The Atheist and Bear Story is one that gets passed around a lot. I found this version somewhere in my internet travels:
An atheist was walking through the woods admiring nature’s surroundings. He said to himself: What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!
As he was walking, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him.
He turned to look and saw a 7 foot grizzly bear charge towards him.
He ran as fast as he could up the path.
He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him.
He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer.
He tripped and fell on the ground.
He rolled over but saw the bear right on top of him,
reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.
The Atheist cried out: “Oh, my God!…”
Time stopped. The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
A very bright light shone upon the man, and a booming voice came out of the sky:
“You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don’t exist,
and even credit creation to a cosmic accident.
Do you now expect me to help you out of this predicament?
Am I to count you as a believer?”
The atheist looked directly into the light,
“It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now,
but perhaps you could
make the BEAR a Christian?”
“Very well,” said the voice.
The light went out.
The sounds of the forest resumed.
The bear dropped his right paw,
brought both paws together and lifted his head toward heaven and spoke:
“Lord, bless this food,
which I am about to receive from thy bounty
through Christ our Lord,
Amen.”
Here is the Elvis and the Bear song from the 1957 movie Loving You. Elvis played some guitar in his early career (click here) mostly because his manager The Colonel knew that session musicians who got credited for playing on the song got paid extra. On Teddy Bear for example Elvis is credited for playing “Percussion” because he liked how it sounded when he slapped the guitar. Listen for yourself: