Ray Comfort, Evangelical Theorist

Ray Comfort is a popular evangelical author who spends a great deal of time attacking atheists and members of other religions.

Here is how, Ray says, you can know you've got the right god :

-you have guilt.

-the ten commandments says stuff.

-the conscience produces guilt about not following the ten commandments.

-this guilt is a product of our impending judgment.

-It's true whether your believe it or not.

-the Bible says Jesus suffered to take away your sins and guilt.

-The Bible promises you won't feel guilty anymore if you repent and trust Jesus.

-Then, we won't feel guilty for anything - lust, adultery, etc.

-No other religion can wipe away the guilt you feel for doing bad stuff.

-all those false religions still have sacrifices through prayer, doing good works, etc.

-Not Christianity! Once we trust Jesus and repent, we're literally not guilty anymore of doing bad things.

-This is so simple a child could understand it. "Obey the gospel, and guilt is replaced by absolute assurance of everlasting life"

Frankly, I find all of this a little sad. So fear of punishment is the primary motive for becoming a Christian? Feeling guilt and the promise that you won't feel guilt if you are "saved" (actually, this is a lie because Christians feel a tremendous amount of guilt all the time) are signs?

God and the Joplin Tornado-- F 5

We were driving east along Highway 44, near Joplin, Missouri, a week after the F5 tornado tore through the south side of the city, cutting a mile wide swath through houses and businesses. The tornado destroyed several schools, churches, apartment buildings, and basically gutted St. Johns Hospital.

As we drove along highway 44, my wife noticed that almost every exit had a porn shop, or sometimes two. She said, "Why would God destroy a hospital and leave behind all these porn shops?"

I explained, "God has no problem with porn shops. But hospitals actively defy His will. God makes people sick, but hospitals make them well--thus defeating God's plan. It only makes sense that He destroy hospitals. Similarly, schools teach about science, and these ideas tend to weaken the faith of the masses (I almost said "ignorant masses" but that seems redundant in this case). Similarly, churches preach about salvation, and God is all about punishment-- after all He did create Original Sin."

Update: I later found out that God also destroyed Christie's Toy Box, which is just north of the IHOP on Rangeline Road in Joplin. I guess God hates pancakes so much that he was willing to destroy the sex toys, too. By the way, I'm also trying to imagine the facial expression of the guy, living just east of Joplin, who finds a pink rubber dildo stuck in the crotch of his elm tree.

What the Right-Wingers Really Want

In an interview on MSNBC yesterday, an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal (now that it's owned by Rupert Murdoch, it should change its name to the Wall Street Urinal) declared that the federal government should have let GM collapse and be broken up. He did not see the bailout as benefiting anyone except the unions.

Frankly, this sort of honesty is unusual. He and his cronies at The Urinal were more concerned with trying to destroy the unions than with saving the many of thousands of jobs that would be lost if GM had gone under.

Their agenda is to destroy the American middle class, and undermining the unions is a high priority in achieving this goal.

Warren Jeffs - a polygamist's latest manifesto

The library has just received a new 163 page manifesto from imprisoned church leader Warren Jeffs. The manifesto entitled "Continued Warnings of Son Ahman to the Leaders of the Nations of the Earth" lists off the countries of the earth (from the United States to Bosnia--apparently ignoring alphabetical order) and describes the supernatural horrors that will fall upon them for failing to heed the inspired message of -- guess who -- Warren Jeffs. You can buy this insane tract for $6 from the FLDS.org website, but why bother.