1 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:16,270 Ever since the 18th century and the dawning of the so-called "Age of Reason," most 2 00:00:16,270 --> 00:00:21,990 of the best educated people in the world have been absolutely certain that reason alone 3 00:00:21,990 --> 00:00:27,230 will lead us to goodness and a good world. We don't we need a God. We don't need religion. 4 00:00:27,230 --> 00:00:32,820 All we need is reason. Evil, we have been told for almost three centuries, 5 00:00:32,820 --> 00:00:35,720 doesn't make sense. It's irrational. 6 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:40,910 That's why you will often hear murderous dictators referred to as "madmen" and their evil regimes 7 00:00:40,910 --> 00:00:47,300 described as products of "madmen;" in other words, the very opposite of rational men. 8 00:00:47,300 --> 00:00:52,980 Stalin was irrational. Pol Pot was a madman. Mao's genocidal Cultural Revolution in which 9 00:00:52,980 --> 00:00:59,620 he directed the killing of 50 to 75 million Chinese - in peacetime, no less - is routinely 10 00:00:59,620 --> 00:01:04,750 called "madness." And the Iranian regime's calls for the annihilation of Israel are routinely 11 00:01:04,750 --> 00:01:09,520 dismissed as, you guessed it, irrational. 12 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:15,290 Meanwhile, good and moral things are always associated with being reasonable. 13 00:01:15,290 --> 00:01:20,200 But this association of reason with good is wishful thinking. 14 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:26,260 Of course, reason might argue for doing good. But it might just as well argue for doing bad. 15 00:01:26,610 --> 00:01:31,240 Take a non-murderous example. Is it right or wrong for a student to cheat on a test? 16 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,840 It's wrong, of course. 17 00:01:34,220 --> 00:01:40,240 But now answer this: Is it rational or irrational to cheat on a test? 18 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:45,110 The answer is not quite as obvious - is it? After all, if you can get away with it, and 19 00:01:45,110 --> 00:01:50,450 it might mean the difference between getting into a great school or getting a great job, 20 00:01:50,450 --> 00:01:56,340 cheating on a test may well be reasonable. The same logic applies to participating in 21 00:01:56,340 --> 00:02:02,680 a shady, but lucrative, business deal or engaging in a marital infidelity. If you know you can 22 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:08,070 get away with it, or simply judge that the benefits of doing something illegal or immoral 23 00:02:08,070 --> 00:02:13,000 outweigh the risk of being caught, why not do it? 24 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:20,000 Or answer this: Was it rational or irrational for a non-Jew in Nazi-occupied Europe during 25 00:02:20,620 --> 00:02:25,290 World War II to risk his or her life to hide a Jew? 26 00:02:25,290 --> 00:02:31,680 We all know that this was moral greatness of the highest order. But was it rational? 27 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:37,900 Not really. You can't get much more rational than self-preservation. Moreover, in all the 28 00:02:37,900 --> 00:02:42,560 studies I have read of non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust - and I have 29 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:48,819 read many - I have never read of any rescuers who said that they did what they did because 30 00:02:48,820 --> 00:02:54,480 it was the reasonable or rational thing to do. Not one. 31 00:02:55,160 --> 00:03:02,980 Reason leads to good only when you want it to. Just as it leads to bad when you want it to. 32 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:10,680 Reason is just a tool. It is no more intrinsically moral than a knife. 33 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:19,020 A knife can be used to murder or to torture people. But in the hands of a surgeon, it can be used to save lives. 34 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:24,060 If you want to preserve liberty, then it is rational to fight and risk your life on its 35 00:03:24,060 --> 00:03:29,680 behalf. And if you want to maintain a fascist or a Communist or an Islamist dictatorship, 36 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:34,239 then it is equally rational to risk your life on its behalf. 37 00:03:34,239 --> 00:03:40,549 And talking about liberty, it isn't reason that makes people value liberty. Many rational 38 00:03:40,549 --> 00:03:50,429 people value security, or order, or territory, or theocracy, or many other things much more than they value liberty. 39 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:55,320 Reason can lead people to all kinds of conclusions. 40 00:03:55,330 --> 00:04:01,019 For example, asked if he would kill a disabled baby, a distinguished professor of philosophy 41 00:04:01,019 --> 00:04:08,019 at Princeton University responded, "Yes, if that was in the best interests of the baby 42 00:04:08,689 --> 00:04:15,500 and the family as a whole." Can you offer a purely rational reason why the professor 43 00:04:15,500 --> 00:04:17,090 is wrong? 44 00:04:17,090 --> 00:04:22,680 The only reason I can offer is a belief that all human beings are created in God's image 45 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:29,270 and are therefore infinitely precious. But the preciousness of all human life is a belief, 46 00:04:29,270 --> 00:04:34,550 not an assertion of reason. The Greeks, the founders of Western reason, thought it quite 47 00:04:34,550 --> 00:04:40,050 reasonable to leave sickly babies to die of exposure. The baby would just be a burden 48 00:04:40,050 --> 00:04:48,230 on the parents and the state. It was faith-based Jerusalem, the other parent of Western civilization, 49 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:55,060 not reason-based Athens, that taught the world to keep sickly babies alive. 50 00:04:55,060 --> 00:05:01,669 So, the next time you read of some terrible crime or some terrible regime, please don't dismiss 51 00:05:01,669 --> 00:05:06,780 it as irrational or mad. Call it for what it is. 52 00:05:06,780 --> 00:05:08,080 Evil. 53 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,960 I'm Dennis Prager.