My Thoughts on the Ray Comfort/Atheist Experience Discussion

After recently listening to the Ray Comfort/Atheist Experience discussion, I’ve concluded, as Matt Dillahunty kept suggesting, that Mr. Comfort is always going to place the “evidence” from the Bible over that of modern scientific research. Ray will simply side with the Bible whenever and wherever conflict emerges. He’s uncomfortable with evolution because it’s seemingly at odds with the Bible and particularly Genesis; Although, there are many evangelicals who accept the evidence of evolution. He doesn’t like how old scientists are claiming the earth to be, or the fact that the age has changed quite a bit throughout the centuries. The estimates generally keep going further and further from where Ray’s comfort zone seems to lie, a mere 10,000 years old. Then again, Ray tried to say that the age of the earth doesn’t matter because saving souls is more important. Indeed, anything that science says which contradicts the Bible’s “facts” no longer seems to matter.

Matt tried to explain that evolution is what medical researchers use today to combat viruses and bacterial infections. Russell spoke a bit about the fruit fly experiment which demonstrated speciation inside the laboratory, and Ray simply shrugs his shoulders and states "I don't believe that evidence." Essentially, Ray doesn't believe man when he contradicts the men who wrote the Bible. This is just too hypocritical for words.

When challenged on the atrocities of the O.T., Ray decides to ask Matt and Russell if they believe that the O.T. is true in the first place. Of course, they state that they don’t believe in it and he then says, “Well what are you worried about then?” We should just live and let live and not seriously analyze the heinous commands god ordered the Israelites to carry out against neighboring countries. Yet, Ray should worry about it since he actually believes that the Bible is true in its stories of war, slavery and genocide.

On questioning creation, Ray stated that everyone knows there is a creation, and its “always been called a creation.” Anyone with a reasonable and sane mind should know that there is a creation. This obviously means that there must be a creator since there is a creation. After all, every painting has a painter. Everything is designed according to Ray but as Matt Dillahunty pointed out, “not everything that appears to be designed is designed.” We can look at sand dunes or snowflakes which look extremely intricate and rich with variety and patterns but realize that they came out that way through natural causes. We can look at the clouds in the sky and see images that aren’t really there because we are pattern seeking animals.

Ray ultimately believes that Christianity is true because of personal experience, not unlike William Lane Craig. He says that it goes from an intellectual understanding to an experiential one. He criticizes Matt for not being an authentic Christian in the 28 years that he served god because he never recognized the depth of his sin and truly repented of his sins. If he did, he would have experienced this presence of god that can only be felt by totally dying to sin. It seems unreasonable that god would have not helped Matt in those 28 years before falling to atheism so that he could have experienced this deeper relationship with god before it was too late.

In the end, the Bible is always the source of ultimate truth because it says so. How else do we know so? Well, Ray has personal experiences that attest to that fact. The Bible stands head and shoulders above the other major religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam because, as Ray claims, they emphasize salvation based on works instead of on who you know and put your faith in, as if that somehow makes it more true. Of course, the other religions could claim that Christianity is false because it’s based on who you know and put your trust in instead of how you use your time and what you do for your god and others, sounds just as legitimate as the argument for Christianity.