by Alan Smith<\/p>\n
PBS film critic and columnist Michael Medved shared this anecdote out of his Jewish heritage:<\/p>\n
“A few years ago, Rabbi Jacob Karmenetky made a trip to Israel accompanied by his teenage grandson. Ironically, these two deeply religious people were seated In the airplane next to a prominent Israeli socialist leader and outspoken atheist.<\/p>\n
On the flight, the cynical atheist traveler couldn’t help noticing the way the teenage boy attended to the needs of his aged, bearded grandfather. He got up to get the old man a glass of water, helped him remove his shoes and put on some slippers, and otherwise, demonstrated that the rabbi’s comfort represented his primary concern.<\/p>\n
At one point, as the boy got up for yet another errand on behalf of the old man, the atheist could contain himself no longer. ‘Tell me something,’ he asked the rabbi. ‘why does your grandson treat you like some kind of a king? I have a grandson, too, but he wouldn’t give me the time of day.’<\/p>\n
‘It’s very simple,’ the old man replied. ‘My grandson and I both believe in a God who rules the universe and created all things, including the first man. That means that in the boy’s eyes, I’m two generations closer to the hand of God Himself. But in the\u00a0eyes of your grandson, you’re just two generations\u00a0closer to a monkey.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What you believe about the origin of man really does make a difference, and it will manifest itself in how you act toward others. If we understand that we were created by a loving God, that gives us all the reason in the world to hold others in high regard and gives us the incentive to treat them with respect.<\/p>\n
“Then God said, Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness<\/em> …” (Genesis 1:26).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Alan Smith PBS film critic and columnist Michael Medved shared this anecdote out of his Jewish heritage: “A few years ago, Rabbi Jacob Karmenetky made a trip to Israel accompanied by his teenage grandson. Ironically, these two deeply religious people were seated In the airplane next to a prominent Israeli socialist leader and outspoken…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1028],"tags":[184,302,80],"class_list":["post-33330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-parenting","tag-atheism","tag-creation","tag-evolution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17122,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-scripture-is-most-useful-to-challenge-an-atheist\/","url_meta":{"origin":33330,"position":0},"title":"What Scripture is most useful to challenge an atheist?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When speaking to an atheist, what Scripture is most useful to challenge one to understand that God does exist? And how can I convince him that this God is merciful if he has lived life in a body wracked by pain? Answer: You are starting off on the wrong\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7517,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-an-atheist-be-saved-if-he-did-good-deeds-during-his-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":33330,"position":1},"title":"Would an atheist be saved if he did good deeds during his life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If an atheist has always done good deeds during his life (abided by God\u00b4s rules preached by all religions), where would God (if there is any) allocate him after his death -- heaven or hell? I personally believe that God, being so gracious as we have been told, will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/atheisms-faith-and-fruits\/","url_meta":{"origin":33330,"position":2},"title":"Atheism’s Faith and Fruits","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by James D. Bales, reprinted in The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 8, June 1952. Unbelievers constantly bring against Christians the charge that the Bible is unworthy of a place in a scientific age since it calls for faith but men must walk by sight. By the term faith, they seek\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91643,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-god-immoral-for-killing-the-canaanites\/","url_meta":{"origin":33330,"position":3},"title":"Is God Immoral for Killing the Canaanites?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Judge of All the Earth God is the Judge of all the earth. He does not kill anyone arbitrarily, and when He does take a life out of this world (Genesis 15:16), it is always just and right. If God commanded the killing of the Canaanites,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45327,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-faith-of-an-atheist\/","url_meta":{"origin":33330,"position":4},"title":"The Faith of an Atheist","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by William J. Stewart Some time ago, I had the opportunity to talk with a self-proclaimed Atheist. I found it to be a rather interesting conversation. He discussed several things which he found to be adequate evidence to discount the existence of God, none of which stood to any measure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45673,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-marry-my-atheist-boyfriend\/","url_meta":{"origin":33330,"position":5},"title":"Should I marry my atheist boyfriend?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was with this guy for over a year. We were friends and then started having sex and dating. He is an atheist. I am not. We broke up a month ago but still talk online a lot. We are still friends. He still claims he loves and still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}