Part Two Postponed

I’m going to the beach tomorrow a place that has no TV, no WiFi, and only one cell phone tower radiating a very weak signal - it should be great. I get back on Monday, May 21st.

I guess I’m not going to be able to publish Part Two of my previous post until I get back. But to wet your cute little appetites, I will say that it has to do with atheism. Did you know they have their own Bible? You should check it out; it's quite interesting.

Morality - Is it relative? (Part One)

Why is stealing a non-expensive pen not as bad as stealing an expensive one? Why is stealing a car not as bad as killing a person? Which would make you feel more guilty - driving past a crying child, or ignoring a drowning one? Do we as people have standards for morality? It's truly hard to say. Why is it hard to say though when all of us can judge which is the worse scenario; which is the worst offence. Mainly because "all of us" that are reading this have grown up in a country that has been influenced by Western culture. We believe it is wrong to kill and eat people - "I'm eat-able too, only that's called cannibalism and is frowned upon in many cultures" (Johnny Depp, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Notice he said "many" and not all, implying that there are some cultures which do not frown upon this act. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Johnny Depp has all the answers, but this statement is quite true - although its "truth" is quickly dying out, mainly due, again, to western influence. But one can definitively say that before the 20th century, many tribes throughout the world - including tribes found in the Philippines - considered cannibalism an act which was by no means "evil", rather it was revered and celebrated. However, just because these tribes did not consider killing at eating people from other tribes as wrong, they were by no means without a sense of right and wrong - stealing property from a neighbor, or even killing someone within the same tribe was an offence and each crime had it's own appropriate punishment, decided on by the codes set up by their ancestors and current tribal leaders.

What conclusion can we draw from this? That human beings as one race have the idea of right and wrong inbred in them from birth, but these standards and values can and do differ from people group to people group (culture to culture). There are no absolute morality standards that we can label the human race as obtaining. Currently this does not exist, although I do believe, as the world becomes more connected - through Television, Internet, phones etc - that a basic standard for morality will also become adopted. Is this a good thing?

Christy Lynn

Heh, I'm an Aunt again. My niece is about a month old now (only a few hours old in the picture). Her name is Christy Lynn Weisser and is the fourth child (and third girl) born to my sister Jessica and her husband Jason. It's insane how many kids they have now, especially considering Jess is only 24. I'm not sure I could have that many kids in as short a time. I would go crazy. But they're all amazingly beautiful. Lesson: Italian/Armenian blood when mixed with German blood produces gorgeous offspring, and also, if you want to have a big family make sure you marry a Weisser or a Bogosian.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT; REALITY CHECK.

Ben Stein

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. The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary:

Here with a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no 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 crèche, 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 hurricane 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?" (She said the same thing when interviewed after 9-11)

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?