Dennis Prager: Who’s More Irrational — The Religious or the Irreligious?
It is difficult to agree on many things between conservatives, liberals, and leftists. They all agree, however, that irreligious Americans are more rational than religious Americans.
It is a secular truth that secularism and secular people are rooted primarily in reason, while religion and the religious are rooted mainly in irrationality.
It is the belief of almost all college professors and almost every American student. It is a well-known fact among the intelligentsia. It helps explain why, after their first or second year at college, many children return to their religious homes alienated from, and frequently contemptuous of, the religion of their parents — and often of the parents themselves.
At the time in their lives when most people are the most easily indoctrinated — approximately ages 18 to 22 — young Americans hear only one message: If you want to be a rational person, you must abandon religion and embrace secularism. Many young Americans never have the opportunity to see a different view in college. (This is why your college-aged children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews should read this column.
This alleged axiom, however, is not only false but also backwards. It is true that the secular hold a virtual monopoly today on irrational beliefs.
One example is the fact that colleges are now the most rational institutions in the nation. It is also not by chance that they are the most secular institutions of our society. The former is actually a result of them.
One could offer examples in any area of life. These are just a few.
Only the secular believe. “men give birth.”
Only secular people believe that males — providing, of course, that they say they are females — should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
Only secular people believe that a young woman who claims she is a boy, or a young man who claims he is a female, should be given hormones to block puberty.
Only the most secular of people believe that girls who claim to be boys should have their breasts surgically removed.
Only the religious believe that it is good for men to perform drag dancing (often in a provocative manner) in front 5 year olds.
Only the most secular people will agree with Disney’s decision to stop using these words “boys and girls” Disneyland and Disneyworld.
That belief can only be held by secular people “to be colorblind is to be racist.” That is what is taught at nearly all secular (and religious-in-name-only) colleges in America today.
Only the most secular believe that fewer police officers, fewer prosecutions, and lower prison sentences (or none at all) will lead to less crime.
Many more Americans are secularists than religious and believe the Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians, and Washington Redskins should be renamed. “Indians” “Redskins” were racist — despite the fact that most Native Americans didn’t even think so.
Who was more likely to support keeping children out of schools for two years; forcibly masking 2-year olds on airplanes; and firing unvaccinated police officers, airplane pilots and members of the military — secular or religious Americans?
How many Western supporters of Josef Stalin — the tyrant who murdered about 30 million people — were irreligious, and how many were religious?
Stanford University, a secular university, has just published an article “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative.” It informs all Stanford students as well as faculty of “harmful” They should not use certain words and they should be replaced with the appropriate words.
Some examples:
Stanford asks its faculty and students not to identify themselves. “American.” Instead, they should refer to themselves as a “U.S. citizen.” Why? It could be because of offence to citizens from other countries in North America or South America.
Is that reasonable?
Stanford asks its students to refrain from using the term. “blind study.” Why? Because it “unintentionally perpetuates that disability is somehow abnormal or negative, furthering an ableist culture.” Instead, Stanford students should speak for themselves and Stanford faculty. “masked study.”
Two questions: Does Stanford’s claim that blindness is not a disability be rational or irrational. Is this claim secular by any percentage?
The list of irrational (and immoral) things secular people believe — and religious people do not believe — is very long. G.K. Chesterton said it this way: “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.”
Many people believe that the secular and religious are the most rational people of our time. Ironically, this is another irrational belief held primarily by the secular. And, of course, it is self-serving — just as is the belief that more people have been killed by religious people (meaning, essentially, Christians) than by secular people. Yet, that, too, is irrational — and false. In the last century alone, 100 million people were murdered by secular — and anti-religious — regimes.
Yes, religions can hold irrational or non-rational beliefs.
However, there are two things to note:
One is that of the religious beliefs most people consider to be their religion “irrational” They are not irrational, they are unprovable. It is possible to prove that beliefs such as the existence of a transcendent Creator or that this Creator is the source our rights are not irrational. Atheism — the belief that everything came from nothing — is considerably more irrational than theism.
Another point is that humans are programmed to believe the unrational. Love is often non-rational — love of our children, romantic love, love of music and art, love of a pet; our willingness to engage in self-sacrifice for another is often non-rational — from the sacrifices children make for parents and parents for children to the sacrifices made by non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust.
Good religion gives its adherents a moral, emotional, intellectually and spirituelly deep way of expressing the non-rational. They can therefore remain rational in all situations, even if they are not religious. If there is no religion in which they can innocuously express the nonrational, then secular people often find a way to do it elsewhere in life.
The religious believe is the only valid one “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth,” They believe that men are capable of giving birth, but they don’t believe so. The irreligious, however, don’t believe in the miracle of birth. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth,” But they only believe men give birth.
Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and columnist, is an internationally syndicated radio talk show host. His commentary on Deuteronomy (3rd volume) of “The Rational Bible,” In October, he published a five-volume commentary about the first five books. He is co-founder of Prager University. Contact him at dennisprager.com.
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