Monday, January 14, 2008

Response to Ray Comfort's "What is reality?"

Ray comfort wrote:

In the days when Communists were called “reds,” a man named Rudolph Strauboroff and his wife were looking out of the window of his large wooden mansion in Moscow. As he stared at the freezing conditions he said, "It's beginning to rain." His wife quietly informed him that it was snow, and not rain. He looked her in the eyes, and gently said, “Rudolph the Red knows rain dear.” Yes, I know how bad that is, but it leads me to a serious question on the subject of “knowing” anything. What do we know in this life--of what can we be sure? To find out, I have some strange questions for you. Here’s the first. When is “now”? Tell me if you can. I’m serious.

Pinpoint “now.” You can never pinpoint when it is, because by the time you do, it's gone. "Now" is as elusive as evidence for species-to-species evolution. In an instant it becomes “then.” Here’s another dumb question. Where is “here?” Point to it. If you say it’s where you are, six billion others on earth would disagree with you. “Here” is where they are, and to them, where you are pointing to, is “there.” Another one: Which way is “up”? If you point towards the sky, millions of folks Down-under would disagree with you. If they would point to the sky to show the direction of up, they will point in the opposite direction to which you are pointing.

Remember, we live on a big round ball. The same applies with the direction of down. If you point to the soil to show the direction of “down,” people on the other side doing the same are pointing in the opposite direction, and people half way around the world (at the equator) would be pointing in a completely different direction. Here’s another one. What color is the sky on a cloudless day? If you said “blue,” you are wrong. There’s no color to it. It’s colorless. If you don’t believe it, check it out from space. There’s no “sky” at all. How about a “sunrise.” Have you ever seen one? No one has. The sun never “rises” or “sets.” Remember, the earth turns while the sun just sits there. So, of what can you be sure in this life? Some say “death and taxes.” That’s not true either--plenty of people avoid taxes. So if we can’t be sure of anything but death, what on earth is reality (truth)?

If you leave God out of the equation, you have no answer. What is truth? Is there any such thing? Do you know? Again, if you ignore Almighty God (the “I AM” who transcends time and space), you will end up as lost as the misguided Pilate of Scripture as he stood bewildered in front of Jesus Christ. The Roman Governor asked the rhetorical question “What is truth?” Pilate gazed on Him who was reality itself (see John 14:6), and you are just as close to Him (See Romans 10:8-9). Are you going to wash your hands of Jesus Christ? Or will you obey Him, and know the truth of the words "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"?


HI Ray, I have to ask you something about Science, just so that I have a clear perspective on why you have so many doubts about evolution.

(1) What is your background in science? Would you classify it as

(a) Grammar school level (You have what the average 8th grader would have)
(b) High school level (You took the mandatory science courses and have what a high school senior tends to have)
(c) College level (you actually took some level 2 science courses, and performed lab experiments)
(d) advanced (You actually worked within a scientific discepline as a profession)

(2) Where do you get your primary science information?

(a) Christian sources (like the discovery Institute, Christian media, etc)
(b) Mass Media (TV, Radio, popular magazines)
(c) Industry trade/scientific journals
(d) close personal friends or associates who keep me informed

(3) Reguarding fact-finding, do you believe that there is a clear-cut method of finding out facts, and determining a truthful fact from a false fact, which is secular, and does not require one to have any particular philosophical beliefs?

(4) Do you think that the scientific method is a valid, working method for fact-finding, or do you believe it is broken, and needs to incorporate some new rules or principles?

(5) What creationist authors have been the most influential to you in denying evolution?

(6) Do you believe that the scientific community is inherently dishonest, deliberately promoting a series of complicated, inter-woven lies to artificially prop up evolution, and that the reason they appear to convince so many people is because they are really clever at making really effective lies and false evidence?

(7) Is it possible that scientists who believe in evolution are correct, and a bunch of people who have no professional science experience, and who mainly are occupied in preaching (in other words, people who are not really science experts by their history and profession) are simply mistaken?

(8) What makes you so sure that that evolution is wrong -- what do you consider to be the smoking gun evidence?

(9) If I recall, you once had a debate where you claimed that you could prove the existence of God, scientifically, without making any reference to scripture or faith. Do you still make that claim? Also, during that televised debate, the first thing you said when asked to make your case, was to quote from the 10 commandments, and other parts of the Bible. Why did you do that, when you claimed you could prove God without doing that?

Anyway, Ray, if you want to have an open, friendly, polite discussion about evolution and science, I'm open to it. Mind you, I can't prove anything to you -- to prove anything to anyone requires your consent, and likewise,you can't prove anything to me without my consent. We have to agree to some basic ground rules of proof and facts, and conduct, because if we both use our own rules, we won't get anywhere. I look forward to hearing from you.

2 comments:

GamingAsshole said...

Good to see you posting on a blog, Psycho Dave.

David W. Irish said...

No problem...