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Friday, August 1, 2008

OMG! PZ MYERS VS RAY DUMBFORT!

I've agreed to another talk radio debate — this time it's not a Christian radio
station, so there's hope of some ethical behavior on their part — on WDAY, AM 970
next Tuesday, 5 August, at 10am. We're supposed to debate intelligent design,
and my opponent is…
My opponent is…
Really, I'm embarrassed to say
it…
My opponent is…
Ray Comfort.
O Lord, could you please stop making
my enemies so ridiculous? It's getting a little bit excessive.


http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/08/this_could_be_a_dreary_mistake.php

39 comments:

  1. I really gotta hear this.

    I hope audio files are available afterwards.

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  2. In the meantime, Mark W. Laine wrote,

    "Even a dog has senses that are more finely attunded than yours regarding smell, eye-sight, and hearing, so is it out of the realm of possibility that Christians have more highly tuned senses regarding the things of the spirit than you?"

    I struggled to come up with a joke about this, but nothing I thought of was funny compared to just reading his quote.

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  3. Hahaha. It doesn't compare with what follows though...

    Appears you have a stunted reality...sorry about that...but the cure is belief in Jesus. How long will you deny He is searching desperately for a way to wake you up to His truth?

    I know this, Ray knows this, Terry knows this, every Christian posting here knows this. Like I said your senses are seared and dull.



    ...this should be a weekly game hosted by the Raytractors. We try to one up the other person quoting Rayniacs.

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  4. Geoff, man, you always create the worst mental images.

    Was this Ray's idea or PZ's? Or will some formerly oblivious producer at the radio station carry a modern version of The Mark of Cain after this travesty is aired?

    Only time will tell.

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  5. weemaryanne wrote:

    "Geoff, man, you always create the worst mental images."

    True, but just remember, I'm the one who has to live in the confines of my own mind every minute of every day.

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  6. It was probably Ray's idea. I don't think he cares about looking like a fool, as long as he gets to talk about the Law and Jesus and such. I wonder if he made any claims about proving the existence of God without mentioning the Bible, like he did against the RRS? I'll have to find a way of listening to it.

    Mark W. Laine might have a more highly tuned spiritual sense. After all, he fights a demon that looks like Mussolini. However, I have a pretty good bullshit detector. It goes off continuously when I read Ray's blog and his followers' comments.

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  7. I can hear it now...

    PZ will present logical scientific evidence in clear and concise language.

    Then Ray will say "Let me ask you this, PZ. Have you eve stolen anything? Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever commited adultery in your heart by lusting after a woman?

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  8. Finally Ray Comfort will actually have to debate against a real evolutionary biologist. I can't wait for him to bring up the Crocoduck and buildings having a builder :D

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  9. It would be so good if somebody could live blog this.

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  10. It just occured to me that no matter how this debate came about (we could ask PZ, I'm sure he'll tell us) the reason that Ray will do it is because it will give him exposure.

    Ray is very accustomed to playing the part of the idiotic fundamentalist dupe. He sets himself up as the maligned Mr. Innocent. He wants one thing out of this and that is- Traffic to his blog. And he will surely get it.

    PZ sure as hell doesn't need me second guessing him but I think he should have dismissed the invitation out of hand, although, if he had, Ray would have been crowing that PZ refused to debate him. It is a rather no-win situation.

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  11. Dale, you are right.

    One can only hope now that PZ Wipes the floor with him, so that anybody who is on a fence decides a side, and anybody who knows nothing about the topic intelligence design can see how it's best advocates still manage to be idiots.

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  12. Is it just me, or does Mark W. Laine have an obsession with saying "the lord rebuke thee"?

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  13. Mark W. Laine has obsessions, period. His kids that he took to Ham's museum? I bet they're named Pebbles and Bam-Bam.

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  14. I thought this was pretty hilarious...

    Seeker said...
    Mark wrote,

    "Even a dog has senses that are more finely attunded than yours regarding smell, eye-sight, and hearing, so is it out of the realm of possibility that Christians have more highly tuned senses regarding the things of the spirit than you?"

    I'm intrigued by this statement. Mark, you previously talked about an experience that many other Christians have had but I have not had--seeing demons. I have felt evil and have felt what seemed to be an evil presence, but I haven't had the clarity of vision to say what it was.

    To Mark, or others who have had similar experiences--what is this like, specifically? Could you always detect such presences, or did you have to develop an awareness?


    In other words, "Mark Laine, I want to become as batshit insane as you. Any pointers?"

    Seeker, I think some quality hallucinogenic drugs might give you the experience you are looking for.

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  15. Is anybody else having problems bringing up that link to Pharyngula? There are several scienceblog sites that almost load and then IE gives an error message.

    I've never had that happen before, but my computer's been acting kind of weird lately.

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  16. CH:

    Yeah, I forgot to mention that in my last post. The same thing is happening to me.

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  17. No problem using the link with FireFox.

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  18. This will be so fruitless. Ok, maybe hopefully, a few listeners will reactivate thinking capability they had left deserted for years. Let's see what they bring up. Ray can't win, but he wont lose either. For literalists and fundies, from evangelicals to crackpot Catholics, PZ is the posterboy for the evilutionist, the dogma of atheism, the religion of science. They can't accept that what they are fighting for doesn't exist; the fight itself is the way and the goal. At least PZ can hope to get some entertainment out of this.

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  19. Felix, out of curiosity, what time is it in Germany where you live right now?

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  20. Geoff said...
    In the meantime, Mark W. Laine wrote,

    "Even a dog has senses that are more finely attunded than yours regarding smell, eye-sight, and hearing, so is it out of the realm of possibility that Christians have more highly tuned senses regarding the things of the spirit than you?"

    I struggled to come up with a joke about this, but nothing I thought of was funny compared to just reading his quote.
    ---------------

    Geoff,
    I am sure you will think of something when Mark walks up, lifts his leg, and pisses on your shoe.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I do not think it is a good idea for PZ to debate Ray. Ray will gain a lot from it no matter what. Since his followers cannot see, nor understand anything that is not written in godish, well, no point. They will claim victory. You will see. They will also say that PZ was unpolite (no matter how polite), or unjust, or an obvious ignorant, and such bullshit, but Ray wins a lot from it. Lots of notoriety.

    I am not saying that Ray will do any meaningful anything. PZ is obviously too much for him. But given his track record, Ray will not even notice that he has been screwed BADLY.

    ----

    I was at ray's today after a very long time not even taking a peak (otherwise I would have been tempted to post something). And what do I find? Lots of posts by Mark W Laine. What could be worse than that? Now a huge problem, now I am used to call things by their names, so the only thing I could think of saying was:

    Mark, you are an asshole.

    Which he, of course, is. Is it necessary to state the obvious?

    Anyway, now I feel a bit better.

    G.E.

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  22. All-

    FYI - I checked the WDAY site and it looks like they archive the morning show, so we should be able to hear the debate after the fact.

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  23. Yeah, probably a bad idea to debate Ray, other than for entertainment value. The spin Ray and his followers put on it might be interesting.

    At Ray's today I saw posts by Mark W. Laine, Emily, and the psycho that were difficult to resist. But I've made it so far.

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  24. Rufus, tell me about it. I wanted to attack Emily and Mark so bad.

    Mark made a Crip joke. Believe me, that kinda shit aint funny for a person who actually lives in california, and around the area where you hear a lot about them and the "bloods".

    There leader was killed via lethal injection, and you wont imagine the impact it had on some poeple.

    I refrained from answering.

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  25. Damm, I shud uze spalechek wen riteeng fast.

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  26. ranting,
    it's 7:26 AM right now.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thanks. I wanted to see the time zone difference, since you're usually on when it's close shut eye for me. >.O

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  28. Well, you're usually on six hours before shut eye because I'm one of those late sleepers, late riser guys.

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  29. Something wrong with that link here, too. It was fine last night.

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  30. I can not access Pharyngula either.

    I get an IE message, & then site unavailable.

    Is Pharyngula down?

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  31. Shortly after this thread went up, I clicked the link and left a couple of comments. I've been trying to see if there was any response but can't get on now. Frustrating.

    My first comment was for PZ to come over to Ray's blog and gave him some doozies Ray has unloaded on his blog.

    My second comment was to suggest to PZ that since Ray claims to understand biology better than PZ does, PZ should give Ray a few quetions off a recent final exam PZ has given to one of his biology majors. When Ray flunks, PZ should spend the rest of the 'debate' time lecturing Ray (Where do you get off telling your credulous followers that we biologists don't know what we're talking about, clown?)

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  32. I also posted at PZ's (my user name there is black wolf), outlining in some detail what PZ should expect in the debate. My post is somewhere close to post #400.

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  33. dale saide,

    "Geoff,
    I am sure you will think of something when Mark walks up, lifts his leg, and pisses on your shoe."

    Or sniff my butt to determine whether I'm a false convert. (Sorry, weemaryanne.)

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  34. In my last post, the number 400 was a gross exagerration. Not as bad as saying that someone lived to be 900 years old, but still despicable. I repent and demand punishment. The actual number is more like 250-something.

    The word verification gives me the word 'yedow'. I like it.

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  35. No, no, no. You can't just watch Hell's Best Kept Secret. You have to watch it at Terry Burton's web site/blogs.

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  36. Yedow, that's harsh, I didn't expect that. But I suppose I had it coming. I haven't ever watched it before, so the shock will be greater.
    May I have a beer while watching?
    May I take a break in between the two sessions?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Ok, I did it.
    There was no shock. No revelation. Not even any significant impression, putting the listener in a position of head-shaking pity throughout every sentence.
    Cheesy, boring, clumsy, illogical, filled to the brim with false analogies in its feeble attempts to preserve morally bankrupt conceptions. But it was honest in a way. It shows how a certain delivery of a primitive, psychologically abusive message will appeal to only the uneducated, the unthinking and the gullible, not attempting to throw smokescreens and fancy curtains around an inane ideology of death, submission and punishment. Something only a calvish admirer of narcisstic would-be prophets could adhere to.

    ReplyDelete

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