Book Review by Daniel Mencher
Think a Second Time
by Dennis Prager
Reagan Books
ISBN 006098709X
“What are the two great lies of the twentieth century?” “Can a good man go to a striptease show?” “Why does the Holocaust not negate the existence of God?” Dennis Prager answers these questions and more in his landmark work, Think a Second Time. The book is a well-written exploration of religion, ethics, and morality in society. Prager simultaneously draws on logic and what he calls “ethical monotheism” to make a great case for Judeo-Christianity. Think a Second Time will leave such an impression on the reader that he will never again ponder morality without considering the viewpoints put forth in this book. Secularists who believe that there is no rational argument behind religiosity should read this book and re-think their position.
Prager’s credentials are positively solid. A theologian and philosopher, he has been a radio talk show host since 1982. For ten years, he conducted a weekly interfaith dialogue on the radio with representatives from virtually every religion in the world. Prager is the author of two books and the co-author of two more, and from 1985-1995, he wrote and published a quarterly journal, Ultimate Issue. Prager has lectured on all seven continents, and he holds an honorary doctorate of law from Pepperdine University.
As he mentions in the book, Prager is a religious Jew, and this religiosity has a great impact on his views. However, he does not display a blind allegiance to the Word of God; to defend his beliefs, Prager uses honest analysis and logic that would surprise many secularists. In addition, most of his views are not what one would expect of a religious person. “Many liberals, for example, will probably love my chapter on how religion can lead to cruelty,” Prager explains in his introduction, “but be annoyed with my essay on how liberalism can lead to cruelty… Religious readers will love my vigorous defense of God- and religious-based ethics but probably be troubled by my defense of men who attend a striptease show.”
Ethics and morality have a variety of applications in life, and Prager covers many of them. Each of the forty-six chapters in Think a Second Time covers a different topic, and similar topics are grouped into sections. For example, the chapters “When Good Homes Don’t Produce Good Children,” “Should We Pay Kids For Grades?” “When Adult Children Don’t Talk to Their Parents,” and “Should a Single Woman Have a Child?” are in the “Children” section. Other intriguing chapters include: “Why the Belief That People Are Basically Good Is Wrong and Dangerous,” “Astrology Isn’t Half as Bad as What Many Intellectuals Believe,” “Is Liberalism Jewish?” “The Immorality of Pacifist Thinking,” “The Only Solution to Evil: Ethical Monotheism,” and “Why God Must Be Depicted as a Father and Not as a Mother.” In all of the chapters, Prager discusses the respective theme in terms of ethics and morality.
The last three chapters of Prager’s book are devoted to his analysis of the Baby Richard case. In 1995, four-year-old Danny Warburton, popularly known as Baby Richard, was taken from his loving adoptive family (with whom he had lived for three years) and given to his biological father. A large part of Prager’s interest in morality revolves around love and the family. Prager uses the Baby Richard ordeal as a case study of these topics, and takes the opportunity to advance his beliefs that love is thicker than blood, and that children have rights and are not property.
One notable feature of Think a Second Time is Prager’s calm, cool tone of voice. He does not resort to cheap shots or ad hominem attacks against those who disagree with him, but rather elaborates his own thoughts on the issues. Many pundits on both sides of the aisle—from Janeane Garofalo to Ann Coulter—often use scathing rhetoric, and it is understandable that their opponents get fed up with them to the point of not engaging in debate. However, Prager uses no such rhetoric and proves to be completely inoffensive in his arguments. The only people who will be truly angered and turned off from debate by what Prager writes are those who have trouble confronting rational arguments with which they disagree.
Most Tufts students are secular liberals who believe in moral relativism. These students have difficulty understanding the rationality of the idea that an absolute morality based on ethical monotheism is beneficial to and even necessary for a just society. Even many religious people do not fully understand the nature or basis of the Bible’s morality. Think a Second Time does a great job of explaining and making the case for ethical monotheism. Secularists, especially those at Tufts, where non-secular points of view are few and far between, should read this book to gain the perspective of the other side and challenge their own ideas. It is a great, thought-provoking read that has much potential to forever impact the reader’s views.
Mr. Mencher is a junior who is majoring in Spanish.
How do Buddhism and Judeo-Christianity traditions solve the problem of evil/suffering?
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