Marriage is a Prescription

As this verse [Genesis 2:18] is followed by the creation of woman, with whom Adam is to bond (i.e., marry—see verse 24), it is clear God wants men to marry. Marriage is a prescription, a moral and social value, more than it is a male instinct. The dramatic decrease in marriage rates at this time attests to this (with regard to women as well), as does the fact that more people in the West and other developed societies are living by themselves than at any time in recorded history. So, while more and more men and women choose not to marry, loneliness has become a major social pathology. In the words of the National Institutes of Health, “Loneliness is a painful universal phenomenon.”

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.39

Medical Progress Came from the West

It is no coincidence that the Western world essentially developed modern medicine. In order to develop medicine, the first requirement is to understand human beings must learn how to conquer nature—conquer, not pray to natural forces (like rain gods) or try to propitiate them.

That is one reason diseases like smallpox and polio were eliminated in those parts of the world influenced by the Bible.

Human progress is not possible unless humans rule over nature. Many secular people in our time romanticize nature, perhaps not realizing—or not wanting to realize—that either humans rule over nature or nature will destroy humans. Either we conquer natural diseases, or they conquer us. Until the very modern age, people everywhere feared being eaten by animals. Most of us no longer give this a moment’s thought because most of the human race has come to successfully rule over the animal kingdom.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.27

It's Dangerous Out There

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Homosexuality and Pedophilia

Substance abuse, depression and suicide are virtually undisputed as epidemic problems [for those practicing homosexuality], but they are by no means the only problems. One other concern that merits attention is the disproportionate number of male homosexuals who prefer sex with boys. Homosexual men are not necessarily pedophiles. Still, several studies reveal that while no more than 2 percent of male adults are homosexual, approximately 35 percent of pedophiles are homosexual. Further, since homosexual pedophiles victimize far more children than do heterosexual pedophiles (150 to 20), approximately 80 percent of pedophilic victims are boys who are molested by adult males. The number of boys victimized is approximately 3.2 million. It is impossible to determine the number of male pedophiles, but they may constitute as much as 10 percent of male homosexuals. 

Thomas E. Schmidt, “Straight & Narrow? Compassion & Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate, pg.114-115.

They WILL Come For You

To paraphrase the famous quote from the German pastor and Holocaust survivor Martin Niemoller:

-In the West they first came for statues of “racist” figures – but I did not speak up because it did not concern me.

-Then they came for statues of Columbus and Washington and Jefferson and Captain Cook – but I did not speak up because these are just ‘old dead white men’.

-Then they came for religious statues and monuments – but I did not speak up because it is just ‘religion’.

-Then they came for Christian figures and stained-glass windows – but I did not speak up because it is just physical stuff.

-Then they came for churches and Christian institutions – but I did not speak up because ‘we are the church’.

-Then they came for Christians – but by then it was too late.

Bill Muehlenberg, They Are Out To Get Us – And We Are letting Them Do It

Homosexuality and Promiscuity

Promiscuity among homosexual men is not a mere stereotype, and it is not merely the majority experience—it is virtually the only experience. And even if we set aside infidelity and allow a generous definition of “long-term relationships” as those that last at least four years, under 8 percent of either male or female homosexual relationships fit the definition. In short, there is practically no comparison possible to heterosexual marriage in terms of either fidelity or longevity. Tragically, lifelong faithfulness is almost nonexistent in the homosexual experience.

Thomas E. Schmidt, “Straight & Narrow? Compassion & Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate, pg.108.

The Distractions of Toppling Confederate Statues

In all the acres of media reporting on the Confederate leaders, scarcely anyone has pointed out that they were all Democrats. In fact, the whole point of the campaign to topple Confederate statues is to disguise it. It is an effort not at historical exposition but at historical concealment. The point of blaming the Confederacy is to blame slavery entirely on the South, and the point of blaming the South is to blame the party that is now politically dominant in the South, namely the Republican Party. Thus the left targets Confederate statues in order to promote its big lie that racism and white supremacy are the province of the right.

Dinesh D’Souza, Death of a Nation, pg.50

Hitler and Christianity

In fact [Hitler] hated Christianity and showed a justified contempt for its German practitioners. Shortly after assuming power, he told Hermann Rauschnig that he intended to stamp out Christianity in Germany “root and branch.” “One is either a Christian or a German. You can’t be both.”

Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity, pg. 485

Yes -- after Jews, Christians were next.

Have You “Prostituted” Yourself?

Metaphorically speaking, people “prostitute themselves” whenever they compromise their higher values, whether for money, success, fame, or anything else people crave. A prostitute sells her body for money.  A crook sells his character for money. A crooked politician sells his influence for money. People sell their souls—prostitute themselves—for a whole host of desired things. And one might say such individuals are considerably worse than a prostitute. She sells her body, they sell their souls; and crooks and others who prostitute their values do greater harm to society than prostitutes.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, p.471

Gratitude

In many ways, gratitude is the most important of all the good character traits. It is the most indispensable trait to both happiness and goodness. One can neither be a happy person nor a good person without gratitude. The less gratitude one has, the more one sees oneself as a victim; and nothing is more likely to produce a bad person or a bad group than defining oneself or one’s group as a victim. Victims, having been hurt, too often believe they have a license to hurt others. As for happiness, if you think of all the people you know, you will not be able to name one who is ungrateful and happy. The two are mutually exclusive.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.440

Malcom X Was Right

Value Old People!

Throughout history, not only in ancient Israel, virtually every society greatly valued old people—because old people were associated with wisdom, and wisdom was valued. In the contemporary world, especially in the West, youth is increasingly valued more than age. That is a reflection of the fact that wisdom is less valued and therefore the old are less valued, or the old are less valued and therefore wisdom is less valued. It is hard to know which came first—the devaluing of the old or the devaluing of wisdom. But whichever cause the other, both are tragedies.

In answer to some young people who told the great German-Jewish actor Fritz Kortner he could not understand their problems, Kortner responded, “You were never as old as I am; on the other hand I was as young as you are now.” 

The devaluation of old people is a tragedy for their sake, for society’s sake, and for the sake of the young who can so benefit from being with and learning from the old. Anyone who has, or has had, a bond with a grandparent or a mentor knows how true this is. And the devaluation of wisdom is an even greater tragedy. We live in an age that values—or at least claims to value—knowledge. But knowledge without wisdom tells you nothing about how to lead your life. It is like owning a map but have no destination. If you don’t know where you need to go, knowing exactly where you are is useless.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.355-356

The Existence of God

God’s existence does not necessitate a bit “leap of faith.” There is an element of faith but, given the otherwise inexplicable existence of the world, of life, of intelligence, of order, and of design, belief in God the Creator, while not provable, is rational, even rationally compelling. However, given all the evil caused by human beings and all the suffering caused by nature, belief in God’s goodness may necessitate a leap of faith. That’s why God informs us, “I am compassionate.”

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.329

The Damage from Sexual Anarchy

After World War II, Western society underwent what is known as the “Sexual Revolution.” With the weakening of biblical values, and the ease in obtaining both contraception and, since the 1970s, abortion, more unmarried people have had sexual relations with more partners than ever before in Western—and perhaps world—history. However, in addition to creating more fatherless children than ever before, this revolution has harmed both sexes, especially women. But men, too, have paid a price in at least two ways.

One is fewer men seek to marry, and men benefit enormously from marriage. In the words of Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof, “Men settle down when they get married; if they fail to get married they fail to settle down.” And in the words of the late University of Virginia sociologist Steven Nock, “Marriage is one of the last ‘rite[s]’ of passage into manhood” remaining in our society.

The other is many men are less motivated to succeed in life. One of the primary reasons men always worked hard was to “earn” the commitment of a woman. But if women are readily available without having to achieve much, fewer men will seek to achieve much.

Women, for their part, were told they could enjoy emotionless and commitment-free sex as much as men could. But a host of academic studies and popular reports of sexually promiscuous women refute this notion. Indeed, among young women, high rates of depression often relate to casual sex.

For example, a major study of American college-aged women, published in The Journal of Sex Research, a publication of the United States National Institutes of Health, concluded “hookup behavior during college was positively correlated with experiencing clinically significant depression symptoms.”

Similarly, regarding teenagers generally, “A recent longitudinal study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology suggests that teenagers who engage in casual sex are more likely to suffer from depression than their peers who don’t engage in casual sex…. Given that teens who practiced celibacy were rated lowest for clinical depression and depressive symptoms on the charts, promiscuity may be symptomatic of depression.”

One consequence of so many young women believing the message that they can—and should—enjoy sex with as many men as men can with women was summarized in this comment by a young woman cited in the American magazine Vanity Fair: “It’s rare for a woman of our generation to meet a man who treats her like a priority instead of an option.”

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.318-319

Without God, Why is Murder Wrong?

If there is no God who says, “Do not murder,” there is no way of saying murder is objectively wrong. One can say, “I don’t like it,” or “I think it is wrong,” or “I feel that it is wrong,” or “My society says it is wrong,” but not “It is wrong.” For that, you need God.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.259

Children, Honor Your Parents

Yet another reason why honoring parents and long enduring civilization are connected is strong families form a major bulwark against totalitarian regimes. A standard feature of totalitarian regimes is the shifting of children’s loyalty and obedience from their parents to the state. One of the first things totalitarian regimes seek to do is weaken parental authority and replace it with the party or state. In such countries, children are encouraged to inform on their parents if they make critical comments—or even tell jokes—about government leaders or about the dominant ideology (in the modern period, that would almost always refer to communism, Nazism, or radical Islamism). Consequently, parents would often fear to speak openly in front of their children.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.258

Immoral Ideologies, Intellectual Foolish Beliefs

Nearly every American university was founded to teach young people theology and other subjects. Moral education was deemed the most important form of education, and knowledge of the Bible was assumed to age part of that moral curriculum. By the early-to-mid twentieth century, education, first at universities, then at high schools and elementary schools, was divorced from God and the Bible, and a disproportionately high percentage of secular intellectuals adhered to immoral ideologies and intellectually foolish beliefs.

Nowhere is the belief in education as the road to a moral society more apparent than in some of the later writings of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, an atheist who was deeply committed to moral behavior, published a critique of religion, The Future of an Illusion (the illusion being God and religion). Freud did not fear the breakdown of belief in God would have any moral implications among intellectuals: “Civilization has little to fear from educated people and brain-workers. In them, the replacement of religious motives for civilized behavior by other secular motives, would proceed unobtrusively.” 

As Dr. Freud was to witness within ten years of his statement, civilization has as much, if not more, to fear from educated people as from the uneducated. Freud’s fellow Austrian and German intellectuals show no more moral insight or strength than any other group of Germans and Austrians. What Germany lacked during World War II was not enough educated people or, for that matter, artistically sophisticate people but not enough good people.

Many would counter here that Germany lacked enough good people among the religiously educated as well. They would be entirely right. The failure of German Christianity was horrific. But the moral failure of German Christians (with noble exceptions such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer) is almost universally acknowledged—even by virtually all Christians.

On the other hand, the moral failure of secular education and secular intellectuals in Germany is almost universally ignored.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.229-230