Ive listened to Dennis Prager in Los Angeles for more than twenty years, ever sin ce his weekend

evening Religion on the Line shows on KABC. Id always respected hi s seeming willingness to give serious consideration to opposing viewpoints, sinc e that trait is rare among all people, but especially rare among the religious. Prager, who has adopted the motto clarity before agreement, was not afraid to enga ge in a public debate with Sam Harris, and not only featured the author of Break ing Up With God on his Ultimate Issues Hour, but reprised that broadcast a few m onths later as a Best Of show, even though (in my opinion) he was bested by both a theists. Surely, I thought, he was more committed to truth than to polemics. While that may well be the case, I now have reasons to believe that he doesnt alw ays honor that commitment. My doubts began when I started actually calling his show to discuss various topi cs of interest. On numerous occasions I made my point, heard his counterpoint, and was twenty seconds into reciting my rebuttal when I realized that I was talk ing to empty air. He usually gives himself the last word this way, and thus lend s strength to even his weakest arguments. The tactic leaves the impression that the caller was gobsmacked into stunned silence by the brilliance of Mr. Pragers r hetoric, when in fact the silence is entirely due to Mr. Pragers real-time editin g. Still, its his show, and as he says, radio time is as scarce as parking New York City. If he wants to ramble on for fifteen minutes about cigars ntain pens rather than spending the time discussing whether Noahs flood or whether atheists or theists have the most compelling myths about the of the universe, its all entertainment and its his audience. space in and fou was moral origin

Yesterday his show featured an extended soliloquy about the wisdom of following the heart versus the wisdom of following God. As an atheist, I believe we all fo llow our hearts when deciding whats right and whats wrong, even when theists like Dennis Prager claim the contrary. When Dennis followed up the show with a Prageri sms quote on Twitter that said No God, no wisdom because the substitute for God is the heart which has no w isdom I replied (also on Twitter) The heart wisely ignores the Lord your God when reading Leviticus 20:13, and s ubstitutes its innate wisdom Shortly after that, my Twitter account was suspended. The reason it was suspende d is that Dennis Prager complained that he didnt want me addressing such replies to him. My reason for doing so had been to highlight that the heart knows its evil to kill people for engaging in consensual sex with the wrong sort of freely cons enting adult (as Leviticus 20:13 demands), and that in this matter at least the wisdom of the heart is superior to the wisdom of God as its presented in Dennis P ragers authoritative reference book. Rather than engage, or offer a rebuttal, Mr. Prager simply tried to shut me up and shut me down. Its difficult to express how disappointing it is when someone for whom Ive had so much respect for so long reveals that he too has feet of clay (see Daniel 2:31-4 3). It was a simple matter to get my Twitter account restored, just as its trivial to continue to follow @DennisPrager even though Ive officially been blocked. But I ha ve decided that, rather than engage in a battle of slogans and bumper stickers o n Twitter, or on Mr. Pragers radio show where he can call the shots, I would pref er to make clear and complete arguments which accept commentary from anyone. Unl

ike (apparently) Mr. Prager, I really do believe that clarity is more important than winning an argument. I would rather leave my opponents (and neutral bystan ders) unconvinced than win their approval by bogus arguments which permit no rep ly. So here I am, and here we go.