There are very few things conservatives, liberals and leftists agree on. But if they are irreligious, they all agree that religious Americans are more irrational than irreligious Americans.
It is a secular axiom that secularism and secular people are rooted in reason, whereas religion and the religious are rooted in irrationality.
This is what almost every college professor believes and what almost every student in America is taught. Among the intelligentsia, it is an unquestioned fact. 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. Most young Americans are never exposed to a countervailing view at any time in their college life. (That’s why you should expose your college-aged child, grandchild, niece or nephew to this column.)
Yet, this alleged axiom is not only completely false, it’s backwards. The truth is that today the secular have a virtual monopoly on irrational beliefs.
One proof is that colleges have become the most irrational institutions in the country. Not coincidentally, they are also the most secular institutions in our society. In fact, the former is a result of the latter.
One could provide examples in every area of life. Here are but a few.
Only secular people 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 girl who says she is a boy or a young boy who says he is a girl should be given puberty-blocking hormones.
Only secular people believe that girls who say they are boys should have their healthy breasts surgically cut off.
Only secular people believe it is good to have men in drag dance (often provocatively) in front of 5-year-olds.
Only secular people agree with Disney dropping use of the words “boys and girls” at Disneyland and Disneyworld.
Only secular people believe that “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 secular people believe fewer police, fewer prosecutions and lower prison sentences (or no prison time at all) lead to less crime.
Far more secular Americans than religious Americans believed that the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins needed to change their names because “Indians” and “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 thoroughly secular institution, just released an “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative.” It informs all Stanford faculty and students of “harmful” words they should avoid and the words that should replace them.
Some examples:
Stanford asks its students and faculty not to call themselves “American.” Rather, they should call themselves a “U.S. citizen.” Why? Because citizens of other countries in North America and South America might be offended.
Is that rational?
Stanford asks its faculty and students not to use the term “blind study.” Why? Because it “unintentionally perpetuates that disability is somehow abnormal or negative, furthering an ableist culture.” Instead, Stanford faculty and students should say, “masked study.”
Two questions: Is Stanford’s claim that being blind is not a disability rational or irrational? And what percentage of those who make this claim are secular?
The list of irrational (and immoral) things secular people believe — and religious people do not believe — is very long. As a quote attributed to G.K. Chesterton puts it: “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.”
Yet, many people believe that the religious, not the secular, are the irrational people in our time. That, ironically, is just another irrational belief held 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, religious people have some irrational, or at least non-rational, beliefs.
But two points need to be made in this regard:
One is that the religious beliefs that most people call “irrational” are not irrational; they are unprovable. For example, the beliefs that there is a transcendent Creator and that this Creator is the source of our rights are not irrational; they are unprovable. Atheism — the belief that everything came from nothing — is considerably more irrational than theism.
The other point is that human beings are programmed to believe in the non-rational. 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.
What good religion does is provide its adherents with a moral, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually deep way to express the non-rational. Therefore, they can remain rational everywhere outside of religion. The secular, having no religion within which to innocuously express the non-rational, often end up doing so elsewhere in life.
So only the religious believe “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth,” but they do not believe men give birth. Meanwhile the irreligious don’t believe “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth,” but only they believe men give birth.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His commentary on Deuteronomy, the third volume of “The Rational Bible,” his five-volume commentary on the first five books of the Bible, was published in October. He is the co-founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
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Sorry, but I vehemently disagree. First, let me state that I have been an atheist since I was in my teens. My decision to leave religion did not originate in hostility toward religion, but rather from the fact that I could not reconcile the basic differences between what I had learned about science and how religion couldn’t answer those questions.
Second, rationality should be judged on an individual basis; the religious don’t “own” all of it. What you’re doing is what the liberals like to do, which is categorizing everyone based on all the little boxes they check. I find it absurd that you automatically draw a straight line being religious and being rational. I agree that all those issues you listed as being irrational are indeed irrational to any rational person!
Logic and science teach us that men can’t have babies. My 5th grade English teacher must be spinning in her grave over the woke’s inappropriate use of the term “they” when referring to only one person. All sane people–religious or irreligious–believe that not enforcing the law generates more crime. Hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery for those under the age of adulthood is criminal. See? There’s no argument there or on the other issues, whether you’re a believer or a non-believer.
“…(T)he secular have a virtual monopoly on irrational beliefs.” What a silly notion! Not only is it offensive, but it also demonstrates–pardon me–your narrow-mindedness. Please, try to open your mind just a little and stop demonizing everyone who doesn’t believe as you do. Aren’t we supposed to consider a person’s worth by his or her deeds? Am I a lesser person because I don’t believe in God even though I once walked a mile and a half to return the extra newspaper I had inadvertently taken? Don’t I deserve some cosmic credit for having taken care of my mother for the last 9 years of her life instead of putting her in a facility? Respecting personal beliefs in this “free” society goes both ways, but people like me sometimes get short-changed, as you clearly demonstrate in this article. I shouldn’t have to prove my worth.
How you can arrive at such a severely limiting body of thought is beyond me. For the sake of harmony among all Americans, whether conservative or liberal, religious or not, open the door to that Big Tent Party and learn to appreciate what we do have in common rather than picking at the scabs that never heal.
How many wars have been fought in the name of religion? Religion is an excuse for violent protests on all political sides including BLM. How many families are ripped apart over religion? How many sexual abuse scandals in religious places? Every major religion is guilty. Religious people preach moral absolutes but don’t live by them. Not even close.
Whether or not you believe in God is your decision. However, God will not be mocked. Just because one does not believe doesn’t altar the truth that God exists and sent his Son to save sinners.
Today most people are what could be described by others as MTD (moralistic therapeutic deists) – they believe they are good people, that they need to feel good about themselves, and put their faith in some distance and detached deity that they can put themselves above. But again, God will not mocked.
I believe man spends too much time trying to figure out GOD. Man wants to understand GOD but is limited to what GOD has told us and done to us. Many of things God has done to us and “allowed” to happen to us is beyond our understanding. God is God, I am who I am. Science is rational assessments of what we know as mortal man, what we believe due to our knowledge that we have accumulated. We want to believe in what we believe. Looking back on science we haven’t been very accurate with most of our conclusions. We’ve made great strides correcting our mistakes only to find out we didn’t. Religions in general have not helped us to have a personal relations with GOD the Father, GOD the Son and GOD the Holy Spirit. There is no right or wrong way to worship GOD you either believe in GOD or you don’t. I am a believer, I am far from being the perfect example but I believe. Am I irrational to be a believer, to have faith in GOD and try to follow his commandments knowing I will fall short over and over again. I don’t think so, I believe that’s why GOD sent his son to die on the cross, to forgive us of our sins. I believe, I always have and always will.
Only one of us believes lot shagged his daughters let’s leave it at that lol
Love this article. Satan worshippers exposed.
The so called rational thinking of humans is what has gotten us to the terrible place we are now. God created the earth and mankind and you can ignore that and make up your own story but it will never satisfy. God wrote the manual for living and if you ignore the manufacturer’s instructions you will only bring confusion and dissatisfaction.into your life.
Good article. The first thing that came to mind was a t-shirt I recently saw online, The shirt said “There are more than two genders.” It printed in bold black ink and was on top of a rainbow flag. It gave you the option of what color t-shirt you wanted, gray, white, light blue, yellow and pink, then it gave you the option of fit type…men or women.
Needless to say, I got a good laugh out of it. I don’t believe these people could be more screwed up if they tried!
The article is spot on. I submit that those indoctrinated in leftism, thus “wokeism” are indoctrinated to the point that they can be classified as a lot more than irrational; I believe that they are clinically psychotic. They become totally detached from factual reality and the real world.
I can attest to the reality of kids raised in Christian home, involved at church, saw good conservative values and life examples turned away from God, church and conservative values during college. Both got good jobs and have a good work ethic, but they were turned to the leftist indoctrination by their sophomore year in college. So sad…
Folks, all that really matters is what God says in His holy word. Jesus, who is the 2nd person of the triune God, said to Nicodemus in John 3:7, “Ye must be born again”. He stated in verse 16 of the same chapter, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. A person is ‘born again’ by believing in Jesus as the promised Christ and trusting Him as our Lord and Savior.
I was not raised with religion. I was raised to be a free thinker. If I had been raised as a muslim, I would probably be muslim, or if I were raised baptist, I would probably be baptist, and so on. I do not see the beliefs, customs, or obligations of any organized religion as having any appeal or credulity for me, so I guess I am secular. However, when visiting religious sites whether modern or ancient, I find that I am usually among the most respectful of all visitors and cringe at the (what I consider) disrespectful behavior of some of the congregation and/or tourists. I bear no ill will for the religious or for the millions of “holy” sites across the planet. I do, however object to being told that I am some how aligned with the dumbed down college students and recent college graduates who so void of basic knowledge of biology and other sciences (I have a degree in animal science from the college of agriculture at the University of Arizona – a degree that at minimum introduces you to virtually all known sciences and is the degree virtually all colleges and universities were created to produce) that they don’t know that men can’t give birth! I am conservative politically because that is only intelligent position one can take. I am registered as an independent because like religion, I don’t trust organized political parties. I don’t practice idolatry of any religious figures or of any humans alive or from the past. I attended a few music concerts when I was young (back in the seventies) but found the chanting and outright idolizing of the bands absurd and bizarre. Don’t let religious zealots mouth off about what the non religious know and don’t know.
As a kid my mother sent my 3 brothers and I to Catholic Church and Religious Instruction mainly to give herself some peace and quiet. Neither of my parents ever went to Church. So to us kids, they were hypocrites. Today, none of my 3 brothers are Religious though I am but now Protestant and not Catholic. I sincerely believe that mankind is sinful and being Religious makes oneself more aware that we must atone for our sinful nature by repenting and trying to not be as sinful. And by doing so, one can live a life more harmoniously and more aware of not being sinful thus having a more peaceful existence. Whatever you believe, i believe i live a more peaceful existence here on earth while knowing that my life will truly begin after death.
Why would anyone take the chance in denying God? All you have to do is accept him and believe in him. To not accept him, to me, is irrational.
Faith is so important…So many people whom are unbelievers need to find Faith !! It brings such inner peace…
In the world’s view, belief in God can seem irrational but His knowledge surpasses all human understanding.
They are positivists, which makes them worse than irreligious because positivism is the equivalent of a religion. Positivism is why Pelosi can claim to be a Catholic and promote abortion. It is aslso why the Democrats believe they can ignore the constitution. If you check the difintion don’t casually dismiss it because it is so short.
If they would read the Bible they would see that there is no book that has a grasp on the human condition like the Bible.
Lord help the new generation(s)
I’m conservative but not religious, at all. So, I’m an outcast. I will tell you this, remember I am a conservative….I have found the religious are far less tolerant of people with different or conflicting ways, ideas etc than the non-religious are. This is strictly speaking from experience and I’m old as dirt.
(Wo)men do not know how to create a tree… a flower garden… the ocean… a sunrise or sunset. ‘The universe” (i.e., God, a higher power) does. I rest my case…but I am not judgemental. Let people believe what they want… but we can’t allow educators to indoctrinate our children with beliefs that are contrary to ours. We need to KNOW about alternative theories and beliefs, but not be taught they are the ‘only truth.’ Most Democrat beliefs and actions have been deleterious to our country and society… including welfare programs which don’t raise people out of poverty and have destroyed the traditional family structure. We need to vote ’em OUT!
God’s truth or man’s truth?
Satan brings chaos. God is order. That’s all we need to know. The whole world seems to be in chaos. We need to bring back Order.
If people refuse to believe in religious morals, which is where morals are defined and taught, then anything goes. Thus we have a bunch of self-centered, wealthy elitists who believe it is perfectly okay for them to orchestrate the demise of 80% to 90% of the population of what they term “useless eaters who are using up OUR resources”. When Yuval Noah Harari of the World Economic Forum stated the above in an open meeting of the WEF, his audience cheered. He said that they had the plan to reduce the world population by 90% by the year 2030. The only way they could be planning to do such a thing, MASS GENOCIDE, would be by introducing nuclear war and or worldwide pandemics through laboratory-created diseases, just as they are doing with COVID and the clot shot “vaccine” that destroys people’s immune systems, induces cancers and heart disease, kills infants in the womb by induced miscarriages due to blood clots, and in some cases renders those taking the shots infertile. This is a monstrously evil plan from secularists hell-bent on ruling the world. Stalin, the Nazis, and the Communist Chinese leaders pale in comparison.
Just to clarify, I am a deeply spiritually devout person who believes the U.S., and all nations, should be governmentally secular while citizens should be able to freely decide their theological beliefs or non-beliefs.
OK, here’s my two cents worth on this article. I like Dennis Prager, particularly his conservative political ideology, but not so much his ideas here on the religious vs. the irreligious. I am what he calls “irreligious” or “secular”. I don’t affiliate or identify with the ideology of any organized religion. However, I am conservative, and I was raised by agnostic (not devoutly religious) parents who instilled in me good moral values and to follow the Golden Rule. That doesn’t mean I’m obligated (to be more rational) to believe that there is some wise old man with a long white beard up there somewhere (?) who created the universe and can control everything in it. Mush less, to believe in immaculate conception, God (Jesus) living on earth, his resurrection and life after death, but only if you sincerely believe all that (and God knows your mind), in order to get to heaven, and not go to hell. All of that defies the immutable laws of science and nature and, for me, it’s irrational.
Anyway, I’m taking issue with Prager’s implication that religious people are better (more rational) than irreligious (more irrational) people and his somewhat implied idea that irreligious people can’t be conservative. Religion and secularism/atheism/humanism all have rational and irrational ideas, you just have to sort out which ones make sense to you based on your education and use of common sense to formulate your beliefs.
There are mysteries in life, and mysteries in the consideration of everything spiritual, I believe in God. Two of the lessons from the life of Jesus Christ I think of as providing a foundation for a sense of purpose and a code of conduct are the parable about the lamp , I believe that has to do with the idea that people should do what is morally right, and be a good influence on others, to set a good example. And the other is the miracle of Christ calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, which I believe is about the importance of having Faith. Principles, ethics , standards are needed and they are needed because they are essential to maintaining order in life. The interesting thing about mysteries is how they stimulate thought . I believe God is pleased when men and women think properly, and do what is respectful and responsible. Having a clean sense of humor is of great importance, by clean I am referring to humor that is respectful and uplifting, in keeping with kindness and fairness.
What Christ spoke of with the Sermon on the Mount teachings , the spirit of truth , understanding , kindness, fairness. Development of good character is especially important during youth but is a lifelong responsibility and the help from God with that should be appreciated. You did something very good and very important by writing this article Dennis , it encourages good thought, respect for the values that concern Honor, Honesty , Integrity , Courage and Loyalty , respect for the will of God, respect for life and freedom.