Fireside Chat with Dennis Prager | PragerU
Aug 18, 2026 · 37 min · 11 segments
While speaking with PragerU CEO Marissa Streit, Dennis Prager opens with a monologue exploring whether thoughts are the same as actions, arguing that moral clarity requires distinguishing between the…
Dennis PragerGuest
Marissa StreitHost
So I, I'm gonna begin with what I love to talk about, the great issues of life, like I did on my radio show with the Ultimate Issues Hour.
But I wanna talk about a very, a complex question that I, I think needs clarification, and that is the question of sinful or even evil thoughts.
But are evil thoughts evil? Are sinful thoughts sins? Or is sin and evil overwhelmingly relegated to what a person does? So for many people, especially Christians, the thought process is, is an area of, of sin and even evil.
And generally, it's based on citing Jesus in Matthew, where he says essentially, "Whoever looks upon another woman," that is someone he's not married to, and he's presumably married, "with, uh, with lustful-- with lust or lustful thoughts, it is as if he has committed adultery with his heart." So let me first say how I understand that statement of Jesus.
The fact that he added the word, the words "with his heart" means that he himself has strongly distinguished between the act of adultery and lustful thoughts.
Otherwise, he just would have said, "Whoever lusts after another woman has committed adultery." But he did not say that.
He said, "with his heart." That's not the same thing, neither to Jesus nor to us.
As anyone who has heard me over time knows, I'm very real, and I believe in looking at life with, with real eyes, not with rose-colored glasses.
Men are turned on by, uh, by attractive women and, and especially by the visual, much more than women.
Women are turned on by men's minds, by men's income, by men's status, by men's charm, and to a certain extent, obviously, by how they look, but it's incomparably less than, than men.
So if a man has that reaction, and you can't just say, "Oh, you're on a beach, and you see a good-looking woman in a bikini, and you say, 'Oh, how attractive.'" That's not what is in a man's mind.
What I think that Jesus meant is, do you go home still thinking lustfully of that woman? Does it take you over? That's not good.
So I, I'm gonna begin with what I love to talk about, the great issues of life, like I did on my radio show with the Ultimate Issues Hour.
But I wanna talk about a very, a complex question that I, I think needs clarification, and that is the question of sinful or even evil thoughts.
But are evil thoughts evil? Are sinful thoughts sins? Or is sin and evil overwhelmingly relegated to what a person does? So for many people, especially Christians, the thought process is, is an area of, of sin and even evil.
And generally, it's based on citing Jesus in Matthew, where he says essentially, "Whoever looks upon another woman," that is someone he's not married to, and he's presumably married, "with, uh, with lustful-- with lust or lustful thoughts, it is as if he has committed adultery with his heart." So let me first say how I understand that statement of Jesus.
The fact that he added the word, the words "with his heart" means that he himself has strongly distinguished between the act of adultery and lustful thoughts.
Otherwise, he just would have said, "Whoever lusts after another woman has committed adultery." But he did not say that.
He said, "with his heart." That's not the same thing, neither to Jesus nor to us.
As anyone who has heard me over time knows, I'm very real, and I believe in looking at life with, with real eyes, not with rose-colored glasses.
Men are turned on by, uh, by attractive women and, and especially by the visual, much more than women.
Women are turned on by men's minds, by men's income, by men's status, by men's charm, and to a certain extent, obviously, by how they look, but it's incomparably less than, than men.
So if a man has that reaction, and you can't just say, "Oh, you're on a beach, and you see a good-looking woman in a bikini, and you say, 'Oh, how attractive.'" That's not what is in a man's mind.
What I think that Jesus meant is, do you go home still thinking lustfully of that woman? Does it take you over? That's not good.
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