Ray Comfort’s Miseducation Campaign Went Live Early

I go to Ball State University in Muncie, IN and they were out today. They weren’t out for very long though. I got out of class at 1:20 and they were already gone. Fortunately I was able to pick up three copies before class. I’ve only read a little bit so far, but damn is it painful to read this crap right next to Darwin.

Yeah, I have some thoughts:
Ray Comfort Comes Early
-Staks

I got two copies at UIC today. They ran out pretty quickly. It feels like Christmas here in our evolutionary biology lab! Free science books – way better than New Testaments!

question for comfort:

how do you keep such a straight face during interviews and speeches?

A question for Comfort:

It’s plain that you know almost nothing about what science in general and the theory of evolution in particular actually say about the world. Your banana goof was only the most amusing of the falsehoods you preach; there are many more that are as bad.

Given that, how do you justify talking so much about science when you know so little about it? If I said things about Christianity that were as mistaken as what you say about science you’d be convinced I wasn’t worth listening to. Why should I bother listening to you when you make so many errors about science?

Question for Ray:

Ray,
All of the arguments against evolution that you added to the introduction of this book have been discredited or plain disproven, some many times over. So why release this book in the first place? Why continue to use easily refutable arguments in furtherance of your goals?

Indeed, what are your goals, exactly, and how does this book help further them?

I saw someone at the University of Tennessee with a copy on the 17th. At the time I figured she was just a member of whatever campus group was going to give them out, but now I’m supposing not. I guess I should have asked. However, I didn’t see anyone handing out books in the obvious places on the 17th, 18th, or today.. I was hoping to get a copy. Oh well.

And this is the bible belt buckle, no small number of the people receiving these lie-filled books will believe every word of Comfort’s. It’s unfortunate. I was planning to hang around the people handing them out and read through it aloud, poking holes in each of his arguments as I did.

wow, just wow

Is there any philosophical or moral conflict that arises in your mind when faced with questions as to how the Bible can be a literal, direct word of God when it was written a couple hundred years after the events it describes? When faced with texts like the Skeptics Annotated Bible how do you resolve the sheer volume of inconsistencies and logical fallacies and continue as if your version and interpretation of the Bible is infalliable? And why are some biblical sins like homosexuality given greater weight by the religious right then say working on Sundays or having tattoos?

“I can’t see how anyone who’s had that much exposure to evolution, even from the opposite side, could still be honestly misrepresenting it so badly.”

Do you pay attention to creationists?

Slight change to BH’s question:

What do you believe is the single best line of evidence for creation?

The fact that they have ZERO evidence I’d love to know how he answers that one!

I subscribe to Ray Comfort’s newsletter, and got his 7 news realeases in which he took quotes from atheists that were said in blogs & comments section with regards to his introduction to the book. The quotes were of people saying they were going to burn the books, or ones like this one which he posted on his blog:

“Ray, I’m sick of you. You are one of the most horrible people I have ever known of…I hate violence. I think at times it is necessary, but an ugly necessity nonetheless…I hate you, hope you have a heart attack sometime soon, and don’t care in the least if you never let me on this crappy blog again. It’s like a huge digital train wreck that I can’t stop looking at.”

I would like to ask Comfort why he didn’t link back to the sources of all these quotations that he used. He used these quotations to justify his underhanded change of plans, but from what I read, these quotations were a minority opinion. Why didn’t he link back to the sources so people could see the context, and to see whether there was agreement from other commenters? I would think that that comment inciting violence would have been ripped to shreds by other atheists.

Quote-mining is a tactic Comfort is constantly guilty of, and in this instance he used it to defend his pathetic cowardice. His preaching is almost always directed at atheists, wouldn’t he want atheists to be around for his give-aways? If anything, atheists burning books and using violence would only help his cause, and he wouldn’t be to blame for any disruption to normal campus activities.

Sorry that was long, if you use my question feel free to chop that up!

I still have all 7 news releases, if anyone wants a copy of them I have a contact form on my blog (click my username), I’ll email them to you.

What do you believe is the single best line of evidence for evolution by natural selection?

I agree that this is the best possible question to ask him. I want to see if he avoids it or comes up with something good.

I’d also like to know why he often reuses arguments against evolution even after it has been explained to him repeatedly that he is wrong. Several people have explained to him how sexual reproduction evolved and he still trots it out like it is some huge mystery. At some point you have to stop thinking that it’s an honest accident and realize that he is just lying. Hovind used to be extremely bad about this too.

Why do we pay so much attention to Ray Comfort? Do we think that anyone who isn’t already a true believer is going to fall for his sleazy con jobs?

Please ask why there are appendixes, wisdom teeth, and male nipples. Please feel free to throw in any other vestigial organs or unnecessary “creations” that I may have forgotten.

A question for Ray Comfort:

You seem to spend a very large amount of your time and energy thinking, writing, and talking about atheists. You spend virtually no time discussing Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, or even pagans and why their belief systems, which are very different from your own, are mistaken. Surely their immortal souls are in as much peril as those of atheists.

Such time as you do not spend attacking atheism is spent on your (risible) attempts to challenge the concept of evolution. Both of these subjects produce huge volumes of writing and effort from you. And it is apparent that you consider the ideas of evolution and atheism to be somehow linked to one another in some sort of cause-and-effect relationship.

With that background, my question is — why do these two subjects raise such an existential threat to you?

Also please ask about shellfish, and why it is ok to cherry pick the bible?

I’m curious how Ray responds to claims that he plagurized his introduction

Mr. Comfort,

Why the mustache?
“Natural beard lines indicate respect for God and His design. God’s priests cannot shave the edges or sides of their beards because they are set apart as holy to God, Leviticus 21:5.”

First off: If someone has spare copies of the fake Origins, I’d love a copy. Or, if you really do put them on eBay, give us a heads up, so I can be sure to bid on it.

Second: a question for Comfort:

Since you are not all knowing, you have to admit it is at least in theory possible that you are mistaken about your beliefs about evolution, especially in light of all the evidence from so many branches of science that directly contradict your statements.
Considering this possibility, do you have any concerns whatsoever about the amount of miseducation you are spreading? Do you ever worry about the harm you cause, or damage you wreak if you are indeed mistaken?
Do you feel any responsibility for trying to persuade students to disbelieve their professors, ignore scientific evidence and the scientific process, to reject critical thinking, and to only accept teaching that complies with someone’s interpretation of some holy texts?
If you are wrong, as so much evidence persuasively argues, aren’t you committing a horrible sin in your god’s eyes? Do you care?

Ray Comfort, please read this quote, from Mein Kampf, Chapter XI: “Race and People”:

Walking about in the garden of Nature, most men have the self-conceit to think that they know everything; yet almost all are blind to one of the outstanding principles that Nature employs in her work. This principle may be called the inner isolation which characterizes each and every living species on this earth. Even a superficial glance is sufficient to show that all the innumerable forms in which the life-urge of Nature manifests itself are subject to a fundamental law–one may call it an iron law of Nature–which compels the various species to keep within the definite limits of their own life-forms when propagating and multiplying their kind.

It clearly shows that Hitler was a creationist; he denied evolution explicitly. Now that you know this, will you apologize for having linked Darwin and evolution to Hitler, and stop linking Darwin and evolution to Hitler?

(See here for the source of the quote, and here for who found the quote.)

I have a few questions for Ray.
1. Have you ever heard of Project Steve, and, if so, what is your opinion of it, if any?

2. Why would a creator design a being that breathes and eats through the same opening? Did the creator not consider the possibility of choking, or did the creator WANT the creations to die in this way?

3. Have you ever seen a wild banana?

4. Given the choice, would you prefer to be known as Banana-man or Banana-boy?

Regarding the font, I’d suggest two other reasons for the larger size for Comfort’s words than Darwin’s: 1) Makes people more inclined to read Comfort and then not read Darwin 2) Comfort has a massive ego.

Regarding Shawn’s remark: Ray lied. No one was going to censor him. Having events planned around in response isn’t censorship.

Questions for Ray: “Do you ever worry that you are wrong and some other vengeful version of God is correct, like say that of extremist Islam or Ultra-Orthodox Judaism?”

I won’t even bother asking a question because I know that his response will be filled with logical fallacies, previously disproved claims that he consistently repeats, and flat-out lies.

I wouldn’t even bother doing the interview, Hemant. The man is an attention whore, and you’re just feeding him what he craves.

Oh and when will he be doing the same routine with the Koran?

To Ray:

1. This may sound rude, but I mean it genuinely. Do you really not see the the havoc taking the Bible literally has wreaked upon humanity? (Crusades, genocide, sexism, hate crimes, personal injury, etc, etc, etc.) Or are you simply hypocritical?

2. Why are you a Christian? How do you demonstrate God’s love personally? Is your faith real only as far as attention and media go, or do you actually take time to minister to others?

3. How do you continue to have faith in light of the overwhelming evidence that you are wrong?

4. What would you say to those of us who have been Christians, but through intellectual exploration of our own, became atheists? Do you believe that we simply wanted to do things “our own way”, or do you recognize the emotional struggle?

Oh, yeah, one more thing. In light of your introduction, which (wrongly) talks about the ways evolution has hurt people, what would you say to those of us who have been traumatized by your brand of Christianity? What do you think the solution is?

Question for Ray Comfort:

Why did you choose to leave out the fact that Christian scientists like Francis Collins, Asa Gray, and Fransisco Ayala support evolution as accepted scientific fact?

Thoughts? I felt flattered that Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron decided to show up at our campus of all places. Unfortunately, his timing was off, and he was completely overshadowed by student protests of the midyear fee hike that was going into vote that day.

Kirk Cameron told me personally that they would distribute more books on the next day (the day they originally announced), but they never showed up. Too bad, I might have offered him one of the free t-shirts we were handing out. Kirk said that they changed the day because they were afraid of big protests and book burnings. That just shows how bad he is at assessing his opponents. We were really just handing out flyers and t-shirts.

Don’t expect hard answers from Ray. Expect patronizing answers that talk about how you don’t need to know any of that stuff, because Jesus did the only thing that was important and God loves you very very much.

Dear Mr Comfort

I understand that Creationists believe that the fossil record is a result of Noah’s flood. Theories for the sorting of fossils so they appear with the simpler organisms at the bottom and the more complex at the top include: (1) the idea that smaller and simpler animals were less able to escape the rising flood-waters, and so got buried first [1]; (2) that the flood caused the break-up of floating forests, with the thin and weak edges breaking up first where only lighter, smaller and simpler plants and animals dwelt [2].

However, the problem with this is that being smaller does not always mean being simpler. To take just one example for animals, a velociraptor could outrun a wombat any day, but wombats and their baramin appear higher in the record than velociraptors. Similarly, small delicate flowering plants should have lived on the edges of the floating forests, and large and heavy conifers could only live in the middle. But yet again, flowering plants only appear much ‘later’ in the record than conifers, despite the fact that they should be evenly dispersed through the record because flowering plants come in all sizes.

I would like to know your opinion on this, and particularly if you know of a Creationist theory that provides a better explanation for why plants are sorted from simple to complex than the theories that I have mentioned.

Thank you in advance for answering my question.

Kind regards,
Nadiah

[1] e.g. http://conservapedia.com/Fossil_record#Fossil_record
[2] e.g. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n4/floating-forest

Over here in Seattle they showed up around 8:30 or so, but ran out of books before 11 pm and reverted handing out Bible tracts.

Fortunately, the secular student group managed to get things together really quick and move up the reponse activity (distributing polite fliers with some helpful URLs for simple, accurate explanations of evolutionary phenomena, and announcing the faculty panel discussion which would be covering the issue on Thursday evening).

Question for all the atheists/ awesome non-atheists who hang out here:

Does anyone think this Q&A is going to be constructive? I imagine Hemant will ask questions, Ray will answer with tired old crap, and then he will not engage anyone else in the comment section, as we bash our heads int the wall trying to get him to understand that emotional arguments are not going to convince people who come at their beliefs through logic and observation.

I feel drained just thinking about it. I am going to go eat a banana and find some aspirin.

Even though I feel that somehow Ray Comfort will most likely resort to his usual set of excuses as opposed to any real explanations or rational and reasonable answers I would still like to ask some questions and see what his response would be.

(1)Why does it say in the Bible Old Testiment implying testimonies from witnesses and in Genesis 1:1 it says; “In the beginning God Created Heaven and Earth”, then who would your witness be?
And if it’s Moses that wrote the Torah then how could he be the witness that was there when God created Heaven and Earth?
And if this isn’t a testimony from an actual witness, then how can anyone even know that the Bible and any of it’s other content are true? Because it presents itself as being a collection of testimonies from the very beginning.

(2) What credentials do you have in which you have enough knowledge and understanding about evolution to know that it can’t possibly be in anyway truth nor even an actual science? And if so then what scientific journal(s) have you published your findings in so that other scientist can have an opportunity to weigh it with other known facts? What truth and/or evidence do you know of, or have that completely disproves evolution and contradicts it’s evidence?

(3)If you want to compare Hitler with Darwin, then why are you and your followers passing out propaganda? That is one of the methods that Hitler use to gain power.

Here is something for you Ray Comfort to consider. Knowledge and wisdom are the subjects to the nobility of truth, so if thy caution thyself not to be the FOOL and thy have a boastful tongue then let it be that which rest upon thy head the Crown of Truth. For the integrity of the wise is to be found in truth, so then where shall it be found in that of the FOOL? And this above all things to thy own self be TRUE.

Lifer said

“I can’t see how anyone who’s had that much exposure to evolution, even from the opposite side, could still be honestly misrepresenting it so badly.”

Do you pay attention to creationists?

Atheists (and Christians who are able to accept modern science) are perfectly capable of accurately describing the creationist view point.

I think thats the main difference between most creationists and those who accept the conclusions of science. Most creationists that I talk to have almost no understanding of biology, where I have a firm grasp on their ‘theory’ of creation.

I think that the next debate between science and creationism should begin with the debaters first explaining how much of the opposing sides ideas they understand.

Why are the trees so high that people have to climb to get them?

God created the Tyrannosaurus Rex to pick bananas for humans. But naughty Eve, filled with sinful desires, tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and manipulated Adam into tasting it as well. From that day forth, mankind has lived in a Fallen World, and Tyrannosaurus Rex, turned to violence by the Sins of Man, has lusted after human flesh ever since.

I have a question for Mr. Comfort. First off, understand that I am not an atheist. I do believe in God. I understand that by posting this here I’m gonna catch some flak, but I have a question for Ray and this seems like a simple way to get it to him. Besides if any of you can answer it with out using something to the effect of “Because he doesn’t exist” I’d be impressed.

Why would God punish something which He created, for doing exactly what He created it to do?

Because if He created us, and everything, and knows exactly what we are going to do at any given time, througot our lives even, then why would He be mad when we did exactly what He knew we were going to, and in fact made us to do?