My thoughts on Ray Comfort
Offline I recently watched the Nightline debate between the RRS and Comfort and Cameron. Something that has been bugging me was why Comfort does what he does. He calls his own Blog Atheist Central and I've seen his interactions with P.Z. Meyers and the commentary done on him by people like Thunderf00t and AronRa on Youtube. He is quite aware of his train wreck persona and yet he doesn't seem to be taking any efforts to rectify it. Looking at all of it there are only a few conclusions I can reach, and if others have thoughts I'd love to hear them.
1) Ray Comfort is a Poe: This one was my first thought but it feels too unlikely. While if he merely did his blog I could see him as being something like LandoverBaptist the fact that he does a TV show as well as the Nightline Debate makes me think that this simply can't be the case. Also his partnership with Cameron makes this unlikely since Cameron has been in multiple church oriented movies so again, feels unlikely.
2) Ray Comfort is a Cynical Manipulator: Comfort doesn't believe a thing he says, he might be a theist, might be an atheist but he's pretty much completely in what he does for the money. Christian oriented things can end up being far more expensive due to exclusivity and because nervous parents don't want to get the wrong thing he gets money hand over fist. He also figures that by antagonizing atheists he is seen as a great defender of the faith so they're more likely to buy his stuff. His partnership with Cameron is essentially a mutual support system, each one can ride on the others coat tails. This one feels a bit more accurate but I think he has to be at least somewhat sincere or he has to be a really good liar since I'd figure odds are he'd slip up somewhere by now and people would see through the facade.
3) Comfort is a relatively clever troll: Whether or not he believes is irrelevant, he has figured out the ultimate marketing strategy, us. I hadn't heard of the guy until I saw the debate on Nightline, and even then didn't know much about him. I heard more about him from some of Thunderf00t and AronRas videos and recently an attempt to get PZ Meyers attention was done by Ray. He actually embraces the trainwreck persona he has because he knows that one of us will see it and put it on a blog or forum, others go to it thinking 'it can't possibly be THAT stupid' and he gets hundreds of hits to his blog as well as getting more attention. If he can get another debate, like he did with the RRS or Thunderf00t, his name gets bigger and his price goes up. Now he could be entirely sincere or he could be totally cynical in this but this one feels the most likely, because it does seem to match with what he's done so far, he even acknowledges people who have done videos mocking him and the like, maybe trying to return the favor of publicity?
Any other ideas or thoughts on the subject are welcome
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Your analysis is far more involved then Ray Comfort deserves. I do not think he is atheist, Poe or Satire. I would think of him as an attention whore who found a way to make money at it. If he started getting sane and rational now it would put a big dint in his income and less attention.
Beck, O'reily, Rush operate with the same attitude; they like the attention they get and they get a lot of money for it. Acting sensable for them wouldn't pay much. I often wonder what televangelists would do for work without the god thingy running their cashcow.
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If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
I used to wonder what is the deal with Ray and WOTM. I think the obvious answer is money, but perhaps it could be blind faith. Ray has said a lot of stupid things, such as the famous banana, claiming a dog must evolve eyes to see, or there are sixth senses and atheists lack the sixth. He is not that stupid, or at least I am sure he is not, his supports are stupid certainly.
Why does Ray continue what he does? Well his supporters around the nation are paying him to lie to them. I recently debated a street preacher who was trying to sell books from Living Waters -that's Rays organization. Christians are fearful for the future of America and the steady decline of christianity and its influence. Many blame this for the teaching of evolution in schools. Its amazing how much support you can get by selling people what they want to hear, physics get loads of money for short meetings or calls its ridiculous.
Does he really believe the lies he is selling. I dont know, maybe he does. Ray is obviously intellectually lazy (he could not even come up with his own material in his inserted intro in the Origin of Species) and has no basic understanding of science or scripture.
All I know is lies must be confronted where ever whenever possible, no matter how small. And Ray's mouth is a lie-spewing machine.
Signature ? How ?
Even outside the issue of religion, most "spokespeople" in adds will tell you they believe in the product, and or the company hiring the "spokesperson" wants a spokesperson who believes in the product.
Comfort really believes the shit he is selling. Whatever doubts he might have are being quelled by the attention and money he is making. T
he false connection that causes people to cling to their belief is, "Hey, this works, people like it, therefore it must be true".
Banana man cant sell it to us, but unfortunately there are fare too many gullible people who will fall for it.
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Yep money. What about Kirk Cameron though? They both do it for money seeing how Cameron's acting career ( if you could call it that ) went down the drain. I also think they somewhat do it to annoy us.
If all the Christians who have called other Christians " not really a Christian " were to vanish, there'd be no Christians left.