Dear Ray Comfort
I just wanted to inform you on a few things dealing within your arguments for the existences of God and Jesus. Now i'm going to start with the Parachute Argument, which basically states that you should put your faith and trust in Christ and that he is the parachute.basically. To sum it up; "Imagine you are on a plane, and suddenly it is going down and you will have to jump 10,000 feet. You fear for your life, your heart is beating heavily in your chest, and want to be saved. Someone hands you the original Mona Lisa, but it won't save you so you push it away. Then someone offers you keys to a new Ferrari, but you reject it. Someone offers you a million dollars, you reject it too. Suddenly someone offers you a parachute that can save you. This parachute provided to you from Ray Comfort is faith in Jesus Christ that will save you from a terrible fate."
This however, is a flawed argument known as Pascal's Wager. Ray you say that his parachute (provided by your invisible friend) is safe and harmless and will save you. But then suddenly another passenger tells you "Don't use his parachute, it has holes in it. Use mine provided by my invisible friend." Then a third passenger announces "Only my parachute on this plane works, but my invisible friends demands you pray five times a day for it to work." A fourth passenger announces "My invisible friend slashed all the parachutes on board. He takes care of his chosen people, and as none of you were born into the correct lineage, it’s too bad for you." Some people refuse parachutes and urge others to do the same, because it would interfere with the master plan of the father of their invisible friend (these are the same people who refuse medical care in favor of prayer and faith healing). A fifth person gets up and says "Do not worry. If you jump off the plane or die in a crash, if you were good you will come back and have a wonderful life" -basically reincarnation. The drama goes on with the rest of the passengers, until you say enough and demand to actually see proof of a doomed plane and which parachute does work. Some say you must not demand for evidence and just have faith. Regardless, you inspect the plane and the parachutes. The plane is operating just fine in every way and each parachute has holes in them big enough you can fit your head through them. Some of the parachutes terribly constrict people, harming them. Some parachutes are very old and terribly worn out and could not possibly withstand two seconds of heavy winds. Despite all this, the plane reaches its destination safely, but the drama continues through the terminal, security, all the way out beyond the airport. You learn from airports around the world that many people have harmed many others and themselves due to their faith in their parachute provided by their particular invisible friend. You also do research about each parachute. In your case Ray, you'll learn the history of his parachute, that it was made by men with an agenda and the manual for the parachute includes many contradictions and errors that are demonstrably wrong (like the earth is flat disk). You cannot verify the author of this manual, because it claims to be written by several people who claim they knew the author. Even though their accounts conflict, they try to popularize this unknown person as an incredible man who performed many things, like curing an entire nation of every sickness and bringing a person back to life after his parachute failed to open.
Regarding the Reincarnation part, you and Kirk addressed that belief (and several others) in their episode Why Christianity? They said it is basically a person jumping out of the plane and then being sucked back into the plane. They go on to say Reincarnation "well that is an interesting concept, but it will not help you with your sin against God and the reality of Hell." They clearly portray their biased views without proof of sin or Hell, plus their analogy of reincarnation is wrong. If you lived a good life and jump out the plane, you will not get sucked back in he plane, you may turn into an eagle and fly away. Even if you did get sucked back into the plane, you just keep repeating the process over and over. If you are good or not depends which class you get to sit in, what type of plane you fly, or perhaps what you get served to fulfill your pleasures while on board the plane. While there is no evidence of Reincarnation, there is no proof of Heaven or Hell, and both Ray and Kirk constantly fail to show or present is why their beliefs are more valid than that of a Hindu.
This however, is a flawed argument known as Pascal's Wager. Ray you say that his parachute (provided by your invisible friend) is safe and harmless and will save you. But then suddenly another passenger tells you "Don't use his parachute, it has holes in it. Use mine provided by my invisible friend." Then a third passenger announces "Only my parachute on this plane works, but my invisible friends demands you pray five times a day for it to work." A fourth passenger announces "My invisible friend slashed all the parachutes on board. He takes care of his chosen people, and as none of you were born into the correct lineage, it’s too bad for you." Some people refuse parachutes and urge others to do the same, because it would interfere with the master plan of the father of their invisible friend (these are the same people who refuse medical care in favor of prayer and faith healing). A fifth person gets up and says "Do not worry. If you jump off the plane or die in a crash, if you were good you will come back and have a wonderful life" -basically reincarnation. The drama goes on with the rest of the passengers, until you say enough and demand to actually see proof of a doomed plane and which parachute does work. Some say you must not demand for evidence and just have faith. Regardless, you inspect the plane and the parachutes. The plane is operating just fine in every way and each parachute has holes in them big enough you can fit your head through them. Some of the parachutes terribly constrict people, harming them. Some parachutes are very old and terribly worn out and could not possibly withstand two seconds of heavy winds. Despite all this, the plane reaches its destination safely, but the drama continues through the terminal, security, all the way out beyond the airport. You learn from airports around the world that many people have harmed many others and themselves due to their faith in their parachute provided by their particular invisible friend. You also do research about each parachute. In your case Ray, you'll learn the history of his parachute, that it was made by men with an agenda and the manual for the parachute includes many contradictions and errors that are demonstrably wrong (like the earth is flat disk). You cannot verify the author of this manual, because it claims to be written by several people who claim they knew the author. Even though their accounts conflict, they try to popularize this unknown person as an incredible man who performed many things, like curing an entire nation of every sickness and bringing a person back to life after his parachute failed to open.
Regarding the Reincarnation part, you and Kirk addressed that belief (and several others) in their episode Why Christianity? They said it is basically a person jumping out of the plane and then being sucked back into the plane. They go on to say Reincarnation "well that is an interesting concept, but it will not help you with your sin against God and the reality of Hell." They clearly portray their biased views without proof of sin or Hell, plus their analogy of reincarnation is wrong. If you lived a good life and jump out the plane, you will not get sucked back in he plane, you may turn into an eagle and fly away. Even if you did get sucked back into the plane, you just keep repeating the process over and over. If you are good or not depends which class you get to sit in, what type of plane you fly, or perhaps what you get served to fulfill your pleasures while on board the plane. While there is no evidence of Reincarnation, there is no proof of Heaven or Hell, and both Ray and Kirk constantly fail to show or present is why their beliefs are more valid than that of a Hindu.
Now, with the Banana fallacy, you basically in short say this;
The Banana:
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana#Historical_cultivation
Now, the argument from design, Ray you state that "A painting had a painter, a watch had a watchmaker, therefore creation must have a creator." What you are doing here is simply asserting and assuming that we live in a creation without any verification or justification. Your only and best response to this is "common sense." Unfortunately common sense is not a tool for knowledge, at one time common sense told us the earth stood still in space. It was no until we performed tests and gained new data and knowledge did we learn that the earth moves. Ray you have learned close to nothing of what modern science has revealed to us about the cosmos. Not to mention, your logic fails when you ask certain questions; like if everything requires a creator, who created God? While the laws of physics states that matter cannot be created, Ray you continue to assert that matter must be the result of divine creation because his faith demands that his God must be responsible. You goes a bit further into absurdity by reasoning since the smartest person in the world cannot make anything from nothing, then God must have been responsible for creating everything. Basically, since we cannot demonstrate that matter can come from nothing, then Ray you claim that it must have appeared magically out of thin air.
The Banana:
- Is shaped for human hand
- Has non-slip surface
- Has outward indicators of inward contents: Green – too early, Yellow – just right, Black – too late.
- Has a tab for removal of wrapper
- Is perforated on wrapper
- Bio-degradable wrapper
- Is shaped for human mouth
- Has a point at top for ease of entry
- Is pleasing to taste buds
- Is curved towards the face to make the eating process easy
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana#Historical_cultivation
Now, the argument from design, Ray you state that "A painting had a painter, a watch had a watchmaker, therefore creation must have a creator." What you are doing here is simply asserting and assuming that we live in a creation without any verification or justification. Your only and best response to this is "common sense." Unfortunately common sense is not a tool for knowledge, at one time common sense told us the earth stood still in space. It was no until we performed tests and gained new data and knowledge did we learn that the earth moves. Ray you have learned close to nothing of what modern science has revealed to us about the cosmos. Not to mention, your logic fails when you ask certain questions; like if everything requires a creator, who created God? While the laws of physics states that matter cannot be created, Ray you continue to assert that matter must be the result of divine creation because his faith demands that his God must be responsible. You goes a bit further into absurdity by reasoning since the smartest person in the world cannot make anything from nothing, then God must have been responsible for creating everything. Basically, since we cannot demonstrate that matter can come from nothing, then Ray you claim that it must have appeared magically out of thin air.
Last but not least, the "are you a good person" argument:
Now, the above of what he is saying about the "are you a good person" argument has another problem. There different version of the Ten Commandments appears in Exodus 34:12-26 . This version is believed by scholars to predate the other two. It is explicitly labeled as "the Ten Commandments" (in Exodus 34:28), whereas the better known version is not at all.
So Ray, I have refuted your arguments for the existence for the god of the bible, now please stop bearing false wittness about evolution, the big bang and atheism.
- Ray Comfort: Do you think you are a good person?
- Unbeliever: (Does not matter whether they answer yes or no or anything in-between, or even point out the errors in the question or present their own views on how to identify a good/bad person)
- Ray: Well, let's find out if you are a good person. Have you ever told a lie?
- Unbeliever: Well yes, everybody has at some point...
- Ray: What are you called if you tell a lie?
- Un: A liar.
- Ray: Have you ever stolen anything, regardless of its value?
- Un: A little thing when I was young.
- Ray: What do you call a person who steals?
- Un: A thief.
- Ray: Jesus said that anybody who looked at a women in lust is guilty of adultery in his heart. Have you ever looked at a woman with lust?
- Un: Well, yeah.
- Ray: Have you ever used God's name in vain?
- Un: Yes.
- Ray: You've taken the name of the God who gave you life as a cuss word and that's called blasphemy.
- Ray: So, by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, adulterous, blasphemer, and when Jesus comes again on judgment day, how do you think he's going to treat you? Would you go to heaven or hell?
- Ray: Now imagine you are in a court standing before the judge. You plead with the judge to have mercy and you point out that you have done many good things in your life, but since he is a righteous judge and you have violated the law, he must punish you. You are found guilty, but then suddenly a man you do not know walks in, approaches the judge and pays your fine. That is what Jesus Christ did for you. He died on the cross, and paid the fine for your sins.
Now, the above of what he is saying about the "are you a good person" argument has another problem. There different version of the Ten Commandments appears in Exodus 34:12-26 . This version is believed by scholars to predate the other two. It is explicitly labeled as "the Ten Commandments" (in Exodus 34:28), whereas the better known version is not at all.
- Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
- For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
- Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
- The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
- All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
- Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
- And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end. Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
- Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
- The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.
- Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
So Ray, I have refuted your arguments for the existence for the god of the bible, now please stop bearing false wittness about evolution, the big bang and atheism.
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