1 00:00:01,150 --> 00:00:09,010 No document in world history so changed the world for the better as did the Ten Commandments. 2 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:14,140 Western civilization -- the civilization that developed universal human rights, 3 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:18,140 created women's equality, ended slavery, 4 00:00:18,140 --> 00:00:26,260 created parliamentary democracy among other unique achievements -- would not have developed without them. 5 00:00:26,260 --> 00:00:29,980 As you will see when each of the Ten Commandments is explained, 6 00:00:29,980 --> 00:00:36,420 these commandments are as relevant today as when they were given over 3,000 years ago. 7 00:00:36,420 --> 00:00:42,160 In fact, they're so relevant that the Ten Commandments are all that is necessary 8 00:00:42,170 --> 00:00:46,820 to make a good world, a world free of tyranny and cruelty. 9 00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:53,110 Imagine for a moment a world in which there was no murder or theft. In such a world, there 10 00:00:53,110 --> 00:01:01,600 would no need for armies, or police, or weapons. Men and women and children could walk anywhere, 11 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:07,440 at any time of day or night, without any fear of being killed or robbed. 12 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:13,440 Imagine further a world in which no one coveted what belonged to their neighbor; a world in which children 13 00:01:13,450 --> 00:01:18,770 honored their mother and father and the family unit thrived; a world in which people obeyed 14 00:01:18,770 --> 00:01:29,490 the injunction not to lie. The recipe for a good world is all there -- in these ten sublime commandments. 15 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:36,530 But there is a catch. The Ten Commandments are predicated on the belief that they were 16 00:01:36,530 --> 00:01:43,820 given by an Authority higher than any man, any king, or any government. 17 00:01:43,820 --> 00:01:48,700 That's why the sentence preceding the Ten Commandments asserts the following: 18 00:01:48,700 --> 00:01:52,700 "God spoke all these words." 19 00:01:52,740 --> 00:01:58,700 You see, if the Ten Commandments, as great as they are, were given by any human authority, 20 00:01:58,710 --> 00:02:05,080 then any person could say: "Who is this man Moses, who is this king or queen; who is this 21 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:14,380 government to tell me how I should behave? Okay, so why is God indispensable to the Ten Commandments? 22 00:02:14,380 --> 00:02:20,400 Because, to put it as directly as possible, if it isn't God who declares murder wrong, 23 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,680 murder isn't wrong. 24 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:28,900 Yes, this strikes many people today as incomprehensible, even absurd. 25 00:02:28,900 --> 00:02:32,420 Many of you are thinking, "Is this guy saying you can't be a good person 26 00:02:32,430 --> 00:02:34,840 if you don't believe in God?" 27 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:39,880 Let me respond as clearly as possible: I am not saying that. 28 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:46,200 Of course there are good people who don't believe in God, just as there are bad people who do. 29 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:51,920 And many of you are also thinking, "I believe murder is wrong. I don't need God to tell me." 30 00:02:51,920 --> 00:02:59,799 Now that response is only half true. I have no doubt that if you're an atheist and you say you believe 31 00:02:59,799 --> 00:03:07,719 murder is wrong, you believe murder is wrong. But, forgive me, you do need God to tell you. 32 00:03:07,730 --> 00:03:13,100 We all need God to tell us. You see, even if you figured out murder is wrong on your own, 33 00:03:13,100 --> 00:03:18,720 without God and the Ten Commandments, how do you know it's wrong? 34 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:27,120 Not believe it's wrong, I mean know it's wrong? The fact is that you can't. 35 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:32,780 Because without God, right and wrong are just personal beliefs. Personal opinions. 36 00:03:32,780 --> 00:03:42,040 I think shoplifting is okay, you don't. Unless there is a God, all morality is just opinion and belief. 37 00:03:42,100 --> 00:03:47,420 And virtually every atheist philosopher has acknowledged this. 38 00:03:47,420 --> 00:03:52,020 Another problem with the view that you don't need God to believe that murder is wrong, 39 00:03:52,020 --> 00:03:57,060 is that a lot of people haven't shared your view. And you don't have to go back very far 40 00:03:57,069 --> 00:04:02,659 in history to prove this. In the twentieth century millions of people in Communist societies 41 00:04:02,659 --> 00:04:07,639 and under Nazism killed about one hundred million people 42 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:12,040 -- and that doesn't count a single soldier killed in war. 43 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:19,300 So, don't get too confident about people's ability to figure out right from wrong without a Higher Authority. 44 00:04:19,300 --> 00:04:23,640 It's all too easy to be swayed by a government or a demagogue or an 45 00:04:23,650 --> 00:04:30,530 ideology or to rationalize that the wrong you are doing isn't really wrong. 46 00:04:30,580 --> 00:04:36,159 And even if you do figure out what is right and wrong, God is still necessary. People who know the 47 00:04:36,159 --> 00:04:40,699 difference between right and wrong do the wrong thing all the time. You know why? 48 00:04:40,700 --> 00:04:47,539 Because they can. They can because they think no one is watching. But if you recognize that God 49 00:04:47,539 --> 00:04:53,399 is the source of moral law, you believe that He is always watching. 50 00:04:53,400 --> 00:05:00,440 So, even if you're an atheist, you would want people to live by the moral laws of the Ten Commandments. 51 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:06,560 And even an atheist has to admit that the more people who believe God gave them 52 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:13,240 -- and therefore they are not just opinion -- the better the world would be. 53 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:17,760 In 3,000 years no one has ever come up with a better system 54 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:22,020 than the God-based Ten Commandments for making a better world. 55 00:05:22,020 --> 00:05:24,940 And no one ever will. 56 00:05:24,940 --> 00:05:26,100 I'm Dennis Prager.