Opinion

August 17, 2011

Opinion: Still the only solution to the world’s problems

By Dennis Prager

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There is only one solution to the world’s problems, only one prescription for producing a near-heaven on earth.

It is 3,000 years old.

And it is known as the Ten Commandments.

Properly understood and applied, the Ten Commandments is really all humanity needs to make a beautiful world. While modern men and women, in their hubris, believe that they can and must come up with new ideas in order to make a good world, the truth is there is almost nothing new to say.

If people and countries lived by the Ten Commandments, all the great moral problems would disappear.

Or, to put it another way, all the great evils involve the violation of one or more of the Ten Commandments.

Here is the case in brief for the Ten Commandments (using the Jewish enumeration, which differs slightly from the Protestant and Catholic):

1. I am the Lord your God.

There are moral atheists and there are immoral believers, but there is no chance for a good world based on atheism. Ultimately, a godless and religion-less society depends on personal opinion to determine right from wrong, and that is a very weak foundation. Plenty of people have died in history in the name of God. But far more have been killed, tortured and deprived of liberty in the name of humanity and progress or some other post-Judeo-Christian value. Religion gave us an Inquisition and gives us suicide terrorists, but the death of God gave us Nazism and communism, which, in one century alone, caused the slaughter of more than 100 million people. All the founders of the United States — yes, all — knew that a free society can only survive if its citizens believe themselves to be morally accountable to God.

2. Do not have other gods.

The worship of false gods leads to evil. When anything but the God of creation and morality is worshiped, moral chaos ensues. No one is godless. Either people worship God or they worship other gods — nature, intelligence, art, education, beauty, the environment, Mother Earth, power, fame, pleasure, the state, the führer, the party, progress, humanity. The list is almost endless. And no matter how noble (false gods are often noble), when they become ends in themselves, they lead to evil.

3. Do not take God’s name in vain.

People have misinterpreted this commandment. They think it prohibits saying something like, “Oh, my God, what a home run!” The Hebrew literally means “do not carry” the name of the Lord in vain. In other words, we are forbidden from doing evil in God’s name. Only when thus understood does the rest of the commandment make sense — that God will not “cleanse” — i.e. forgive — the person who does this. Thus, the Islamist who slits an innocent’s throat while shouting “Allahu Akbar” is the perfect example of the individual who carries God’s name in vain and who cannot be forgiven. These people not only murder their victims, they murder God’s name. For that reason, they do more evil than the atheist who murders.

4. Keep the Sabbath day and make it holy.

Leaving the world one day a week and elevating this day above the others is the greatest vehicle to family harmony and to harmony with friends. One day a week without video games, without parents leaving to go to work or to do their own thing on the computer forces parents and children to spend time together and to actually talk. It even encourages couples to make love. It also weakens the institution of slavery. If even your servants get a day off because God commands it, that means you do not have absolute control over them.

5. Honor your father and mother.

The first thing every totalitarian and authoritarian movement does is try to undermine parental authority. That is why it is dangerous even in a democracy. Take our universities, for example. Woodrow Wilson, the first progressive president, said, “The use of the university is to make young men as unlike their fathers as possible.” And that is exactly what colleges have been doing for more than a half century. Instead of searching for truth and beauty, the universities have been alienating American youth from their fathers’ — and the Founding Fathers’ — values.

6. Do not murder.

If people lived by this commandment alone, the world would enter a heavenly state. At the same time, the commandment has been widely misunderstood. The Hebrew original prohibits murder, not killing. By mistranslating the Hebrew as “Do not kill,” too many modern Westerners have been taught that pacifism is moral and noble. It is neither. It is an accessory to murder because it prevents pacifists from doing the only thing that stops mass murder — killing the murderers. The Nazi death camps were liberated by soldiers whose job was to kill murderers, not by pacifists or “peace activists.”

7. Do not commit adultery.

Observance or even near-observance of this commandment alone would end the formation of the underclass. No amount of state aid can do what marriage and commitment to a spouse do to end poverty and almost all social pathologies.

8. Do not steal.

This commandment prohibits the stealing of people, the stealing of property and the stealing of anything that belongs to another. The first prohibition alone, if obeyed, would have rendered the slave trade impossible.

Protecting the sanctity of private property makes moral civilization possible. That is why the recent riots in London should frighten every citizen of the UK and the West generally. Just as the burning of books leads to the burning of people, so, too, the smashing of windows and the looting of property leads eventually to the smashing of heads.

The rampant violation of this commandment by the governments of Africa is the primary reason for African poverty. Corruption, not Western imperialism, is the root of Africa’s backwardness.

9. Do not bear false witness.

Lying is the root of nearly all major evils. All totalitarian states are based on lies. Had the Nazis not lied about Jews, there would not have been a Holocaust. Only people who believed that all Jews, including babies, were vermin, could, for example, lock hundreds of Jews into a synagogue and burn them alive. That similar lies are told about Jews today by Arab governments and by the Iranian state should awaken people to the Nazi-like threat that Islamic anti-Semitism poses.

10. Do not covet your neighbor’s spouse, property, etc.

The cultivation of class warfare — i.e., the cultivation of coveting what richer citizens legitimately own — inevitably leads to violating the other commandments, most particularly the ones that prohibit stealing and murdering.

There is only one way to achieve a Great Society, and it is not by creating a massive state that doles out other citizens’ money. It is by cultivating citizens who try to live by these Ten Commandments. They are as relevant today as they were 3,000 years ago.

A version of this article appeared in print.

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We all need to speak up about Biblical truths as Mr Prager is doing. And to realize, that when we walk out of church; God is still with us. He is our source for EVERYTHING. He chooses whether you take your next breath or not. Therefore, include Him in all aspects of your life. He will never forsake you. Speak up while you can. We are slowly, losing our freedoms.

Comment by June Ashford on 8/18/11 at 8:54 am

The Ten Commandments according to Dennis Prager:
1- It is considered stealing when private property is looted but when those citizens who looted are deprived of a decent education, minimal health care and an opportunity to secure a good job, that is just Prager’s brand of capitalism at work.
2-When the corporate conservatists not only covet your property, your assets, your labor and literally your life in the wars that they vote for but never fight in,that is considered the free marketplace at work. I call it coveting your neighbor’s property.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/19/11 at 9:06 am

3-When Prager conservatives lie from everything to climate change to tax policies like the Lauffer Curve to their own sexuality( and their numerous sexual trangressions, ranging from Gingrich’s multiple marriages, senatorial acts of pedophilia and bathroom laisions), that is not considered bearing false witness.

4-The three conservative presidents that preceded the Great Depression are not considered by Prager to have committed the greatest of national and international sins- almost bringing the world’s economies to their knees, in the process making families lives a living HELL.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/19/11 at 9:15 am

The list of errors, poverty, destitution and destruction caused by Prager’s intrepretations of the Ten Commandments can go on and on. And yes, we are slowly losing our freedoms but not because we pray and hope God will rescue us- we are slowly losing our freedoms because we do not take care of ourselves and each other, tenets that Prager and his conservative acolytes would label socialism.

Conservatives need to stop hiding behind God,violating his commandments and take responsibility for their hoarding what is rightly everyone’s patrimony.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/19/11 at 9:23 am

Hey Marc, aren’t you going to label Prager a “Racist” for calling Africa corrupt.  Your fellow leftists at the Daily KOS did that since they couldn’t come up with a decent rebuttal.  Never mind that an African Black woman wrote a book about all the corruption that goes in in her country.  Does that make her a self-hating black African Marc?

Comment by Rich on 8/20/11 at 3:47 pm

Rich, are you just plain blind, stupid or a combination of both?

Dennis is anyhting but kind and moral and your far right conservatist bend is and has been the bane of our country.

That is my real name and anytime you want to debate face-to-face, at a venue of your choice with ombudspeople of your choice, contact me. Otherwise, you will hide in cyberspace liker your mentor Dennis, and shoot venomous arrows from your quiver.

The right is taking down America, and only a right-wing, conservative, fascist with narcissistic tendencies, cannot see that.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/20/11 at 11:03 pm

Rich, I will debate you anytime, anywhere, on the facts that can be verified and corroborated. You will have to face the searing light of veracity and eschew your ad hominem attacks, attacks that take the place of facts. ALL my statements are backed by prima facie sources which you are free to read and peruse.

My conjecture, however, is that you will spew expletives, undigested political screeds and like the Wizard of Oz, hide behind your internet curtain.

Cravenly cowards usually do!

Comment by marc rogers on 8/20/11 at 11:42 pm

How many people would Dennis Prager liked to see “killed?” Of course African corruption is a major problem but only an idiot would not see the devastating murderous role Capitalism played in Africa. Those Nazi’s and Communists and others were believers. But please show me the data that individual atheists are any more prone to commit violent crimes then others? No matter what your ideology or beliefs are people have an amazing capacity to be constructive or destructive.

Comment by Phillip Cohen on 8/22/11 at 2:33 pm

MarcRogers is what we call a “shonda”.  Anything that is good, moral, and decent he detests and distorts/perverts what the author has written.  Most libs and even some leftists are not as “radical” as Mark and can not make out/take seriously his insane rebuttals.

Comment by Rich on 8/23/11 at 6:54 pm

Oh! And speaking of ad hominen attacks, that is exactly what Rogers has done in his letters in the past to the Journal RE Prager.

Comment by Rich on 8/23/11 at 6:55 pm

Rogers you liar.  You accussed me of being a far-rightist based on what?  I stood up for Prager.  How do you know I am not a lib dem?  Or a libertarian?  You falsely LABEL people based on your sick opinion and not facts.  I am not a far rightist whatever that is.  But you seem to be an America-hating leftist.  Right.

Comment by Rich on 8/23/11 at 7:14 pm

I have constantly provided facts like Prager, Rich eschews facts.

I challenged Rich to a debate which he conveniently ignores.

Being to the left does not make me an American hater- in fact, to quote a critic of the Mexican- American War: If my country does wrong, and I do not speak up about it, then I am a traitor- a moral traitor.

If that is true, then you Rich are not only a craven bloviator for avoiding my debate challenge, but a moral traitor too.

And thank you for your benighted,expletive-filled-but knowledege-challenged retorts, as the students in my adult democracy class are being provided with the cannon fodder to become leftists!

Comment by marc rogers on 8/23/11 at 7:34 pm

And if you really knew what a shonda is and lashona hora, then you are committing both.

Again, if you want to deal in facts, debate me in person. If not, then you would be better off not exhibiting your limited and myopic viewpoints.

Your vitrolic- laced rebuttal should prove the dearth of your polemics and the width of your ignorance.

I await more cannon fodder for my class, as I will not be responding to you anymore, because responding to you is an equivalency that you could never achieve on your own.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/23/11 at 7:45 pm

Rich, you have proven the sagacity of the axiom that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.

I will not waste my time on Prager courtiers, minions, acolytes and supplicants like yourself. I prefer to debate Dennis himself, and not his servile and robotic followers.

So unless you are willing to come out of the shadows, please proceed to demonstate your absence of facts and knowledge by your ever expanding display of execrable words and skeins of mendacities. At the latter two, you are truly an expert.

Try not to ruin too many lifes with your pronounced ignorance and lies.

My conversations with you are done.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/24/11 at 8:23 am

This is the JEWISH Journal.  Not the secular leftist atheist Journal.  Prager writes exactly like the Rabbi’s Torah portion at the end of the Journal.  Why not pick on them?  You are only trying to slander Prager because you know he is a Republican.  There is nothing wrong where Prager is coming from!

Comment by Rich on 8/25/11 at 4:28 pm

Let me add to Rogers that you are not good enough to debate anyone.  You have slandered (false statements to someones reputation) Prager and others that you disagree with.  Calling us ultra-rightwingers with no proof, Pragers shills, blaming Prager for things he never said, etc.  And all you would do in a debate is accuse us of being either racist, xenophibic, homophobic, Anti-woman, Anti-Muslim, etc.  And to travel hundreds of miles would be a waste of my time.

Comment by Rich on 8/25/11 at 6:05 pm

couple of more things Rogers, the words you use freighten me (but not you).  They are used by psychiatrists, leftist college Professors, to the people who have the misfortune of having to be taught/listen to them.  As for corporations Rogers, they have paid trillions of $$$$ in taxes over the years and donated hundreds of millions to charity (esp. Toyota).  But I do hate one Corp.  Time-Warner who own MTV and is responsible with all that is wrong with much of our youth.

Comment by Rich on 8/25/11 at 6:09 pm

Sorry, I stand corrected. After checking up on who owns MTV.  It is Viacom (yuck) not Time-Warner.  I admit my mistake!

Comment by Rich on 8/25/11 at 6:47 pm

Why do you not accept my thrice proffered challenges to a debate? We know you can call names_ why are you so afraid of a debate?

In a debate where you have to sticl to the facts as determined by parties of your choosing, I would reveal how truly ignorant and hectoring you are.

Answer to everyone why you will not debate me in person.

Comment by Marc Rogers on 8/25/11 at 11:27 pm

Like your idol Prager, you assume what I would say.

You are truly a prime example of how benighted ignorance, gratuitous expletives and blind fidelity have brought this country to its knees. As a purported Jew and American, because you show traits of neither, my country has one uphill battle to the summit of morality, justice and ethics, all concepts that are oxymoronic to the philistine that you exemplify.

Comment by Marc Rogers on 8/25/11 at 11:33 pm

By the way, it is Dr. Rogers and if the traveling is too much for your delicate mental constitution, I will make the trip.

You will NEVER ACCEPT my challenge- pure cravenness.

Comment by Marc Rogers on 8/25/11 at 11:35 pm

You dirty liar.  You just said our conversation was permanently CLOSED.  Anyway, we have been doing some research about you, and your “friends” at the Ventura County Star were generous in giving out some much needed info about you.  We know everything we need to know about you now.  Let everyone know where you teach your college course if you got the guts.  I want it to come from you.  P.S. You do not know how to debate the right way.  Smearing and slandering is not the way to debate.

Comment by Rich on 8/27/11 at 11:31 am

You are a disgrace to Judaism and America.

Comment by Rich on 8/27/11 at 11:33 am

UH! OH! Marc

Comment by Larry on 8/27/11 at 2:55 pm

Hey Homie Marc.  I will personally debate you.  You can bring any audio/video equipment and anyone you want, and I will do the same.  The first debate will be on my turf.  You said you would travel.  There will be a platform and plenty of room on a vacant street.  I will bring some guys and video equipment for you-tube.  Next Sun. Sept.4. 7 P.M.  Take the 5 (S) to 91(E) to State College. R turn to E.La Palma, (L) to WhiteStar(L)turn, Anaheim.  Be there or pick a convenient Sun.in Sept.

Comment by Raphael Bonilla on 8/27/11 at 4:00 pm

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