Received via e-mail: (author unknown)
A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan . One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU. One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes." The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting." It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him, knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence.
The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, "What in the world is the matter with you? Why did you do that?" The Marine calmly replied, "GOD was too busy today protecting America 's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me." The classroom erupted in cheers.
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15 hours ago
14 comments:
Love the story! Score one for the marines--okay, score two.
I like that.
***awesome***
Did you know Richard Dawkins admits he's less than 100% sure God does not exist? I wonder how many rabbis, or even frum people, would admit they're less than 100% certain God does exist. Maybe it's not us who are in denial.
Another one of those silly apocryphal stories the religious right loves to spread around. I may not be an atheist myself, but I respect intellectually honest atheists. This story sets up an unlikely scenario, where the atheist is some arrogant professor (notice the cliche of the "godless" academic) and a jerk of a soldier who's somehow presented as a hero. It also presents a false picture of soldiers fighting for America as placing their faith in God, and some professor in his cozy ivory tower as the cowardly atheist. You think there aren't plenty of atheistic soldiers? This story is nothing but a made-up piece of feel-good nonsense for the religious right.
Wonderful!
To OTD-
I don't think that there's any way to be 100% certain. It's a matter of interpreting what you see and experience in a way that makes sense to you. Religious people (of all religions) interpret the world as being full of proof that God does indeed exist; atheists view the same phenomena as proof that God does not exist. It's a matter of faith and belief, not of reason.
To DYS-
The story is obviously fictional. It never even occurred to me that it could be viewed as factual.
When I showed this story to my daughter, she said "That professor is a jerk because he was trying to make the students in his class feel like idiots for believing in God. Why can't he just believe what he wants and let them believe what they want?" I think that she got the point of the story exactly.
Right. Because kiruv people are OK about letting people believe whatever they want. Tolerance. And that also explains why atheists are some of the most despised people in America, despite being very poorly represented (unlike the Jewish community).
Garnel just called people who don't believe in God's revealed word to Moses Holocaust deniers. Because religious people are just so respectful!
OTD is correct; frum people are hardly in a position to claim the high ground of tolerance: http://forward.com/articles/119509/
I don't even see this as an atheist/believe in God story. I see a professor using his position to put down students' beliefs. And a marine who has a far more important job than the obnoxious professor putting the professor in his place.
There's been a bunch of stories floating around lately. A few weeks ago on Facebook, a friend posted a video about an atheist philosophy professor saying that if God existed, the chalk he dropped wouldn't hit the floor. When it rolled down his pant leg it was proof of God's existence. Well, it was a lot more evangelical and suspenseful than that.
I remember I cut it down for numerous reasons - the story said the prof had done the same activity for years so probably says the chalk is bound to not hit the floor eventually. Also, philosophy professor don't tend to teach objectivism and are actually a bit more open to diversity of opinions. Some Christian friends responded to me by saying, "Well, the video made you think and that's what matters. It proves there's God." So not matter what you say, the myth continues.
Reads like a Reader's Digest annecdote.
Cute (but obviously fictional)
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