Welcome to the mind of the shameless, and apparently heartless, Ray Comfort, creationist and so-called Christian apologist extraordinaire (also known as "the Banana Man" in rational company for one of his less-spectacular arguments for the existence of God. Seriously, look it up, it's rather amusing). In a recent blog post, he writes that atheists, who obviously can't "blame God" for the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, must view it as a positive, part of the workings of evolution that is itself a good process bent on improvement. Such a foolish misunderstanding of what evolution is (likely a purposeful one, used to attack his critics, like Oxford professor Richard Dawkins) never fails to get my hackles up.
Full article here: http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2011/03/atheists-explanation-for-killer-quakes.html
First of all, it does not follow that an atheist, lacking a God to "blame" in Comfort's view, would view any such tragedy as a positive good. This is a false dilemma. Rational, scientifically-minded people can understand that such an occurrence as an earthquake is part of the well-understood workings of the natural world. The idea that one needs a God to blame is strange; so is Comfort implying that we should blame God here? I do not think so. An earthquake is caused by the motion of tectonic plates, and one can understand this without embracing and loving it. The fact that we understand the real causes makes this event no less tragic, and shame on the Banana Man for asserting that evolutionists welcome the deaths of tens of thousands of people. But somehow I expected no less from the man who wrote a book called Evolution: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups. Such an author cannot really be expected to make coherent sense when he writes.
The idea that evolution works towards "improvement" is a misconception, anthropocentric at best and misguided. That implies that natural selection has a purpose, a guiding hand. It assuredly does not, and there is no specific end goal. Most of the species that have ever existed have gone extinct, and what we see on Earth today are but a small number of the forms of life. Surely that fact alone puts the lie to the idea that evolution works towards "improvement." Complexity, certainly, but not improvement. Any notion of improvement is an opinion from our point of view, not a scientifically valid notion. There is no purpose in evolution, but that is not to say that life itself has no purpose.
A human being can find purpose in anything, and the fact that he is just one person among billions, one species among millions on a planet among millions (and potentially even in a universe that is just one of an endless number of universes) does not mean that we become purposeless and just live life in simple hedonism, waiting to die, as Comfort asserts. There is much in life that is wonderful, that can provide purpose and meaning, and there are many reasons that life is worth living, not some meaningless toil to wait out.
I won't address Comfort's dubious theological claims that earthquakes and cancer, among others, are just reminders that we live in a fallen, sinful world where God "is angry at humanity for all its evil," though I would certainly dispute that as well. My main dispute with Mr. Comfort is his continuing and incorrect assertions about evolution and what evolutionists think. There are no words for someone who uses the tragic deaths of thousands of innocents to score points against the opposing side.
Full article here: http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2011/03/atheists-explanation-for-killer-quakes.html
First of all, it does not follow that an atheist, lacking a God to "blame" in Comfort's view, would view any such tragedy as a positive good. This is a false dilemma. Rational, scientifically-minded people can understand that such an occurrence as an earthquake is part of the well-understood workings of the natural world. The idea that one needs a God to blame is strange; so is Comfort implying that we should blame God here? I do not think so. An earthquake is caused by the motion of tectonic plates, and one can understand this without embracing and loving it. The fact that we understand the real causes makes this event no less tragic, and shame on the Banana Man for asserting that evolutionists welcome the deaths of tens of thousands of people. But somehow I expected no less from the man who wrote a book called Evolution: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups. Such an author cannot really be expected to make coherent sense when he writes.
The idea that evolution works towards "improvement" is a misconception, anthropocentric at best and misguided. That implies that natural selection has a purpose, a guiding hand. It assuredly does not, and there is no specific end goal. Most of the species that have ever existed have gone extinct, and what we see on Earth today are but a small number of the forms of life. Surely that fact alone puts the lie to the idea that evolution works towards "improvement." Complexity, certainly, but not improvement. Any notion of improvement is an opinion from our point of view, not a scientifically valid notion. There is no purpose in evolution, but that is not to say that life itself has no purpose.
A human being can find purpose in anything, and the fact that he is just one person among billions, one species among millions on a planet among millions (and potentially even in a universe that is just one of an endless number of universes) does not mean that we become purposeless and just live life in simple hedonism, waiting to die, as Comfort asserts. There is much in life that is wonderful, that can provide purpose and meaning, and there are many reasons that life is worth living, not some meaningless toil to wait out.
I won't address Comfort's dubious theological claims that earthquakes and cancer, among others, are just reminders that we live in a fallen, sinful world where God "is angry at humanity for all its evil," though I would certainly dispute that as well. My main dispute with Mr. Comfort is his continuing and incorrect assertions about evolution and what evolutionists think. There are no words for someone who uses the tragic deaths of thousands of innocents to score points against the opposing side.
It goes: Person, house, block, neighborhood, city/town, state, country, continent, hemisphere, planet, star, star cluster, galactic arm, galaxy, galactic neighborhood, visible universe, universe, multiverse.
ReplyDeleteYou skipped a few when you were doing your list.