More waste paper to recycle...

As we all know, Ray is going to be putting out some more of his concentrated brain-farts in book form in the new year. According to the sidebar on his website:

"COMING SOON: The Atheist Bible (Holman Publishing), and, You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (WND Publishing)."

You can be sure that both will be as vapid, dishonest, fallacious, irritating and self-righteous as his blog, but let's have a look at these 'major' publishing houses, shall we?

Holman Publishing:

A subsidiary of Lifeway Christian Resources, presided over by Dr. Thom Rainer (former Dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary which, incidentally, is where he received his 'doctorate').

According to Wiki, Holman Publishing is; "Specializing in Christianity pertaining to fiction, homeschool, youth, history, and other interests", So he's gone to the right place there.

&

WND Publishing (otherwise know as WorldNetDaily):

Again, from Wiki: "The website's Commentary page features editorials from the site's founder, Joseph Farah and other social conservative authors such as Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Chuck Norris.", so Ray's keeping in good company there too.

If you look through the works of some of their published writers, you'll see how they could believe that what Ray has produced can be considered a 'book' - you'd never get this shit past Penguin.

I guess none of this is particularly surprising, eh? It's that same old story. Ray taunts, misrepresents, insults and generally winds up atheists. Atheists respond. Ray quotemines the responses and concocts a 'book' out of re-hashed arguments and faulty logic. Some intellectually and ethically vacuous publishing house prints the book. Ray's fanbase buys the books. Ray makes money. Repeat.

For fun, let's have a guess at some possible Chapter Titles for Ray's two up-coming best-sellers.

"The Atheist Bible"

&

"You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think"

I'm sure we can think of something...




Cheers,

Matt

"I have a severe case of Deja Moo; I've seen this bullshit before..."

God Hates McDonald's

From Ray's latest attempt at...whatever it is he's attempting these days;

"One unique aspect to the life of an Academy-Award winning superstar who died recently, was that he was married to the same woman for an amazing 50 years. He once told Playboy magazine (when asked if he was tempted to stray), "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" The problem with such a philosophy is, what happens when the steak gets a little tough? It’s then that a juicy hamburger begins to look pretty inviting."

I really don't think Ray intended that to read as badly as it does. We know that he has trouble understanding metaphors, analogies, fairy-tales, sarcasm, scientific theories and a host of other things. It does look like he's calling Mrs. Newman 'tough', but I can let that slide. It's what comes next that really blows my mind...

"The Christian safeguards his marriage by cultivating the fear of the Lord. That is the sure fire way to fireproof any marriage....

"That knowledge keeps his eyes off all those delicious hamburgers, and that safeguards his marriage."

So Ray is kept from indulging in some crazy, extra-marital, burger-orgies because he's scared that his voyeuristic sky-daddy will see and get all angry and smitey? Has the man no control over his own body? Unbelievable.

The extra-funny thing is; "Newman was also a vocal supporter of gay rights and, in particular, same-sex marriage." - from wiki. Ha!



PS. if all these posts are being published in relation to some crisis in Ray's own marriage, then I hope that they resolve their differences, either way, in a mature and amicable manner - I know there can be some tricky arguments when a multi-million dollar business is involved.

PPS. Dale, I hope 'one of god's watchman' doesn't crash your thread like he did mine!

Fireproof Numbers

Comfort is touting his protégé's movie (Fireproof) as the number three movie in the US. Comfort's young apprentice stars in this mawkish drama(-edy?) about marriage, firefighters and kissing other women. No seriously - his character kisses another woman that clearly is not the character's wife - it promotes adultery I tells you!!

Anyway - Comfort says number three, Box Office Mojo says number four - taking just over six million dollars on a very quiet weekend. Yesterday figures were down 34% on Friday and Saturday. I will take BOM's numbers over Comforts any old day of the week.

If you are interested in seeing the movie - for shits and giggles, it is available through various BitTorrent trackers. "Arrrr me pirate mates, av ye some of this ere god movie. An' be sure to share the laughs." - as an eye-patched, sea-faring purveyor of movies might say.

M.

Atheists are God's Enemy!

So much for us all being God's children! We're "His enemy"!

Ray Comfort Wrote:
... if you are an atheist, you are not God's child (He will never damn His children). You are His enemy. The Bible makes that very clear.
- Comment to chris mackey in Ex-atheists post (emphasis added)

So, how long until Ray leads his followers on a Jihad against the godless of the world? We are "the Enemy", after all.

I Agree with This

Read the #**§? Manual

Another on of Ray's great analagies.

The bible as an instruction book. he suggests it is foolish to own an instruction book and not follow the instructions.

Logic tells me that this instruction book is the right book for that appliance. Any other conclusion would be lunacy.

Here's what happens when you use the bible as an instruction book:
What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

The second type of difficult rules were those that will get you into trouble if you follow them in modern-day America. For instance, the Old Testament rule that you should stone adulterers. Luckily, I was able to stone one adulterer. I was in the park dressed in my biblical garb (white clothes, a beard, sandals, walking stick) and a man came up to me and asked why I was dressed so strangely. He seemed hostile right from the start. I explained to him my project. And he said "I'm an adulterer. Are you going to stone me?" I said, "That would be great."
I took out a handful of pebbles - because the Bible never specifies the size of the stones. This man actually grabbed the stones from my hand and chucked them at my face. I felt I had the right to retaliate, so I tossed a pebble at him. And in that way I stoned.

The Piety of Ray - A Little Web Sleuthing

In the Thought of the Day thread on Monday Ray said
"how do you know that we didn't sell everything we had, came the the U.S., and gave to the poor?" I feel that Ray is trying to imply that he came to the US to lead a humble life giving to the poor. Good question Ray, how do we know? Considering this is the man who also vouched for Kent Hovind's integrity (Comfort vs. Barrier Debate) I thought I would do a little investigating.

Turns out, Living Waters Ministries is a 501(3)c nonprofit organization. One of the things about these organizations is that they must annually file form 990 and form 1203 with the IRS. These forms are subject to public examination. Form 990 for any nonprofit organization is very easy to obtain from guidestar.org after freely registering. To save you all the trouble of running over there and registering and searching I've uploaded the documents to megaupload for distribution. [2006 - 2005 - 2004] Unfortunately, requests for form 1203 must be snail mailed and I'll let you know if there is anything juicy in it once I get mine. I found form 990 to be very informative, though, and will attempt to give a quick rundown of it. (For a handy guide on making your own interpretation visit)

Living Water's Finances 2006
For 2006 Living Waters Publications sold 4.5 million dollars worth of merchandise that only cost the organization 1.9 million (a 137% markup). Living waters also took in $736,472 in donations. This gave the org a net revenue of 3.3 million to be added to the 1.4 million it had in the bank at the beginning of the year.
The expenditures for 2006 list fund raising receiving 1.2%, program services receiving 24.5%, and managerial and general receiving 74.1% of the 3 million spent. IMHO, if you are running a nonprofit and only 24% of your expenditures are going to the programs and services the org was created to address, and 74% are going to Managerial and General expenses, you're doin' it wrong.

Ray (and Kirk's) Compensation for 04, 05, and 06
Ray's compensation from living waters has increased as the org's monies have increased. In 2004, when the org had only $300 on the books, Ray took no money. This inclines me to believe that Ray also has other methods of income that are not affiliated with Living Waters. Book sales and speaking engagements perhaps? Can't say for sure, but I can speculate.
In 2005, when LW took in 2.4 million, Ray's compensation jumped up to $50,000.
In 2006 Ray was compensated with $119,784. 120k!! I am working my ass off in college to become a chemical engineer. The average salary for a 20 yr veteran chem. eng. is only 100k. I can't believe that some mustached schmuck, hocking bible tracts marked up 137%, is earning more than I prospectively ever will.
Year 2006 also marked the first appearance of Camrolio Productions Inc, which received 119k for its "professional talent services". Googling their name only returned two Kirk Cameron sites on which he listed Camrolio to be his agent. I wouldn't be suprised if hes also their only client.
Of course we can't say definitively that the compensation that Comfort and Cameron recieved weren't then given to charity after being in their hands. I would find this peculiar though. Why would you remove money from a nonprofit organization, have income taxes applied to it, and then donate it to charity. To me this is implausible and counterproductive. Plus, we can find out some things about Ray's assets. Form 990 listed Rays address, which means we can find stuff out about

Ray's Domicile
Ray lives in Bellflower, CA, a suburb of LA. By visiting LA's county assessor website I found out that Ray's house has been valued at a quarter of a million dollars. Additionally, I visited the LA Times real estate section and looked at some of the going rates for houses in his neighborhood. Even if he doesn't own the best house in town, he certainly lives in a nice neighborhood. I can only wonder, as I sit in my shabby 1 room apartment, where a man owning a 250k dollar 4 bedroom house can get the gall to act as though he is suffering for his faith.

With regards to Ray's charitableness, I think we can all agree


*Edit - Upon further investigation I've discovered that Ray's speaking requirements to be
"• We do not charge a fee, but a "love offering" is requested
• The church must allow Living Waters to set-up a book table
• Two round-trip airline tickets from LAX (preferably a direct flight--this is very important)
• Hotel accommodations for two people (one room, two beds)
• If you want to schedule Ray, then there must be a minimum of 1000 people in attendance. (To schedule another staff member there need only be 200 people in attendance.)"
WTF is a "Love Offering"?

Ray Comfort is a filthy quote miner...

...anyone surprised? Anyone?

As par usual, he has the reading comprehension of an ADD inflicted 3rd grader who's all hopped up on half a jug of craft glue. The quote in question is mined from a book review of Dr. Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark."
Of course, Dr. Richard Lewontin wasn't stating that science will believe anything simply so they can denounce god. Sagan's book deals exceedingly little with any deity, and focuses on skepticism, irrational belief and pseudo-science in a more broad manner. Lewontin was discussing how although some claims of science may be counter-intuitive or hard to believe, that we are forced to accept them because of the evidence presented to support them.

I encourage all of you to read the article, but it is rather lengthy, so I'll quote more in context here. What Ray posted will be bolded so you can be as baffled as I am at the sheer scope of his dishonesty.

"With great perception, Sagan sees that there is an impediment to the popular credibility of scientific claims about the world, an impediment that is almost invisible to most scientists. Many of the most fundamental claims of science are against common sense and seem absurd on their face. Do physicists really expect me to accept without serious qualms that the pungent cheese that I had for lunch is really made up of tiny, tasteless, odorless, colorless packets of energy with nothing but empty space between them? Astronomers tell us without apparent embarrassment that they can see stellar events that occurred millions of years ago, whereas we all know that we see things as they happen. When, at the time of the moon landing, a woman in rural Texas was interviewed about the event, she very sensibly refused to believe that the television pictures she had seen had come all the way from the moon, on the grounds that with her antenna she couldn’t even get Dallas. What seems absurd depends on one’s prejudice. Carl Sagan accepts, as I do, the duality of light, which is at the same time wave and particle, but he thinks that the consubstantiality of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost puts the mystery of the Holy Trinity “in deep trouble.” Two’s company, but three’s a crowd.

Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. The eminent Kant scholar Lewis Beck used to say that anyone who could believe in God could believe in anything. To appeal to an omnipotent deity is to allow that at any moment the regularities of nature may be ruptured, that miracles may happen."

How to be a mindless, bigoted, stereotypical christian - just like Ray Comfort. (A Rebuttal to "The Atheist Starter Kit.")

If you are a beginner theistard, there's a lingo that you'll need to pick up, a way of thinking that you must adhere to. Otherwise you may have to actually critically examine and/or defend your outlandish beliefs in an intelligent and straight forward matter. Seeing as this is impossible while being a mindless, bigoted, stereotypical christian like Ray, you'll have to learn how to deflect any and all serious questions that challenge your beliefs. Here's ten suggestions:

1.Whenever you are presented with logical evidence that calls into question the existence or possibility of your deity insist that atheists don't understand the nature of god, change the definition of god to something so intentionally ambiguous that it's practically meaningless or insist that atheists are lying intentionally.

2. When you hear an atheist explain to someone why Paley's watchmaker argument and all of its lesser, more idiotic incarnations(pop can, air plane, etc) have been refuted, insist that this argument still holds true. Ignore any and all explanation regarding your misunderstanding of the theory of evolution - ignore the fact that mechanical and biological processes are NOT the same thing, ignore the fact that we can see evolution in action(Lembski's E. coli). Insist that some things are 'too complicated' to happen by 'chance'. Ignore the atheist when he explains that natural selection is not 'chance', and ignore his explanation of how whatever you've said could NOT have evolved did indeed evolve. You'll also need to ignore the other philosophical and logical issues with this sentiment - pretend that saying that everything needs a designer but then claiming that the most complex of ALL things(God) does not need one makes perfect sense. Insist that you can add this qualifier on without any further explanation. Ignore the fact that when we say we can see a painter for a painting or a builder for a house that we can LITERALLY see, meet, and physically talk to said painter or builder.

3. When an atheist tries to point out the logical fallacies of Pascal's Wager, pretend to be too stupid to understand what they're explaining. Ignore the fact that an appeal to emotion is not proof of anything other than the lack of any real argument. Pretend that this same wager doesn't mean that you're gambling yourself - after all, you reject every other god that people believe exists, don't you? Make sure to assert that you are certain that your god is the correct one 'because the bible says so.' Ignore the fact that every single religion insists that it is the correct one for the exact same reasons.

4. When someone questions the existence of your god or professes no belief in jesus, insist that they have no real intellectual concerns. Instead inform them that the reason they don't believe is that they want to excuse themselves from things like, "whoever looks on a woman to lust for her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart." You can insist this even if the person saying it is a girl - after all, she's a filthy non-believer and therefore could be a LESBIAN. Then try to pretend that you yourself have no sexual or biological urges so that you can feel superior to the questioner.

5.Believe everything that your pastor, priest or evangelist says that the bible says. Even the contradictory things. Don't ever question. And whatever you do, don't read the thing for yourself cover to cover. If you do so, you run the serious risk of seeing and understanding the glaring contradictions, falsehoods and mistakes that it contains. If you do ever feel like you have doubts, spend all of your expendable income on books by guys like Ray Comfort - who gets filthy rich off of trying to explain away, confuse, distort or justify said glaring errors. Never critically think or examine anything you read in the bible, simply insist over and over that it is the inerrant word of god and absolutely true - even the contradictions - even when pesky science or history contradicts it.

6.Insist that you were once a genuine atheist and that you were so angry with god and that you hated him. Ignore the fact that the definition of an atheist excludes the hatred of a deity - seeing as you cannot hate something you don't believe exists. Tell everyone how badly you acted and how much you cursed jesus - then tell them how one day you magically saw the light and became a bible-thumping theistard, all by the grace of jesus. (See, the cool thing about being a christian is that you can lie through your teeth because you believe that you are justified if it helps convince people to believe the same things you do.) If an atheist tries to counter with the 'No True Scotsman' fallacy, ignore them. It cannot be overly emphasized how important ignoring your own logical fallacies is and how doing so can allow you to continue to feel secure with your irrational and unfounded beliefs.

7. Believe that nothing is 100% certain except the bible. Do not question it. Believe with all of your heart that there is credible evidence for intelligent design or creationism. Ignore any and all scientific evidence that disproves your scripture. Refuse to acknowledge the evolutionary theory, even while reaping its benefits(medical science, vaccines, transplants, surgeries, etc).

8.Try, whenever possible to threaten people with the idea of hell. Ignore the fact that the only people who are afraid of hell are people who believe in it. Ignore the fact that there is no definitive proof that there is an afterlife of any kind, let alone a heaven or hell. Ignore the theological implications of such a place and don't let the contradictions of a just and loving god who wants to torture people for all eternity simply because he created them improperly ruin the fun you'll have when fantasizing about all those who oppose you burning forever. Convince yourself that just because you really want to believe in something, that it exists. Don't bother to logically examine or question the obvious psychological issues - ie, the possibility that humans have created the notion of an afterlife to deal with a death that they are terrified of and don't fully understand.

9. Blame atheism for the atrocities of the Nazi's or the Communists. Ignore the fact that Hitler declared himself to believe in your jesus. Ignore the fact that Hitler utilized christianity to justify his hatred of the Juden and their mass extermination. Pretend that these atrocities mean that all atheists want to murder people. Ignore any and all wars, inquisitions or otherwise christianity related mass murders.

10. Finally, keep in fellowship with other like-minded theistards who believe as you believe, and encourage each other in your beliefs. Build up your faith. Never doubt for a moment. Remember, the key to theism is to be unreasonable. Fall back on that when you feel threatened. Think shallow, and keep telling yourself that you are intelligent. Remember, a theist is someone who pretends there is a god to make themselves feel better. Without your belief you would have to accept that there is no life after death, that the universe is a vast, cold unfeeling place that was not created for us, and that you are not a special creation. And admitting those things would lessen your ability to pretend you're better than everyone else, and no one wants that, do they?