The Atheist Blogger

Ray Comfort has jumped from the good ship “Atheist Central” to seek out his new fortune as the “Creationism Examiner” over at Examiner.com. He was originally the “Anti-Atheism” examiner but something tells me the site owners weren’t too pleased with that title. I wasn’t too pleased with it either; if anything, Ray Comfort has been one of the most potent forces for atheism in recent years. His arguments are so ridiculous and so full of blatant misinformation that I suspect they have caused more dissenters than followers. Anyway, he is still posting all his blog posts at Atheist Central, although comments are disabled. On the bright side, his comment moderation abilities on the Examiner site seem to be quite limited, so we can all finally tell him what we think of him.

Getting back to the topic in hand, I noticed that before he deserted his old blog, Ray had posted some interesting sidebar messages that just couldn’t escape my scrutiny. So here I present Ray’s sidebar, debunked.

An atheist is someone who believes that nothing made everything. He will deny that through gritted teeth, because it is an intellectual embarrassment. But if he says of his Toyota that he has no belief that there was a maker, then he thinks that nothing made it (it just happened), which is a scientific impossibility. So, to remain credible, he falls back on something made everything, but he just doesn’t know what that something was. So he’s not an atheist–he believes in an initial cause.

Let me mark him. No, no, no, no, and…no. Firstly, as I have previously debunked, an atheist is not someone who believes that nothing made everything. This is a straw-man argument. We don’t deny it through gritted teeth because it’s an intellectual embarrassment but because it simply isn’t true. His Toyota argument fails for the simple reason that if I don’t believe there was a maker, perhaps I have no opinion on its origins. I’d also like to take this time to point out the useless phrase “scientific impossibility”, which is generally used only by scientifically ignorant people to try and make a point. Due to the complex nature of science, and the fact that theories are being steadily built up and improved upon, it is rather silly to say something is scientifically impossible, and proving it is ever harder. For example, in 1895 Lord Kelvin stated “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible”, and then 7 years later the Wright Brothers proved him completely wrong. Scientists love getting their theories disproved, but they don’t like looking like complete fools at the same time, and so they don’t tend to state absolutes. Getting back to Ray’s quote, he is creating yet another straw-man argument by equating atheism to “disbelief in an initial cause”. In case you missed it the first time, this is not what atheists believe. Read a dictionary.

An atheist is someone who pretends that there is no God.

Not even close. If we knew there was a god, why would we willingly disbelieve in it knowing full well that such an action would cause us eternal punishment according to most religions. Ray is insinuating that atheists are not only lying, but are also painfully stupid people. My fundamentalist friend brought a similar argument up once, and I debunked it on this very blog.

The freedom to be an atheist is the God-given right of every American.

Well seeing as I’m not American I guess I have the freedom to be an atheist because a thing called freedom of religion and freedom of speech exists in all good democracies. Anyway, as clever American historians will tell you, the founding fathers put the separation of church and state clause into the constitution so that religion couldn’t fuck them later on. They did this to protect their new country from the political control that the church had in England, and judging by the state of the “secular UK” today, it was a very good call indeed. The US constitution prevents any religion from having control over the state, whereas the UK is now bowing down to fundamentalist Islam as they slowly invade our nation. I’m not against them being Muslims, but if they want to control the government and make sure nobody can offend them, we have a massive problem.

Atheism is the epitome of the sin of ingratitude.

Prove to me there is sin, prove to me the universe was created by a loving God, and prove to me that I should be grateful. I cannot fathom how a supposedly loving God would offer us a choice that involves either worship or torture, and then want us to be grateful for that choice. It isn’t a choice, it is bullying. Hey Ray, you can either give me all your money or be killed by forks slowly being poked through your eyes. Your choice, and remember, it’s a free choice so be grateful!

An atheist plays Russian roulette with fully loaded gun.

A theist plays Monopoly by buying a single property and refusing to add any houses or hotels. They just sit idly until they lose, and then claim that their go had a higher purpose. All the while, everyone else on the table has become financially successful, owning several hotels each. The wealthiest player buys the property the theist was using and makes a massive profit on it. The theist ends up fetching drinks for everyone still in the game.

Atheism is intellectual suicide.

Theism is the act of committing suicide every single moment of your life.

Evolutionists have done to science, what hypocrites have done to religion.

Indeed, both have furthered the pursuit of knowledge in their relative fields. Only whilst science is enhanced by the findings of Evolutionary theory, religion is systematically destroyed.

The human propensity to gullibility is evidenced by evolution’s many believers.

Says Ray “Banana Man” Comfort, the man behind the Crocoduck, Sheep-Dog (half sheep, half dog), and the Bull-Frog (half Bull, half…well, you can guess). The rejection of evidence over scripture is the evidence of the human propensity to gullibility.

An atheist has no scientific creditably, because his “nothing created everything” violates the basic laws of science.

See first point. I’ll also take this time to point out that prayer, miracles, and prophecies violate the basic laws of science.

An atheist is like a fish in the ocean saying that there’s no evidence that there’s an ocean.

The fish can see the ocean and it can feel the ocean. Atheists have never heard, seen, touched or smelt God. I hardly think they would be atheists if they had.

It is impossible for a Christian to convert to atheism because a Christian is someone who knows God.

Oooh, the no true Scotsman fallacy. Well done! Now are we talking absolute or relative knowledge here, because, y’know, it makes a big difference. *Knock Knock*, oh Ray? There are some angry ex-Christians out here who want a word.

We have men who call themselves scientists, when they should have instead got a job with Disney as “imagineers.”

We have men who call themselves followers of a man who preached peace, when they seem more like followers of Charles Manson.

If God didn’t exist, the atheist wouldn’t have something to not believe in.

There is a pink umbrella at the bottom of the pacific that controls time and space. The only way to survive death is to pray to it for forgiveness. What’s that? You don’t believe it exists? Well if it didn’t exist you wouldn’t have something to not believe in would you? Q.E.D.

The atheist says that he doesn’t believe God exists, but he uses His name as a cuss word. Go figure.

I’m back, I figured it out: People tend to use words their society also uses. Even ignoring that, how does using a name as a curse word automatically make you believe in it? I say “Oh fuck it” quite a bit. Does that mean I believe someone is going to fuck whatever “it” is? Don’t think so.

School children should have evolution explained to them, so that they can see how unscientific and crazy it is.

Luckily, school children are being taught evolution, and most of them have it explained to well enough so they don’t see the side you make up and lie to them about. Failing that, people who go to university to really study biology will have a hard time rejecting the evidence presented to them.

My Feeds

I subscribe to quite a few blogs; some technical, some webcomics, most atheist-based. However I do subscribe to a few Christian blogs for various reasons:

“Atheist Central” by Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort’s blog is a great place if you want to have a laugh, or simply want to watch a load of bigoted hatred emerge out of the “love” theists have for our souls. Whether he is busy redefining science or claiming that light is invisible, Ray Comfort always manages to bring a smile to the face of any atheist. Heck, he even has his own bunch of debunkers.

Stuff Christians Like by Prodigal John

This blog is rather atheist-friendly since atheists aren’t actually mentioned, so it is a nice look into the minds of Christians when they aren’t all riled up over our “atheist faith”.

Debunking Atheists by Dan

Debunking Atheists has a special place not only in my feed reader but also in my blog’s blogroll because the author challenged me to put him there after he wrote answers to the Atheist Thirteen for me. Dan (the author in question) has a current series trying to “Debunk Evolution” which is hilarious to read, mainly because he doesn’t understand the fundamentals of the science and simply repeats well-known lies.

Uncommon Descent by William Dembski (originally)

A blog about Intelligent Design, which of course spouts the same rubbish and regurgitated debunked “facts” they’ve been talking about for years. The site logo is still the I.D mascot, the bacterial flagellum, which of course has various explanations for its existence through Evolutionary theory. Still, it’s great fun to read on all the “controversy” surrounding these issues.

So what Christian blogs do you peruse? Why do you do it? Do you actively take part in discussions or just sit in the sidelines?