I don't know if this was actually said by Ben Stein but I got this email and decided instead of emailing to everyone I'd just post it here. If you've already heard it, which I'm sure a lot of you have, then just tell me what you think. If you haven't read it take the time to now and again...tell me what you think. Me? I agree wholeheartedly with everything here.
If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.
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This is a comment from Ben Stein
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Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?
I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.
If this is what it means to be no longer young, it's not so bad.
Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"
In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.
~ Nicole
Kids Say the Darnedest Things
10 years ago
Posts
16 Comments:
I've seen this before and I applaud Ben Stein. I don't want this to start a war in blogland but seriously, this is turning into an atheists country. Atheists don't believe in God, therefore Christians should act like he doesn't exist to keep from offending people. If you don't believe that God exists, how can He offend you? Of course, Christians shouldn't shove it down your throat or force you to acknowledge our beliefs but Atheists or whoever it is that keeps getting offended by my Bible and Christmas Tree should stop trying to get US to conform to
THEIR beliefs.
Seperation of church and state is, for the most part, a very good thing. Religion and Politics, in a perfect world, should never be mixed. BUT how is bringing a Bible to school and reading it quietly to yourself during lunch offensive but the kid who blares filthy music and swears at teachers is just "exercising his right to free speech"?
If you are so convinced that He isn't real, why are you fighing back so hard?
You can't fight with or be offended by something that doesn't exist, right?
I have so many things to say on this subject, its not even funny. I am proud to be a Christian and I wish people would remember that this country was founded by people wishing to be free to practice their religion without consequence. Why have things changed so much?
I guess, before I get barraged with all sorts of harrassing remarks and comments, I should clarify that I didn't to offend anyone, I'm just "exercising my Constitutional rights".
I completely agree with everything you said, Charmed...completely agree! I couldn't have said it better myself.
Christianity does believe that one day everyone exclude God out of everything. The coming of Revelations.
"If we ever forget tha we're One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under." ~Ronald Reagan
The atheists will try to do anything in their power to take away God from our schools and other public societies. But the question is, if they don't believe, then why make such a fuss?
In any event, celebrities are looked at as more of a "GOD" than our own creator. Sad. We have nothing better to do than to gawk at these celebrities and watch their every move.
I totally agree with Ben Stein. It shows that he is secure in his belief as a Jew. I also applaud him!
Thanks for this post!
Given that so many people are religious, I agree with the point made by film aficionado: atheists seem to get pushed around a lot. And not just atheists, but people who are agnostic or have alternative religions. It's easy for Ben to not get pissed off about the manger scene when there is a manorah display as well, but in many places there is not such parity.
I don't think bringing a bible to school and quietly reading it is the objection that most people have to prayer in school. It's when it is required by students and taught to them as the thing they should believe. Just as evolution shouldn't be the only theory taught in science classrooms, prayer and religion should not dominate.
I don't think we should ignore experts. I don't think that by stopping spanking children, we've led to a more violent and angry youth. The finger of blame may not lie with parents or with video games or with violence in movies or the Internet. It's probably much more complicated than that.
Why not attribute the massive impact of Katrina to global warming or the inability of the government to recognize the gravity of the coming hurricane and evacuate people? To each his own, but there seems to be a lot of blame going to people who reject God, when people have been rejecting God for ages. And the people in New Orleans were not all atheists. Why didn't the disaster land on the heads of the gays and atheists in New York?
I'm not trying to be rude. I'm just trying to criticize. This email uses a lot of finger-pointing and bases its arguments on evidence that is vague. ("I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare complained..." isn't very exact, is it? Can I get a date? Did terrorism start that year? What about the tragedies in WWII, the bloodshed in the Russian revolution?)
I was born and raised in a Christian home and now as an adult with my own family I've chosen that for me and my family as well. And I am sick and tiered of being judged and criticized at every turn because of it.
If you don't believe in any God then that's fine, nobody says anything to you. You might get a debate but what's wrong with that? I love a good debate and if you stand firm in what you believe it shouldn't be a problem.
Where my problem comes in at is whether or not bringing my Bible into school and reading it privately is the "real" issue or not it is prohibited. Where are my free rights? You can bring in magazines with trash in them but I can't read my Bible?
A work place can play secular music singing about sex, sometimes drugs, and cussing and I can't play Christian music cause it might offend others? Well what if your secular music offends me? To be honest some secular music does offend me but a lot doesn't it's just the fact.
So no I don't think atheists have the short end of the stick. Why just cause you don't think there is a God do I have to pretend he doesn't exist for me? There seem to be rights for everyone but the person that believes in God.
And the Dr. Spock thing? Well there is a big differance between BEATING your kids and giving them a beating. You know? Beat the crap outta your kids and I'll be the first one to call the cops on you but if my kids are misbehaving and I think they deserve a swat on the but or a pop in the mouth...that is my decision as a parent. And I don't give a crap if I'm in my home or in the grocery store. I think every parent has their own ways of disapline and what works for their kids. The problems start when parents just don't disapline at all.
I by no means am a political person I probably know next to nothing about anything in relation. I don't do news often. So if you ask me about it I know zip. BUT I do know that if our President decides he wants to pray it's his prerogative and nobody should have a say in it at all.
And whether things have happened in our Country because people have turned their backs on God? Well that's up for debate and everyone will have their own opinion there is no black and white answer to why things always happen. My personal opinion, is yes it has something to do with it. But then again I'm only one person.
And food for thought....if someone doesn't believe their is a God at all why do they get so up in arms about Christians? I mean don't you think they look kind of dumb fighting so hard against something that to them is nonexistent? Hmmm, imaginary friends maybe? lol.
TAB ~ You say that evolution shouldn't be the only thing taught in school? I agree. Unfortunately, my Freshman biology class was required (as our final) to write a paper on evolution. My cousin and I wrote papers on creation instead because I'm not going to write a paper about something I don't believe in. Technically, yes, the paper was about evolution....just that I didn't believe in it and I wrote out my points on why I didn't believe in evolution and why I believe in creation. We were supposed to read these reports out loud. My cousin and I, once the teacher found out that we wrote on creation, refused to let us give our presentation and failed us for not doing the given assignment. "It is a school board mandated assignment and isn't up for debate."
Real fair huh?
ALSO. People are very tolerant of other religions, just not Christians. If you are Muslim and its against your religion to wear the required gym uniform (shorts and tshirt) that's fine. Wear sweats and sweatshirt. You need a room to pray in when there is a required prayer time during school hours for your religion? No problem. BUT if you refuse to read a book or watch a movie in class because of its graphic content that goes against your beliefs and/or offends you (which I never had the guts to do, but another kid did) you get suspended for refusing to do the required work.
Where, may I ask, is the fairness in that?
I can honestly say that I do not hate any person who chooses to practice a different religion, or even none at all, from mine. Do I feel sorry for you? Yes. Hate you? No way. My Lord teaches compassion, tolerance, understanding and love.
When I can't even say Merry Christmas to a clerk at the store and they can't say it back to me, that is unfair. To Christians, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth. To non-christians its a time to drink, party, give presents and/or hang out with Santa (PLEASE NOTE: I AM NOT IMPLYING THAT ALL NON-CHRISTIANS ARE PARTY PEOPLE). Regardless of why you celebrate it, you still do, so its STILL Christmas. So why not say Merry Christmas? When you wake your kids up on Christmas morning do you say "ITS HOLIDAY MORNING, WAKE UP!"? Yeah. I didn't think so.
I have soooo much more to say on this subject but I'm starting to feel like I'm not even making a point. Just rambling. I have WAY too much to say for this little box. So I'll blog about it on the a-sap.
(Jazz, you crack me up and I can't get Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends out of my head now!!)
CSR,
I know I had myself rolling with that! lol.
And it annoyes me to no end when I hear things like that happening in public schools. I never experianced that since I went to a Christian school. But my kids will be in public so I'm sure I'll be all in it soon enough.
AF,
You said that the Constitution says that there should be a separation between church and state. When in fact it does not say that.
The separation between Church and State was first referanced to by Thomas Jefferson and it was in a letter. And what he said was a wall of separation, there is a differance.
Thomas Jefferson also happend to be the man that insisted Congress be open with prayer.
I don't think atheists get left alone... take this post as an example. I'm not an atheist, either. I don't think it's fair that you can't read the bible when you want to or listen to Christian music. I also don't think people should be fed only one way of thinking. I know plenty of religious people who try to force their religion on other people. And atheists who try to convince religious people that there's no God. Still, not all atheists are snooty, and not all religious people are snooty. But it gets pretty hard to respond to people scoffing and saying "So what do you believe in?" when you don't have a specific phrase in the bible to explain your beliefs or you are struggling with your definition.
Just as people should be able to listen to whatever music they please, they should (within reason) be able to discipline their children as they please. At the moment, I'm not for spanking children. And I do think that discipline is important; my comment was about the relationship between hitting a child and adolescent violence, and not the necessity of discipline. I doubt parents simply stopped disciplining their children as a result of Dr. Spock... my point was that it's probably a lot more complex than the email suggests and we can't point to any one thing as a cause.
As for the fight against God, I don't think that's what is going on with the majority of people. Atheists aren't fighting a ghost. I think agnostics, atheists, and others are fighting against the same types of guidelines that outrage you: rules that require religion to be present or completely excluded. I agree that you should be able to bring your religion into a classroom debate or read the bible when it pleases you. I also believe that any single dominant religious view should not be a mandatory part of public life.
Would it bother you, Charm School, to write a paper on evolution if during the course of the class it was presented as a theory (not a fact) and other theories were also offered? I'm not sure if the difference is important, but... If I were taking a course on Christianity, I wouldn't be angry if I was forced to write an essay on Genesis. It's part of being a student to be able to explain a theory.
The problem is that I don't (think I) disagree with you (either of you) and yet it comes off as though I do. I respect your opinions; I just don't think people who disagree with them should be laughed at. We should all be allowed the "to each their own" in daily life.
It wouldn't bother me to write a paper if evolution were taught in theory and they offered other theories. Like you said, I don't think that it should be one or the other. There are so many gray areas in the religious/political/scientific spectrum that to try and force people to apply only one of those theories to an entire project is ridiculous. Had they given us a choice or asked us to write on a variety of theories, I would have had no objection. But I wasn't going to write a paper about a supposed "fact" that I didn't agree with. To me, that would be like saying that I had to write a paper saying that the Holocaust didn't happen, when I know for a fact that it did. I would like to clarify, however, that I wasn't offended by the teaching of evolution in my class. If they want to teach (and believe) that they are the product of an amoeba that grew into a monkey (ie Cro Magnan Man) and onto the current human form, I have no problem with that. I was offended because I was not allowed my Constitutional right of "freedom of speech" and allowed to give my view on the subject.
To a point, I think that we all should be allowed a "to each their own" attitude. But where do you draw the line? That phrase is too broad. Yes. People should be able to have their own beliefs. It was the whole point of the founding of our nation. Freedom. "....liberty and justice for ALL...." "....all men are created equal...." etc. etc. etc. BUT if you give people too much "freedom" then chaos erupts.
It's almost midnight and I can't even see straight right now so I really don't know why I'm bothering with this right now, when I probably sound like an idiot but oh well.
Also, I do not go around screaming at people that they will burn in Hell if they don't believe in the Lord. I do go on visitation with my Church to give people the opportunity to hear about God's word. If they choose not to accept it, that is fine. If I don't make an effort to spread his word, all of those people's blood will be on my hands when I face my Father in Heaven (per my beliefs).
If people ask me a question that I don't know the answer to off the top of my head, I refer to my Bible or I ask them if I can have time to get the answer to their question. No one knows the Bible front to back and no one knows the answer to every question. Sure, there are things that I myself still don't understand but you can't pick and choose what you believe. Faith is an all or nothing deal.
I agree with you that if you ARE going to be so ignorant as to get in people's faces about your beliefs, you should know your Bible inside and out so you don't make a fool of yourself.
I am not trying to be argumentive or say that anyone on here is wrong for what they believe. I am just going (for the most part) on the situations and people that I encounter in my everyday life. I know that not all atheists are bad. The majority of my friends have no religious affiliation. But they know where I stand and we do talk about religion, etc. from time to time. They know how I feel. I know how they feel. And we're all okay with that.
Now. I'm gonna go vent for a while about other issues and try to sleep.
Charm,
Did you know that Dylan (Rowena) is Mormon? Jazz and I are Christians. Daphne and Isabel are Catholics. All different, but here we are, very close friends.
I don't think the point of the email message was that EVERYTHING BAD IN THE WORLD IS BECAUSE YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD! It's not. The point of the email, IMO, is that yes, we're different. Each and every one of us. We're unique. That's one of the things that makes us so wonderful, as humans. If everyone believed the same thing, or if we all agreed on everything, life would be pretty boring, right?
But anyway, I see the point of the email being that we need to co-exist better with each other. I can respect that there are people in the world that don't believe in God. It's not the choice I would make for them, or that I've made myself, but I still respect that we were offered Free Will. We choose what we choose.
It's funny, but I didn't even hear about evolution until I was in 8th grade and had my first science class. It was the craziest thing I'd ever heard. We evolved from Monkeys? Whoa! That threw me for a loop. But I listened still, and studied the material as it was presented, and then I asked my teacher, "Why? Why is it easier to believe we came from Monkeys, or that there was a Big Bang in the universe and we were the result, that to believe we were all created equal by God?" and he didn't have an answer.
I think it's ok to have choices. It's ok to think outside the box, and ask questions. What's wrong, is expecting me to not pray while I'm in school, or for me to have to tell my 7 year old son that he can't bring his bible to school to read in his after school program. That's not right.
Our country was founded by men and women who wanted the freedom to decide for themselves. How are we going to have that freedom if we aren't allowed to discuss God? If I can't bring him up, or listen to music about Him, or read His book, then how are other people supposed to hear about him?
I guess it all comes down to this:
We've been blessed enough to live in a country where we have Freedom. Freedom to practice what religion we want. Freedom to say what's on our mind. Freedom to just be. Why can't those same Freedoms apply to me? Yes, I believe in God. Yes, I believe in Creation. Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ. Why do I have to be punished for it? Why am I not allowed to pray in school, or listen to music at work, or any number of other things.
I respect that because you don't believe, you want the freedom to not hear me pray, or not have me read His book to you. Ok, but why am I not allowed to bring it to school, to read on my own? That's the point. We aren't allowed, but you are. That isn't wasn't the point of the constitution.
Go on girl! Couldn't have said it better if I tried!
Holly, I think I just fell in love with you......
I think I remember reading somewhere, somehow that Dylan is Morman. You're right. We rock!
Regarding the big bang theory? My pastor's mom has a bumber sticker the says this: I believe in the Big Bang Theory. God spoke and BANG! It happened! haha I love it.
Holly, I think I just fell in love with you......
I think I remember reading somewhere, somehow that Dylan is Morman. You're right. We rock!
Regarding the big bang theory? My pastor's mom has a bumber sticker the says this: I believe in the Big Bang Theory. God spoke and BANG! It happened! haha I love it.
LOL! I like that. I'm going to have to remember that for later.
You've never heard that before Holly? I've seen it on bumpers before. I think it's great.
No, I never had. I don't really read bumper stickers. LOL
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