.
Speaker 2: But there is also badness in human nature. We are
Speaker 2: born with jealousy, we are born with greed. We are
Speaker 2: hardly born, especially men with a monogamous nature. I said
Speaker 2: earlier that rape is natural.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: It is natural for a man to take the object
Speaker 2: of his sexual desire and have sex with that object
Speaker 2: is natural. You need a value system to say, hey man,
Speaker 2: you can't do that. That is why those of us
Speaker 2: who don't believe people are basically good are so keen
Speaker 2: on teaching values to people that we don't think that
Speaker 2: love alone will work. You have to also give people values.
Speaker 2: You can actually end up with well loved barbarians if
Speaker 2: you just give them love and you don't give them
Speaker 2: a value system. One eighth Prager seven seven six. And
Speaker 2: here is what I'd like you to do, like on
Speaker 2: the Happiness Hour, is more or less react to what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, because a lot of you already called because
Speaker 2: I know everybody has a view on this, and I
Speaker 2: fully or and I fully respect that. But I want
Speaker 2: to give the benefit of a lifetime of thought on
Speaker 2: these issues on this the Ultimate Issues Hour, which I
Speaker 2: am inaugurating today, an hour on the great questions of
Speaker 2: life to help people develop a philosophy of life, because
Speaker 2: otherwise life is very confusing. It's something one needs in
Speaker 2: life to have a philosophy of life and to really
Speaker 2: think it through. So when I say that I believe
Speaker 2: that people aren't basically good. I am not saying I
Speaker 2: believe people are basically bad. I am saying that people
Speaker 2: are torn, and that we have to do everything we
Speaker 2: can give value systems, reinforce goodness, punish bad. We have
Speaker 2: to do everything we can in order to help people
Speaker 2: go towards the good side of their nature, which does
Speaker 2: exist too. There are there are, I will acknowledge, there
Speaker 2: are psychopaths, people who are are conscience free. That is
Speaker 2: another That is another issue. By the way, I do
Speaker 2: I do believe there are people that apparently have what
Speaker 2: for whatever reason there is, there is no goodness inside
Speaker 2: of them. They are truly pathologic. But that is that
Speaker 2: is a fairly rare breed. One eight Prayer seven seven six.
Speaker 2: Welcome and email me through the new website address Prager
Speaker 2: Radio dot com your reactions to the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 3: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 3: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Alrighty, everybody, welcome to the second segment of the Ultimate
Speaker 2: Issues Hour. I am inaugurating and I am aching for
Speaker 2: your feedback. Since there's obviously a limited number of calls
Speaker 2: that could be taken at any given time. Please, ado
Speaker 2: was just send me a letter an email on what
Speaker 2: you think about the idea of this hour each week,
Speaker 2: just as I do one dedicated to happiness, one now
Speaker 2: dedicated to the ultimate issues of life, and that's to
Speaker 2: pragerradio dot com. Just send me an email through that
Speaker 2: and spell Prager radio with one hour or two hours
Speaker 2: the the uh. Also, I'm curious to get your feedback
Speaker 2: on the opening theme that I have at least tentatively chosen.
Speaker 2: It's it's a great piece by Franz list l I
Speaker 2: s z t late prelude Sean. If you have that,
Speaker 2: I want to play it. Yeah, h m.
Speaker 4: Hm, alright, anyway, I love it.
Speaker 2: But well, we're we're open into two reactions, and let's
Speaker 2: talk about this. People basically good or not? The while
Speaker 2: the widely accepted version in the secular West is that
Speaker 2: people are basically good born good. The reason for that
Speaker 2: is that if you can't believe in God, you better
Speaker 2: believe in humanity. It makes perfect sense either you believe
Speaker 2: in a good God or good humanity. There are people
Speaker 2: who believe in both, I understand. But if you don't
Speaker 2: believe in a good God. You better believe in a
Speaker 2: good humanity or you're really going to end up in despair.
Speaker 2: So secular society, not believing in a good God, has
Speaker 2: decided to believe in a good humanity, and that is
Speaker 2: not rational based on the moral record of humanity. On
Speaker 2: the other hand, I don't believe that we are born
Speaker 2: evil either. We have a choice, and the human being
Speaker 2: is born with that choice, although we certainly have to
Speaker 2: work very hard to make sure the choice goes against
Speaker 2: nature and.
Speaker 4: Is a good one.
Speaker 2: All righty, let's take your calls here and we'll begin
Speaker 2: with Jim in Minneapolis. Jim Dennis Prager, you are the
Speaker 2: first caller to the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 2: In Shaloon, Dennis, thank you.
Speaker 5: Just wanted to give my thoughts. I think we are
Speaker 5: both as well for the reason that I think that
Speaker 5: we're created in the image of Yahweh, and that in
Speaker 5: that image you are giving a conscience and a conscience
Speaker 5: broken down con with science knowledge, and so whatever we
Speaker 5: do wrong, we do wrong with knowledge. But we have
Speaker 5: a per sin in nature, a propensity.
Speaker 6: To do wrong.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're together on that one. But let me just
Speaker 2: explain to a lot of people who argue with me
Speaker 2: and say that, well, we are born basically good because
Speaker 2: they believe in the Bible, and they will say that
Speaker 2: we're we're created in God's image, so we must be good.
Speaker 2: But that's not what created in God's image means. Creating
Speaker 2: God's image means two things. One that, like God, we
Speaker 2: know good and evil. Animals don't. There's no such thing
Speaker 2: as a good or a bad dog. I'm sorry, I
Speaker 2: know this is painful to many of you, but there's
Speaker 2: no such thing. A dog is a dog. Dogs do
Speaker 2: not morally contemplate their actions, nor to cats or hamsters
Speaker 2: or gorillas.
Speaker 4: They do not think.
Speaker 2: You know, my nature is to grab that female, but
Speaker 2: I won't because I don't really know. If she feels
Speaker 2: comfortable having me, it doesn't happen. But human beings are
Speaker 2: capable of saying no to their nature. So that is
Speaker 2: one in God's image definition. The other is that unlike animals,
Speaker 2: we are creating God's image means, unlike we are, human
Speaker 2: life is more sacred than animal life, which bothers a
Speaker 2: lot of people today in secular life as well. But
Speaker 2: I'm just explaining what that means. Okay, let's go to
Speaker 2: Matt in Gino, California. Matt Dennis Prager, thank you for
Speaker 2: calling hi.
Speaker 4: Hi.
Speaker 7: I totally agree that we're both good and bad inclination,
Speaker 7: that we are in the image of God and that
Speaker 7: that's the root of our good.
Speaker 6: But because of the.
Speaker 7: Fall, we can also do bad. I shared this with
Speaker 7: one of my classes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we could, We were able to do bad
Speaker 2: before the fall. That's why Adam. Adam went, Adam and
Speaker 2: Eve went against God's will before the fall. That's how
Speaker 2: they fell.
Speaker 7: Okay, well I never thought of it that way, but
Speaker 7: I I I. My understanding is that it was the
Speaker 7: choice to sin against God.
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, but that but so then how do
Speaker 2: you make that choice if you're all good? Okay, listen,
Speaker 2: this is very important. This is I am asking all
Speaker 2: of you religious, secular. I'm asking you to do what
Speaker 2: I believe in any event, if you, if you believe
Speaker 2: in God, God wants us to do. Is to think
Speaker 2: we secular people too often just repeat what they were
Speaker 2: taught secularly, and religious people too often repeat what they
Speaker 2: were taught religiously.
Speaker 4: And we are we are allowed, in fact.
Speaker 2: That it is a credit to whatever we believe in.
Speaker 2: If we think a second time about it, and that
Speaker 2: that's that is a big deal, big deal to do that,
Speaker 2: and it's credit to your religion when you do it.
Speaker 2: It doesn't upset it or anything.
Speaker 4: Anyway.
Speaker 2: I thank you, I thank you, Matt. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: And let's go to uh the Pocono's. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: is that touching to me? You're in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. Yes,
Speaker 2: let me you know. I went to camp in the
Speaker 2: Pocono's as a kid.
Speaker 6: Yeah, are you near?
Speaker 2: Are you near Tannersville?
Speaker 6: I lived for fifteen minutes from Timesville. I live in
Speaker 6: the Effort, in Effort.
Speaker 2: I went to camp in Effort. I can't believe it.
Speaker 2: I have the chills.
Speaker 6: Maybe he went behind my house.
Speaker 2: It's no longer there, or maybe it's a different camp.
Speaker 2: But I went to camp for three years in Effort, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 6: Okay, there's a there's a lake and close to that's.
Speaker 4: Right, exactly? All right, Carlos, go ahead.
Speaker 6: Okay, Dennis, Uh, Well, I'm glad you told this guy,
Speaker 6: this guy that just called you put him right on
Speaker 6: the spot, because this is supposedly a guy that believes
Speaker 6: in God, and he tells you that Adam and is
Speaker 6: sin and you told him that they sin before they
Speaker 6: were evil. Yeah, so because what I believe the reason
Speaker 6: I call it because I believe that we need a
Speaker 6: good or evil. It's all a prospective how we perceive
Speaker 6: life together with our emotional and our behavior, how we
Speaker 6: thought since we were children, it was going to determine
Speaker 6: and also balance mental chemical balance will dictate.
Speaker 2: How we behave right, So do you believe do you
Speaker 2: believe that we have a free moral will? No Ah,
Speaker 2: very interesting, I didn't think so.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you feel that.
Speaker 4: And so therefore that.
Speaker 6: So we learned the logically that the more logic that
Speaker 6: we learned to react better, the better human beings that
Speaker 6: we will be.
Speaker 2: So, so you don't blame anybody for the bad they
Speaker 2: do or you do.
Speaker 6: Well, I agree that people have to be taught and they.
Speaker 2: Have to be stopped, but what about blamed?
Speaker 4: But what about blamed?
Speaker 6: Blame is something that is useless?
Speaker 4: Okay, all righty wonderful, We'll be back.
Speaker 3: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 3: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, you're listening to the Dennis Prager Show.
Speaker 2: Love your feedback when you'll get a chance to internet
Speaker 2: me to email me. Try it through Prager radio dot com,
Speaker 2: which you should visit anyway, because you can download shows now.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of fun and you could play it.
Speaker 2: You could send it to friends. A lot of new
Speaker 2: things available with the show and the internet. I am
Speaker 2: introducing today the Ultimate Issues Hour, the Great Questions of Life,
Speaker 2: one hour a week on them. I have chosen this
Speaker 2: hour on Tuesdays, just as we have a certain hour
Speaker 2: on Fridays on the subject of happiness. Today, the great
Speaker 2: Ultimate Issues question is are people basically good, basically bad?
Speaker 4: Or in the middle.
Speaker 2: I choose for the middle, but it is for many people,
Speaker 2: of course harder to be good. But I do not
Speaker 2: believe that we are created with all bad. It's not
Speaker 2: I do not believe, and certainly not all good. I
Speaker 2: mean that that notion that we're basically good cracks me up.
Speaker 2: It is the It is the choice of the secular
Speaker 2: world to believe that, largely because they have dropped the
Speaker 2: belief in a good God. And if you can't believe
Speaker 2: in a good God, you better believe in a good
Speaker 2: humanity or you will despair. One eighth Prager seven seven
Speaker 2: six one eight p R A g E R seven
Speaker 2: seven six. The hours go so fast that I have
Speaker 2: to get another point in here before I take more calls.
Speaker 2: And that is those who argue, well, we are born innocent.
Speaker 2: Look at a baby. There are no bad babies. Ah,
Speaker 2: of course there are no bad babies. Babies don't murder babies,
Speaker 2: you know, except for what's his name.
Speaker 4: Stewie.
Speaker 2: Stewie on family guy. Yeah, he's a bad baby. But
Speaker 2: that's a that's a riot, it's a joke. Of course.
Speaker 2: You know you're not gonna see baby's picture up at
Speaker 2: a post office wanted. But babies aren't good. They're innocent.
Speaker 2: I acknowledge they're innocent, but they're not good. And innocent
Speaker 2: and good are not the same thing at all. Innocent
Speaker 2: means doesn't know about evil, but it doesn't mean you're not,
Speaker 2: or it doesn't mean anything about whether you're good or bad.
Speaker 2: You can be innocent and bad and do bad. Did
Speaker 2: any baby ever say? You know? Gee, you know I've
Speaker 2: been throwing up and coughing and vomiting for the last
Speaker 2: I already said throwing up, but you know, just causing
Speaker 2: a riot here. And my parents haven't had any sleep
Speaker 2: and they you know, they haven't had sex in the
Speaker 2: last three weeks or three months.
Speaker 4: Because of me.
Speaker 2: So I think I'll just shut up tonight, of course
Speaker 2: not I you say, well, a baby can't do that,
Speaker 2: because they shut up, they'll die. I mean whatever the readson,
Speaker 2: But babies don't think that way. So don't give me
Speaker 2: babies as a model of goodness. They're adorable, thank God,
Speaker 2: they're adorable. Will be a lot more infanticide. Okay, hey,
Speaker 2: let's go to more of your calls here and let's
Speaker 2: go to Shazad in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Speaker 4: Hello, Dennis Prager, Hello sir, how are you doing? Okay?
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 8: I believe that just because we're made in the image
Speaker 8: of God means we're just made in the image of God,
Speaker 8: doesn't mean we have his conscience. Or basically the Indian
Speaker 8: thought is. I heard some Indian guys that you have
Speaker 8: a good dog and a bad dog. Every person has
Speaker 8: that it depends what dog you feed more. The dog
Speaker 8: you feed more is going to overcome.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 8: I like that that and the people you said that
Speaker 8: are lost conscience. Those are the guys who said the
Speaker 8: bad dog so much that the bad dog killed the
Speaker 8: good dog for good conscience anymore.
Speaker 2: That is a if, So that is a is that
Speaker 2: a Hindu of you? Is that a Hindu teaching?
Speaker 6: No, it's not.
Speaker 8: I heard. I'm Indian and that's an Indian school of thought.
Speaker 2: It's just a well, how do you just how do
Speaker 2: you distinguish between Indian and Hindu? That's what I'm asking.
Speaker 8: I guess is somebody who has the Indian culture in
Speaker 8: them and Hindu is somebody who could be in America
Speaker 8: and yet.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, you can't.
Speaker 2: No, no, it's Hindu then, because the truth is, you
Speaker 2: can't be a Hindu if you're not Indian. You can
Speaker 2: learn from Hinduism, but but you can't be Only Indians
Speaker 2: can be Hindus. It's just just like only Persians could
Speaker 2: be Zoroastrians. But anyway, thank you, though, I think it's
Speaker 2: a wonderful I think it's a wonderful teaching. That's a
Speaker 2: very good point.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: I agree with that if you feed the good of us,
Speaker 2: we have this good dog, bad dog inside of us.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 2: It's a very good metaphor and it comports with exactly
Speaker 2: what I was saying earlier. I think that we in
Speaker 2: fact have both and that's where nurture does come in.
Speaker 2: Which do we feed, which do we teach, Which do
Speaker 2: we reward, which do we foster? Absolutely, that's why it's
Speaker 2: so important to monitor the goodness of your children and
Speaker 2: don't assume that if you just love them, they'll be good.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, have I seen that not work? But thank god,
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about my own, but I've seen it.
Speaker 2: One to eight Praguer seven seven six The Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 2: I'm Dennis Prager. I welcome you back. This is the
Speaker 2: inaugural hour of the Ultimate Issues Hour. Of your feedback.
Speaker 2: Send it to me.
Speaker 4: And call in if you can.
Speaker 2: Of the lines are taken, but every so often there
Speaker 2: is a clear line for obvious reasons. Either I've spoken
Speaker 2: to somebody or somebody just gives up waiting. And on
Speaker 2: this the first Ultimate Issues Hour, on the Great Questions
Speaker 2: of life. Every Tuesday, at this time, it is are
Speaker 2: we basically good? Are we basically bad? Are we in
Speaker 2: the middle? I think we're in the middle, and it
Speaker 2: is a challenge to be good. But we have lived
Speaker 2: in a secular Western world that has argued for us
Speaker 2: being basically good. One of the great consequences of that
Speaker 2: is that we blame society or something else for all
Speaker 2: the bad that people do. After all, if good people
Speaker 2: do bad things, it must be society's fault. Now, I'm
Speaker 2: not saying society plays no role. Of course it does.
Speaker 2: It certainly does. The values of a society have a
Speaker 2: very deep impact on people. But in the final analysis,
Speaker 2: we are still free to choose. Also, remember, and this
Speaker 2: is unbelievably important, if we cannot hold people responsible for
Speaker 2: the bad they do, then we cannot credit people or
Speaker 2: hold them responsible for the good they do. If society
Speaker 2: is to blame for the bad people do, then society
Speaker 2: is to be praise for the good people do and
Speaker 2: not the person Alrighty, and let's go to San Diego. Tony, Hi, Tony,
Speaker 2: Dennis Prager, thanks for calling.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Dennis, Earlier, you said that the man was a
Speaker 9: sinner prior to the fall, right, uh, in the Old Testament.
Speaker 9: As a Christian, I believe that men or the woman
Speaker 9: was taunted by Satan. Therefore, when Satan or when when
Speaker 9: the woman ate of the fruit, she then was a
Speaker 9: sinner at that point and she fell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but how did she let how did she let
Speaker 2: herself get taunted? If she was if she was all
Speaker 2: good and perfect.
Speaker 9: She still had a choice exactly, she had a choice.
Speaker 2: But wait so she wait wait wait wait wait wait
Speaker 2: wait wait wait when you have to go step by step,
Speaker 2: So she made a sinful choice.
Speaker 9: She made a choice of being sinful. Yes, but she
Speaker 9: wasn't sinful until she ate of the fruit.
Speaker 2: But she no, but she made a sinful choice prior
Speaker 2: to eating.
Speaker 9: So you're saying that she made not a sinful choice
Speaker 9: but a bad choice.
Speaker 4: I don't know what the difference between bad and sinful is.
Speaker 9: But yeah, okay, well, okay, I don't completely.
Speaker 2: Agree with you, but Alicia, understand why I say it.
Speaker 9: I understand, which is okay, thank you.
Speaker 2: Appreciate that a lot. Alrighty, and let's go to uh,
Speaker 2: let's see here. Alrighty, let's go to Linda. Linda Plainfield, Illinois,
Speaker 2: Dennis Prager High.
Speaker 10: Hi.
Speaker 11: I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but
Speaker 11: like the last color, I think Eve was not sinful
Speaker 11: until she made the choice. She had the capacity of well.
Speaker 2: Of course, but that's what sinful means that you have
Speaker 2: you have a nature that enables you to make bad choices,
Speaker 2: wrong choices.
Speaker 11: But my understanding is that gift of free will is
Speaker 11: what is part of our being created.
Speaker 6: In the night.
Speaker 2: That is exactly what image of God means that and
Speaker 2: that we are that a human life is sacred. I agree,
Speaker 2: that was my explanation.
Speaker 11: But until we make that choice, we have not become sinfle.
Speaker 2: Well, all right, but I'm talking about our nature.
Speaker 11: Okay.
Speaker 2: The nature that Eve was given was capable of committing sins,
Speaker 2: just like your nature.
Speaker 11: Is that part is true?
Speaker 4: Okay, That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 11: However, in my tradition, we would say that we were
Speaker 11: created good, since all a creation in Genesis is affirmed
Speaker 11: that way.
Speaker 2: But well, God wants us to do good. He was
Speaker 2: happy with the creation, but the moment God gave us freedom,
Speaker 2: we could do bad. That's what freedom means true. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's all I'm saying. Thank you for your call. I
Speaker 2: appreciate that a lot. And let's go to Phoenix and David. Hello, David,
Speaker 2: Dennis Praeger.
Speaker 12: Yes, good afternoon or good morning then, Dennis, thank you
Speaker 12: for such a thought provoking program today.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you like the Ultimate Issues hour? You like the
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 12: I think it's a very interesting idea, and I think
Speaker 12: the whole question about free will would be a great
Speaker 12: one for another show.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's the toughest.
Speaker 12: It's with regard to good and evil or good and bad.
Speaker 12: I think that that we're struggling because you have failed
Speaker 12: to correctly define the terms. How would you define what
Speaker 12: good is?
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, the reason that I don't get
Speaker 2: hung up on that is because there is no one
Speaker 2: listening who doesn't have his own definition. So it's whatever
Speaker 2: your definition, the question remains the same. Are we basically
Speaker 2: good or bad?
Speaker 12: Okay? Well, so I've been thinking about this and struggling
Speaker 12: with it as we go on, And there's been a
Speaker 12: lot of talk from people from the Judeo Christian background,
Speaker 12: and that certainly is part of my own frame of reference.
Speaker 12: And we talk about being born in sin, and you know,
Speaker 12: was Adam and Eve? Were they centers prior to the
Speaker 12: fall in the garden? And that's sort of a question.
Speaker 12: And so maybe if we relate, if we say that
Speaker 12: bad is sin and good is not sin? So what
Speaker 12: does that mean? And to me, a sinful nature is
Speaker 12: something that is entirely self centered. It's all about me.
Speaker 12: I'm doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 2: I agree, it's a huge I agree with you it's
Speaker 2: a huge element in bad or in sin, or whatever
Speaker 2: term we wish to use. You are one hundred percent right,
Speaker 2: or at least let's put it to be more humble,
Speaker 2: and I mean sincerely humble, not faked. Yes, that is
Speaker 2: what I would also hold to be at a major
Speaker 2: route of bad, the inability to think outside of oneself.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: There are people who have it built in. Now here's
Speaker 2: a tough one. You want a tough question, folks, here's
Speaker 2: a tough one for you. While I don't believe that
Speaker 2: we are born good or bad, that we are born
Speaker 2: with tendencies in both directions, I have to look at reality.
Speaker 2: I can't live in theory alone. I have to respond
Speaker 2: to reality, and the reality says to me, Dennis, that
Speaker 2: there are people who seem to be born with a
Speaker 2: kinder disposition than others, or others with a more self
Speaker 2: centered one. Maybe I'm wrong, and God knows. I hope
Speaker 2: I'm wrong. I wish we all had an equal chance
Speaker 2: to be good. But it does seem at least that
Speaker 2: way that for some goodness is a much tougher struggle
Speaker 2: than for others.
Speaker 4: But I.
Speaker 2: Live and die on the proposition that there is something
Speaker 2: in the human that wants to be good. Otherwise, Oh,
Speaker 2: anything that I talk about is pointless. So while I
Speaker 2: don't believe we're basically good, I believe there's goodness there
Speaker 2: that can be appealed to. Back in a moment the
Speaker 2: Ultimate Issues hour on the Dennis Brager Show.
Speaker 3: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 3: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless wis time.
Speaker 2: If you got in, do not hang up, because at
Speaker 2: least I will summarize your thought because there are very
Speaker 2: good calls here. This is the first, the inaugural addition
Speaker 2: of the Ultimate Issues. Our love your feedback Internet me.
Speaker 2: The ideal place right now is Pegger Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: That is the new address of the website, but you
Speaker 2: can use whatever you're used to as well. But i'd
Speaker 2: like to have your feedback on the idea of this
Speaker 2: one hour a week on Ultimate Issues. Today it has
Speaker 2: been on are we basically good or bad? A critically
Speaker 2: important question, Catherine and Flower Mound, Texas says, there's a
Speaker 2: universal notion of good and evil. When you say everyone
Speaker 2: is their own notion of good, that's relativism. Catherine, you're right,
Speaker 2: but that wasn't my point, of course, that's that's moral relativism.
Speaker 2: I was only making the point that I didn't need
Speaker 2: to define good in order to deal with the question
Speaker 2: of whether we are basically good. Whatever your definition, we
Speaker 2: still knowledge that there is a good and a bad.
Speaker 2: Of course, I believe a universal good. That's one of
Speaker 2: the great The fact that's an issue alan we ought
Speaker 2: to put is that that's one of the great issues
Speaker 2: we'll have to put on the ultimate issues. Hour is
Speaker 2: my arguments against moral relativism. Ken Lds scripture. It's Mormon
Speaker 2: scripture says natural man is enemy to God. It gives
Speaker 2: me hope because when I mess up, it's easier to
Speaker 2: forgive myself very good. I totally agree with you. I
Speaker 2: totally agree. I remember when my older son came home
Speaker 2: one day from a Jewish school and elementary school, and
Speaker 2: I asked him, what did you learn today? And usually
Speaker 2: the answer, of course is nothing. Then one day he said, well,
Speaker 2: I learned that I have a bad inclination and a
Speaker 2: good inclination. And I said, fantastic. That's great because if
Speaker 2: you know you have a bad inclination, that actually helps
Speaker 2: you in understanding a that you have to battle it.
Speaker 2: But B too. But B also that you can forgive
Speaker 2: yourself because that's part of being human.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 2: That's a very important point, Bill and Denver. Why is
Speaker 2: ninety nine percent of murder and mayhem in the world
Speaker 2: done by men not women? Because male nature is far
Speaker 2: more aggressive, far more physically aggressive. But women are not
Speaker 2: one with better For every murderer out there, there's a
Speaker 2: woman who was going to make love to him that night.
Speaker 2: Just remember that. Believe me, if women boycotted sexually all
Speaker 2: the bad men in the world, we have a very
Speaker 2: good world, so you know. And women cause mayhem in
Speaker 2: their way. Believe me, mayhem is not at all the
Speaker 2: the monopoly of men. Charles and Dallas, I think you
Speaker 2: could be self centered and still be good. Example, I
Speaker 2: can want to get into heaven but act good.
Speaker 4: To achieve that goal. It's an interesting point.
Speaker 2: I think you can be You have to care about
Speaker 2: yourself to be good. But if you only care about yourself,
Speaker 2: and you won't be good. That's why we said, And Chris,
Speaker 2: since you agreed with me and I and san diego
Speaker 2: forgive me. But that's why I didn't think. Because we
Speaker 2: both believe we're free to choose good and bad. I
Speaker 2: will be on Chris Matthews Hardball discussing Mel Gibson if
Speaker 2: you want to watch tonight, and I thank you for
Speaker 2: listening and send me an email on your thoughts on
Speaker 2: having this Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 4: I'm Dennis Prager.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I cook one way, she cooked another, which is
Speaker 10: one of the downsides in her marriage. Because I put
Speaker 10: on fifty pounds.
Speaker 2: You put on fifty pounds because you cook.
Speaker 10: I cook and she cooks a different way. But we
Speaker 10: taught each other how we cook, and we both cooked
Speaker 10: very well.
Speaker 2: I see you put on fifty pounds in four years. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you need more yardwork. See that's your problem. You're sharing
Speaker 2: the yard work.
Speaker 1: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: Visit Dennisprager dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures,
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