An Adult's Response to a child's alleged writing below. I was recently sent an email by someone who obviously is a believer and a Christian. I paste it below my response for your enjoyment.

I hesitated responding to this email. I decided to do so as long as it was sent to me so I could iterate my thoughts.

I do have strong liberal opinions, which I send to my own list and include those thoughts in my blog about the political, social and cultural issues of the day. Some may take issue with what I say and I can accept that. Sometimes I even encourage it. However, I have asked in the past, that those who forward me emails which are imbued with utterly phantasmagorical religious nonsense concerning angels with wings, clouds, rainbows and alleged "proof" of the existence of religious indoctrination, brainwashing and myth, refrain from sending that to me.

I object to this seemingly benign email on the following grounds:

1. I suspect while it may have been a school assignment, that it was written by an adult for a child. I have no proof, of course, that this is so but I personally suspect it is.

2. I am Jewish and while I eschew faith in general I PARTICULARLY dislike anyone sending me references to Jesus. Let me be perfectly clear. I do NOT believe in the divinity of Jesus, I would NEVER believe in Jesus, I never have believed in Jesus and it infuriates me that some make an apriori ignorant assumption that everyone does. Everyone does not. I beg to differ with that less-than-brilliant boy who wrote the letter. Atheists exist EVEN in Chula Vista, California!

3. The third, and perhaps my most vociferous objection is that the boy actually received an assignment like that from a public school. I understand if he attends a religious school which instructed him to write about that but assigning that in a public school should be beyond the parameters of the mandate of our Constitutional church state separation.

Our Founders as much as the extremist radical right loves to deny it were prescient to include "Establishment Clause" in the First Amendment separating church from state because these men of the Enlightenment KNEW how contentious religious belief was AND how lethal and divisive it could be for the state to be involved in or advocating for it. The state should be neutral in these matters.

While I would be thrilled to debate even the undebatable, because proof of god has never existed, does not exist and most probably will never exist, I cannot endure emails that waste my time with the indoctrination of religious myth and folly. Religions have seen man's need for the explanation of creation, suffering, pain, illness, and death to take advantage of many and in the process have made MILLIONS and attained the heights of power. I accept nothing as truth UNLESS science proves it. Religion is NOT science. It is faith. Either one has it, one doubts or one does not have it but it cannot be judged as truth.

I would bet there are thousands in Japan today who would wonder if the two god theory behind what that boy said is true why the two
standing god guards fell asleep. While he is at it I wonder if he could explain why a benevolent all powerful god did not answer the pleas of his doomed six million in Auschwitz. Please save your proselytizing for someone who could believe it. If you want an academic debate I would be glad to hear your point of view. A ludicrous letter, allegedly written by a less-than-genius child is almost insulting and falls on MY adult deaf ears. Save your effort.




CAN YOU FIND A BETTER EXPLANATION????? [MY EDIT: CAN I, REALLY, CAN I?]


Little Boy's Explanation of God -- Fabulous!!!
Out of the mouths of Babes-- [MY EDIT: OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES INDEED!]
"And a Little Child Shall Lead them"

(I certainly don't think an adult could explain this more beautifully!)


THIS IS FABULOUS!!!

It was written by an 8-year-old named, who lives in Chula Vista, CA. He wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to 'explain God.' I wonder if any of us could have done as well? [DO YOU REALLY WONDER ABOUT THAT??? REALLY???]

(And he had such an assignment, in California, and someone published it...I guess miracles do happen!)

EXPLANATION OF GOD: 'One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.'

'God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.'

'God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.'

'Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.'

'Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him. But he was good and kind, like his father, and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.'

'His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.'

'You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.'

'You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God!

Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.'

'If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.'

'But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.

And...that's why I believe in God.'


(If you believe in God, please pass this on, and may God bless you too.) Have an awesome day, and know that someone has thought about you! [SIGH]

"Nuclear Meltdown in Japan" -- an Interesting blog: My relative politically is left of center to put it mildly. I agree with some of what he says BUT not all of it. Today, though, he wrote a piece entitled: "Nuclear Meltdown in Japan." I urge you to read it. We disagree vehemently on other issues but NOT on this one.

I believe he is not being unduly alarmist. To the contrary, in view of the Japanese disaster, the lives of millions are at stake!

The link to his blog is below.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/

The Sage Helen Caldicot--Japan and the Relevance of Science: When I read MSNBC at first light each day the headlines about Japan are worse than the day before: Someone sent me a quote from Helen Caldicott. Wiki states: "Helen Mary Caldicott born 7 August 1938 is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, war and military action in general. She wrote Nuclear Madness (1979), Missile Envy (1984), If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1992 and 2009), A Desperate Passion: An Autobiography (1996) hosts a weekly radio program, If You Love This Planet." How prescient was this scientist who for years, my relative stated, warned in her 1978 book, "Nuclear Madness," and I quote"

As a physician, I contend that nuclear technology threatens life on our planet with extinction. If present trends continue, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink will soon be contaminated with enough radioactive pollutants to pose a potential health hazard far greater than any plague humanity has ever experienced.

One wonders if the intellectually compromised who eschew science and whose attention span is about ten minutes, will FINALLY pay heed. I doubt it but I can hope. If this does not change a right wing extremist's Know Nothing view NOTHING will.