Best-selling author Ray Comfort, host of "The Way of the Master" television show with actor Kirk Cameron, says he has a love-hate relationship with atheists. Many apparently hate him, but he loves them.

Comfort challenged an atheist group at the University of California at Berkeley to a debate this past summer, but the student group – which describes itself as a forum for open-minded discussion free from intolerance – declined after considering the offer for more than a week, the author says.

Comfort, author of the newly released book "Nothing Created Everything," believes the atheists are afraid he will say exactly what they believe – that nothing created everything.

Get the special edition of "Origin of Species" free with your purchase of Ray Comfort's "Nothing Created Everything" at WND's Superstore

Comfort, head of Bellflower, Calif.-based Living Waters ministry, is preparing a campaign this fall with Cameron to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species." They plan to give away 100,000 copies of a special edition of Darwin's seminal book on 100 university campuses across the nation.

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Comfort posed the debate challenge in July to a Berkeley campus group called Students for A Nonreligious Ethos, or SANE.

He told the group that if they could find him a professor to give him 20 minutes on why God doesn't exist, he would give him $200 for his trouble.

Comfort then would give the group 20 minutes and then open the floor for questions.

Ray Comfort

"I want to show the atheists who are in SANE that they were not thinking clearly when the turned down the debate," Comfort said. "Berkeley is supposed to have the reputation of being a radical campus. But these guys are are acting like a bunch of cringing chickens, and I think I know why."

Comfort said the group realized he would say "an atheist is someone who believes that 'nothing created everything' and that is a scientific impossibility."

Comfort pointed out that SANE's website says they offer "a forum for open-minded individuals to freely discuss philosophical, scientific, religious, political, and historical topics free from intolerance."

They also maintain, he noted, that a "willingness to doubt and desire to hear perspectives define SANE."

"They seem to talk the talk," Comfort said, "but they don’t walk the walk. Hypocrisy isn’t confined to religion. I made the presumption that any atheist who was in SANE would be ready and more than willing to debate a feeble Christian."

Comfort said he also wanted to debate at Oklahoma State University because on March 6 there was "an outbreak of something I call 'Dawkins Disease,'" referring to popular contemporary atheist Richard Dawkins, the British biologist. 

"It broke out on the same day that Professor Richard Dawkins addressed a large crowd," Comfort said. "The main symptom of this disease is a paralysis of the human ability to think clearly. I may be able to help them by pointing out what atheists actually believe."

Comfort said he anticipated his new book, as with previous books on the subject, would receive attacks from posters at Amazon.com.

"If you read the book reviews of any of my books on atheism, you will find that they range from one star to five stars. One reviewer will say that this is the best thing since sliced bread, the next will say that bread mold is far better."

Comfort said he uncovered an "atheist plot" on an Internet forum that encouraged any atheist to write a bad review.

"The fact that they wrote their plot for the world to see on a website called 'WeAreSMRT' says something about their mentality," he said.

Special condemnation

As WND reported, promotions for the "Origin of Species" campaign already have prompted a strong reaction from media and bloggers.

The special release of the book challenges the theory of evolution with a 50-page introduction by Comfort that includes an overview of Darwin's life and presents a case for a universe created by God through arguments such as the structure of DNA and the absence of species-to-species transitional forms.

"Nothing Created Everything" offers readers a glimpse into Comfort's ongoing dialogue with professed atheists, many of whom interact with him on "The Way of the Master" and on his blog Atheist Central.

The cover of his new book morphs the faces of Darwin and Dawkins into one and features a jab from Dawkins to Comfort: "[Ray Comfort] is an ignorant fool!"

Comfort dedicates the book to Dawkins, who introduced the concept "nothing created everything": "To Richard Dawkins, in the sincere hope that he looks beyond the hypocrisy of organized religion, before he goes to meet his Maker."

In his 2004 book "The Ancestor's Tale," Dawkins writes, "The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved literally out of nothing – is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice."

Comfort asserts, in his new book, anyone "who tries to actually justify that nothing created everything has to be insane."

"This is a scientific impossibility," he writes, "There's no way to say it kindly, but such thoughts show that the atheist doesn't think, and prove the Bible right when it says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God."

"Nothing Created Everything" also reflects Comfort's underlying desire to show atheists love and compassion and to introduce them to Jesus Christ.

He recalls one day when he and his wife paid for dinner vouchers for any atheist who frequented Atheist Central. A dozen atheists took them up on the offer.

One of the atheists requested copies of Comfort's books, "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can't Make Him Think" and "The Atheist Bible." The request prompted a chain reaction of more than 120 requests for free books on creationism.

It ended with a response from one enthusiastic recipient: "I love this offer, and I love you and everyone posting here! Sorry, I'm just bursting with love at the moment! … I'd love [the book] signed! Hugs and big wet sloppy kisses in a manner completely out of character for an evil, sinning atheist like me."

Comfort has sold more than 1 million copies of "The Atheist Test," debated atheists on ABC's Nightline and has written a number of books on the subject. He has debated atheistic evolution on the BBC and was a platform speaker at the 27th National Convention of American Atheists. The atheist group was founded by the late Madalyn Murray O'Hair, once regarded as America's "most-hated woman" for her role in removing prayer from public schools.

Comfort also produces a syndicated weekly radio program on atheism and evolution for Moody Radio.

Related offers:

Get "Nothing Created Everything"

WND's Superstore has Comfort's special edition of "Origin of Species"

Get Ray Comfort's book, "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think."

See what Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron have been up to – including sky-diving, a shootout and even a police chase – in the complete third season of "The Way of the Master," available on DVD from the WND SuperStore

"Intelligent Design vs. Evolution – letters to an atheist" by Ray Comfort

"Nostradamus: Attack on America" by Ray Comfort

"What Hollywood Believes: An Intimate Look at the Faith of the Famous" by Ray Comfort

Get the most inspirational film of 2008! You can own "Fireproof," starring Kirk Cameron, on DVD.

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