Dennis Prager on His New Book If There Is No God and the Battle Over Good and Evil
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Dennis Prager on His New Book If There Is No God and the Battle Over Good and Evil
Dennis Prager discusses his thirteenth book, If There Is No God, exploring the fundamental connection between belief in God and objective morality. Written while recovering in the hospital, Prager addresses the toughest questions about faith, values, and ethics that have been posed to him over fifty years. From confronting the problem of evil to explaining why the Sabbath matters and understanding modern anti-Semitism, Prager argues that without God, good and evil become mere opinions rather than absolute truths. He shares stories of bringing people to faith across the world, explains why secular values ultimately stem from Judeo-Christian roots, and offers guidance for raising children with authentic religious principles in an increasingly secular age.
Dennis Prager completed his thirteenth book, If There Is No God: The Battle Over Who Defines Good and Evil, while recovering in the hospital. The accomplishment represents not just a personal triumph but a continuation of Prager's lifelong mission to bring clarity to fundamental questions about morality, faith, and the existence of God.
The book arrives at a moment when spiritual revival is sweeping across America and the world. Erika Kirk, wife of Charlie Kirk, wrote in her dedication that reading the book feels like sitting at a dinner table listening to conversations between Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk, grappling with the tough moral questions that define our time.
Bringing People to God Across the World
Prager shares a powerful anecdote from a speaking engagement in the Czech Republic. A young man approached him after the event and said, "Dennis, I want you to know that Ben Shapiro brought me to conservatism and you brought me to God." The room erupted in applause, and Prager was deeply moved by the encounter.
This story illustrates one of the benefits of the internet age. Despite its many dangers, the internet allows voices to reach people on the other side of the world, touching lives in ways previously impossible. Prager has spent his career not primarily arguing for God's existence, but rather for God's necessity in establishing objective morality.
The Central Thesis: No God Means No Good and Evil
The core argument of If There Is No God is straightforward but profound: without God, there is no such thing as good and evil. All moral judgments become merely opinions based on personal or societal preferences. If you or your society likes something, it's called good. If you don't like it, it's called evil.
However, if good and evil truly exist as objective realities, then there must be a God. These terms are ultimately religious in nature, requiring a transcendent source beyond human opinion. This is the fundamental battle the book addresses: who gets to define good and evil?
What Are Values?
Prager defines values simply but powerfully: a value is what is more important than your opinion or your feelings. In our current age of feelings, most people don't actually have values—they have feelings that they call values.
True values transcend feelings. They remain constant even when emotions suggest otherwise. This distinction becomes critical in understanding how to live a principled life in a culture that increasingly prioritizes subjective emotional states over objective moral standards.
Where Secular People Get Their Values
Even prominent atheists acknowledge the Judeo-Christian roots of Western values. Richard Dawkins, the renowned scientist and best-known atheist spokesman, now calls himself a "cultural Christian." He recognizes that he didn't derive his values from secularism but from Judeo-Christian sources.
Dawkins is honest enough to acknowledge that Western society was created by the Bible and those who lived by it and interpreted it. Good secular people ultimately got their values from these religious sources, whether they recognize it or not.
Voltaire, another major atheist during the French Enlightenment, famously said something to the effect of: "I'm an atheist, but I want everybody who works for me to be a believer." This statement reveals the practical recognition that religious belief produces certain virtues beneficial to society, even among those who don't personally hold that belief.
When You Disagree With Your Religion
Some people struggle with aspects of their religious tradition. Prager addresses this common concern by pointing out that there are people—both Jews and Christians—who don't differ with anything in their respective faiths. However, many do have disagreements.
The question becomes: what happens when you don't believe certain things your religion teaches? Prager's answer is illuminating. It's like asking what happens if you differ with certain things in American history. Do you stop being an American, or do you work to improve America?
You don't leave your religion or abandon religion altogether. The critical question is: what will you abandon it for? Seriously, what will you affirm ultimately? Prager cites one of his favorite quotes, often attributed to G.K. Chesterton though the origin cannot be verified: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing. They believe in anything."
Believing in Anything: The Absurdities of Secularism
As proof of this principle, Prager points to the belief that a boy can become a girl or a girl can become a boy. This represents believing in anything. The absurdity extends to the notion that it's moral and fair for a biological male to compete in women's sports because they're "really women."
Another widespread absurdity believed by hundreds of millions: poverty causes crime. This is as absurd as claiming men can become women. If poverty caused crime, the world would be engulfed in criminal behavior because there are so many poor people.
Prager recalls hearing "poverty causes crime" when he was in elementary school. He immediately thought of his grandparents on his father's side, who were very poor. His father completely supported them. He thought, "My grandfather doesn't rape, doesn't murder, doesn't mug. The thought that he would do that was inconceivable." But he was quite poor. That's when Prager knew the poverty-causes-crime narrative was a lie.
The amount of nonsense that secularism has produced is one of the major themes of the book.
Should Children Choose Their Own Religion?
Prager takes a controversial stance on this question, one that not many people agree with him on, including many of his supporters. However, his supporters know he'll say what he truly believes.
He regularly gets calls on his radio show asking, "Dennis, how do I find true religion?" Prager has never used that term. To him, true religion is the religion that produces good, God-fearing people. He doesn't go further than that in assessing true religion.
If there's such a thing as "the true religion," then there's no issue of faith. The very fact that people say "I believe" rather than "I know" is significant. One of the most remarkable lines in Deuteronomy—the most quoted book by America's founders—states that God has given the stars in the sky to various nations for them to worship. In other words, God doesn't believe those objects are truly divine, but the Hebrew Bible does not judge people on the basis of their faith. It judges them on the basis of their behavior.
When Prager thinks of all the religious people who did evil, he asks: did they have a "true religion"? The answer is obviously no.
Regarding children specifically, the notion of "let them choose their religion" is problematic. What does that mean? You'll give them one week of weak Hinduism, another week of weak Buddhism, another week of weak Christianity, another week of weak Judaism? Obviously, people are free to choose their religion when they're adults, but you have to give your child something authentic to use as a foundation.
Prager doesn't buy the "let them choose" notion. It's an excuse not to give your child something beautiful and authentic.
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
The obvious question many ask: if God is good, how can there be so much evil in this world? And how is it that evil people flourish while good people suffer?
Prager has wondered about this since high school and has read book after book, article after article on the issue. His conclusion may be disappointing to some: we don't know the complete answer.
However, he offers some insight. Let's say God punished everybody who hurt another person. If that happened, who would hurt anybody else? It would deprive human beings of moral free will. Moreover, at what level of hurt would God intervene? What if you insult somebody? Would God punish you? Clearly rape and murder would qualify, but what about a holdup? What about an insult?
For there to be free will, God can't punish everybody who does evil and reward every good act. It would render life meaningless.
Another factor: Prager has said on air for years that belief in an afterlife keeps him sane. Knowing how much unjust suffering people have endured, the belief that there is ultimate justice in an afterlife has given him peace and continues to do so. If there is no afterlife, then there is no answer to that question, and we're in serious trouble.
Would God Want All People to Have the Same Religion?
Answering from within his own Jewish faith, Prager points to the prophetic vision: "My house of prayer will be a house of prayer for all nations." But this doesn't necessarily mean everyone will have the same route to God, so long as they end up with God.
Maybe not everybody has to be the same religion. There are different avenues to God. Prager doesn't work for everyone to have identical religious practice. He works for everybody to be what he calls "ethical monotheists"—one God, one ethical value system.
Why the Sabbath Matters
The Sabbath is the only ritual law in the Ten Commandments. It's up there with "do not murder" and "do not steal." That's how important God thought it was.
Why is it so important? For many reasons. The Sabbath affirms that God created the world—not chance, not Zeus, not Baal, but God. The seventh day is the celebration of creation. As stated in the Hebrew Bible, it is a sign between God and the children of Israel that in six days God created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested.
Prager shares a story from his junior year at the University of Leeds in England. One Saturday afternoon, he was lying in bed reading a book when his roommate showed up. The roommate lived with his girlfriend but would return periodically to do laundry. Seeing Prager fully clothed on top of his bed reading, the roommate asked, "Oh, Dennis, are you well?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Prager replied.
"Why are you lying in bed?"
"Well, it's my Sabbath and I'm resting."
"Sabbath? You believe in God?"
"Yes."
"What's God?"
Prager remembers thinking this guy was studying physics, so he wanted to sound somewhat scientifically literate. He answered: "God is the only absolute in a universe of relativity."
His roommate's response: "Oh."
Prager was thrilled with his answer. He thought, "Yeah, that's the purpose of the Sabbath—to remind people that God created the heavens and the earth and that they didn't create themselves."
Everyone Worships Something
Charlie Kirk wrote in his book about the Sabbath: "What do you worship?" The chapter notes that everyone worships something. Whether you know it or acknowledge it, you are worshiping something every day.
Prager notes that Charlie would call him regularly with questions. There probably isn't anyone in the world who listened to more of Prager's teachings on tape than Charlie Kirk. Charlie listened to 250 of Prager's Bible studies, among other materials.
Prager's original quote applies here: when people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing—they believe in anything.
He offers an example from a column he wrote called "Higher Than the Angels." The title is a pun, referencing both spiritual matters and the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, which Prager has supported for fifty years. When the Angels finally made it to the playoffs against the New York Yankees, Hugh Hewitt called with an incredible offer: front-row seats behind the catcher for the playoff game.
"Oh my God," Prager thought. "When is it?"
"Saturday."
Prager assumed Saturday night, but Hewitt clarified: "Saturday day."
Prager didn't think attending a baseball game was keeping with the Sabbath. He had to say no. He wrote the column "Higher Than the Angels"—the Sabbath was higher than the Angels.
When considering what people worship, the list is revealing: themselves (there's a great line: "He's a self-made man and he worships his creator"), money, fame. What people will do for fame is mind-blowing. Prager asks kids in elementary schools what they want to be when they grow up. A very common answer is "famous."
"Famous for what?" he asks.
"It doesn't matter."
The Fight Against the Ten Commandments in Schools
The battle to remove the Ten Commandments from schools started in the 1960s, but parents are witnessing it intensely today. PragerU produced a book about the Ten Commandments, and getting Ten Commandments posters back into classrooms remains a fight.
Why would anybody be against teaching "do not murder" or honoring the Sabbath?
The answer: displaying the Ten Commandments affirms that the ethical roots of our civilization are biblical. This drives secularists crazy. They want to believe we evolved women's rights, human rights, democracy, and all the other achievements of Western civilization without roots—that we just developed them. They don't want to acknowledge the biblical foundation.
Most Americans don't know that facing the Supreme Court justices as they look out is a sculpture of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. No Ten Commandments, no courts of justice.
Prager contends that the most devastating Supreme Court decision was not Roe v. Wade. The most devastating was the 1962 decision removing a completely non-denominational prayer from schoolrooms. The prayer was basically: "We ask Thine blessings on our parents and our teachers." No Judaism, no Christianity, no Jesus, nothing denominational.
Prager has said all his public life that in one generation, American students went from blessing teachers to cursing teachers. The consequences have been utterly destructive.
The God-Sized Hole and What Fills It
It's not just abstract ideologies filling the God-sized holes in kids' hearts. It's concrete alternatives, including Islamism. Is it a huge surprise that when students were giving out hijabs in Texas, young women were grabbing them? They were looking for something. They were looking for meaning.
If you take out the Ten Commandments from schools and don't allow Christian prayer, these kids will look for something else. Right around the corner, they'll find Islamism, hijabs, and other ways to feel like they belong to something, to feel like they have meaning in their lives.
Data shows the number of churches closing in the United States and the number of mosques being built in the UK and US compared to churches. The most popular name in the UK is Muhammad. Muhammad is in the top ten names in New York City as well.
You can blame external forces, but you must also look at what America did and what schools have done. If you're not going to allow Judeo-Christian values to be taught in schools, then kids will search for something else. Part of it is on us.
The group with the most fervent beliefs today tends to be Muslims. Kids are drawn to people who fervently believe in something. According to many, you can't even say "Judeo-Christian" anymore, as if Christianity came from nothing. Jesus would say Judeo-Christian. He would probably just say Judeo because he didn't know about Christianity yet.
Advice for Atheist Parents
What should an atheist parent do when it comes to religion? Should they teach their child about God even if they don't believe?
Prager says they should adopt Voltaire's belief. They may not believe in God, but they should understand it's a good thing if civilization continues to believe in God and maintains a Judeo-Christian orientation.
He offers an analogy: parents who have zero interest in classical music still give their kids music lessons. They know it's good for them even though they couldn't spell Beethoven, let alone identify anything he wrote. The same principle applies to religion.
Why Jews Still Choose to Be Jewish
It's surprising that people still want to be Jewish knowing the dangers of anti-Semitism and what it's like to be a Jew, especially during times when it has become dangerous again even in America.
Prager shares a story from about thirty years ago. After a speech in Phoenix to the Jewish community, he was flying home to Los Angeles. A woman who attended the speech happened to sit next to him. She's not Jewish but came because she was familiar with his work and radio show.
She told him her husband, who is Jewish and the child of Holocaust survivors, would not attend. He is doing everything possible to assimilate, to shed his Jewish identity and not give their children a Jewish identity because it's too dangerous.
Prager notes this isn't an illogical or hateful idea. It makes perfect sense. But it shows that ironically, there's a deep wellspring of faith among many Jews. Despite the danger, they still raise their kids to be Jews despite the near certainty that something bad might happen.
As stated in the Passover Haggadah, written nearly 2,000 years ago: "In every generation, somebody arises to annihilate us." Not oppress us, not enslave us—annihilate us. This realization is age-old.
The belief that Jews, this tiny group of human beings, are going to run the world and must be stopped merely reinforces in Prager the validity of Judaism.
Jews Become More Jewish When Attacked
Many Jews are realizing that anti-Semitism, while perhaps less visible in the United States over the past twenty to forty years, is on the rise again. Some Jews may feel like assimilating entirely, even losing their Jewish religion, as a solution.
However, most Jews have the opposite reaction. The more Jews are attacked, the more Jewish they become. Many people who did not go to synagogue, who were not engaged in Jewish life, who had no curiosity about what it means to be a Jew until October 7th happened, until the attacks came from multiple sides—these people are now becoming more Jewish.
It's surprising that Jews wouldn't just say, "I give up. I don't want to be Jewish anymore. Let me just live in peace." But the opposite happens. The more they get attacked, the more Jewish they become.
As Prager said, there is a wellspring of faith that Jews are not always consciously identified with, but this phenomenon proves it.
The Chosen People and Why That Matters
Jews are attacked for believing they're the chosen people, which has never for a moment meant superior to anybody else. It just meant chosen—that God chose a certain group to reveal Himself to. It was the Jews who received the Ten Commandments, not the Babylonians, not the Assyrians, not the Greeks.
The Jews have a mission to spread God and His ethics to the world.
Prager points out that everybody thinks it's rational in some way to hate Jews because they believe they're chosen. But almost every group thinks something similar about themselves. The Chinese think they're the center of the universe—that's what "China" means: middle kingdom, the kingdom in the middle of the world. The Japanese believe they're the land of the rising sun, getting the sun first in the world. That's why there's a sun on the Japanese flag.
But nobody hates the Chinese or Japanese for those beliefs, though they're far more numerous than the Jews. People should just ignore it, but they don't. Why? Because they believe it. Those who hate the Jews believe that the Jews are chosen.
The Test Humanity Keeps Failing
The oldest trick in creating a populist movement is to create an inside group and an outside group. The easiest group to put on the outside is the small group whose name everybody knows.
Rome went after the Jews. The USSR went after the Jews. Nazi Germany went after the Jews. More recently, 47 years ago, the Iranians went after the Jews. Every single one has failed the test.
It's as if God or the universe keeps choosing the same group to put humanity to a test, and humans keep failing. In the effort to create an insider group and an outsider group, using the Jews as the outsider group to gain power and control, humanity repeatedly fails.
Looking at everything through the lens of an educator, it seems like God is constantly testing humanity, and humans are constantly failing miserably.
The Final Message: Living a Values-Driven Life
The world needs healing. We're facing tests that may be given by God, or perhaps they're just the same mistakes humans constantly make.
Prager's final message for those interested in learning more about how to live a values-driven life: read the book If There Is No God.
It's his thirteenth book and unique in that it consists entirely of challenges posed to him over fifty years—the toughest questions. He even added questions that were never asked to make it tougher, so that any challenge a reader might have is actually covered.
This is the issue: the God issue. If you care about good and evil, then the God issue is the issue.
Prager asks those whose lives he may have touched in some way to pre-order a copy on Amazon or at PragerU before February 24th, the official publication date, so people will take notice of the importance of the book.
For those reading the book who have additional hard questions, Prager welcomes them. He loves tough questions. Readers can respond or send emails with their challenges.
Together with PragerU's kids' book about the Ten Commandments, the goal is to get these teachings back into classrooms to help save the country. Reading both Prager's book and Charlie Kirk's book together creates a meaningful trio for those looking for something significant to bring into their homes. We could use a lot of meaning and a lot of values.
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