Prager using the words 'Intellectually honest' and _not_ bursting into flames on the spot? Now _that's_ a miracle.

"Your meaning doesn't empirically exist", says the guy who can't empirically prove his god.

Prager said it himself “The human being aches for meaning.” So we INVENTED some. There, and so simple!! What I’ve been searching for, a simple explanation for the existence of gods. 👍👍👍 Thanks Prager.

“Asking, "If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?" is like asking, "If there is no master, whose slave will I be?" If your purpose of life is to submit as a slave, then your meaning comes from flattering the ego of a person whom who should detest.” Dan Barker debunked this argument with one short paragraph.

I feel sad for people who think their whole identity and meaning is so tied to an absent entity that without it they would have none.

The only thing Prager learned from his conversation with Hitchens was to stop listening to the opposing arguments, because learning what we actually believe and say poses a threat to Prager and his audiences' precious myths.

I like how he talks about meaning/purpose, and the penchant for humans to "make something up"... he's so close to realizing where his god originated!

As a control Engineer, I really like how some creationists just ignore the effects of feedback loops while talking about morality. These creationists just imply the society (a system) cannot just learn from theirs mistakes and correct themselves. Therefore the only reference input in the system is the postulated God that knows all the answers by definition and give the only possible correct divine command, again, by definition. Gentlemen, these videos with you both are amazing. I'm really enjoying this format. Please, keep it.

I once thought this when I was a Christian ✝️

"If an all knowing, all powerful dictator doesn't tell me how to live my life and eternally punishes me if I don't obey every single order, my life is meaningless" It's such a pathetic outlook on life and plain sad, like a domestic abused victim going back to their abuser. Why wouldn't the conclusion just be that you make the most out of your life and you give meaning to it by just existing and try to have some fun and spread love and be kind to other people just because? It's like this people's mind operated like a trained rat that can only operate based on rewards/punishments, it's just sad.

Asking, 'If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?' is like asking, 'If there is no master, whose slave will I be?

"Nothing has meaning without God" Actually, everything has meaning and potential when not constrained by oppressive dogma.

Most important question in life: What am I going to eat tonight! It's hard to find any lower hanging fruit than Dennis Prager, and it's so sad he needs to be debunked, because for a lot of us (obviously not enough of us) he is self debunking.

If god doesn't believe in a super-god, how can' god's existence have any meaning or purpose?

What a pathetic existence a person must have if they require an invisible friend to have a meaningful life.

I feel like life is a lot more meaningful when it is the only one we have, compared to when all of life is just some arbitrary test to see who gets to actually live in heaven.

As an apatheist, I couldn't care less if a God did or didn't exist, it's rather irrelevant to what I enjoy in life. Peace Love Empathy

I appreciate your video as an ex-Muslim Iraqi guy, religion ruined my life and took away my mind.

I appreciate your closing remark on modifying Weinberg's quote. The harms of religion are not of religion itself, but the dogma and tribalism. Religion often facilitates this, but is not in of itself the issue. "With or without *dogma & tribalism, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes *dogma & tribalism.* " So very true.

Recognizing the lack of a grand cosmological purpose has been so good for my mental and physical health. It wasn't easy to get here, but I'm so glad I did.

I should have also added that life doesn't necessarily need a meaning. Maybe life is just simply us being lucky enough to be born and it's up to us to make lots of it or simply go through it doing almost nothing.

"Without god there is no ultimate purpose" And thank god for that.

And to think I use to be such a huge fan of Dennis Prager (prior to a few years ago) Every night I still sit around think deeply about what else I have been wrong about.

Dennis Prager may think that a pebble on Jupiter would be meaningless, the scientific community would not. To find a pebble on a gas planet would be an incredible discovery.

Proof that time travel is impossible, right here. Dennis Prager exists. This means that no-one has ever traveled back in time to erase Dennis Prager from Existence itself, which would only improve humanity with absolutely no drawbacks. Counterpoint: "what if Dennis Prager is the best option that time travel has left us with?" Counter-counterpoint: _DENNIS FUCKING PRAGER._

Meaning is only something that can exist to others - your success means something *to* you, and your spouse and your mother. Theists try to say without a god, humans don't having meaning (to the god). But if meaning is something other people feel, then anyone can experience it between fellow beings

"Persuade people that they are in possession of the truth dogmatically and you can convince them to do bad things in the name of that truth, even if they are otherwise a good person." - did I get that right? I like that quote.

Life is meaningless to those who are just waiting to die. The rest of us try to enjoy life to the fullest, because we know we only have one of them.

Theist: If god isn’t real, life is meaningless. Me: That doesn’t prove god. It proves life is meaningless.

What Dennis doesn't seem to realise: if there is a God, your sole purpose will be to feast on that God's boot polish for eternity. Whist that me be viewed as a purpose, I don't see how it will offer my life any significant meaning.

I’ve read Bertrand Russell’s essay “What I believe” several times now. I find it’s an amazing reflection on what it means to live a good life, outside of any connection to a higher power. He doesn’t need to point to some external authority to establish morals or purpose. They can be reached as a logical conclusion with the acceptance of one primary principle, the good life is one which is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

I live in the U.S. got my debunked game this week. Amazing!! I play it with my kids and we all learn from it while having so much fun. Thank you!

Hey fellas, I just wanted to say thank you.. I've always fallen under the Banner that is Atheism. I've never had the Intellectual ability to justify as to why, so it was always " I just haven't been given enough evidence to believe in a God." Or " Yeah but the bible says it's ok to have slaves, and even teaches you how to treat them etc. "I've always just said the same things without having the Knowledge to fully explain. As a Truck driver here in the USA I have nothing but time to listen and eventually understand it all. Now one of the things I love most is the theism VS Atheism debates as it allows me to listen to some very intelligent people argue on both sides. I believe that along with Alex O'Connors channel as well as Rationality Rules, Dr Richard Carrier as well as others have given me plenty of knowledge to be able to fully understand why I dont believe in a god. So thank you all for your hard work. Much appreciated.

My life became meaningless after I found out Santa Claus didn't exist.

I counter their argument with this: my life has meaning because I give it meaning

9:03 I'm aesthetically pleased like mad by the simplicity of this argument. Great video overall. I like that format.

*Humanity has **_never been able to agree on, or confirm a single fact,_** about God.*

This video appeared on my recommended feed right after I watched that animated scene where Evil Lyn looks upon the vast canvas of the universe and sees it all as blank and meaningless, while Skeletor looks at the same universe and basically goes "Yeah, that's how canvases work. You have to PAINT your own meaning onto it. And I want to paint a portrait of myself killing He-Man." 😂

In my opinion the most important question is "what do I want to do with my life" Wether god exists is irrelevant and the "why is there something rather than nothing" I see that as a scientific question and the best answer we have so far is we're working on it.

Very nice watch - I like this format, you two complement each other nicely. This would work well as a podcast too..

I'm more concerned that Prager thinks there are pebbles "on" Jupiter. A gas giant on which you cannot land a probe.

Life is meaningless if I'm not a slave to a malignant narcissist!

"I'm no more worth than a pebble" In some ways, yes, in some ways, no. A pebble doesn't have the capacity for kindness, and neither does it have the capacity to pick up a larger pebble and beat someone to death with it.

Bravo, another brilliant discussion, always with intelligence, integrity, and humility.

"Random chance." Do you hate this as much as I do? That some theists think that there is no random aspect, that their god had planned out everything... and then they go on bleating about fucking free will! You can't have both, choose one! Not to say that the non-theist understanding is random chance; it's not random that certain creatures evolved. There was no coin flip, no dice roll. It was a survival of traits, which is explicitly not random. /rant.

The number of empty or false assertions per minute that people like Prager can achieve is always impressive.

"I have no more meaning than a pebble" is the first honest thing I've ever heard him say.

I just finished reading The Human Predicament by David Benatar... a rather grim but necessary read in which he tackles the meaning question. I'm just about to tackle The Malevolent Designer by Rosa Rubicondior, another grim but necessary read. I might have to read something light and airy after these two...

Ooh I love this line of argument that theists use! Always a fun one to debate.

Just got my copy of "Debunked" today. Thanks, love it. Can't wait to give it a go with some friends.

10:35 I love that little look as he talks, when he realized he had just explained to himself that this feeling of his, that "God has given human beings supreme meaning", is an invention that humans have invented because they want to feel important

This video is one I'm saving for future reference. The Euthrypo dilemma is one of the most fascinating ideas I've encountered. I'll need to go back & view that portion again. It's just now beginning to make sense. Thanks, mates!

Loved the dialog between the two of you. Very thought-provoking stuff.

This is such a great series with the two of you - please keep going!

I LOVE this video, the 2 of you work or "play" so well together and off of each others ideas, it was great to see. It's refreshing to see you debunk all these arguments in a considerate manner with actual FACTUAL arguments, and don't just take the theistic approach and say "First you have to believe there is a God, before you can understand my arguments," when it's their arguments that are supposed to be what makes you believe. I would have to disagree though, I do think a meaningless God or any person COULD create something meaningful, BUT they themselves would NOT be the ones applying that meaning, those that see/use that creation in some way are the ones that have applied meaning to it. If a person created a wheel and had no need, reason, or purpose for it then it is meaningless to them, but a traveling merchant comes along sees it and uses it to move their heavy cart full of goods easier and faster, that creation now has meaning to that merchant. ONLY EACH person can assign meaning to something and ONLY for themselves. As Prager himself says, people can make up meaning and purpose, what makes him believe that HUMANS didn't make up God and religion to fulfill their desire for meaning and purpose? The way he states things with absolution, I don't know if he's trying to get me to believe or trying to make himself believe, maybe both, if he believed with absolution, why would he argue/debate with others if he wasn't still questioning his belief too? When 2 people argue both believe they are right and each of them argues/debates to prove to the other person and to themselves that they are right, so I would say Prager arguing/debating God and religion is him trying to prove to himself he is right, which means he doesn't have absolution in his own belief. Good and bad are just like meaning and purpose, only each person can decide for themselves what is good or bad, I think killing is bad, but to a psychopath it's good.

You guys are killing it! Great job 👌

Whether there is a god would be an important question, if we had any reason to believe there might be one. But as it is it is about as important as whether or not there is an invisible pink dragon in my garage.

"I make my money from donations, bribes and gifts from my believers..sooo if god does not exist..I can't buy bread" -cult leader somewhere.

Interesting video guys, enjoyed it while tackling HQ missions.🧠🌎💚

Life does not have an ultimate purpose... Big freaking deal.

This is one of the most frustrating arguments from theists in my opinion. I don't like other people assuming I can't enjoy my friends family, hobbies and interests just because I don't believe in their particular god(s). I also have no purpose or meaning and and neither do those I love. Nothing about my life could be made better or my enjoyable by a belief in a god. In fact, if Pragers version of god exists, my life would be a lot worse. I would need to hide my sexuality and give up many of the things that give me enjoyment and fulfilment. I wouldn't be able to find a partner who I can truly connect with and would be forced to marry simply to have children and teach them about god. In my eyes, the meaning of life is to simply seize the day and make the most of every opportunity. To make deep connections with others and do everything humanly possible to further myself and everyone else.

Why does life have to have meaning? The argument that God has to exist to give life meaning is only plausible if it can be demonstrated that life must have meaning, and only God can give it meaning.

Even if life is meaningless if God doesn't exist, it is not an argument for God existing. Such a childish way of reasoning.

Is no one going to comment on how Prager said that we are no more special than a pebble on the face of Jupiter, a gas giant without a surface? Big brain time.

Brilliant, both of you! Well done.

PBS SpaceTime answers the question: "Why is there something rather than nothing" with the scientifically correct "We don't know but we have found this oddity with the weak force, the weak force is not CP symmetric". And Dennis Prager is perhaps the most dishonest apologetic out there.

You know what else we invent so as we don't go crazy figuring out if we have purpose? We invent gods.

Nice Job with the more frequent uploads. Without losing in quality I might add.

His life would certainly be more useless than it is now. He’d have no one to con

"High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments." Christopher Hitchens

Meaning is both the simplest and most complex thing. In my opinion, I get meaning in life for just trying to be happy and make others happy and do what I think is right and live my life the best that I can really. That is good enough for me. I don’t care that after I die, I stay dead. That’s just how things work. I have no reason to believe otherwise.

The most important question we can ask or answer is: 'How can we make things better for everybody?'

I've always thought this was a silly concept, especially when you think about it this way. Let's say we live in a godless world. All those theists who lived with purpose did so without a god. They were able to invent purpose and attribute it to something even though it isn't there and they were able to go on living just fine.

We crave meaning but I fail to see how a god enters into that. He's presupposing god and just making a arbitrary connection between finding meaning and that god. It kinda blows my mind that we are still discussing something that should be relegated to fiction at this point. There are no compelling arguments that would suggest that we were created by god(s), and i'm just tired of hearing trite mental gymnastics that theists engage in to cope with cognitive dissonance.

You forgot the link to that history channel of your co-host. Where is it, it’s not in the description? (I failed to find it) This was a great discussion, loved the concluding thoughts!

I greatly enjoyed this talk and learned from it. Thank you both!

A Norwegian friend of mine is adamant that he met Odin in the forest of his home country when he was a teenager. It would be much cooler if pagan religions were true !

While I love the work you do Steve. For me the content with reese is the real highlight. For most content i really have to be in the mood as it's often quite complicated material. And while the same is true for this you guys bounce of each other quite well, both making the material easier to understand and adding a bit of comedy value. I really love it!

I've lived in Holland my whole life. It's about as atheistic as can be (at least, in the places I grew up in). Religion was just a thing some old people did. Nobody really cared about God, other than poking fun of how nonsensical it was. What Dennis Prager casually tells here would make him the town's fool. And when he said "without god, murder isn't wrong", he would outright be labeled a disturbing individual the authorities need to keep an eye on. It's genuinely shocking to me to see a man like him being where he is and that these opinions aren't uncommon either. What a culture shock

If you mean something to someone else, you have succeeded. That's all the meaning you need. The rest is a bonus. So much to learn, so little time. Don't waste it following dogma .

If God doesn't have his own God to pray to and serve, his existence must be meaningless. And if God's God doesn't have his own God, his existence must be meaningless. And so on...

Dennis Prager makes CS Lewis look like an absolute genius.

Well, the purpose of my life is making "life" a good "place" to live in (for me and the people I care). And what's good and what's not is discussable.

Excellent video. I will definitely check Rhys's (or Reese's) channel - couldn't find the correct spelling on this link, KZfaq appear to be deliberately making it harder to find anything worthwhile.

Actually life is meaningless without potato crisps and onion dip, but carry on, Denny Pragey…

Why does our existence require meaning? It's just something we have come up with because we like to have meaning and structure around our lives so we impose that on the universe. Would love there to be a God who fulfils all our wishes after death and grants us an eternity of bliss but I'm not counting on it.

This was brilliant. My only rejection is the notion that morality could have an external source that in some way permeates our being. For me to accept that I would need clarification as to what form that external influence takes as its arguably not dissimilar to the Notion of a God.

About the segment on murder/killing, the first code of laws that we have any records of are those of a Sumerian king of Ur known as Ur-namma who ruled from 2112 BCE to 2095 BCE. It clearly states: "1. If a man commits a homicide, they shall kill that man." There you have it. A text saying killing is wrong. Fully three centuries before judaism and two thousand years before Christianity. So there. The self-centered narcissism of Christians can be mindblowing at times.

If there is a perfect god, then humans are meaningless because nothing can add to god's perfection. God can't even have a motivation to create anything outside of himself because motivation comes from things you don't have and god is complete and perfect according to theists. Basically the fact that humans exist proves that god does not.

Life is meaningless at the start of life!! That's why YOU MUST make your own life meaningful. YOU MAKE LIFE MEANINGFUL, otherwise it is meaningless.

Ffs everytime I blink the background change patterns, the triangles get visible, and then the other geometric figure becomes visible.

Steve always manages to say fart in the wind when I'm eating 🤦‍♂️😂

If, as Prager says, one can be good without God, why do we need God for morality?

Rationality Rules, Steve and Reece, I love you guys together! And I got my DEBUNKED, just no one to play. I can't stand dennis and his misinformation laden fake university. But, I remember him with that same repetition, 'it's all made up!' And Hitch answering, in his charming, (like you guys!) way, "well dennis, I'm glad you finally get it! It's all made up!" And prager was so mad , red-faced! I believe it also had dinesh souza, lol. Old liverlips dennis is just terrified of death. That, I believe is the basis for all 'afterlife' claims. And I get it, I wanted all my pets back. Even some of my family and friends, lol. But knowing, as I feel I do, that there is no consciousness, is also comforting. Especially once we're old and have lost all our 'hotness' lol! These are GREAT! I'm so bummed I couldn't go to Faithless Forum! Only 2 states away, in AZ, too. 👍💝🥰✌

For me the question is 'What is it I want to do with my life, what do I want to accomplish?. Whether there is a god or not is not relevant to me, as to what is moral, I follow these two sayings: 1. To Live my Life as I see fit, harming no one and wishing harm to no one. 2. The Treatise on Morality by Scott Clifton - you can find this on KZfaq.

As an atheist, i have sympathy with Prager. Deciding whether there is a God or not is immensely important. At the moment science's best theory is that the Universe will end in chaotic, cold dust. So, ultimately, there is no meaning. This is explored in the Gospel according to Woody Allen: Mrs. Singer: He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he can't do anything. Dr. Flicker: Why are you depressed, Alvy? Mrs. Singer: Tell Dr. Flicker. It's something he read. Dr. Flicker: Something you read, huh? Alvy Singer: The universe is expanding. Dr. Flicker: The universe is expanding? Alvy Singer: Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, someday it will break apart, and that will be the end of everything. Mrs. Singer: What is that your business? He's stopped doing his homework. Alvy Singer: What's the point? Mrs. Singer: What has the universe got to do with it. You're here, in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding. Dr. Flicker: It won't be expanding for billions of years yet, Alvy. And we've gotta try and enjoy ourselves while we're here. Huh? Huh? Huh? [laughs]

These guys are so smart and so silly at the same time.. iam actually impressed

Dennis prager: let’s be intellectually honest Also DP: life has no purpose without my sky daddy How are these people not embarrassed to live to THIS OLD while still arguing like literal children

Remember guys, if the really cool and strong sky daddy doesn't exist and thinks you're awesome, life apparently isn't worth living. What a sad and empty way to view one's existence.

You are correct that non-believers have _naturalist,_ rather than _theologic,_ views about human existence. I will add that I, personally, can get "spiritual" looking at the Cosmos on a dark and clear night, without invoking a diety. Belittling the only KNOWN life that humanity has here and now, and not acting to prevent suffering and injustice in the world is NOT a good thing. As for "Christian morality", look no further than the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Catholic/Protestant atrocities committed against each other in the Middle Ages. If today's Christians are only reframing from murder, rape, and other crimes owing to their afterlife beliefs, I think that the rest of us need to start worrying about THEM!