Ray Comfort is a liar.
I am amazed at the lack of coherent logic in Ray's arguments. Lets start with the basics, "If you have lied, then you are a liar". According to the dictionary, a liar is, "A person who tells lies" -Random House. "Tells lies", not "have lied". (To be fair, WordNet does define it as someone who has lied, but not MW, AH, or others.) That seems to me to be a deliberate and ongoing distortion of a fact that is repeated by Ray rather consistently. Therefore, Ray is a liar because he continually lies, (about the definition of liar) not because he has "lied".
To illustrate the idiocy of his argument, one only has to take it to the obvious conclusion. Did you ever wet your pants? (even when you were a baby?) Then you are a pants wetter. Ever get drunk? If so, you must be an alcoholic. And I don't even want to consider what the process of being born makes me! The logic just doesn't hold up. And the funny part, since he is lying to get people to believe in G-d, then he is lying in G-d's name, and is therefore committing blasphemy in the process.
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You can't blame God for the dispensationalists and their cultic ways.
Besides that, you claim RSS is not a "mindfuck like religion"?!!! Have you seen some of the posts non-believers have put on here? Makes the crocoduck look like a credible arguement!
Not all just to clarify, there's been a few though. There are a lot of people who do use their brains on here as well.
How can one blame something that doesn't exist? Noone is blaming your invisible friend for anything.
Says the guy who has an invisible friend.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
And how is the fact that some non-believer posters post crazy stuff any evidence whatsoever that RRS has any of the aspects of a religion???
Rather it indicates the opposite, that it allows a wide range of commentary, providing an open forum for people to discuss the issues. If it actually censored such posters, especially on the grounds that they discredited RRS or non-belief, then it would be more like religions and religious forums.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
I wanted to expound on the fallacy that telling a lie makes one a 'liar.'
As others have pointed out, one can lie, and one can tell the truth. The two acts are not mutually exclusive. They are transient states. This is consistent across the whole of humanity.
However, there are certain acts which can not be negated by it's opposite. For instance, if one has killed someone for denting their car, they are a murderer. They do not become a non murderer if they choose not to kill the next person who dents their car.
The difference? Telling a lie, and learning from it, and choosing to the tell the truth next time is part of normal cognative development. Murdering someone is an abboration. However, the fact that there are murderers among us does not mean we are all in a fallen state of being. It simply means that there will always be individuals who do not act in the best interest of our species survival. Which is, by the way, why we have laws.
There is, by extension, a difference between 'purgery' and 'lying.' One breaks the law of the land, the other effects an individual relationship. So the courtroom drama used to support Comfort's claims is likewise erroneous.
well many things really. They conclude without the research. They're so convinced that their way is correct, even another who comes along supporting the same belief can't correct them with the errors they have because they must be right and everyone else is wrong.... starting to sound familiar yet?
Much of the labeling of people who believe in a higher power can be seen as a fear tactic just like many cults may impose. It gives the general idea of being outcast from the community.
This is just some of the stuff I've come across on here.
For more aspects of how RSS is likened to a religion, see http://www.dictionary.com, type in "religion" and look at definitions 2, 3, and 6.
I will give you that. RSS is more open minded than religion. I can't say the same about some of the members however. Point and case.
That is just repeating the first assertion - that some non-believers do that is not a reflection on the site itself.
'fear tactic'? WTF?? Why the hell would believers be afraid of being labelled by the word Theist, unless they are trying to hide the fact? Do they find something offensive about the word??
If that is the best you you can do to support your original statement, be honest and admit you spoke without thinking enough.
Thank you, and for admitting that you were actually referring to some of the members rather than the site itself.
Yes some Atheists can act as dogmatically and irrationally as the worst sort of God-botherer.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Thank you for such a precise description of what I now see has been most of my experience within Christianity. Fear, constant fear of punishment for the slightest infraction. Every ministry, motivational speaker, and self help program is aimed at getting past that defeated feeling. But the defeated feeling cannot go away. Thus the necessity of elevating the idea of martyrdom, so that we can all feel righteous in our misery.
According to the doctrine of original sin, I was doomed to go to hell before I did one single thing. No wonder we always feel like garbage! On top of that, God supposedly created us this way (wouldn't it have been within his power to create us a bit better?) AND created the rules we could not follow, then doomed us eternally for not being perfect.
The perfect irony in all of this is that "Salvation is by Grace alone", unmerited favor of God. (Yes, I was a raving Calvinist.) Calvinism teaches that man is INCAPABLE of even converting himself. God has to do it. And yet, if a Calvinist "sins" he is rejecting God. Wait! I thought God was in control! Then why are Calvinist the most self righteous, judgmental people on earth?
todangst, I would love to hear your views on Calvinism!
I may just have to join this site....
Your posts are terriffic!
One just a purely "look at the balls on this guy" I'll hand it to Ray for naming his blog Atheist Central.
He gets a fair amount of traffic and averages 80-100 replies to each post. He posts up his same tired positions and gets several responses from competent athiests more or less soundly refuting him. What I don't get is that they don't get he doesn't care if they refute him or not - everytime he posts his bs and gets a dozen or more replies from his target atheists audience it keeps him going. I considered replying to some of his more asinine claims a few times but realized it doesn't matter, he certainly isn't going to be swayed no matter how many atheists post up there. But he can look back and say to whoever, 'look how many of the lost I am reaching'.
So basically what I'm getting at is don't reply on his blog - like so many of his ilk, it's just a con game.
Belief in God. So easy, a caveman can do it.
And the world was changed with the bending of the seas . . . Fascinating.