Ray Comfort's Blog, page 67

PZ Myers...

I noticed that my friend PZ Myers has promoted me from "banana man" to the leader of a "death cult." Some unnamed person 7,000 miles away sent a card to someone who said that it could have been sent to an elderly person, and that elderly person may have been upset because it spoke about death. He then wrongfully accuses me of "targeting the elderly with cards to remind them of their mortality and imminent need of salvation...Hey, lady, you're old and are going to die soon. Come to church now! Put us in your will!"

Thus, I was promoted to the leader of a death cult. It seems that PZ comes to conclusions about people the same way he comes to conclusions with the science fiction theory of evolution. Censorship, intolerance, and hate speech aren't restricted to the religious world.

When my book,You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think was first published and knocked The God Delusion off the number one spot on Amazon.com, he said to his faithful flock, "I don't recommend reading Comfort's book..." Of course this may be "quote-mined" For those who don't know this favorite atheist word, a quote-mine is when you take something out of context so that it says something that the writer never intended.

So PZ may be saying to actually read the book. But I doubt it. I don't think he wants any atheists to see the stupid nature of atheism. Neither does he want his flock to see the unscientific nature of evolution; that it doesn't have a bone to stand on.

Ad hominem attacks are his specialty. When you can't provide an argument, insult your opponent. Some of his funny little insults include calling me a "parasite," a "sleazebag," an "idiot," an "ignoramus," a "kook," and a "clown." He says that I'm "deluded and confused and ignorant." He also says that I have an "itty-bitty body." Okay, I will give him that one.

I was once booked to debate PZ. On August 1, 2008, he lamented "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."

For some reason it never took place. The station suddenly changed the format. I know that PZ didn't chicken out. He wouldn't be scared of banana man.

But I wonder if he would be open to an online debate with the leader of a death cult? Don't tell PZ about this post. It might embarrass him. He will have to say that he doesn't want to give me "a platform"...you know how it goes. If he tries that one, I would like him to then explain why I have featured so many times on his blog?

Pic. Larry Moran

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/10/why_do_you_think_i_call_it_a_d.phpFor Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

PZ Meyers...

I noticed that my friend PZ Meyers has promoted me from "banana man" to the leader of a "death cult." Some unnamed person 7,000 miles away sent a card to someone who said that it could have been sent to an elderly person, and that elderly person may have been upset because it spoke about death. He then wrongfully accuses me of "targeting the elderly with cards to remind them of their mortality and imminent need of salvation...Hey, lady, you're old and are going to die soon. Come to church now! Put us in your will!"

Thus, I was promoted to the leader of a death cult. It seems that PZ comes to conclusions about people the same way he comes to conclusions with the science fiction theory of evolution. Censorship, intolerance, and hate speech aren't restricted to the religious world.

When my book,You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think was first published and knocked The God Delusion off the number one spot on Amazon.com, he said to his faithful flock, "I don't recommend reading Comfort's book..." Of course this may be "quote-mined" For those who don't know this favorite atheist word, a quote-mine is when you take something out of context so that it says something that the writer never intended.

So PG may be saying to actually read the book. But I doubt it. I don't think he wants any atheists to see the stupid nature of atheism. Neither does he want his flock to see the unscientific nature of evolution; that it doesn't have a bone to stand on.

Ad hominem attacks are his specialty. When you can't provide an argument, insult your opponent. Some of his funny little insults include calling me a "parasite," a "sleazebag," an "idiot," an "ignoramus," a "kook," and a "clown." He says that I'm "deluded and confused and ignorant." He also says that I have an "itty-bitty body." Okay, I will give him that one.

I was once booked to debate PZ. On August 1, 2008, he lamented "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."

For some reason PZ backed out at the last moment. I don't know why he backed out. Of course he didn't chicken out. Perish the thought. He wouldn't be scared of itty-bitty banana man. He just had something else more important show up at the last minute, I guess.

I wonder if he would be open to an online debate with the leader of a death cult? By the way. Don't tell PZ about this post. It might embarrass him. He will have to say that he doesn't want to give me "a platform"...you know how it goes. If he tries that one, I would like him to then explain why I have featured so many times on his blog?

Pic. Larry MorganFor Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

For the Piranha Bowl...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpIjxNeJDr0For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Sincere Advice

According to the New York Times, American atheists are about to start a bold and widespread billboard, bus, train, newspaper and magazine campaign. Among other things, they will be calling passages from the Bible and the Koran "barbaric." This will be done by four separate and competing national organizations representing various streams of atheists, humanists and freethinkers.

Normally, I'm encouraged when atheists put up billboards telling people not to think about God, because I believe that it's human nature to do the opposite. But Moslems believe no such thing. Anyone who even slightly disrespects Mohammed or the Koran can be sentenced to a violent death.

When a Florida pastor was going to burn a Koran, many people were concerned that he was signing his own death warrant. The Pentagon and the President pleaded with him to back down--for his own sake and for the sake of world peace. Thankfully, he backed down.

Think of the horrific kidnapping and beheading of the U.S. journalist, Daniel Pearl, or the international violence that erupted, simply because a Danish cartoonist drew Mohammed. In India, a minister in the state government announced in February 2006 a reward of 11 million dollars for anyone who beheaded "the Danish cartoonist" who caricatured Mohammed.

There are factions within Islam that have no love or mercy. If you have any influence in these atheist organizations, please take a moment to strongly encourage them to confine the mockery to Christianity and the Bible.

We genuinely love you, and we can take it with grace.

Picture: Daniel Pearl. On May 16, 2002, his body was found cut into ten pieces, and buried in a shallow grave in the outskirts of Karachi.
Notes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/us/...
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/15... Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Sowing and Reaping

"I am curious. If someone uses Jesus or God as a curse word, do you feel personally persecuted?" themaverickjester

Persecution has nothing to do with it with how I feel when someone blasphemes God or the name of Jesus. I react the same way I would if someone called my wife a whore, or used my mother's name instead of using a four lettered filth word used to express disgust.

I am deeply offended by blasphemy, but I am even more concerned for the blasphemer. I am not exaggerating at all when I say that it would be far more sensible to play with fork lightning, than to misuse the name of the God who gave you life--whether you believe in Him or not. Jesus warned that every idle word that men speak, they will have to give an account of on the Day of Judgment, and the Scriptures add that the Lord will not hold him guiltless, who takes His name in vain.

The Bible also tells the Christian not to be concerned when people mock God or make fun of those who trust in Him. We are told, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap."

A man who blasphemes or mocks God is like a man who runs a bulldozer into the basement pillars of a 20-story building. He doesn't like the look of the pillars that hold up the building, so he mows them down, and in doing so causes the massive building to fall on him and crush him to death. He caused his own demise. So is the way of those who blaspheme and mock Almighty God.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

The Worm-in-the-eye Defense

David Attenborough, the well-known naturalist, broadcaster, and advocate of Charles Darwin, once said,

"My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy'."

A West African boy going blind because of a parasitic worm doesn't coincide with our image of God--if we deny the Book of Genesis, which Mr. Attenborough does. The Bible's explanation is that we live in a fallen creation, with not only worms in the eye, but worms in the stomach--round worms (up to 15 inches long), pin worms, tape worms, and hook worms. We get ring worms in our hair, worms in our crops, worms in our dogs and cats, worms in our apples, and we can even have the excitement of parasitic worms crawling under our skin. The thought makes your skin crawl!

When Mr. Attenborough was asked if he believed in God, he said, "My view is: I don't know one way or the other but I don't think that evolution is against a belief in God."

He's correct. We can believe in God and evolution, but to make the theory fit, we have to discard the God of the Bible and make up a false god, deny the fallen creation of Genesis, and also deny our moral responsibility to God, which Mr. Attenborough does. Idolatry is the most convenient of bushes behind which guilty sinners may temporarily hide.

The West African boy of whom he spoke also has disease-ridden mosquitoes that can bite him, killer bees than can sting and kill him, leaches that can suck his blood, snakes that can poison him, bedbugs that can bite him, lions and crocodiles that can eat him, and human beings that can murder him. He may also have a problem with fever-spreading ticks, typhus-spreading lice, and plague-causing fleas. Then again, he may die from trypanosomiasis, which comes through the bite of an infected and nasty little tsetse fly.

Add to these things, continual earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, cancer, pain, suffering, disease and death, and you have a strong case for a holy God and a sinful fallen humanity. That's if you ever give serious thought to the existence of God. Mr. Attenborough doesn't. He once said "It never really occurred to me to believe in God." So nothing about this subject makes too much sense to him.

But if you and I believe that a morally perfect God made man and woman in the beginning, and sin caused creation to be under the Genesis curse, then every deathly disease and devastating disaster makes sense.

Just a note of caution for potential Attenborough clones. The African boy with the worm in the eye won't be any sort of defense on Judgment Day.

Notes:
David Attenborough, 2003. "Wild, wild life." Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March. Attenborough has also told this story in numerous other interviews.
"David Attenborough on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross''". YouTube. 31 October 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvoJSl...
Walker, Tim (26 January 2009). "Sir David Attenborough questioned on faith, naturally". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newst....

Photo attribution: Wildscreen's photograph of David Attenborough at ARKive's launch in Bristol, England © May 2003For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

The Effects of Magnetism

"Did anyone else stop reading after this: "Of course a small number of atheists won't know what I am talking about, because magnetic repulsion is invisible. You can't see it, touch it, taste it, hear it, or smell it, therefore it doesn't exist." The effects of magnetism can be both seen and felt empirically. Magnetism can be DEMONSTRATED!! You can test its effects. You can quantify it, measure it and use it for things like your silly box. Cripes you are annoying...and still I return. A guilty pleasure if ever there was one." MVP

You said "The effects of magnetism can be both seen and felt empirically. Magnetism can be DEMONSTRATED!!" Not to someone who is unreasonable. If someone put his hand into the invisible field and said "I don't see or feel anything," then there is nothing you can do to convince him it exists.

So it is with God's existence. Like many things in this life (the wind, love, history, gravity, etc.) He is invisible, and so, if for some reason, you want to look at creation and say there is no Creator, go ahead. Or if you want to change the word "creation" to "nature," and believe that nature made itself, go ahead. I can't stop you, but you are being unreasonable (unable to be reason with).

If you refuse to listen to your conscience, or to look honestly at the Ten Commandments, and mock God's Word, go ahead. I can't stop you or convince you to be reasonable. But I would add one thing. Deny the reality magnetism and there are no consequences. It's no big deal. Deny God, and therefore refuse to repent and trust in Jesus Christ, and the consequences are terrible and eternal.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

The Atheist's Church

"And it came to pass also on another Sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus" (Luke 5:6-11).

The name of Jesus Christ is the most despised name in history. If you disagree, then name one other historical figure who has his name used in place of a cuss word. How about wicked men like Hitler, Judas, or Rasputin? None were despised enough to use their name in such a way.

Jesus Christ is hated by those who love to do evil. To them His name has no honor. It is used without a second thought; taken "in vain."

If you become a Christian (if you are born again), and stand for righteousness, you will be "hated for His name's sake." That means that this world will also hate you. Of course the wicked will say that they don't hate you. They just hate what you stand for--which proves the point. They will never admit it, but they hate Christ in you.

Of course, the contempt for Christians in contemporary society is nothing like the hatred that was poured upon the early Church. They were burned as torches in Nero's court, and ripped apart by lions because they belonged to Jesus Christ. During the Spanish Inquisition, they were tortured and murdered by the Roman church, because they belonged to Jesus Christ.

In this passage we are told that they were "filled with madness" because Jesus healed a man on their holy day. Bible commentator Matthew Henry said, "Christ was neither ashamed nor afraid to own the purposes of His grace. He healed the poor man, though He knew that His enemies would take advantage against Him for it. Let us not be drawn either from our duty or from our usefulness by any opposition. We may well be amazed, that the sons of men should be so wicked."

How true are those words. No matter what the Christian does, if he stands for the cause of that which is good, right and just (in the name of Jesus Christ), the wicked will be filled with madness.

Jesus healed the man's withered and lifeless hand. That perfectly describes the state of the unsaved. They are "withered" and lifeless--marked for death, alienated from the life of God. If you don't know the Lord today, rise up, stand forth in the midst of this wicked world, stretch forth your hand to God in repentance and faith in Jesus, and He will make you whole.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Amazing Scrapbook

On January 14th of 2007, a package was sent to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It contained 116 personal photographs from a scrapbook that formerly belonged to a man named Karl Hoecker. He was a First Lieutenant to Richard Baer, who was the commandant of the infamous Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

The scrapbook showed, among other things, commandants of Concentration Camps relaxing in their spare time. They were obviously winding down after a hard day at the office. They killed Jews during the day, and partied to get rid of any stress, at night.

Sara J. Bloomfield, the director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, on seeing the photos, said,

"I think the big question about the holocaust is 'why?' Why do people kill? Why were so many people able to do this, in the heart of such a civilized nation? And it shows the killers as humans. This is a question that I think doesn't have answers..."

That's the dilemma in which each end up, if we ignore the biblical revelation of the nature of human beings, and instead embrace that man is basically good. It will also be compounded by a Genesis-less world view.

The Bible says that we live in a fallen world. This world was created perfect by God, in the beginning. Then, because of the Adamic Fall, we have disease, suffering and death. When Adam sinned, he polluted his offspring with an "evil" nature--something the Bible calls "sin."

Taking God's perspective immediately makes life make sense. When I read stories of the holocaust and see horrific pictures that make me weep, I don't have the dilemma of wondering how human beings could do such a thing. What I see simply confirms what I have read--that sin dwells in every human heart.

It is sin that not only makes us capable of evil; its very presence makes us evil. Evil isn't just something I do. According to the Bible, it is something I am. I am sin-full by nature. Sin is much a part of me as is my blood. This thought is extremely offensive to us—especially if we are convinced of the opposite, that man is basically good. We want to think that man is good, not evil, because we want to think that we are good, not evil. But if we stay with that belief, we will be pushed into an intellectual corner, from which we have no escape.

However, when I look at life with the biblical perception, and ask how 200,000 people could be murdered in the U.S. during the 1990's, I don't have to say that each of those murderers was a good person who somehow strayed from his goodness. Instead, I affirm what the Scriptures say about the reality of sin in the human heart. When a husband beats his wife, a man shoots his children, the Mexican Cartel beheads innocent people, a spouse betrays marital trust and commits adultery; all this does is verify the presence of sin.

When an atheist denies that God exists and uses His name to cuss, or when evil men deny the existence of evil, or when a man has an explosive temper he can't control, or someone is consumed by bitterness, or when filthy or blasphemous language pours from a man's lips, or when I feel the power of lust or selfishness in my own heart, it confirms the truth of Scripture. When pornography is a billion dollar industry, when priests are pedophiles, when filthy and violent entertainment is loved by millions, I know why. When kids are bullied or when people are racially prejudice, I think "sin" not "skin."

When there is hypocrisy and double standards in politics or in the Church or kids kill kids at school, or when doctors kill children in the womb to make money, or slick televangelists use Christianity to line their pockets, or when men use religion to kill others--when they fly planes into buildings, torture people in the name of God (as in the Roman Catholic Inquisition), or as Hitler did in the name of God with the Jews, I say "Sin dwells in the human heart."

When love is all we need, but there seems to be so little of it; when peace isn't given a chance and instead continual wars take the lives of millions, there is a reason. When a man puts four bullets into the back of John Lennon, and does it because he wants to be famous, and does it professing to be a Christian, there's no mystery. There's no need to psychoanalyze him and try and find what this man has in common with other psychopaths. He's a normal human being. He's like the Nazis, the rapists, the pedophiles, the thieves and liars. He's like the man next door. His evil actions simply confirm that God's testimony about man is true and right.

Pic. On the cover of the album, delivered in 2007 to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, was a studio portrait of Commandant Richard Baer and his assistant Karl Hocker.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Trip to India

President Obama's upcoming four day trip to India will cost American taxpayers $200 million per day.

http://www.moneylife.in/article/78/10988.htmlFor Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.