Ray Comfort « Conversational Atheist

New Design!

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Ok, finally… I was so close for so long. I have the new site layout pretty much finished (I think).

Let me know if you see some obvious mistakes when you’re clicking around, and let me know what you think of the redesign. If you are reading this through an RSS feed, come check out the site.

Now, as to not disappoint with a mere “Theme update” post, I’ll throw in a few quick thoughts about the following youtube video:

This guy’s name is Chad — youtube handle: “RationalResponder” and he’s a protege of Ray Comfort — and it shows.

He analyzes a question he hears from atheists that goes something like, “Do you actually believe that Jesus rose from the dead or that a guy lived in a fish for a few days?”

His 1, 2, switcheroo argument/tactic summarized:

1. Agree with the skeptic that these miraculous events are miraculous.
2. Claim that the skeptic misrepresents Christianity if he thinks that there is a naturalistic explanation for the miraculous events.
The question asked by the skeptic, somehow, is a misrepresentation of Christianity, because Christianity has always said that the supernatural was involved with these miracles!
Switcheroo: Can you give me one reason why God, the creator of the universe, wouldn’t be able to alter His creation in any way He sees fit?

First of all, I don’t know a single person who thinks that Christians believe that miracles happened via natural means. There can be misrepresentations of what Christians believe, but this is just not one I have ever come across.

Second, I’m not sure that Chad wants to claim this method of thinking in his daily life. Is he suggesting that he believes any and every supernatural claim ever made because, well, God could do anything? My guess is that he has a fair amount of skepticism to any number of supernatural claims that I might make off the top of my head. Like, God caused rocks in my backyard to levitate during my childhood as long as no one was observing them, for example.

Would Chad ask me why I believed that? — If he did, and I answered, “Well, you are misrepresenting my belief in rock-levitation by asking for a naturalistic cause — or, perhaps you can give me a reason why God, creator of the universe, wouldn’t be able to cause rocks to levitate?” do you think he’d be satisfied?

Let me know your thoughts on the new theme; and on Chad’s youtube video and what response you might take if he responded to you that way.

Tags: Add new tag, Evangelism, Miracle, Ray Comfort
Posted in Announcements | 12296 Comments »New+Design%212009-12-24+10%3A59%3A17Conversational+Atheist

Ray Comfort: Un-satirizable

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

A couple of months ago I tried drawing a comic for the first time in my life — and it showed in the artwork at least. I was trying to show how Ray Comfort’s logic would have worked in the past to conclude that there are wind gods: Comic: Ray Comfort Billboard.

Most of the responses were one of a few types: 1. learn to draw! 2. Right on! 3. Not all Christians are like this! etc. But, a few comments on StumbleUpon suggested that I had setup a straw man to knock down — that Ray couldn’t possibly be making arguments as stupid as I was implying.

Now, I took extra care to try and avoid this charge — I try to honestly represent the position of those I disagree with. But in Ray’s case especially, his arguments are so lame that I really shouldn’t need to exaggerate anything.

Anyway, here’s a quote from an argument that Ray posted on July 7th in his blogpost: The Myth of Creationism -

If you think atheism is scientific and reasonable, let me ask you some questions. Do you believe that nothing created everything? If you do, that’s not only unscientific, it’s unreasonable. This is because your “nothing” isn’t nothing. It is something because it had the amazing ability to create everything.

I’m convinced that his position is unsatirizable.

Tags: Billboard, Ray Comfort
Posted in Anti-Thinking | 11105 Comments »Ray+Comfort%3A+Un-satirizable+2009-07-09+19%3A37%3A14Conversational+Atheist

Conversational Atheist tries his hand at a comic strip…

Monday, March 30th, 2009

I got a little carried away with the artwork, the hats didn’t need to be so ornate, but then again, I’m an artist and I think it’s clear from my work that I have a great deal of talent for drawing. </sarcasm>

Actually, I hope that you enjoy the comic. It deals with Ray Comfort and a billboard that he put up…

Aside: One thing that I honestly don’t understand, is that Ray is now claiming that his “bananas are an atheist’s worst nightmare” video was edited so that it didn’t show the Coke can analogy in the beginning, and just left it with the banana argument. This editing, apparently, doesn’t not show that Ray was making a parody. There is no conceivable parody he could be making against anyone except himself because he only argues for his own position.

Without further ado: Enjoy my Comic: Ray Comfort Billboard