Curious to see where this story originated, I did a Google search, and found the following, very intriguing page on Scopes, that website that debunks popular online myths. Here's the page in question, starting with that story I mentioned that was supposedly of Einstein: http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.aspMarines are taught:
1) Keep your priorities in order and
2) Know when to act without hesitation.
A Marine was attending a college course between missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The professor, an avowed atheist, shocked the class one day when he walked in, looked toward the ceiling, and said loudly, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes."
The lecture room fell silent and the professor began his lecture. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God - still waiting." It got down to the last minute when the Marine stood up, walked toward the professor and threw his best punch knocking him off the platform and out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat down. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence. The professor came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you did that?" The Marine calmly replied, "God is busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to behave like an idiot and say stupid stuff.
So He sent me."
Scroll down to the paragraph that starts with "Likewise, 'the atheist professor' is a figure...", continue down the page and you'll see the very story I quoted above, as just one of several variants.
It was after coming across the Scopes page that I realized how intricately related that story was with the Einstein one.
Part of my motivation for doing this search in the first place was annoyance. I commented to myself reading the story quoted above that "atheists may be a minority, but when it comes to these short stories that serve as a religious point, they're an overwhelming, incredible asshole majority".
So I was wondering, have any of you come across the story quoted above, or any others that aren't listed at the Scopes page I linked to?