| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"words of truth" |
| Date: |
12 Jan 2006 11:05:10 AM |
| Object: |
Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
http://peerreview.blogs.com/peer_review/2005/12/yes_samantha_th.html
Yes, Samantha, There Is a God
By Richard Wagner
Editor's Note: With apologies to legendary editorial writer Francis P.
Church, of The New York Sun, who wrote the classic "Yes, Virginia,
There Is a Santa Claus" response in 1897 to young letter writer
Virginia O'Hanlon.
Dear Editor:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no God,
because just before Christmas a federal judge banned a Pennsylvania
school district from mentioning "Intelligent Design" in our class. But
the judge said Darwin's theory of evolution is OK to teach. Papa says,
"If you see it in your newspaper's column, it's so." Please tell me the
truth, is there a God? - Samantha O'Hara
Dearest Samantha,
Your little friends - and the judge - are wrong. They have been
misled by cynicism of a cynical age. They put their trust in theories
because they are "scientific." Still, they are mere theories
nonetheless. And yet, amazingly, they turn their backs on faith,
because faith comes from God. They think that nothing can be true
unless it can be comprehended by their little minds. All minds,
Samantha, regardless of whether they are men's or children's, are
little. In this great universe, of which men have managed to explore
only one speck, human beings are mere insects, compared with the
intelligence that designed the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Samantha, there is a God. He exists as surely as love and
generosity and devotion exist. You can prove that existence to
yourself: Does the scientific curiosity you experience upon seeing a
frog's body pickled in formaldehyde match the pulsating thrill you feel
when you follow the boundless adventures of your heart? Alas! How
dreary would be the world if there were no God! There would be no
genuine, steadfast faith. For all faith based on human vanity is as
fleeting as a drop of water on steamy summer day. Likewise, theories,
manufactured by small minds, can evaporate, comparatively in God's
time, in the wink of an eye.
The judge said as much himself. "To be sure, Darwin's theory of
evolution is imperfect," he wrote. "However, the fact that a scientific
theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be
used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis
grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent
well-established scientific propositions." Why, then, is Darwin's
theory to be trusted and God's faith is not? God's continual response
to all of man's drivel has been the same through all the ages. It is
written in the Bible, figuratively, that man, like a dog, has been
chasing his tail around throughout all of his history. May not we
consider what wags the judge?
Not believe in God? You might as well not believe in the beauty of the
human soul. For without it, there could be no faith. There could be no
beauty in a dreary world that gorges itself on scientific theory. It
would be a world devoid of childlike wonder and euphoria. It would be
as dreary as though there were no Samanthas. There could be no magical
warmth of a mother's love or of a father's pride. There could be no
poetry. There could be no romance. There could be no trust and
friendship, for they, too, are based on Godlike faith. All emotion,
that which makes us human, would be suppressed, surely making this
world more barren and frightening than the impenetrable mind of any mad
scientist.
No God? Praise be to Him that he lives and lives forever. A thousands
years from now, Samantha, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will
continue to make glad the heart of childhood-and the truly wisest of
men. For without Him and his faith, there would be no world as we know
it and trust that it remain-for the sake of all future Samanthas.
Richard Wagner is the editor of Carolina Journal.
.
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| User: "Denis Loubet" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 02:46:12 PM |
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"words of truth" <wordsoftruth201@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137085510.705672.135910@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
http://peerreview.blogs.com/peer_review/2005/12/yes_samantha_th.html
Yes, Samantha, There Is a God
By Richard Wagner
Editor's Note: With apologies to legendary editorial writer Francis P.
Church, of The New York Sun, who wrote the classic "Yes, Virginia,
There Is a Santa Claus" response in 1897 to young letter writer
Virginia O'Hanlon.
Dear Editor:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no God,
because just before Christmas a federal judge banned a Pennsylvania
school district from mentioning "Intelligent Design" in our class. But
the judge said Darwin's theory of evolution is OK to teach. Papa says,
"If you see it in your newspaper's column, it's so." Please tell me the
truth, is there a God? - Samantha O'Hara
Thank you for assuring us that ID is merely creationism.
--
Denis Loubet
dloubet@io.com
http://www.io.com/~dloubet
http://www.ashenempires.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 11:18:58 AM |
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"words of truth" <wordsoftruth201@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137085510.705672.135910@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
http://peerreview.blogs.com/peer_review/2005/12/yes_samantha_th.html
Yes, Samantha, There Is a God
By Richard Wagner
<snip emotional plea to accept ignorance>
Richard Wagner is the editor of Carolina Journal.
Not to be confused with the the more interesting Richard Wagner, the
composer...
JR
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| User: "Jericho" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 03:40:49 PM |
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God say's it's okay to lie to children as long as you can use it to
keep them from thinking for themselves. That's what the church is for.
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| User: "Lizz Holmans" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 04:27:45 PM |
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On 12 Jan 2006 13:40:49 -0800, "Jericho" <wasteofcarbon@yahoo.com>
wrote:
God say's it's okay to lie to children as long as you can use it to
keep them from thinking for themselves. That's what the church is for.
Not *my* Meeting, thank thee very much.
Has thee ever been to a Quaker First Day School?
Lizz 'The real crucifixion is keeping those kids quiet for 15 minutes'
Holmans
--
I was too far out all my life
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| User: "Jericho" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 05:01:32 PM |
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Quaker? You mean the oatmeal people? Didn't know they had a first day
school.
Do they have the breaking of the oatmeal cookie afterward?
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| User: "Lizz Holmans" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 06:05:34 PM |
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On 12 Jan 2006 15:01:32 -0800, "Jericho" <wasteofcarbon@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Quaker? You mean the oatmeal people? Didn't know they had a first day
school.
We get not a penny from the oatmeal or the oil, for that matter.
Traditional Friends don't use the 'normal' names for the days of the
week or the months of the year since they were of pagan origin. So we
have First through Twelfth Month, and First Day through Seventh Day,
It all started back in the late 17th-early 18th century.
Most Friends don't bother any longer in a secular environment, but we
do have First Day Meetings and Schools, and thee can even get a
calender marked that way.
Since we are not a wealthy organization (we don't proselytize, so if
we make any money it's pretty much donations from members) and we do
not tithe. Thee gives what thee can, and not always in money.
As the Baptist said when he went to his first Meeting for Worship,
when nothing had been said out loud 'Well, when does the service
start?' An old Quaker smiled and said, when the Meeting is over, then
the service begins.'
Do they have the breaking of the oatmeal cookie afterward?
I know thee is joking, but Quakers do not believe in the so-called
sacraments. No communion, no holy orders, no priesthood, no extreme
unction, no confession, no baptism by water, and marriage is
considered a contract between two people who commit to each other for
life, but not a sacrament.
Lizz 'my Meeting house was eventually abandoned because it was falling
apart, but we sure took care of those boat people' Holmans
Lizz 'They didn't call us the Peculiar People for nothing' Holmans
--
I was too far out all my life
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| User: "Jericho" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
13 Jan 2006 11:49:39 AM |
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My cheeky comment were based on the misplaced idea that you were
'putting me on', as it were. I know little about the Quakers and I
appreciate the information. I've pulled up www.quaker.org and am
reading through it and it seems quite interesting. Not necessarily my
cup of tea, but more open that most religions I've looked at and I can
appreciate that. I meant no offence with anything I've said and
apologize if I have. Anyone who can be serious to me about their
beliefs and not try to force them on me, I can respect.
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| User: "Lizz Holmans" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
13 Jan 2006 06:07:27 PM |
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On 13 Jan 2006 09:49:39 -0800, "Jericho" <wasteofcarbon@yahoo.com>
wrote:
My cheeky comment were based on the misplaced idea that you were
'putting me on', as it were. I know little about the Quakers and I
appreciate the information. I've pulled up www.quaker.org and am
reading through it and it seems quite interesting. Not necessarily my
cup of tea, but more open that most religions I've looked at and I can
appreciate that. I meant no offence with anything I've said and
apologize if I have. Anyone who can be serious to me about their
beliefs and not try to force them on me, I can respect.
Oh, my dear, it takes much more than what you've done to offend me and
thee owes me no apology. Just don't paint with such a broad brush nex
time and we'll call it evens.
Lizz 'a broad, but not very brushy' Holmans
--
I was too far out all my life
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| User: "raven1" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 11:26:26 AM |
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On 12 Jan 2006 09:05:10 -0800, "words of truth"
<wordsoftruth201@hotmail.com> wrote:
http://peerreview.blogs.com/peer_review/2005/12/yes_samantha_th.html
Yes, Samantha, There Is a God
And he's just as real as Santa Claus!
--
"O Sybilli, si ergo
Fortibus es in ero
O Nobili! Themis trux
Sivat sinem? Causen Dux"
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| User: "MarkA" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 09:22:05 PM |
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On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 09:05:10 -0800, words of truth wrote:
http://peerreview.blogs.com/peer_review/2005/12/yes_samantha_th.html
Yes, Samantha, There Is a God
Tens of thousands of them, actually.
--
MarkA
(this space accidentally filled in)
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| User: "cloim" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 07:39:27 PM |
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On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 09:05:10 -0800, words of truth wrote:
http://peerreview.blogs.com/peer_review/2005/12/yes_samantha_th.html
Yes, Samantha, There Is a God
By Richard Wagner
<snip>
Dear Editor:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no God,
An 8 year old talking about "my little friends"?
because just before Christmas a federal judge banned a Pennsylvania
school district from mentioning "Intelligent Design" in our class.
So she's from Dover? And the judge didn't ban "mentioning" it.
But
the judge said Darwin's theory of evolution is OK to teach.
That was never under dispute.
Papa says,
"If you see it in your newspaper's column, it's so."
"Don't believe everything you read" would be more appropriate.
Please tell me the
truth, is there a God? - Samantha O'Hara
Dearest Samantha,
Your little friends - and the judge - are wrong. They have been
misled by cynicism of a cynical age. They put their trust in theories
because they are "scientific."
No. They said that *science classes should be for learning about science
and scientific theories.
Still, they are mere theories
nonetheless.
Better than wild speculation.
And yet, amazingly, they turn their backs on faith,
BS. They prefer to teach their children their own faith.
because faith comes from God. They think that nothing can be true
unless it can be comprehended by their little minds. All minds,
Samantha, regardless of whether they are men's or children's, are
little.
I'm glad you realise you have a little mind. That's something, I suppose.
In this great universe, of which men have managed to explore
only one speck, human beings are mere insects, compared with the
intelligence that designed the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Samantha, there is a God. He exists as surely as love and
generosity and devotion exist. You can prove that existence to
yourself: Does the scientific curiosity you experience upon seeing a
frog's body pickled in formaldehyde match the pulsating thrill you feel
when you follow the boundless adventures of your heart?
God is emotion? Then why not call it Emotion instead of God?
Alas! How
dreary would be the world if there were no God! There would be no
genuine, steadfast faith. For all faith based on human vanity is as
fleeting as a drop of water on steamy summer day.
Your analogies suck.
Likewise, theories,
manufactured by small minds, can evaporate, comparatively in God's
time, in the wink of an eye.
The judge said as much himself. "To be sure, Darwin's theory of
evolution is imperfect," he wrote. "However, the fact that a scientific
theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be
used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis
grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent
well-established scientific propositions." Why, then, is Darwin's
theory to be trusted and God's faith is not?
Reread that sentence until it sinks in.
God's continual response
to all of man's drivel has been the same through all the ages.
Silence.
It is
written in the Bible, figuratively, that man, like a dog, has been
chasing his tail around throughout all of his history. May not we
consider what wags the judge?
Not believe in God? You might as well not believe in the beauty of the
human soul. For without it, there could be no faith. There could be no
beauty in a dreary world that gorges itself on scientific theory. It
would be a world devoid of childlike wonder and euphoria. It would be
as dreary as though there were no Samanthas. There could be no magical
warmth of a mother's love or of a father's pride. There could be no
poetry. There could be no romance. There could be no trust and
friendship, for they, too, are based on Godlike faith.
They are based on emotion.
All emotion,
that which makes us human, would be suppressed,
It's not the Vulcan academy, it's a science class.
surely making this
world more barren and frightening than the impenetrable mind of any mad
scientist.
If you were right, then there would be no fright. Therefore your
conclusion is does not follow from your premise.
No God? Praise be to Him that he lives and lives forever. A thousands
years from now, Samantha, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will
continue to make glad the heart of childhood-and the truly wisest of
men. For without Him and his faith, there would be no world as we know
it and trust that it remain-for the sake of all future Samanthas.
Richard Wagner is the editor of Carolina Journal.
.
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| User: "Uncle Vic" |
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| Title: Re: Yes, Samantha, There Is A God |
12 Jan 2006 01:27:13 PM |
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on 12 Jan 2006 in alt.atheism, dear sweet words of truth
(wordsoftruth201@hotmail.com) made the light shine upon us with this:
Not believe in God? You might as well not believe in the beauty of the
human soul.
Yeah, so?
Science has something critical that ID and all religion does not.
Evidence. Is there any evidence that the laying on of hands and praying
cures the critically ill? Even if it seemed to work once, it's not
repeatable. When you are critically ill are you going to trust your
beautiful religion, or are you going to chicken out and run to science for
a cure?
--
Uncle Vic
aa#2011, aw Hellboy #5
Supervisor, EAC Department of little adhesive-backed "L" shaped
chrome-plastic doo-dads to add feet to Jesus fish department
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