Let's Pick Out The Lies - Part 2

This is part two of a forwarded email I received the other day. Part One is here.

The rest of this email was all added on sometime in 2006. It was NOT said by Ben Stein. This kind of stuff drives me crazy. People forward emails because they blindly believe what is being sent. They just accept that it's all true and important, so they send it to me, and you, whether we like it or not. I really can't stand spam when it comes from someone I know.

Anyhoo, the following is a combination of older items about a TV appearance of Anne Graham Lotz (Billy Graham's daughter) made just after 9-11 and the false claim that child care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock's son committed suicide.

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.

Talking about an invisible man in the sky does not really require thinking. It is blindly believing in fairy tales, but I digress.

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?'

Extremely profound and insightful? I see it more like anthropomorphizing a mythical being in the sky to react with human emotions and behaviors. I'll go back to my thought yesterday regarding god in our schools and government. He was never invited in the first place. This country was built on religious freedom.

And I am sure god isn't deeply saddened (a human emotion, not very godlike), since there is no evidence to suggest that any god exists at all.

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 a few years ago) 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.

Again, very simply, the bible or any religous text was never supposed to be in a public school. Prayer does not belong in school. Read the Constitution, study early American history, read the Bill of Rights.


The bible also condones slavery. You're cherry picking what you want to believe out of a book written in the Iron Age. And nothing started with O'Hare's murder. Humans have been killing each other for thousands and thousands of years. Naming an arbitrary crime as a starting place is absurd.

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.

According to Snopes, Dr. Spock's son didn't kill himself. So this is an outright lie. Yes, an expert should know what he (or she) is talking about. Not all experts are created equal. Not all research is created equal. If you really want to take responsibility for raising your kids, learn all you can. Don't rely on one supposed sensationalized expert.

The writer of this nonsense isn't an expert himself, of course. He is simply quoting whatever suits his needs to get an emotional response from you the reader.

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.'

I will agree with you that we do reap what we sow. Bad and lazy parenting over several generations has created children and young adults with very little sense of responsibility. What the writer is doing is laying blame on Dr. Spock, schools and the government for society's bad parenting. YOU, The PARENT, have to take responsibility. It's a huge life-long job to raise a happy, healthy productive member of society. You can't blame that on everyone else. You have to take on that job yourself if you make a baby. People don't do that today. They expect everyone else to do all of the work.

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 yet?

No, I'm not laughing. This email isn't based on any kind of sense. I'm an atheist. I am kind to people. I don't kill, I don't steal, I don't even cheat on my husband. Funny how most atheists are good people. (In my opinion, I know a lot of atheists, and they are all good people). Religious people can't understand that. But I'm a good person just because it's the right thing to do. Not because I'm scared of burning in hell. I don't need to be scared into being good. On the other hand, many religious people commit horrible acts of "sin". (again, this is my personal experience with religious folks). Why do they do it when I don't? Fascinating, huh?

You're suggesting here that you can't question the bible. I say you must question what newspapers and news shows and EVERYONE says. You must question what is said to you. Because it's another human saying it or writing it, and people make mistakes. People lie. People are greedy and power-hungry and money-hungry.

This email isn't about a "public discussion". It's about manipulating information to suit your message. "Don't think for yourself, just do what the bible says", even though the bible was written over 2,000 years ago and has been edited and changed and warped and interpreted thousands of times. It's just a book. Not a very nice book if you would actually read the whole thing. And god isn't a very nice god in there, either.

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.

My Best Regards,  Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

Again, Ben Stein didn't write any of this. He wrote the part I posted yesterday. So signing his name here is a LIE. Christians aren't supposed to lie. Hmm... And to make it worse it's signed "honestly and respectfully." Very ironic. Very hypocritical.

I ask you, before you forward any emails, seriously consider what you're sending along. Is it actually factual? Probably not. Go to Snopes to check it out, or some other website to see if you're participating in a campaign to spread lies and bad information.

If you get emails like this, let's bring them into the open and refute them so that they stop getting spread around altogether. Why not reply to the email with some facts and actual information? (although, in my experience, that doesn't really go over well). Or forward it to us at heavingdeadcats@gmail.com and we'll take it apart and shed some light on the lies together.

He is right, though. You don't really have any right to complain if you sit back and do nothing. If you support lies and forward junk to people, you're making things worse, not better. If you do nothing, you're not helping at all. At least question the sender, make them think for just a moment about what they are doing, what they might think about, on their own.

When it comes to talking to your kids, encourage critical thinking, not blind obedience and vapid acceptance of someone else's stale old belief system. Seriously. It's your job as a parent. Take responsibility for helping them to think for themselves. You and society will be glad you did.