Or how about Sonny Bono?

I don’t expect the book to influence my thinking – I try to keep an open mind but not so open that my intelligence dribbles out.
Here’s a sample from the forward by Kent Hovind that rates pretty high on my “arrgh!” meter:

“…in the 140 years since Darwin made the evolutionary theory popular, not one shred of real scientific evidence has been found to show how this complex universe could have come into its present form without an intelligent Designer.”

How on earth do we make the leap from a theory that deals with the development of life on Earth to the origin of the universe? If this is any indication of the sorts of “arguments” I’m going to find in the rest of the book I may want to keep a couple of aspirins handy.

Perhaps someone could point me in the direction of some brilliant theological texts as an antidote. I remember enjoying “The Rule of St. Benedict” because it seemed so sensible (aside from the faith part.)

I’m pretty well immersed in Christian circles (even in conservative evangelical circles) and yet I’ve never heard of him apart from when atheists mention him. There in only a very, very small subset of the Christian world, mostly on the fundamentalist end of the evangelical spectrum, where people would have any clue who he is. I honestly think you guys pay more attention to him than most Christians do. I’d be careful about overestimating his influence.

I don’t know, Mike. I sometimes cruise the fundie blogs (solely to annoy myself), and they do tend to mention him quite a bit – he’s doing a great job, etc.

Either way Christianity remains one of the most self-centered religions created by man. If it’s not about your comfort in this life its about your comfort in the next (no pun intended, although Ray seems to think it is all about Comfort). They seem to require an ulterior motive for their relationship with God, because for some reason touching the divine is never good enough for them.

This is one of the most powerful arguments against Christianity, and any religion with a god at its center: “touching the divine” is not good enough. Why do we think God is not there? Because despite the feel-good message, and short-term fuzzy feelings, the experience of God is less compelling than many human experiences of nature or culture. Are we wrong to suggest that the experience of God ought to be the most deep and satisfying?

Without the familiar and comforting words of the Bible, and threats of Hell and damnation, without the whole Bible story, and the story of Jesus, and end-times prophecy, and the anti-science battles, and the abortion controversy, and just plain old fear to keep Christians distracted they would (it is hoped) tire of the emptiness of their experience and go looking for something real.

He basically says that modern evangelicalism is broken in that it preaches a false message that “coming to Christ” will improve your life.

In that case, Jesus preaches a false message too:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 10:10, KJV

He observes that about 80% of people who pledge their life to Christ end-up backsliding.

Observes or estimates? Sounds like he means 80% of Christians aren’t the kind of Christians he thinks they should be.

Ray’s secret is that to keep people from back-sliding, they must be taught to fear God and fear the judgment. It is only through fear of eternal damnation and torturing that people will want to save their skins and keep motivated to be with Christ.

…uh, because the Bible really is nothing but a concise, clear, consistent two thousand pages of warnings of hellfire, I guess.

This is really a guy preying on people’s fears of the unknown. He knows that the average Christian doesn’t spend a day out of the month reading their own scriptures.

I listened to Ray Comforts “secret” and it was interesting. He basically says that modern evangelicalism is broken in that it preaches a false message that “coming to Christ” will improve your life. He observes that about 80% of people who pledge their life to Christ end-up backsliding. His thesis is that these people are coming to Christ for the wrong reason (so their life will improve). Their life doesn’t end up imporoving, so they loose faith. Ray thinks that these people are being set up for a fall. Ray’s secret is that to keep people from back-sliding, they must be taught to fear God and fear the judgment. It is only through fear of eternal damnation and torturing that people will want to save their skins and keep motivated to be with Christ. That is his message. Get back to old-time hell-fire preaching. He thinks the whole modern version of “feel good” Christianity is a crock. For him, it is all about Hell avoidance. People must be taught to believe in Hell and that they are all sinners.

Either way Christianity remains one of the most self-centered religions created by man. If it’s not about your comfort in this life its about your comfort in the next (no pun intended, although Ray seems to think it is all about Comfort). They seem to require an ulterior motive for their relationship with God, because for some reason touching the divine is never good enough for them.

Then he showed what would happen if you removed Genesis…. and like a cheesy reenactment of a drunken game of Jenga, all the rest of the books came crashing down dramatically into a pile of rubble.

I would have been murdered if I had attended a school like that. There I’d be, this snarky kid saying, “Oh so if we toss Revelations off the top nothing happens, and then the next one is on the top so that could go with no problem,…”