Interview with Ray Comfort: Discussion

After several days off for the holidays, we’re back to discuss some of Ray Comfort’s ideas that we saw in his e-interview that he was kind enough to provide for us.

The first question observed that many Christians don’t recognize Ray Comfort’s name, and asked if he was possibly more famous among atheists.  His reply:

Not every Christian watches TV or reads books. However, it seems that most atheists (thanks the Richard Dawkins and others) are pretty familiar with the brainless idiot known as “banana-man.”

It’s not just Comfort, though; if you name Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, William Lane Craig, etc., I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find a higher proportion of atheists recognizing these names than Christians.  I can’t cite hard data here, so this is just speculation rather than observation, but bear with me.

Two possible perspectives on this possibility.  From my perspective as an atheist, it seems to be the case that self-described “atheists” as a group are self-selecting for people who seek out other perspectives and willingly challenge even widely-held opinions.  In a culture like America, so saturated with religious and spiritual belief, people who reject religious and spiritual claims are clearly far less likely to simply “go with the flow” and accept the perspective of their culture.  This is not to say that all atheists are shining beacons of rationality, incapable of error – far from it (there are certain conspiracy theorist nutjobs I could mention, and there’s always Ayn Rand . . .).  Even these individuals, though, are still more likely, as a rule, to actively familiarize themselves with differing perspectives.

Of course, the common theist has a simple response; we atheists (or any other culturally non-conformist label) are clearly quite convinced that we’re wrong on some level, and we are “seeking answers” not because we want to be certain that we’re not mistaken, but because we actually believe that we are mistaken.  When Ziztur and I visit different churches, on occasion we will politely inform church-goers who ask about us that we’re atheists.  Far and away, the most common response we hear is that we’ve found ourselves in the pew because we are being “called” or “led” to search for God.  To this, all I can say is that in my own limited experience, such church services or apologetic books are no more convincing to we atheists than the “new atheist” books are to your average theist.  After many churches and many books, our atheism is, if anything, is less dispute than it ever was.

The next question was, seemingly, an extremely simple theological question; it asked Comfort to define “the Gospel.”

In a nutshell–that Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day. The word “gospel” means good news, and the gospel doesn’t make sense until we see why we need it, in the same way the good news of a cure makes no sense until we understand that we have a disease. The terminal disease is sin. If it’s allowed to take its course, it will not only kill us, it will justly take us to a terrible place of punishment called “Hell”–because each of us has violated God’s Law (the Ten Commandments). He sees lust as adultery and hatred as murder. He is morally perfect, and that leaves us all in big trouble. The good news is that God is rich in mercy, became a human being, and took our punishment upon Himself. That means, because Jesus paid our fine and rose again from the dead, God can legally let us walk out of the courtroom. He can forgive us and let us live. Our case can be dismissed upon repentance and trust in the Savior. The good news is that any of us can have everlasting life. Read the Gospel of John for details.

Interestingly, this “Gospel story” is possibly the single largest barrier to my ever becoming a Christian (and that’s saying something, considering all the other reasons I could name).  To put it simply, if I tell you that this season’s particular strain of the flu could be very nasty, and that you should get vaccinated ASAP, I can explain why.  If you ask, in all innocence, “So this flu thing . . . is that bad?  Why?”  I can explain that the flu could give you headaches, muscle aches, a cough, and just generally make you feel like crap, and that a few people who are particularly susceptible can even die from it if they catch it from you.  Now, here’s the important part – if you ask, “Why does the flu do that?” I could answer that it’s simply a result of how the flu virus reproduces with the living cells in your body.  I could say that the flu doesn’t have a mind, and that if it did, it would be wrong for the flu virus to hurt and kill people like it does.  Thus, it’s easy to understand why you should get vaccinated (in theory, anyway . . .).

I should mention, first of all, that not all Christians believe in a literal hell, to their immense credit.  With or without this traditionalist theology, though, the Gospel story raises more questions than it answers.  Why does God feel the need to punish us with eternal torture simply for disbelieving in him?  Why is there such a harsh penalty for having lustful thoughts, especially when every single human being has lustful thoughts, without exception?  Even without a literal hell, are “anger” and “lustful thoughts” still sins?  Who should rationally be held responsible for lustful thoughts or anger being universal amongst human beings, us or the being(s) who created us?

Additionally, how does the death of Jesus Christ absolve us of our crimes?  I’ve noticed that whenever Comfort discusses our “criminal actions” as sinners, he almost always uses the analogy of a legal fine being paid for us so that our case can be thrown out of court.  I would have thought that it’s obvious why this analogy isn’t convincing to non-believers:  If a crime of any significant severity is committed, the court doesn’t just administer a simple fine – the offender goes to prison.  If hell is an appropriate punishment for sin, then the analogy of a legal fine is grossly inaccurate (in fact, there really is no good comparison at all, because in America we don’t even punish our very worst criminals by torturing them to death, which is still far more humane than the traditional concept of hell).  Perhaps the closest we can come is the death sentence, or in societies that don’t even permit the death sentence on ethical grounds, perhaps life imprisonment without any possibility of parole.  Why doesn’t Comfort use these punishments as an illustration of the punishment we deserve for our sin?  Why does he use the very lightest punishment that our system has for any crime, a mere fine?  It’s possible for a person to pay a fine for someone else, simply because there’s no good way to make sure that the guilty person pays it themselves.  A prison sentence, to say nothing of a death sentence, on the other hand, obviously must always be paid by the person who committed the crime. 

So, there’s one of the single, largest questions I have about Christianity.  It seems to me that the very first principle of anything resembling justice is that you punish the person who actually committed the immoral act, and do not punish someone else in their place.  Imagine a society built around the principle that a person who commits a wrongful act cannot atone for their own wrongdoing, and the only way for justice to be served is for an innocent person to be punished ( and that the more innocent the punished person is, the more righteous and just the punishment will be).  If this society does every single other thing with their courts, prison system, and police force correctly, they are still doing nothing correctly.  They could get justice right in every single other way, and would still basically have a completely unjust society.  This Christian, Gospel idea of wrongdoers being incapable of atoning for their immoral actions and instead being redeemed by the punishment of a completely innocent person is not simply incorrect justice, it is not merely mistaken justice, it is the polar goddamned opposite of justice.

More about Ray Comfort coming soon.  Obviously, I would love for Ray to hang out here and reply to our perspective, but I totally understand that he’s very, very busy, so I won’t see his absence as proof that he can’t answer our questions.  Of course, our standard modus operandi is to welcome any dissenting opinion, so I look forward to anyone who can shed some light on this seeming contradiction.  That last question, in particular, about Gospel justice has vexed me all my life.