A Letter to Ray Comfort

Ray,

You wrote in A Letter From an Atheist that you are concerned for us ungodly atheists. I have heard you give interviews, I have watched you on television, I have seen you in a debate, and I have seen your soapbox performances. I am, however, still an atheist.

Is this because I am a fundamentalist atheist (whatever that means)? Is it because I am obstinate? I do not think so, as I have changed my mind on many issues, once I was convinced by sufficient arguments and evidence. They were not of a trivial nature either. I have changed my mind on an array of different issues, including things like abortion. I was very well read in abortion literature, I knew both sides very well, and went to great lengths to understand such a complicated issue. As with all things, though, I accept I may be wrong. I have heard you often criticize people for using such words as "I think" or "It may be" and then turn right around and criticize people for failing to come around to your viewpoint when you fail to convince them. Unlike you, Ray, I don't claim absolute knowledge or omniscience. I do not even claim an invisible entity who is omniscient so as to somehow justify my own beliefs.

But just as with abortion, I, like many, fail to be persuaded by your personal attacks or arrogance. Sloganized terms like "Pro-Choice" or "Pro-Life" were insufficient. Arguments such as "men should have no say" or "my body, my choice" were also insufficient. Repeating the same argument over and over is insanity.

And yet, Ray, you fit this colloquial definition of insanity more than anything I had seen in an abortion debate. How many times have you been corrected on evolutionary theory? How many times have you been corrected on the definition of atheism? How many times have you had circular reasoning explained to you? False analogy? Straw man? Poisoning the well? Bare assertion? How many times have you been shown the arguments you make for the Christian God could also be used on Allah, the Mormon version, Ra, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster? How many times?

And yet, you persist with your asinine banana argument, your ridiculous Coke can argument, and your ludicrous crocoduck? These crass, idiotic arguments would only persuade the most doltish individual who had not spent any time studying such questions and just happened to call himself an atheist after the fact (*Kirk Cameron*). These foolish arguments further appeal only to your own choir.

And how many times must you call us fools? I think Christianity is a foolish belief, and each of its doctrines exceedingly foolish. Does that mean that, when I speak to Christians, I call them fools? Why would any person of even modest intellect think to call someone they are trying to persuade a fool? Only a fool would. Have you ever had anyone persuaded by Psalms 14:1? How did it go?

Atheist: I don't believe there is a God or the Bible being true.
Theist: The Bible says in Psalms 14:1: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
Atheist: What? Really? The Bible says that? It must be true, then. Well, I don't want to be a fool, so I'd better believe the Bible is true and that the Christian God exists.

Show me the atheist from that conversation and I will show you a fool indeed.

The unbelievers among the People of the Book (the Bible) and the pagans shall burn for ever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures.

Ray, you vile creature, are you persuaded to Islam yet? If not, I don't understand why, as that's a verse straight out of the Koran. Perhaps a verse from the Koran does not convince you because you don't believe the Koran to be anything more than man-made. The same goes for me about your Bible.


Ray, if you truly care about those like me as you do, why don't you listen to us and change your tired material? The banana proves God about as much as the crocoduck disproves evolution. In your mind, it probably does. In the rational mind, it does not. If I believed most of those aroundme were going to be tortured for all eternity, I would be constantly distraught. I just care too much for people. I would put everything I had into saving them. I wouldn't write haughty little blog entries with childish little cartoons maligning those I wish to save. I would seek to understand why they believe what they do and why they aren't convinced by what I have to say. I wouldn't write entries calling them fools or evolved chickens or evil or any of the countless ad hominems and caricatures you come up with.

If I believed people were going to Hell, I would be seeking to save them, not bursting into tired tirade after tired tirade. I would not continually recycle the same debunked arguments just to save face and to point to the long time I have used them as proof that those I wish to save are obstinate and have blind faith in their own fundamentalist beliefs, after they have repeatedly told me what is so blatantly wrong with such arguments.

Until the day comes when you stop your silly little shenanigans and really seek to convince me that Christianity is true and the only right path, you may not say that you have been at it 35 years and may not speak of the tireless effort you put into it. Pounding away at a boulder for 35 years with a rubber chicken -- no matter how much force, heart, or effort you put into it -- can not count as an earnest attempt when there is a sledge hammer lying right next to you that countless passersby have pointed it out to you! Stop the debunked, fallacious arguments and let's have something genuinely intelligent (after all, you are the evolved form of Albert Einstein).

Sincerely,
Just Another Raytractor