Ray Comfort moved to a "paid" gig?

[AndyD]

Ray Comfort has left a short note on his Atheist Central blog advising that he's moved to a new location at Examiner.com.

From information I can find (http://freelancewritinggigs.com/webandprint/examiner-is-looking-for-bloggers/), I assume this would be treated as a paid freelance position and that income would be directly related to page views.

It would appear this might be a good time for regular commenters to abandon Comfort as a lost cause so as not to add further to his coffers.

It is interesting though to see his Christian supporters complaining about the move to a site that features ads with semi-clad women (though I couldn't see them).

[Questioninggeller]

Comfort has done quite well for someone without a formal education (he lacks any degree in any subject) and for someone who cannot understand basic logic.

I just looked at his first post in which he wrote (http://www.examiner.com/x-3329-AntiAtheism-Examiner):


The evolution of the egg: A fairytale for grown-ups?
February 17, 1:37 PM
by Ray Comfort, Anti-Atheism Examiner

...
So which came first, the chicken or the egg? For those who believe the Bible, it was the chicken, and the first egg came some time later. ...
...
Evolution certainly is a fairytale for grown-ups.


I mean how popular is this type of thinking? Does his blog really get that many hits?

Ray Comfort on intelligently designed bananas:
yArPNtiQDcM

Anyone website/magazine that wants to give that type of thinking a platform will not be taken seriously in the long run. Eventually, many of those who buy this type of lazy thinking will grow up and look back the ridiculousness of the arguments and source of the arguments. I hope the http://www.examiner.com understands that.

[Questioninggeller]

Related to this is Comfort's new book. Check out this illogical statement:


Evangelist: Atheists know they're wrong
They already intuitively know God exists, writes Ray Comfort
Posted: February 12, 2009, 12:00 am Eastern
WorldNutDaily (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87777)

In a new book sure to push the buttons of atheists, one of the most prominent evangelists in the world today charges God deniers actually know they are wrong.

Ray Comfort, in a book scheduled for release today, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, contends atheists hate God because he does exist.

"Atheists don't hate fairies, leprechauns, or unicorns because they don't exist," writes Comfort. "It is impossible to hate something that doesn't exist. And that makes the point."
...
"We don't have to prove that God exists to the professing atheist," he writes. "This is because he intuitively knows that He exists. Every person has a God-given conscience. The Bible tells us that this is the 'work of the law written on their hearts.' Just as every sane human being knows that it's wrong to lie, steal, kill and commit adultery, he knows that God should be first in his life."
...


WorldNutDaily (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87777)

Wow, just wow. People throw around the label "stupid," but this really takes the cake.

[AndyD]

His blog was mostly populated by atheists ensuring his nonsense didn't go unchallenged. There are only a few Christians who post there who showed much sign of reasoning ability - and Comfort would dismiss them as false converts anyway, as he does with the bulk of Christians who don't fit the YEC template.

[slingblade]

Ray Comfort has left a short note on his Atheist Central blog advising that he's moved to a new location at Examiner.com.

From information I can find (http://freelancewritinggigs.com/webandprint/examiner-is-looking-for-bloggers/), I assume this would be treated as a paid freelance position and that income would be directly related to page views.

It would appear this might be a good time for regular commenters to abandon Comfort as a lost cause so as not to add further to his coffers.

It is interesting though to see his Christian supporters complaining about the move to a site that features ads with semi-clad women (though I couldn't see them).

Who?

[billiefan2000]

Comfort has done quite well for someone without a formal education (he lacks any degree in any subject) and for someone who cannot understand basic logic.


so true, but Comfort is more level-headed than others who have little formal education


you look at the pastors who follow the Rick Warren and Bill Hybels version of christianity

(most of them either are either high school dropouts or did graduate from high school and never went to college



many of the folks on TBN and Daystar and INSP are high school dropouts or college dropouts):



Joel Osteen I know has no college education.


at least Osteen and Creflo Dollar and Rod Parsley are high school graduates

compared to some of their TBN brethren.

[AndyD]

Comfort's already messed the whole thing up and had to get the mop out.

Yesterday, I swear the message said he was "moving to" Examiner. Today that statement has been erased and the same now article says he will "also" be posting at the examiner. He's also added a note top the top of the old blog saying comments will no longer be accepted there (there are almost certainly a lot of comments in limbo from the last couple of days).

His new blog was originally called the "Anti-Atheist Examiner". Today it's already been renamed the "Creationism Examiner".

They guy just can't get it right.

*He added a note that payment from the Examiner will go to child hunger.

Interestingly, I loaded the Examiner page today and the first thing to come up in the side menu was a link to the Atheist Examiner - and she's not impressed with Ray and the ignorance that's bound to follow him.

[Questioninggeller]

Comfort's left the blog. He writes (http://www.examiner.com/x-3329-Creationism-Examiner):


Due to the hundreds of extremly filthy comments being posted (many about my beloved wife), I will not be posting on this site until Examiner install the ability to monitor comments before they are made public.

I will be posting back on "Atheist Central": http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/

Feel free to keep writing your filth. I won't be reading it and I encourage anyone who is offended by toilet talk not to read it.

I hope to be back in a couple of weeks.

I didn't see anything "filthy" comments about his wife. I actually saw some good arguments against Comfort, bad arguments in favor of him, and comments making fun of Comfort's lack of understanding such as:


Mr. Comfort, spend your money on something worthwhile, like perhaps an education. It's never too late to go back to school and learn about science and other reality-based disciplines. Do yourself and the world that favor.


So he wants all posts to be monitored, not just filters for personal attacks. My take is Comfort doesn't like people criticizing his gibberish.

[AndyD]

I didn't see anything "filthy" comments about his wife.


Oh they were there and they were obscene! This is one of the few time's Ray managed to accurately report something. The "comments" added nothing to the "debate" and took up space that could have been better used to demolish Comfort's nonsense with reasoned argument.

Having said that, Comfort has reaped what he sowed. People did unto him as he has done unto others for years.

My take is Comfort doesn't like people criticizing his gibberish.


Actually, his old blog suggests he really doesn't care and, if anything, actually invites dissent. He mostly just ignores clearly rational arguments and instead looks for something he can take out of context and mis-characterise as nonsense.

His old moderation policy did seem somewhat arbitrary, however.

Now he's retreated to the old blog but has comments turned off. It won't remain that way for long. He needs dissent to feel relevant.

[Questioninggeller]

Oh they were there and they were obscene! This is one of the few time's Ray managed to accurately report something. The "comments" added nothing to the "debate" and took up space that could have been better used to demolish Comfort's nonsense with reasoned argument.


I guess I just saw the top comments. Related to this, his most recent post (He is afraid, and he thinks he’s safe because I won’t pay that much money for an hour of his time.) has some personal attacks on Richard Dawkins. You'd think he would avoid personal attacks after complaining about personal attacks.

[AndyD]

his most recent post has some personal attacks on Richard Dawkins. You'd think he would avoid personal attacks after complaining about personal attacks.

That would be the rational thing to do wouldn't it ;)

He's also written an article in worldview in which he deletes one sentence from Dawkins comment on the "debate challenge", thus changing quite significantly what Dawkins actually said.

The saga to date summarised: Bananaman Ray Comfort versus Dawkins (http://thinkingisreal.blogspot.com/2009/02/bananaman-just-cant-get-it-right.html)


BTW - tag added.

[fuelair]

That would be the rational thing to do wouldn't it ;)

He's also written an article in worldview in which he deletes one sentence from Dawkins comment on the "debate challenge", thus changing quite significantly what Dawkins actually said.

The saga to date summarised: Bananaman Ray Comfort versus Dawkins (http://thinkingisreal.blogspot.com/2009/02/bananaman-just-cant-get-it-right.html)


BTW - tag added.Is he another Kirk Cameron - also pushing bananas up his fundamentalism to show they were ID'ed?

[Questioninggeller]

Anyone listen (two mp3s) of Comfort's debate with Sam Tyler-Smith, a novice debater (http://jesuswasatitman.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-this-one-time-i-debated-ray-comfort.html)?

Sam responded to an ad he found promising $100 to debate Comfort. Sam agreed to tolerate his nonsense. (I don't know why someone would do this.)

It was brutal and Comfort got creamed. Sam pointed out that Comfort has been told his is mispresenting evolution (male and females evolved separately and dogs evolving without eyes), but Comfort keeps telling them. Comfort actually resorted to calling his opponent names, and at other points Comfort completely avoided the issues.

PZ Myers wrote (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/ray_comfort_repeats_the_same_d.php) on this:


Ray Comfort went off to New Zealand to have a debate — and wouldn't you know it, he stood up there and repeated the same bunk he spouts on his blog. Oh, wait: he did change one thing. Instead of talking about elephants (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/elephantine_errors_from_ray_co.php), he changed his animal that he claimed couldn't possibly have evolved to a dog. Woo hoo. He also completely ignored his opponent's arguments.

Ray Comfort is currently in the lead for top status in my list of dishonest, stupid creationists.


If this was Sam's first debate, I can only guess what a Dawkins vs Comfort debate would sound like.

[kurious_kathy]

Related to this is Comfort's new book. Check out this illogical statement:



WorldNutDaily (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87777)

Wow, just wow. People throw around the label "stupid," but this really takes the cake. No his statements are not stupid but valid.

[OdwinOddball]

No his statements are not stupid but valid.

No, sorry, it really is quite stupid. It shows a blatant lack of understanding of what it actually means to be an atheist. Its a level of blind ignorance and projection only seen in the truely devout.

Its people like Ray Comfort, well and you KK, that turn people like me away from considering the philosophical points of Christianity. Basically if you and he are examples of what it is to be a Christian, then I'll pass.