This article will provide a thorough walk through analysis and criticism of this book. We will discover Kirk Cameron is no
better of a honest man as his partner Ray
Comfort.
Chapter 1: What Peter Feared
The chapter begins with a story of Ray Comfort and a unknown Christian woman codenamed "Fran." Fran was planning to have an abortion, Ray Comfort claims he rushed to the hospital to convince her not to go through with it, but upon arriving he discovered that she changed her mind and said she prayed to God "God, if you don't want me to have an abortion, make Ray Comfort come up and see me."Ray Comfort then says that he will never ever vote for anyone who would advocate abortion, and he urges his readers and his listeners to do the same. Ray claims "our nation kills 50 million of it's citizens through abortion."
Also, the U.S. kills 50 million of it's "citizens"? Nice word play to make it sound like it already has rights. The question of when does life start has not even been addressed anywhere here. Does the nation even consider them "citizens"? If they did, why doesn't the census ever count them? Why is it that no mother why has a miscarriage ever have a funeral?
What is being ignored is that the mother has rights too. And under the Constitution, she has a legal right to a safe abortion. Ray Comfort may by apologetically anti-abortion, which is easy for him because he will never have to endure pregnancy, and yet he feels his views should override the personal decisions of ann individual mother.
Even Ray Comfort agrees that peoples opinions change. Often, Ray uses
an argument of giving a person a choice of either two gifts: a
handful of diamonds or a glass of water. Ray's argument goes like
this: "If I were to offer you a fist full of diamonds or a
glass of cool clean water, which would you choose? The diamonds
obviously, because no one in their right mind wouldn't. But if you
found yourself crawling through a desert, your lips are blistered,
your tongue is swollen, and you are dying of thirst. And if I was to
offer you a glass of cool clean water or a fistful of diamonds, you
would despise the diamonds and say give me the water or I would die.
that is what is called circumstantial priorities. Your priorities
will change according to the
circumstances." (Source: "The Greatest Gamble" by Ray Comfort)
This can very well be the case regarding abortion: it really depends
on the circumstances. Certain things, like wanting diamonds or having
abortions, are not always settled in absolute terms.
Ray goes on to say "In this matter of abortion, we are no different from the crimes of Nazi Germany committed during the Holocaust."
The U.S. government is not ''mandating'' that women have
abortions, as the Third Reich ''ordered'' the extermination of Jews
and other classes of people. The systematic slaughter of an entire
race of people connected by characteristics, community and culture is
actually 180 degrees the opposite of randomly unconnected women
choosing to exercise their legal right to terminate a pregnancy that
they neither want nor can emotionally or financially support. Trying
to compare the two insults both victims of the Holocaust AND women,
because it assumes that the value of their already established lives
and self determination is the same as that of a ball of cells.
A final problem is that comparing legalized abortion to the Holocaust implies that the U.S. government deserves the same fate as Nazi Germany - namely, to be overthrown by force. And that's a logical conclusion few if any anti-abortion activists are going to make.
A final problem is that comparing legalized abortion to the Holocaust implies that the U.S. government deserves the same fate as Nazi Germany - namely, to be overthrown by force. And that's a logical conclusion few if any anti-abortion activists are going to make.
An Even Bigger Wake Up Call
Basically, Ray Comfort says if you love this nation, you must get over your fears and evangelize.
In other words, if you "love America" you must get out there and spread the virtue of glorifying ignorance (faith) and preach a religion that has no facts whatsoever and has proven over and over again to be wrong.
Where is Jesus sitting?
In sum, Ray says there are a lot of lousy Christians out there because they do other things than evangelize.
Where Are You In This Story?
Ray claims (as a matter of fact) that Jesus controlled the storm, raised the dead and turned water to wine. Ray talks about the Crucifixion story, and asks the readers if they would have been a disciple or Judas.No proof whatsoever that a man did any of these acts, let alone there being no historical evidence for Jesus Christ.
Chapter 2: Irksome Words that Convict
Kirk begins with telling a short story of him
and his wife having a bird feeder. The bird feeder attracts the
hungry birds, so Kirk compares the Cross to a bird feeder, because it
brings the ones hungry for salvation to the truth. However, the cross
is not an easy path, and many try to avoid the pain that comes with
it.
A
symbol of gruesome torture attracts people to salvation? Salvation
from what? Who says humans need salvation? Where is their proof?
Kirk
Cameron has spent (and wasted) a great deal of his life trying to
persuade people that they badly need salvation, but every time he
fails to provide any proof that they need salvation, let alone that
there really is any salvation.
Kelly
O'Connor: If God can be infinite, why can't the universe be infinite?
Kirk
Cameron: Well, we believe God is infinite and dwells in eternity and
has revealed the fact that he has created the universe.
Kelly
O'Connor: and you were supposed to provide scientific proof for your
beliefs, but we have not seen a shred of it.
(Debate
on Nightline, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron against Brian Sapient and
Kelly O'Connor of the Rational response Squad)
Kirk
Cameron states that humans need salvation from “God” – but he
has already admitted that he only believes
there's a God. Sorry Kirk, merely believing (no matter how hard or
for how long) does not make it real or true. Anyone can try to
believe as much as they want that the Earth is flat, but despite
their convictions the Earth is still a spherical planet.
Kirk marvels in the wonders of the birds,
claiming they were specially created by god. "As Christians, we
often talk about such wonders of creation that reveal the genius of
our wonderful Creator. However, to reach a godless world with the
gospel, we can't confine ourselves to preaching the pleasantries of
intelligent design. We must preach the intelligent ''Designer''. We
are to preach the ''person'' of Jesus Christ." Kirk then uses
several gospel verses to make it appear Jesus Christ created
everything.
In
other words: in order to reach the nonbelievers and persuade them to
believe impossible nonsense through lies and illogical fallacies, we
must emphasize on the unproven and illogical being we pretend that
exists.
Preach
the “person” of Jesus Christ all you like, but first start at
square one and present some historical contemporary proof that he
even existed as you believe he did. Or you can go back even further,
and provide even one iota of proof that the Earth or life was
“intelligently designed” – or in, in the context of biblical
creationism, was created by pure magic.
Kirk says that the Holy Spirit must guide us,
since religious apologetics alone may turn people like Peter to
cutting off ears. According to Kirk, the Holy Spirit is not widely
detected amongst the vast Christian community. Kirk says they make
decisions based on mans wisdom over the Holy Spirit and the power of
God. Kirk calls these people "almost unreachable" since
they believed they are saved when really they are not. They may
believe in God, accepted Jesus, but they do not feel the power of God
in their lives. Therefore, Kirk encourages religious apologetics, but
also calls for people to have a religious experience.
What is left out
of this chapter, let alone this whole book, is explaining what
religious experiences are and how are they generated. Is it the Holy
Spirit? How do we distinguish being touched by the Holy Spirit with
other religious deities, alien mind-control devices, or are they just
natural sensations mistaken for supernatural? The real answer is the
latter. The temporolimbic system consists of the temporal lobes and
the amygdale and hippocampal portion of the limbic system. The latter
two structures serve as the site of emotional memory. Different
studies show that a wide range of factors that influence temporal
lobe function can produce hallucinations, paranormal, spiritual,
mystical, and religious experiences. These factors include the
electrical stimulation of the temporal lobes; spontaneous temporal
lobe epileptic auras and seizures; trauma; the severe anoxia of near
death, G-forces and carbon dioxide inhalation; psychedelic drugs;
speaking in tongues; and many environmental stressors.
In addition, the
superior temporal gyrus, the hippocampus, and the surrounding
ectorhinal cortex have been shown to be the site of a sense of the
self in space. Aberrant functioning of this area can result in the
out-of-body sensations, depersonalization and derealization so common
in spiritual and mystical experiences. These spiritual experiences
are seen as similar to those of ordinary experiences except that they
are tagged by the limbic system as of profound importance,
meaningful, immensely joyous and of providing a sense of being
connected to something greater than ourselves.
The temporal lobe
emotional memory system is often unable to distinguish between real,
external events and non-real, internally generated non-real
experiences. Thus, when these internally generated spiritual
experiences occur they may be perceived as totally real.
Running the Streets Mad
Kirk shares an email exchange he had with an
atheist (or so Kirk says).
The atheist says that Kirk should be "running the streets mad"
with rage against their blindness. Kirk wrote back and said that is
exactly what Kirk does. It is always on Kirk's mind, but Kirk inserts
a passage from Charles Spurgeon.
More likely Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort are running the streets made for money. That is the prime goal for their ministry. Nothing more.
Next, Kirk quotes Bill Bright, founder of the
Campus Crusade for Christ,
"Here in the United States, one-third of
all Americans identify themselves as born-again Christians...But we
have a serious problem. These facts are not reflected in the life of
our nation. According to the surveys...a bare two percent regularly
share their faith in Christ. Obviously, something is tragically
wrong."
I can quote the CCC too.
“Any
so-called “truth” in conflict with God’s Truth is no truth at
all; it is a lie, a manifestation of
the one great Lie that tells us the God of the Bible is not the one
God and King over all. The war between the Truth and “truths” is
really the war between Truth and the Lie.”
Campus
Crusade for Christ blog by Tom
Gilson
Every creationist group and
organization post declarations of this kind: admissions of bias.
Proudly posted as if this is something to be proud of. Notice that
they admit that they will automatically and thoughtlessly reject
without consideration, any and all evidence that which may presented
should it appear to disagree with their a priory preconceived
conclusion.
[Unfortunately. Chapters 3-5 are not included. Apologies]
Chapter 6: The Question of Eternal Destiny
This chapter mainly deals with Hell and the
urge of ongoing evangelism.
Kirk explains he preaches in many countries in
short amount of time, and it is easy to approach foreigners because
"God's law" is "universal." What Kirk means is
that using the tactic Are you a good person? works virtually everywhere.
Oh yeah, lets use the fear of an imaginary place, a place described as the most nightmarish place possible, as a motivation to spread a belief system that glorifies ignorance.
However, two of
the “laws of God” used in the Kirk Cameron's snake-oil “Are You a Good Person?” are humanistic values, they do not and have not
originated from any supernatural entity (especially the Christian
God). For example, the "do not murder" rule has been a
moral law amongst mankind that predates Christianity and Judaism.
Kirk gives a brief story of a time he
evangelized to a man who claimed to be a Christian, but admitted he
lied about reading the gospels - perhaps just to screw with Cameron.
Kirk then says "drunks often open themselves to the influence of
demons demons", which Kirk bases on when he preached to a drunk
man who was angry and vulgar, who later nearly turned violent on
Kirk's assistant Scott (who Kirk calls a "help" christian,
but Scott and the drunk man nearly took the gloves off). A Buddhist
monk just to happened to be near this incident, and Kirk asked the
monk if he believed in God. The monk said yes, but it was tied to
karma]. Kirk explained that God's karma is "He will punish sin
with death and hell." Then Kirk walks the monk though the old
Are you a good person? tactic, which Kirk does not explain how that
turned out.
Perhaps Kirk does
not remember how the talk with the Buddhist turned out, or that Kirk
does not want the reader to know how it turned out. The Buddhist may
have or could have easily turned the tables on Kirk and walked
Cameron through the eightfold Paths to see if Cameron was a "good
person."
Kirk defends himself as not bashing religion
and sincere believers like the Buddhist monk by defining religion as
"man's efforts to try to get right with God, something a man can
never do. But the gospel does it for him. The gospel is unspeakably
good news for Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Gentiles."
When Kirk was introduced to man named tom who believed in God, but
believed God did not condemn certain people, Kirk said the man broke
the Second Commandment of creating his own image of God (a false
idol) in his head that God. Kirk says "He made him a god in his
own image. His god is a figment of his imagination that he shaped to
suit himself. His god had no moral dictate. Tom could do what he
wanted morally and not make his god frown at all."
The irony and
hypocrisy here is that this is exactly what Kirk does to himself:
create his own god to best suit him. Kirk may say that his God shapes
his morals, but his God is just an echo of his own conscious to
remind him that x,y,z is harmful and/or hurtful. This is the same for
the most sincerest of all Christians, because no matter what their
image of God is, God always has a human mind.
Practice What You Preach
Here, Kirk urges the reader to evangelize and
reminds them "God will help you." Kirk suggests they
practice, and when open air-preaching to constantly go on because you
never know who is listening.
“God will help
you” that's right, God will be just as helpful as a leprechaun; a
genie; or even a lucky charm made from bat organs.
All evangelizing
will accomplish is the evangelical person will be spreading lies
and/or making themselves look delusional.
Kirk ends this section and chapter with a story
of Charles Spurgeon, who suggests to rookie evangelists to start at
home and spread outward.
The best place
for a rookie evangelist to start is nowhere, except himself/herself!?
What they should do is examine these “beliefs” critically with themselves. Ask themselves, do I want faith? What is faith? Is it reasonable to believe without evidence? What makes my faith any more real or credible than a Muslim pr Hindu faith?
Chapter 7: From Darkness to Light
Kirk begins this chapter that he spotted a man
named John in his fifties reading the newspaper, and somehow Kirk
knew that this man deeply hated Christians by the look on his face
and his "God-hating jawline." Kirk was sure that this man
would react negatively to any "fundamentalist" who
approached him, but Kirk approached him anyway. Kirk gave the man a
"million-dollar gospel tract" and they began to discuss the
economy. Kirk had to listen to every "cuss-word" in the
book. John was a lawyer. When Kirk asked John what he thought happens
when someone dies, John did not get off the topic regarding the
economy. Kirk says this is because the question is often avoided
because it is "extremely inoffensive." John did respond
that he did not think anything happens. Next, Kirk takes John through
the
Are you a good person? tactic. In the end, John was found totally
guilty, but John reminded Kirk that he had done much more good in the
world. Kirk then moves on to use his court analogy, but before Kirk
could finish John cut him off. Kirk says that because John already
saw the folly in his answer and he was evading the scene because he
was deeply convicted in his sin.
It is strange
when Kirk can give a full detailed retelling of how the conversation
went but leave out things like this.
We cannot know
what happened or who said, or if this ever happened. What can be
drawn from this is that John did not “cut Kirk off” because he
already saw himself in trouble, any thinking person sees right away
that there is no evidence for this “God's law” and “court
analogy.” It is all based on wishful thinking, an act of pretend
that there is a God and he has a set of rules.
Merely refusing
to go along with this train of illogical steps from imaginary laws to
fictional courts does not “prove” that anyone is “evading the
scene because [they] are deeply convicted in [their] sin.” It only
points out that the person is not being fooled by the evangelist
illogical beliefs and wishful thinking. In the same way that a
thinking person does not fall for the fictional story that they are
infested with “thetan aliens,” their refusal to play along does
not mean they secretly believe they have aliens in them. That is
nonsense.
Did I Fail?
Kirk asked if he failed for not delivering the
gospel to John? Kirk quotes Mark 10:17-22 and concludes he did not,
because John took the time to listen and he heard that he sinned
against God.
So by that logic,
when a conspiracy theorist fails to convince a stranger that the Pope
is a reptilian alien, that is a success only because they heard the
conspiracy? Sorry Kirk, but that is a failure, just like you.
Did Kirk Fail?
Yes. Not because of John, but because of himself. Kirk claims to have
been “lost” before he became religious, but the truth is he is
more lost than he ever was. He has come to accept the most illogical
incoherent beliefs that do not have a lick of evidence to support
them. And it gets worse, he has turned this delusion of his into a
money-making machine to trying to fool others into believing his
nonsensical rubbish and lies via propaganda.
Next is a section called "Faithfulness."
Kirk compares Christians to firefighters and claims that Christians
must keep their words and do what they say they will do. Kirk quotes
proverbs 25:19 and Proverbs 20:6.
The Depth of the Penalty
Kirk says that he understood John when John
thought the concept of hell was unreasonable. Kirk tries to perform
some logic gymnastics: "if Kirk lies to his dog, nothing
happens. If he lies to his wife, he gets in trouble. If he lies in
court, he gets punished." To Kirk, lying is equal in the eyes of
God (Ps. 51:4 and Prov. 12:22), so lying to your dog is just as bad
as lying in court. This is how Kirk reasons that hell is reasonable
and justifiable, since everyone will enter the courtroom on Judgment
Day and a crime of sin is serious in the eyes of God.
Kirk says that
God put a couple to death in Acts 5:1-11 for lying, but what Kirk
does not share is that God killed Ananias and Sapphira for not giving
Peter all of the money that they made when selling their land (this
practice of collectivization is known as communism). Kirk tries to
give the appearance through Scripture that all liars are punished by
God, but he skips instances like in the book of Genesis where Jacob
steals from his brother, lies to his father, but is continually
rewarded by God.
- Ps. 51:4, the next line says that everyone is born in sin and are evil in the eyes of god.
- Prov. 12:22 is contradicted with verses like James 2:25, "Was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?."
Chapter 8: They Need to Hear the Moral Law
Kirk and Ray believe we are living in biblical
prophecy as the world lives in peril. Kirk and Ray mentions war, terrorism,
neighboring nations despising others, economies collapsing, and law
makers "have fear in their eyes." Kirk and Ray quotes Matthew
24;14, when the gospel is preached to all nations, the end will
come." Kirk and Ray encourages readers to speak out and share their
faith. Some may not have the time, so Kirk and Ray recommends carrying gospel
tracts and speaking out when the opportunity comes.
Those are the signs of the End Times, these two charlatans basically listed the very same signs that have existed with every nation that ever existed around the world. These things will always be present. Economies rise and fall and cycle. Every nation will have neighbors who don't get along. There will be struggles over politics and control over natural resources.
BUT there is something else that can drive terrorism and national hostilities: religion and faith.
Religious Moral Laws are not always good laws, or even based on ethics or morality. Several Laws in the Bible provide punishments for crimes with no victims, like saying the Lord's name being punishable by death. Humans have a natural tendency to be cooperative and caring, because we are biologically social animals, and social animals thrive through cooperation. Religion over ruled that natural tendency by demanding that faithful believers kill the Infidel.
Questions That Lead to the Gospel
Kirk shares how he learned over the years (by
God's grace) how to approach people and stir up conversation about
Christianity. Usually, he started when a person mentions words like
"righteousness" "hell" "judgment"
"Christ" and such. Kirk recommends start by asking a person
an unoffensive question: what they think happens when a person dies.
When a person responds without any negative potential, a persons fear
of evangelizing should drop and they can continue on. Kirk then asks
the reader if they are prepared to join the "most worthy cause
on earth?"
Most worthy cause
on earth? Look at the history of Christianity and modern
Christianity. The pages of Christianity history are soaked with blood
more than any other religion. Christianity has caused mass suffering,
that it would take a entire collection of novels and libraries to
share them all. Even in modern times Christianity is far from worthy.
Does Kirk sanction the raping and slaughtering of children and people
in India and Africa?
Extending the Conversation
Kirk retells a story he had with a financial
person named Joe. Kirk says he first asked him a few trick
questions, such as "How many U.S. Presidents are not buried in
the U.S.?" The answer is five, because they are the president
and ex-presidents who are still alive. Another trick question, "What
was the highest mountain before Mt. Everest?" Kirk says it has
always been the highest. When Kirk moved on to ask Joe what he
thought happens after a person dies, Joe said he was not an atheist
but still did not think anything happens after death. Kirk then asked
Joe to ''imagine'' there is a Heaven, and then asked Joe if he
thought he was worthy to go there. Kirk then took Joe through the
Are you a good person? routine. Afterwards, Joe asked why
Christianity thought every other religious people were going to hell,
Kirk answered that they religions of 'work-righteousness' - that is
they work to earn their way into Heaven in a form of bribery, whereas
Christianity says salvation is through grace. Joe thought that that
was unfair. Kirk asked Joe if he thought Christianity was
"intolerant"? Joe answered yes, but Kirk says Joe is being
intolerant of Christianity. Then Joe told Kirk he was not, but Kirk
does not share any more of that conversation. Kirk just says they had
a good talk, and Kirk gave him a "What Hollywood Believes"
CD and a Way of the Master book. Kirk just tries to make a point that
when a person does not believe in an afterlife, the conversation does
not end there.
Be sure to catch
the "imagine" there is a heaven. If Kirk Cameron and/or Ray
Comfort had any proof whatsoever of Heaven or an afterlife, he would
have presented it in a heartbeat rather than asking a person to just
"imagine" such a realm. Using Kirk's logic, you can ask a
person to imagine the Hell of Islam, Avalon, Valhala, and so on.
Imagining a place is easy, but proving it is something else.
What Sin Causes
Kirk starts this off with a claim made by jesus
(John 8:12) where he calls himself the light and the rest of the
world walks in darkness. Kirk says Christians no longer live in the
darkness of ignorance, a world of sin. Kirk blames the suffering of
the world on sin. Next, he quotes Isaiah 40:6-10.
“Christians no
longer live in the darkness of ignorance” ugh, hello! The group of
people who believe in impossible nonsense don't live in ignorance?
The same people who proudly embrace faith, the most dishonest thing a
person can embrace! The same said faith that has caused millions of
Christians to believe the Earth is 6,000 years old; man co-existed
with dinosaurs; still believe in witches and ghosts; even Christians
who deny that planets exist!
Sin is not and
cannot be a problem for the world, because it is just an imaginary
disease. A real and bigger problem is the faithful who believe sin
exists and have for centuries have done tremendous work to slow down
or halt progress, human rights and education.
Kirk says that several words dominate the
secular world of the United States, such as depression, gas and food
prices, bank loans, inflation and debt. Kirk then compares America to
Israel, who after losing their faith in God, God in return would
remove his blessings. Disease, drought and foreign powers will invade
them. Kirk then looks at America; the debt is 11 trillion and
growing; 100,000 of Americans will get cancer next year; we have
terrible droughts and floods; hurricanes and tornadoes; Kirk claims
these are not signs of God's blessing. Kirk asks the audience "aren't
we a morally good nation? Don't we trust in God?"
Something that
has not been proven to exist cannot bless or remove it's blessings.
Furthermore, America is not a perfect nation, but there are real
causes for it's problems. For one, cancer and diseases will always be
present around the globe, due to the constant evolution of diseases
and/or lack of access to cures – if they have been invented yet.
One thing Kirk fails to mention is that one huge reason why so many
people do not have access to cures is due to Christian intervention.
Ranging from faith healers urging their congregation to dump all
their pills and medication in favor of prayer to evangelicals in
power or government restricting access to cures. Take for instance
human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is now the most common sexually
transmitted disease in the United States. The virus infects over half
the American population and causes nearly five thousand women to die
each year from cervical cancer; the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
estimates that more the two hundred thousand die worldwide. We now
have a vaccine for HPV that appears to be both safe and effective.
The vaccine produced 100 percent immunity in the six thousand women
who received it as part of a clinical trial. And yet, Christian
conservatives in our government have resisted a vaccination program
on the grounds that HPV is a valuable impediment to premarital sex.
As if the fact needed further corroboration, Reginal Finger, an
Evangelical member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices, announced that he would consider opposing an HIV
vaccine—thereby condemning millions of men and women to die
unnecessarily from AIDS each year—because such a vaccine would
encourage premarital sex by making it less risky. This is one of many
points on which makes religious beliefs become genuinely lethal.
Move on to
drought, there are many causes of drought. One of the top causes is
climate change – a serious threat to humanity the entire globe, and
yet one of the most outspoken deniers of climate change are
Christians. Why? Because their personal beliefs in God have closed
them from accepting reality and accountability. This is the fruits of
faith: denying reality, willingly ignoring facts (even when they are
clearly presented), wishful thinking and pretending to know things
that they cannot know.
Also, invasion
from foreign powers. This has always been a issue for all nations
throughout human existence. To think that certain nations are exempt
from the threat of invasion in certain time frames of Earth's history
is like saying earth quakes don't happen in certain parts of the
world.
Finally, a
morally good nation does not have to trust in a unproven entity to be
“moral.” In fact, statistically, the most secular of nations
quite often are always the best of nations. Furthermore, if belief in
god makes a morally good nation, then by that logic, was it morally
good to slaughter millions of Native Americans? Drive them away from
their homes, steal their resources and sabotage their holy sites?
Kidnapping, raping, torturing and selling them into slavery? Is this
the morale of a “god-believing” nation?
Kirk then brings up several points,
*There were approximately 180,000 murders in
America between 1997 and 2007.
And how many of
them have been committed by Christians? Hardcore Christians have been
known to murdering doctors, gays, or their on children? Recently, a
mother tried to kill herself and children to escape the coming
Rapture.
*More
than 50 million babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade.
And there have
been three to four times more miscarriages since then. If god has an
ultimate plan, knows everything, is in control of everything, then he
is clearly not pro-life. Kirk also did not mention the fact that
Evangelical Christians (Kirk's denomination) have the highest rates
of abortions.}}
*45-55% of women and 50-60% of men admit to
having an affair at some point in their marital relationship. Five
million unwed couples live together.
How is unwed
couples living together immoral?
*By
age 19, 75% of women and 80% of men have premarital sex.
So what? This is
not a moral crisis. Sex is natural and it is impossible to make
teenagers avoid it.
*One-third
of births to women aged 25 to 29 years were out of wedlock.
*1
out of 4 teenage girls have a STD.
American
teenagers engages in about as much sex as teenagers in the rest of
the developed world, but American girls are four to five times more
likely to become pregnant, to have a baby, or to get an abortion.
Young Americans are also far more likely to be infected by HIV and
other sexually transmitted diseases. The rate of gonorrhea among
American teens is seventy times higher than it is among their peers
in France and in the Netherlands. The fact that 30 percent of our
sex-education programs teach abstinence only (at a cost of more than
$200 million a year) surely has something to do with this.
*Americans
spend 4 billion dollars annually on pornography.
God is not in
disfavor with pornography. When God punished David for taking
Bathsheba, God commanded a man to have sex with all of David's
concubines in the open "for all of Israel to see" - meaning
he made love in broad daylight for bystanders to watch. Pornography
is not harmful, but the United States spends about a hundred times
more than that to fight the failed Drug War. But how many Christians
engage in or purchase pornography? Studies have show that the more
conservative or religious a person is the more likely they will spend
money on
pornography.[1] [2]
*We have more than 2 million people in prison -
the largest prison population in the world.
Kirk forgot to
mention Christians make the largest religious population in prison.
Perhaps the greatest reason why many people are in prison is due to
the war on drugs. Each year, over 1.5 million men and women are
arrested in the United States because of our drug laws. At this
moment, about 400,000 men and women languish in U.S. prisons for
nonviolent drug offenses. One million others are currently on
probation. Some 51% of all violent offenders are released from jail
after serving two years or less, and 76% were released after serving
four years or less (Source). At the federal
level, the average sentence for a drug offense in the U.S. is 6.25
years.
*Surveys
reveal that 91% of all people lie regularly.
Lying is not
absolutely immoral. Biblical characters lied, such as in the book of
Genesis, Jacob steals from his brother, lies to his father, and is
continually rewarded by god. Lying can be used for good causes, such
as a person living in the time of the Third Reich lying to a Nazi
that he is not housing a Jew.
Kirk says we tend to put the blame on many
things except sin and offending god.
What is more
likely, we try to put the blame on something we actually know is
there and not some supernatural being that has zero evidence. If a
country has a gang problem, praying to invisible pixies will not
solve anything. Only in Kirk's mind is sin responsible for all the
ills of society, but his personal beliefs are just as valid as
thetans, Islamic sin, upsetting the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or
karma.
Chapter 9: Then Fine Has Been Paid
Kirk reminds the reader that he went over
several "national sins" that go against God's law. Kirk
says the knowledge of the law brings knowledge of sin. Kirk then
brings up King David and Bathsheba, where David broke the
Commandments. The prophet Nathan told David God had a "wonderful
plan".
Kirk did not
mention God's "righteous judgment" cast on David. God did
not punish David, in fact God forgave David and Nathan told David he
was clean of sin. However, God decided David's first child with
Bathsheba shall die. Seven days that child lied in pain before it
died. God also commanded that a man have sex with all of David's
concubines "for all of Israel to see."
Kirk points out that the lost seem to always
seek to justify their sin because they love it so much. Kirk tells us
to look at the Ten Commandments and see how we have offended God.
Kirk then address several objections that the lost do not need to
hear the god news because they already know they are sinners and the
Holy Spirit can save them. Kirk points to what Paul said in Romans
2:21-24. Kirk says sinners do not know the nature of sin, using
Romans 7;7 as support. Kirk says most people will say they are good
people, but they do not know God's ''perfect'' standard. Kirk admits
the Holy Spirit does convict of sin, but leaving out the law robs it
of its power.
I do not attempt to "justify my sins" or seek to avoid accountability -- rather the exact opposite!
The only ones who love their "sins" are the Christians. The only requirement to get into Heaven is belief (or in other words, gullibility). Jesus said "anyone who breaks these Laws will be called least in Heaven." So you can break every rule in the Bible and you can still get into Heaven, you just have to fly coach. There is only one sin that not even almighty god can forgive: non-belief.
Basically, morality does not matter. Christians can be as vile as they want. Christians like Hitler can be as wicked as they like, but they can still get into Heaven. On the other hand, atheists can be as moral and charitable people in the world, but it doesn't matter to God. Gullibility is the only criteria.
After reviewing Christian material produced by the likes of Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron for years, I can say without a doubt Kirk and Ray love their "sins" more than I could possibly do in a thousands lifetimes. They lie practically on a daily basis about science and they propagate their religion for money. They "sin" constantly and proudly, but thanks to faith they have zero accountability. They can sin all they like all day, just to ask Jesus for forgiveness before bedtime, and they are suddenly pure in the eyes of God.
So I do not disbelieve in God because I love my "sins." The fact that I have accountability is the reason why I cannot pretend to believe nonsensical things that are not true. Unlike Kirk and Ray, I value truth and embrace accountability.
But How Could a Loving God...
Kirk says it is common for people to say a
loving God would never create a hell. Kirk uses an analogy of a judge
in a court of law. The judge would be considered evil if he turned a
blind eye to a violent criminal, just as God would not be holy and
good if he did not punish sinners who violated his law. Kirk brings
up the stats from last chapter about 180,000 murders taking place in
a ten year span. Kirk then says 80,000 of them got away with murder,
and then Kirk has to appeals to emotion by gruesomely describing
their horrible acts. Kirk then states God is omniscient and does not
turn away from a murder. Kirk then says "we know intuitively
that God is good" and will punish those who desired to attempt
murder. He will punish rapists, thieves, liars, fornicators,
jealousy, hatred, greed and envy. Kirk then brings up the Ten
Commandments that show that we are all criminals, the question then
turns into "How can there ''not'' be a hell?" and common
sense concludes that there is some divine retribution for justice.
Even when
invoking that a god exists does not logically follow that said god is
"just" or "good." There is no way to "know"
if any supernatural agent (if there is one) is "good."
Kirk's analogy of a criminal pleading with a judge for forgiveness is
also flawed. Kirk and his partner Ray Comfort have noted several times that God is "rich in mercy" and is merciful to those who forsakes their sin.
Therefore, using the criminal-in-court analogy, the judge could
easily forgive all the crimes out of an act of mercy simply because
he is merciful or that the criminal stood up and admitted on the spot
they did wrong. By this reasoning, Hitler could "forsake"
his sins before his death, and thus be rewarded by God's mercy.
"How can
there ''not'' be a hell?" Easy, by the fact that the Abrahamic
God has never been proven to exist. That's like asking "how can there not be a Valhalla?" The concept of Hell is completely
illogical and the foundation of Hell is a repackaging of Greek
Hellenistic views and historical sites like Gehenna.
Kirk then quotes Col. 1:28. Kirk brings up
Martin Luther who said "The first duty of the gospel preacher is
to declare god's law and show the nature of sin."
Martin Luther
also said the following:
- "Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God."
- "Reason should be destroyed in all Christians.”
- "Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his Reason."
- "Reason is
the Devil's greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a
noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil's appointed whore;
whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot
and destroyed, she and her wisdom ... Throw dung in her face to make
her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism... She would
deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the
house, to the closets."
[Martin Luther, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148]
He also said:
- "There is
on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly
endowed and adroit reason...Reason must be deluded, blinded, and
destroyed."
[Martin Luther, quoted by Walter Kaufmann, "The Faith of a Heretic", (Garden city, NY, Doubleday, 1963), p. 75]
- “Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God.”
- "The word
and works of God is quite clear, that women were made either to be
wives or prostitutes."
[Martin Luther, Works 12.94]
- "The Jews are the most miserable people on earth. They are plagued everywhere, and scattered about all countries, having no certain resting place. They sit as on a wheelbarrow, without a country, people or government... but they are rightly served, for seeing they refused have Christ and his gospel, instead of freedom they must have servitude."
- "Either God must be unjust, or you, Jews, wicked and ungodly. You have been, about fifteen hundred years, a race rejected of God."
- "Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools..."
- "We are at
fault for not slaying them [the Jews]"
[Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies", 1543]
Kirk concludes that is what is wrong with this
nation: no opening to God's law.
There are many
problems with this country, but NONE of it has anything related to
Kirk's narrow version of God. In fact, some could point out that
God's law and Christianity is a force for negative impacts rather than good in the country and across the world.
It is a statistic
fact that the more secular nations are, the better off they are. So
why should America turn to “God's law”, especially when this
article has already thoroughly pointed out every flaw in them?
If this country
turned to “God's law” America might as well become Saudi Arabi or
any other theocracy. Why? What is the First Commandment? There is
only one God, and you must obey him and no other. Ergo, forcing every
citizen to convert to Christianity.
Puffed Up by Pride
Kirk quotes Luke 13:18 to examine what jesus
thought about this sort of attitude.
Sure, ask what does a fictional character think of this attitude.
Chapter 10: The Quicksand of Moral Relativity
Kirk argues that the law of God is absolute and
removes relativity. Kirk says that studies show that 75% of American
college professors teach there is no right or wrong and leave it to
"individual values and cultural diversity." Kirk says this
makes no sense to a Christian, but it makes perfect sense to a
spiritually blind world. Kirk compares moral relativity to a person
who jumps off a cliff thinking they could fly until they discover the
absolute law of gravity.
While no sources
or studies are shown, we have nothing but Kirk Cameron's word that
these “college professors” are teaching there is no right or
wrong. This is complete bollocks.
Universities
across the country and across the world have classes in ethics, and
there are many approaches to ethics – so to claim that they are all
teaching 'there's no right or wrong' is complete nonsense. Instead
what Kirk Cameron is parading for is this: if they don't teach the
moral absolutes of the Bible, then by default the universities are
promoting moral anarchy.
Kirk may be
concerned while the Bible is not taught or included in these ethics
classes... perhaps it is because there is NOTHING in the Bible that
qualifies as “morality” and if anyone uses the Bible as a moral
guide, you will be arrested in every nation in the civilized world.
Why? Because the Bible promotes the death penalty to anyone for the
pettiest of offenses and victimless crimes. The main character of the
Bible, God, is a moral monster – as clearly evident as displayed in
the Bible. The Bible promotes that any follower of God must obey him,
and if at any moment when God tells them to do something, the
believer must abandon all their sense of morality and do the will of
God, even if that includes killing someone – even those close and
dearest to you.
Would You Shoot?
Here, Kirk wishes to test moral relativity by
creating a scenario. It is 1938, you have a rifle in your hands with
Adolf Hitler in your sights. You have one shot. Would you take him
out? Kirk then says think off all the lives you would save just by
squeezing the trigger. If a person says they wouldn't, Kirk says what
if you were enlisted in the military and it was your duty to shoot?
Kirk then tells us that when we look through the lens of "what
if" to determine what is right or wrong to keep in mind the
suffering of the Jewish children.
So, here we have
Kirk asking a series of hypothetical questions to make us reflect on
our own views - but he does not share his own.
There are many
responses we can do in these sort of "what if" scenarios.
For instance, if you could be the first person to discover nitrogen,
knowing full well it would be used for both good and bad, would you
discover it and reveal it to the world? Nitrogen is used in
fertilizer, which is used to feed two-thirds of the world's
population, but nitrogen is also used in missiles (which are tools to
kill people).
How do we go
about determining which is the best moral answer? Take for instance,
members of society X are genuinely protective of others from a state
of mental disorder for "demon possessions" they see as a
threat. They may feel a moral duty to destroy their perceived threat
of demon-possessed individuals. however, through information and
knowledge, we know understand that demon-possession is not the cause,
but rather certain brain malfunctions. If society X outgrows their
belief in possession and learn about brain malfunction, they may feel
a new duty to care for those with mental disorders. It is not that
they discovered a hither or two unknown objective duty to help than
rather harm these people, it is given their initially protective
attitude, their sense of duty changes in response to change in
information. As before, much of the sense of what we ought to do may
come initially from instinct rather than conscious reasoning. Again,
empathic instincts influence much of our behavior, and it is easy to
see how much this instinct would evolve, how natural selection would
favor groups of humans whose instinct was to protect each other over
individuals who were trying to survive on a hostile planet with no
one to protect them.
You may be a pacifist, but if your man was
going to rape and kill your mother and you had a gun, would you shoot
him? Kirk quotes 1 Timothy 5:8. Kirk says he would not hesitate to
pull the trigger. Going back the the Hitler issue, if a person did
finally decide to Kill Hitler to save the lives of millions, the
person figures even if God did damn them for taking a life, the
person took the high road and neglected their fate because they
thought of the fate of others. Kirk then wants to address where that
roads goes in the next section.
At least here
Kirk admits he would not be bothered with killing another human if
said human would threaten his family. This is actually a valid and
reasonable answer, a basic human instinct (which we are biologically
biased to embrace) is self-preservation to ourselves, as well as
towards those we care about.
Note that Kirk
just quoted a Bible verse to justify himself for killing a
threatening person. He is willing to take a life to save another.
Taking the High Road
The scenario changed to 40 years earlier and
you have Hitler's mother in your sights. She is pregnant with Hitler.
Would you kill her to save the world from Hitler? Kirk says that many
people would not, often because their answer involves God. If a
person did go through with it, Kirk asks another question: It's 1977
and you have Jeffery Dahmer in your sights. Kirk says he killed 17
men and boys, and his murders included rape, torture, dismemberment,
necrophilia, and cannibalism. Kirk says Jeffrey Dahmer was more evil
than Hitler in italics. If a person says they would kill him, Kirk
says they have a dilemma for them.
Kirk reminds the reader of chapter 8 when there
were 180,000 murders in the U.S. in a ten year period. If you had the
potential to shoot each of those murders before they committed a
crime, would you? What about rapists? Kirk says the question is
"Where do you stop pulling the trigger?" Kirk says moral
relativism does not bring God into the equation. Rather he dictates
what modern society deems as good and evil.
This is not much
of a dilemma at all. Basically, Kirk is saying if you are willing to
take the life of one mass murderer, you are then fully capable to
shoot all the mass murders. Think back to when Kirk admitted he would
be willing to take the life of a person who may harm his mother. What
stops him then from killing people who so much verbally threaten her?
While Jeffery
Dahmer is an evil individual, but by what criteria does Kirk
determine that Dahmer is more evil than Hitler?
It is clear Kirk
is trying to knock down moral relativism (and doing a rather poor job
at it) but what this scenario: You murder another person because God
commanded it. And then God repeats the same demand, on and on. When
do you stop pulling the trigger? Until God says so. This is otherwise
known as the divine command theory, which Kirk subscribes to, which
basically says whatever God deems good or bad is therefore so. So, if
God deems genocide "good" as of tomorrow, Kirk and all
Christians would have to accept it.
Several times,
Kirk and his partner Ray Comfort do not live up to the "moral
absolutes"; for instance, they both lie constantly about
science. But lets look at it this way; Kirk deems murder as
absolutely bad because God said so, and thus Kirk does not do it.
What if God made an exception, or somehow destroyed himself tomorrow,
does that make all moral absolute vales vanish and suddenly murder is
completely justified? Of course not, and people already understand
that. We know morals do not come from some supernatural agent. The
two prerequisites for reliable moral assessment are 1) reason and 2)
accurate and relevant information. Sound reasoning won't lead to
valid assessments if we are operating under flawed information, nor
with sound information if our reasoning is flawed. Without sound
reasoning and information, we can' determine how the universe works,
how different life forms suffer or flourish, where responsibility
lies, or would the short or long term consequences of actions are on
an inter-personal or global scale. And these are considerations on
which moral judgments depends.
Kirk then asks how does secular society carve
out its own morality? Kirk says they usually come up with something
as long as it does not harm another human being. Blasphemy does not
harm another human; abortion is okay because it is not a human;
fornication is okay; homosexuality is okay; adultery is okay; lying
and thievery is justifiable; and so on and therefore moral relativity
removes the fear of violating God's law. Kirk says this is why the
Moral Law must be used to stir people's conscience.
But what about
moral dilemmas for Kirk Cameron and Christians? Does God deem
something good because he says so, or is it good because it is good?
Blasphemy is a
harmless crime, since it does not have a victim. Fornication and
homosexuality are only abhorrent to Kirk because of faith, not
reason. Lying and thievery has its justifications: we consider Robin
Hood a folk hero, and even Biblical characters are rewarded for lying
(such as Ruth).
Chapter 11: It May Be Time
Kirk says that God will work things out for our
good if we love him.
This is straight
up unsupported and ridiculous.
Chapter 12: God Can Use Someone Else
At the end of the chapter, Kirk shares of a
flight he was on and had an interaction with another person (Ron or
Rob) about the afterlife. The man said he believed in God, Heaven,
Hell, and had three Bibles. Kirk went through the
"Are you a good person?" process and handed him a copy of the
pamphlet "Save Yourself Some Pain."
Another unverifiable story. Dismissed.
Chapter 13: Speaking to Intellectuals
Kirk returns to a scenario on a plane. He
instructs his reader if he encounters an atheist who believes nothing
happens to anyone after death, Kirk points out this smiling
intelligent individual (with a possible degree) is not an
intellectual. Kirk says the Bible says those who do not believe in
God are "fools." Kirk says the man's mentality is that the
airplane he is sitting in had no maker and came about by accident.
Kirk straw-mans the Big Bang Theory, claiming it says everything came
from nothing.
As already
pointed out to Kirk countless times, the Big Bang does not say such a
thing, creationism however does. Also, as explained millions of
times, atheism does not say or require that atheists believe that
everything came from nothing. Atheism is simply the lack of belief in
god(s). It has no say regarding an individuals views towards origins,
the afterlife, etc. That is up to the individual to accept. The ONLY
thing that unites all atheists is that they lack beliefs in god(s),
nothing more nothing less.
“The
Bible says those who do not believe in God are "fools."”
Its the old playground game of “I am rubber you are glue, whatever
bounces off of me sticks to you.” Its an infantile tactic that is
described as the pot calling the silverware black. Its a sort of
psychological spin. How else can you defend an indefensible position?
You have to twist everything around. That is why the Bible defines
the fool as someone who does not believe completely the outrageous
claims from the most incredulous sources even without asking for
evidence – despite the fact that every other source in the world
defines a fool as someone who does all of these things.
Kirk asks why does society think atheists are
intellectual? Why are our universities "pumping" out
atheists like no tomorrow? Kirk says the enemy of God is called "the
Father of Lies." Kirk says "anyone who studies the theory
of Darwinian evolution without prejudice or without blind faith knows
its a lie. Atheism is a lie. It is intellectual suicide."
What a vile and odious lie. Neither once has Kirk or Ray ever bothered to study Darwin's theory of evolution sincerely. Not once can they explain what it is or how it works correctly, and every time they have been challenged about, they never once attempt to correct themselves. Instead, they spread the same old lies over and over.
The Lie List
Kirk says atheists have no big deal with lying,
exaggerating, or embellishing the truth just to strengthen their
arguments.
The “Ultimate
projection” meter just blew itself!
Kirk says many atheist websites include several
great intellectuals as atheists, such as Thomas Edison, Mark Twain,
Robert Frost, Ernst Hemingway, and Susan B. Anthony. He does not
include any atheist web sites, but goes on to investigate how many of
these five were atheists who "denied the existence of God."
Thomas Edison
Kirk says this man hated the hypocrisy of
religion, but was no atheist. He provides two quotes,
"I do not
believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme
Intelligence I do not doubt."
and
"I am much
less interested in what is called God's word than in God's deeds. All
Bibles are man made."
Next Kirk quotes Edison's friend Henry Ford
about Edison.
Edison was not a
theist, more like a deist. Here is a quote from Edison concerning
Thomas Paine's scientific deism,
"Nature
is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is
not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God
of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love — He
also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness,
and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us — nature did it
all — not the gods of the religions."
He did not even
believe in the soul. He said, "I
cannot believe in the immortality of the soul... I am an aggregate of
cells, as, for instance, New York City is an aggregate of
individuals. Will New York City go to heaven?"
Here is a quote by Edison addressing the proof for God and religion,
"I
have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas
of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal
God."
Mark Twain
Kirk tries to provide quotes from Twain to show
he was not an atheist.
"God puts
something good and lovable in every man His hands create."
The truth is that
Mark Twain showed signs of being an atheist and at other times as a
theist. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what he was, but he was
no friend of religion. He once said "If there is a God, he is a
malign thug." Perhaps he was an agnostic.
Albert Einstein
In this section, Kirk tries to argue Einstein
was not an atheist, but rather a theist. Kirk says he was not a
christian and throughout his life he denied a personal god.
So Einstein was
not a theist Kirk, he was a deist. Kirk just contradicted himself, so
he knew before hand that his argument was wrong.)
"In
the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human
mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who says there is no
God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support
of such views."
Chapter 14: Atheists Need the Gospel Too
Kirk begins by retelling several atheist,
freethinking, secular humanist groups who spent money to advertise on
billboards and buses that expressed disbelief in deities. Kirk then
asks two of his "ex-atheist" friends to share why there is
a tide of "new" atheism.
The on
First Testimony
The first person says they were not brought up
in religious home and assumed he was an atheist. He joined atheist
groups and thought he was using logic to disprove God. He said this
made him become aware of the arguments on both sides. He then read
books on Creation and intelligent design and concluded they made
sense and there were no other equal alternatives.
Kirk does not
identify the person, making it difficult to trust the source and
reliability of the individual. Furthermore, what arguments persuaded
this anonymous atheist that creationism made sense?
Second Testimony
The interviewee actually names himself: Alan
Pearson. He says he was a super-skeptic until he met God at age 35.
Before he was raised in a non-religious home and grew up an atheist.
He eventually married, his wife became a member of the church and
brought him along.
Still not answering why there is a rise in atheism, nor does it provide a lick of proof or sense why this person turned to theism.
Chapter 15: Witnessing to the Family
Oh Dear
Kirk tells the reader about a time when his
sister called him that their mother was in the hospital. She had some
bad times, but Kirk points she did not really believe in God.
However, one day she said the woman next to her started talking about
God and Jesus and she found it interesting. "Interesting"
nothing more. However, Kirk jumps into it and weeps that God has
touched his mother. His mother did not get out of the hospital, she
was transferred and met some nice people, but Kirk does not describe
her health condition. Instead, he just says ask God and he will
answer.
Pathetic.
Greek Mythology is interesting to millions of Americans, that does not mean they accept an inkling of it is real or ever happened.
Chapter 16: True Conversion
Kirk and Ray discusses Christians who are not really
Christians (invoking the No True
Scotsman fallacy). Kirk says
Christians are those who believe and follow Jesus. Kirk quotes
Charles Spurgeon,
"Who was
it that added Judas, and Ananias and Sapphire, and Simon Magus, and
Demas to the church? Who was it that stole forth by night and red
tares among the wheat? That evil spirit is not dead, he is still busy
enough in this department, and continually adds to the church each as
are not saved. His are the mixed multitude which infest the camp of
Israel, and are the first to fall a lusting; his the Achane who bring
a curse upon the tribes: his are those of whom Jude says, "certain
men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this
condemnation." These adulterate the church , and by so doing,
they weaken and defile it, and bring it much grief and dishonor."
Like I already said: No True Scotsman Fallacy.
Chapter 17: The Fruit of Biblical Evangelism
Here Ray Comfort tries to differentiate between
modern evangelism and biblical evangelism. According to Ray, modern
evangelism is soft and makes man the center of the message instead of
God. Ray says modern evangelism says nothing about punishment, the
Law, Judgment Day, etc. Biblical evangelism teaches man is a wicked
criminal and a wicked man can only come to God if God draws him to
Himself. Ray says the Bible teaches that repentance is God-given.
“Although man is commanded to repent, he can't do it without the
help of God. God gave him repentance to the acknowledging of the
truth.”
Ray Comfort retells a story of him visiting the
Grande Gallerie de l'Evolution in Paris. They looked for about an
hour for proof of evolution. When they couldn't find any, they asked
the “authorities” and they were pointed to a stuffed image of
“discredited Lucy” and a copy of Charles Darwin's Origin
of Species. “It was
underwhelming.”
Ray Comfort then tells a story of when he was
in Paris, he hooked up onto the security cameras of his ministry, saw
a FedEx guy at the door, then called a staff member to open the door
for the FedEx guy. Ray then goes on to say that God sees every FedEx
guy. “He sees every thought of every mind and hears ever beat of
the human heart. He even sees every atom of every drop of blood that
pumps though every artery of every body. He is not bound by time or
by space. He sees everything, knows everything and can do anything...
everything but sin.”
Given Ray's track record of deliberately misrepresenting evolution, he
either was not sharing with his readers what else he saw at the museum
or he had no idea what were the facts presented before his eyes. The
stuffed monkey in question is Australopithecus afarensis, one of the many intermediate fossils in human evolution. Australopithecus afarensis
proved to be a fully bipedal ape whose hands, feet, teeth, pelvis,
skull, and other physical details were exactly what creationists
challenged us to find, yet they’re still pretending we never found it.
But worse than that, we didn’t just find that one. In 1977, three years
after we discovered the no-longer-missing link in the human evolutionary
lineage, Harvard paleontologist, Stephen J. Gould mentioned an “extreme
rarity” of other clear transitions persistent in the fossil record
until that time, and his comment, -taken out of context- remains a
favorite of creationist quote-miners to this day. But in the more than
30 years since then, there has been a paleontological boom such that we
now have way more transitional species in many more lineages than we
ever needed or hoped for.
Ray fallaciously concludes the entire theory of evolution is based on a single intermediate. However, scientists have discovered thousands of transitional fossils and the theory of evolution does not rest on a single intermediate, nor does it rest solely on fossils. This is a god of the gaps fallacy. In fact, every fossil is a transitional fossil, which has been pointed out to Ray in a debate with the Rational Response Squad. In 1999, National Academy of Sciences reported that the total number of transitional fossils were so large, lots of biologists and paleontologists now consider that list “innumerable” especially since the tally of definite transitionals keeps growing so fast! Several lineages are now virtually complete, including our own. Every species living today has definite relatives both extant and extinct, and evident in the fossil record. And in one sense, all of them, even the things still alive, count as transitional species.
Ray fallaciously concludes the entire theory of evolution is based on a single intermediate. However, scientists have discovered thousands of transitional fossils and the theory of evolution does not rest on a single intermediate, nor does it rest solely on fossils. This is a god of the gaps fallacy. In fact, every fossil is a transitional fossil, which has been pointed out to Ray in a debate with the Rational Response Squad. In 1999, National Academy of Sciences reported that the total number of transitional fossils were so large, lots of biologists and paleontologists now consider that list “innumerable” especially since the tally of definite transitionals keeps growing so fast! Several lineages are now virtually complete, including our own. Every species living today has definite relatives both extant and extinct, and evident in the fossil record. And in one sense, all of them, even the things still alive, count as transitional species.
Chapter 18: A Few Practical Tips on Sharing
Kirk concludes that his format is a good and
proven.
How gravely Kirk
is mistaken. Throughout this review, little of Kirk's format is
honest.
Chapter 19: Evangelism Crash Course Student
This section of the book includes a test, but
first a note from Ray Comfort. The test is to check if the reader is
prepared to use the tools of evangelism provided in the book.
Basically a load of garbage.
