My Interview With Ray Comfort

Yeah that’s right, I interviewed Ray Comfort! Last week, I read an excellent interview that Hemant Mehta did with Comfort and I thought to myself, “I want to interview him too.” My plan was slightly less friendly than the Friendly Atheist. I don’t think it is fair that Ray edits his interviews so my plan was to edit my interview with him. But that Ray Comfort is a wily one. No, no, you can’t con a con.

I sent Ray Comfort an e-mail explaining that I would like to interview him and then I listed my questions. The next day, I received an e-mail from his secretary containing Ray’s answers – but not so fast. Comfort made it clear that, “You have permission to publish the answers them unaltered.” Grammar aside, it is pretty clear that editing the answers could lead to legal issues. Let this be a lesson to anyone Ray Comfort interviews in the future; always add the line “You have permission to broadcast my responses unedited,” to your release form.

In any case, here is what I am going to do. First, I will publish MY interview with Ray Comfort the way I intended to publish it – just for fun. Then I will publish the real unaltered interview below. Finally, I will comment on Ray’s responses. Here we go:

Part 1: My Super Fun, Super Edited Interview

1. Can you present to me one scientific reason to accept creationism?

“it doesn’t even pass the scientific method. It cannot be observed or tested. It is based on nothing but blind faith. It isn’t scientific. Most who think it is are confused. Many animals adapt. Human beings adapt in many ways and scientists at USC and UCLA agree. When I mention that, watch them nod and verbally agree.”

2. How do you really feel about creationism?

“It is scientifically impossible — scientifically ludicrous.”

3. Have you ever heard of telomeres in chromosomes?

“They are part of the makeup of DNA.”

4. Are you aware of the comparison of the telomeres in chromosome 2 between humans and chimpanzees?

“Humans and chimps has many things in common. So do pigs and humans.”

5. Doesn’t this prove evolution to be true?

“We see that in the existing creation/nature and in the fossil record (except for a few snails).”

That was cathartic and fun. Of course this interview was heavily edited in the manner Ray Comfort is so accustomed. In one place I even switched up a question and in another, I made up a completely different question but every word that I quoted from Ray was indeed said by him… not necessarily in that order and with lots of edits, but the words were said and they were his words. Okay, here is the real unedited interview – something you will never actually get from Ray Comfort. Feel free to compare my edited interview with the real one just for shits and giggles.

Part 2: The Real Unedited Interview With Ray Comfort

1. Can you present to me one valid reason to reject the scientific theory of evolution?

“Your question is “loaded.” Darwinian evolution (as Richard Dawkins likes to call it) doesn’t even pass the scientific method. It cannot be observed or tested. It is based on nothing but blind faith. It isn’t scientific. Most who think it is are confused between adaptation/speciation and Darwinian evolution. Adaptation and speciation within kinds is seen throughout nature. Many animals adapt. Human beings adapt in many ways. However, that isn’t Darwinian evolution as we point out in “evolution vs. God” (and scientists at USC and UCLA agree). When I mention that, watch them nod and verbally agree.”

2. Can you present to me one reason to accept creationism?

“Creationism is observable and testable. It is scientifically impossible for creation/nature to have made itself, because it would have had to be pre-existent to make itself before it made itself–which is scientifically ludicrous. Genesis chapter one says that every animal would be male and female, and every animal would bring forth after its own kind (kind: ³Race; genus; species; generic class; as, in mankind or humankind.² Biology-online.org). We see that in the existing creation/nature and in the fossil record (except for a few snails).”

3. Have you ever heard of telomeres in chromosomes?

“They are part of the makeup of DNA.”

4. Are you aware of the comparison of the telomeres in chromosome 2 between humans and chimpanzees?

“Humans and chimps has many things in common. So do pigs and humans.”

5. Doesn’t this prove evolution to be true?

“It may to you. However, even though there is similarity in almost all of creation (thousands of creatures have eyes, heads, a heart, lungs, kidneys, a brain, skin, blood, blood vessels, etc., all it proves is that the Maker used a common design.”

Okay, that was predictable, but yet strangely educational. Let me go through his answers briefly and point out what I have learned.

Part 3: Exposing Ray Comfort’s Ignorance

1. Here Ray is making the standard “macro vs. micro” evolution distinction which doesn’t actually exist. The fact is that we can observe the evidence for one “kind” evolving into another “kind” as I will point out later.
2. Really? We can observe God’s creation of the universe? Okay, show it to me. This I have got to see.
3. This is where things get interesting. Ray successfully answered a question and is now on the board with 20 points. Great job Ray!
4. Err, err, sorry – wrong answer Ray. While he is correct that humans and chimps do indeed share many things in common, the telomeres in chromosome 2 are not one of them. Human telomeres are fused chimp telomeres. Here’s a nifty graphic from Wikipedia to better illustrate the comparison:

5. Well, we have learned that Ray Comfort doesn’t know jack about evolution or biology. Look, I’m not a biologist either. I got a D the first time I took Biology in college. I retook it and got a C. But when I had to go on TV to talk about evolution vs. Creationism, I did my homework (with the help of some really smart friends – Mike, Shaun, Jen, Dan, and a few others I forget). Ray does this for a living! He should at least look into some of the arguments in favor of evolution. This one is my favorite because it is pretty observable – at least under a microscope. Here we can see how one “kind” evolved into another “kind.”

This was fun. Let’s do it again sometime Ray. In the meantime, here are the reviews I did for all of Ray Comfort’s direct-to-YouTube films. I watched them so you don’t have to. Please feel free to share them on your social networks. Thanks:

Review: The 180 Movie
Review: Genius – The Movie
Review: Evolution vs. God