Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
I know, keeping up with the idiocy of Ray Comfort would be a full time job. His latest moronic diatribe is about cowardly atheists supposedly not attacking Islam. He begins:
My new theory is that perhaps atheists evolved from the chicken, because they not only have chicken characteristics--a head, eyes, mouth, skin, neck, heart, earlobes and legs (homology structures), but they also have the chicken's tendencies--they are chicken livered. They hang around Christians like annoying little bugs hang around light, trying to inject their poison whenever they can.
A whole paragraph, not a word of substance in it. Just what we've come to expect from an ignoramus who thinks the banana fitting in one's hand is proof of God's existence. But he's just getting warmed up:
If you are an atheist, I hope I'm ruffling your feathers. I want to get under your skin and ask why you don't have the courage to even whisper to Moslems what you keep shouting at Christians. Prove me wrong. Get onto a Moslem website and tell them that you don't believe their god exists. Do your little "I don't believe in Zeus" thing. Tell them they believe a myth. Talk about Mohammed as you do Jesus (use lower case for Mohamed). Do your "I don't believe in the flying spaghetti monster" thing. Tell them that we weren't made by a god (lower case), but that they evolved from primates (that will go down well). Also, let them know in no uncertain terms that the Koran is full of mistakes (give some examples), and that their mosques are full of hypocrites.You wouldn't dare, because you are chicken-livered. You know that they are not like Christians. Despite the "anonymity" of your little chicken coop, they would come after you to lop off your head. And when they find you, you would fall on your knees and be praying to God for help, quicker than I can move a fly swat . . . and I'm pretty quick. So, think about what you are doing, and think about how much you value your life. Then think about what we are telling you. Think.
Okay, I'm thinking. And I can't see even the most tenuous connection between the premise and the conclusion here. What does Muslims killing people have to do with making Christianity true? I, for one, have blasted Islam on here and even reprinted the Danish cartoons. I guess that makes me not a coward. But even if I was, I can't imagine how that would somehow support Comfort's absurd beliefs.
And by the way, I'll be happy to donate money to send Ray Comfort to, say, Karachi or Riyadh so he can preach his beliefs to the Muslims there as he dares atheists to do. Let me know when you wanna leave, Ray, I bet we can get a whole lot of evil unbelievers to pay for your plane ticket. Let's see just how brave you are.
Comments
God, what a diatribe! Reading that quote, I can actually see his watery eyes and the flecks of spittle flying off his lips.
He reminds me of the Catholic priest in "Harold and Maude".
Posted by: Rick R | January 28, 2008 10:11 AM
Comfort obviously has not read, or is purposefully ignoring, both Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens recent chastisements of Islam in both book form and continuous public appearances. It was also only eight or so short years ago that a milestone comparative religion book was published, "The Battle for God" by Karen Armstrong, which lent equal weight to the dangers of two of the three major fundamentalist religions and is found in many bibliographies of other authors attacking both theism in general and Islam in particular.
My study of secularism leads me to be believe that those who promote a rejection of theism have never been more prolific in ridiculing that religion, both written word and access via TV and of course the Internet. Comfort continues the time honored tradition of social conservatives, an argument from ignorance, relying on both is his audience's ignorance and their gullibility.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 28, 2008 10:18 AM
Certainly raises the question all us atheists are always asking: "Why are you Christians always so angry?" Oh, wait...
Posted by: Aaron | January 28, 2008 10:18 AM
Ray Comfort probably forgets that atheists' criticising Christianity is more profound because there're more believers in that religion than any other, especially in the U.S. But, someone who seems to love bananas so much probably starts to think like them after awhile...
Posted by: llDayo | January 28, 2008 10:27 AM
My comment, also posted on the original site:
Wow, way to completely demonstrate your complete ignorance of atheism there, Ray. Have you even read any of the best-selling books by atheist authors over the past few years? You will find the same sort of condemnation of the ignorance and immorality inherent in Islam and Judaism as of that in Christianity. Again, as another commenter wrote, any apparent bias toward anti-Christianity is simply because the authors live in predominantly Christian societies, as do their intended audiences.
As far as atheists being chickens, that's funny talk coming from people who waste untold hours of their lives begging to be saved from imaginary "sins" by an imaginary friend who supposedly came down from the sky to save us from a punishment he himself wanted to inflict upon us. It takes a lot more courage to face up to the fact that there is no magic man in the sky, and we are on our own here.
But if it'll make you feel better, here it is: There is no God, not even Allah, and Mohamed is not his Prophet. Islam is founded on the crazed ramblings of a lunatic pedophile, and it is likely the number one enemy of peace and freedom on the Earth today. Would you like me to go after Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, or Scientology next?
Posted by: The Mad Patriot | January 28, 2008 10:28 AM
Re Christopher Hitchens
Very fine this, considering that Mr. Hitchens has been heavily criticized for being more beastly toward Muslims in his book, "God is not Great," then he was towards Christians in the same book.
Posted by: SLC | January 28, 2008 10:29 AM
I actually stopped reading when he stated that chickens have earlobes. Granted, IANAO, but I'm sure I would have noticed chicken earlobes before now...
Posted by: ethyl | January 28, 2008 10:42 AM
Chickens don't have ear lobes.....
Posted by: Thoracantha | January 28, 2008 10:45 AM
This is a great line. Every once is awhile some other religious nut will hide behind the skirt of an aggressive muslim and say to some freethinker you don't have the courage to do this or that- all while condemning Islam from afar themselves.
In some ways it makes you respect Islam more that these chicken crap nutters in the USA who use the muslims to protect their own interests.
Posted by: GH | January 28, 2008 10:47 AM
Setting aside the fact that Ray cannot spell the word "Muslim" correctly, I consider his voice on the Christian right to be among the least informed.
After all, as Ed pointed out, if Ray cannot be troubled to do his homework on why store-bought bananas are such handy foods (e.g. the result of hundreds of years of agricultural manipulation by people, not God) how can he be taken seriously on any other topic?
Posted by: CHV | January 28, 2008 11:03 AM
Um, wait. Are we like chickens, or are we like insects? Or is it that chickens are like insects? Do chickens buzz around Christians? I'm so confused...
Posted by: Sanguinity | January 28, 2008 11:24 AM
Posted by: Alex, FCD | January 28, 2008 11:44 AM
As a quick counterexample to Ray's first sentance, I am an atheist evolved from Catholics. QED, STFU.
And asking Ray to recognize the chicken-log in his own eye is priceless.
Posted by: Dave X | January 28, 2008 11:47 AM
Evolved from chickens?
What was that bird that allegedly buries its head in the sand to avoid the world? Maybe Ray and ostriches share a common ancestor...
Posted by: Richard | January 28, 2008 12:13 PM
Well, since islam is as 'wrong' to Ray Comfy as it is to 'us', couldn't his charges of cowardice equally apply to him for not going onto muslim chatboards and evangelizing to them, telling them that jesus is real and mohammed was wrong etc. etc. etc.
Second, since the bible is pretty unequivocal about smiting unbelievers, why isn't comfy and his gang out there attacking atheists who troll on his websites? Is he more of a chicken about his own faith than he thinks muslims are about theirs?
But then it's not like I was expecting intellectual honesty from Comfy...
Posted by: Vic | January 28, 2008 12:30 PM
Have they heard of "The End of Faith"?
Posted by: Peter | January 28, 2008 12:36 PM
Okay ...
[FX: sounds of gears grinding]
Hmmm ... no matter how much I try, it keeps coming out "Ray Comfort is a moron."
Posted by: John Pieret | January 28, 2008 12:43 PM
Comfort doesn't put out enough light to attract bugs, he's a dim bulb.
Posted by: JimC | January 28, 2008 12:44 PM
I guess Comfort somehow missed Pat Condell.
Posted by: op99 | January 28, 2008 1:02 PM
Once again a Christian complains that Muslims aren't as readily criticized because of the violent measures some of them take. This has become quite common. I agree that a religion whose fanatics fly airliners into buildings, and post videos of people screaming while their heads are cut off, and stab film directors, is intimidating. But what's the point? Do they want to be more like that? Or are they just saying they want people to treat them with the same kid glove approach? Of course the threat of violence works to an extent, but Islam is far from uncriticized.
Posted by: soboco | January 28, 2008 1:11 PM
So does this mean that Comfort now accepts evolution?
Posted by: mg | January 28, 2008 1:52 PM
Well, he still gets evolution wrong. Humans and chickens evolved from a common ancestor. And despite what he may prefer, so did Christians and atheists.
Posted by: wheatdogg | January 28, 2008 3:07 PM
Ed,
I have seen many that adhere to this man's teaching on evangelism and actually used to agree with him. But going around blasting everyone just makes things more antagonistic. My rule is never to attack the character of the man if I do not know him. But if he is a public figure that says He represents God in what He says we need to hold him accountable. With that said, you are exactly right in what you said here.
Why would anyone want to go and face certain death for saying something that would totally offend someone for no reason? Even in mission circles it is totally inapproprate to go and talk about Mohammed like that. As someone who did risk life and limb many times going to comuunist countries and sharing my beliefs in I hope a more respectful manner I can say to do it just to prove some point and offend people is assinine. To ask you to go and do something He probably will not do is wrong. I would pay not to get him to go if he is going to be stupid about it. Makes it harder for people who want to be able to go and discuss religion and culture in a civilized way.
By the way most Muslims love to talk about religion and will bring it up when you are over there. All they want is some respect usually for their traditions. Here the culture is different and more antagonistic debate is accepted as part of our culture and exchange of ideas. I am not sure what this guy is doing half the time!
Posted by: King of Ireland | January 28, 2008 6:22 PM
So since I have evolved from being an atheist to a Christian, does that mean my atheist stage was just a larval form?
Posted by: kehrsam | January 28, 2008 6:26 PM
The "you don't pick on the stoopyd moooslems!" trope has become the latest facet of the Christian victim complex. Like most other refrains of that sort, it doesn't seem to matter much whether or not it is accurate. In this case, they seem to ignore Pat Condell, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and other atheists who are so heavily critical of Islam that they are often accused of intransigence. It's the new "War on Christmas", sometime going on entirely in their imaginations.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | January 28, 2008 6:53 PM
On his blog, Ray talks about breaking bread with the monthly meeting of the Orange County (CA) Atheists, and generally having had a spiritually rewarding experience.
At the end of the meal, Ray even sprang for the group's dinner tab, claiming he would have fought anyone who tried to take the check from him, while adding the following verse:
"Because it is God's pleasure that foolish and narrow-minded men may be put to shame by your good behaviour." (Peter 2:15)
So is it safe to venture that Ray's generosity was a bit self-serving and engineered?
Posted by: CHV | January 28, 2008 8:02 PM
"you don't have the courage to even whisper to Moslems what you keep shouting at Christians"
Hey! Muslims! Who said you could put that goddamn nativity scene in town square? And take down that Muslim cross from the city park while you're at it!
Posted by: Grumpy | January 28, 2008 8:43 PM
And to think, that cowardly fuck Ray Comfort won't let one of my comments through on his site! (Probably because I included a link from a Christian site that calls Comfort's theology a "license for immorality.") Well, at least he let in my comment that Islamist blogs also moderate their comments.
Coward! I've debated Muslims. They think atheists are Christians. They don't understand the concept of atheists.
Posted by: Kristine | January 28, 2008 9:13 PM
I'm not sure that's evolution. As an aside exactly what evidence convinced you to make the switch? I've known precious few atheists who have found religion compelling that where actually evidence based in their atheism. A few more who claimed disbelief but really hadn't thought much about it one way or the other and where essentially unchurched rather than actual intellectual atheists.
Posted by: JimC | January 28, 2008 9:20 PM
I am trying to get my head around the idea that I have descended from chickens while the rest of my family share a common ancestor with apes. How can I be related to them?
Posted by: Janine | January 29, 2008 1:47 AM
Hummm let me see.....
The Christians say that "Christianity is under attack..."
The Muslims say, that "Islam is under attack..."
Being a "free thinker"...I tend to look at it this way.... if both of these nutter religions feel that way then they are going to eventually go to war with one another.
Let's just stand back and let nature take its course. After they've wipped out a few million of each other, then they might come to their senses...
Then again...they may not... oh well, it's the "Thinning of the heard" thing again.
It is their old argument. They are the victims, they are being attacked and so on.
I myself am an equal opportunity free thinker. I think most of the major (and well the minor ones too) religions are full of people who live with fear, hate and ignorance of the world and things they don't understand.
Posted by: Chester | January 29, 2008 2:46 AM
His vicious tone is proof our message is being heard. He is willing to say things that will probably get his ass kicked. I know if I ever ran into him in public I would put him over my knee and spank him like his daddy shoulda.
It is ineviatable, we will win in the end.
Posted by: Mahovolich | January 29, 2008 3:57 AM
Well, let me see.
a) No, I don't go into Muslim blogs and criticize their religion. But I don't go into Christian blogs and criticize their religion, either. I criticize religion on my own damn blog, and on other atheist/ non-believer blogs.
b) And yes, I criticize Islam. I do spend more time critiquing Christianity, since it's the dominant religion in my culture, and therefore it's the religion I'm most familiar with, and the religion that gets shoved in my face the most. But I have criticized Islam, and will continue to do so.
c) Is he really calling Ayaan Hirsi Ali a coward? 'Cuz between the two of them, I sure know who I'd back in a cage match. And it ain't Mr. Banana.
Posted by: Greta Christina | January 29, 2008 4:30 AM
"YOU GO TO YOUR DEATH - AND THE DEATH OF US ALL! CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU AND ALL THE HALFLINGS!"
^.^
Posted by: Azkyroth | January 29, 2008 5:01 AM
Is he saying that Muslims are all murderers at heart?
Posted by: Christophe Thill | January 29, 2008 8:06 AM
I suppose it's not really surprising that, when reality fails to support one's prejudices, some people turn to revenge fantasy instead.
Posted by: MartinM | January 29, 2008 8:31 AM
I take more time to criticise Christianity than Islam because Christianity is the established (ie government-supported) religion in my country. When the Muslims start stacking the government with supporters and trying to mandate Islamic prayers in schools I'll start on them seriously. Until them I've got bigger fish to fry.
Posted by: Dunc | January 29, 2008 8:33 AM
Posted by: Martian Buddy | January 29, 2008 10:19 PM
Ray Comfort said: "Talk about Mohammed as you do Jesus (use lower case for Mohamed). Do your "I don't believe in the flying spaghetti monster" thing. Tell them that we weren't made by a god (lower case)"
Ray, just a note about capitalisaltion.
"Mohamed" and "Jesus" are capitalized when they refer to people, because they are proper nouns, when they don't refer to people they are not (eg "jesusnut").
"God/s" (except, as here, when it begins a sentence) is NOT capitalised because it is an abstract noun like "love". -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | January 30, 2008 3:56 AM
I posted the above on the linked website shortly after I posted it above. Here it appeared immeadiately, there it still hasn't been added on screen.
Talk about chicken hearted.
No fear campers, I sent the note to the author privately. My message will be recieved!
Posted by: DingoJack | January 30, 2008 6:44 AM
Hmm... stil waiting for a post on that site...after more than 6 hours you would think these chicken hearts woulf be able to offer some kind of defence for thier position. Nope guess not -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | January 30, 2008 12:57 PM
Yeesh, using an act of faux-generosity as an excuse to deliver a verbal slap in the face? That's actually rather vile. Miss Manners would rip him a new one for that (in an ever so polite and gentle way, of course).
I had a gander at that blog: Comfy's got a whole gaggle of brainless commenters over there who lap up his spew (as well as a few skeptics delivering good ripostes).
Posted by: Eamon Knight | January 30, 2008 1:48 PM
Here's where I like to remind the Christian that the atheist refuses to believe in every single god that the Christian refuses to believe in. And just one more.
Posted by: DJ | January 30, 2008 6:59 PM
Just a coda to my posts above. Ray finally got around to Emailing me. Yep a huge email of more of his mindless crap.
Would he post my comment? No. So I send him a less than friendly email back asking him not to contact me UNTIL he published my post, which as you can see, is not even PG rated and doesn't break the posting rules published on the site. Will he post my comment? I am not holding my breath.
So how about it Ray "Chickenheart" Comfort? Publish and or be damned. - DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | January 31, 2008 8:11 AM
Well, I've posted Ed's comments about Ray to Ray's own blog. Guess what? It actually shows up!
http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2008/02/dumb-joke.html#c3574990963761938763
Posted by: Reynold Hall | March 5, 2008 5:02 AM