Tens of thousands of copies of a special printing of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" that include a special forward pointing out the gaps in the theory of evolution, the improbabilities it assumes and the still-missing "missing link" are being distributed Down Under by Christian author and activist Ray Comfort.
Why? Because that's where famed atheist Richard Dawkins, who has refused to debate Comfort over the belief that evolution created modern-day mankind, is speaking.
Ray Comfort |
Last fall Comfort was joined by actor Kirk Cameron and more than a thousand others in a campaign to distribute 170,000 copies of the special edition of the book on the campuses of 100 of America's top universities. The campaign coincided with the 150th anniversary of the publication of the original.
Dawkins at that time had told students to rip out the introduction by Comfort, which critiques Darwin's theory and argues for a universe created by an intelligent designer.
Comfort – host of "The Way of the Master" television show with Cameron and head of Bellflower, Calif.-based Living Waters ministry – now has confirmed that tens of thousands of the books are being handed out to Australians and New Zealanders.
"I will be interested to see if the professor once again reveals how afraid he is for people to read the foreword, by telling them to rip it out – as he did in Canada recently," Comfort said of the new book distribution plans, which include Christchurch, New Zealand.
"This is a city where I (almost daily), for 12 years, poured my heart out in the local 'Speaker's Corner.' Over 3,000 times I climbed onto a soapbox and spoke to crowds in an effort to turn people's thoughts to God, and if the learned professor thinks he is going to walk right in and undo that without any opposition, he has another thought coming," Comfort said.
"All I want is for people to know that the theory of evolution is bogus science. Charles Darwin lamented the lack of species-to-species transitional forms, and 150 years later, the missing link is still missing.
"Man, with all his technology, can't create a grain of sand from nothing, let alone a leaf, a flower, or a frog. So how intellectually dishonest is it for Richard Dawkins to say that nothing created everything (something he believes). Add to that the fact that the professor has a weird belief that we may have been created by aliens, that we are cousins of bananas, that nothing did create everything, and he does it all in the guise of science. Then he says that anyone who doesn't believe as he does is 'ignorant, stupid or insane.' He turns 70 next year, so I hope that he comes to see the difference between the hypocritical religion he so despises, and God, before he goes to meet His Maker," Comfort said.
The distribution locations have included Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland and Wellington, and are pending for Christchurch, where Dawkins is scheduled to speak March 11.
Comfort repeatedly has challenged Dawkins to debate the existence of God, but Dawkins has responded that there's nothing to debate – that it would be like debating a "flat-earther."
In response, Comfort said, "Calling your opponent a 'flat-earther,' an 'ignorant fool,' and 'an idiot' (as he did on CNN recently) are classic signs of a man who is insecure in his beliefs. An ad hominem means to attack your opponent rather than his argument, because your argument is weak," he said.
Comfort already has debated evolutionary beliefs on ABC and the BBC, and his "The Atheist Test" has sold more than a million copies.
"If I am such an ignorant fool, why did Professor Dawkins tell Canadian university students to rip out my foreword to 'On the origin of Species?' If what I had written was ignorant foolishness, why not let people read it to see how weak my arguments are?" he wondered.
The tug-of-war was launched when Comfort's "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think" was released.
It bumped Dawkin's "God Delusion" out of the No. 1 position it held at Amazon. Shortly later, there appeared to be a concerted campaign to give Comfort's work bad reviews on the sales site.
Comfort then offered Dawkins $20,000 for a debate, but Dawkins responded by calling him an "ignorant fool" and demanding $100,000. Comfort put that recommendation on the front cover of his next book, "Nothing Created Everything" He explains that if there was no God, yet creation came into existence, the only explanation is that "nothing" created "everything."
Comfort earlier told WND that the reaction prompted by his forward – there have been several calls to burn the edition – must be because of the challenges he raises to evolution.
"My whole thought is, 'What have they got to fear?' There's been 140 different editions of 'Origin of Species' that have come out since the book was published. Many of them had introductions, and there was no resistance to them," he said. "Why the resistance to this?"
Comfort said he suspects it's "because they're scared of what I'm saying."
"I say in the introduction that evolution is not scientific. It's just a theory, it hasn't been proven," he said. "The missing link is still missing. To call it science is bogus. There's no species-to-species transitional forms in the fossil record. Darwin was a racist, he disdained women. And I'm not making this up. This is all from his own words."