The A-B-Cs of How NOT To Debate God's Existence

Much like the toddler who traps ants, spiders and bees in a jar to see who will win the ensuing battle, ABC News Nightline assembled combatants from either side of the great American religious divide to debate God's existence this past week. As if this particular American discussion hadn't gone off the rails years ago, ABC helped to push it a few feet further into the gutter by hosting a moot debate over a point that cannot be proven or disproven, scientifically or otherwise. Just like the toddler's insect battle royale, this contest was completely staged for entertainment value, pointless, and ugly to watch.

In the Atheists' corner we have Brian Sapient and Kelly. And in the True Belivers' corner we have Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. Brian and Kelly are members of the Rational Response Squad, which recently sponsored a Blasphemy Challenge, providing young people with an online forum for denouncing and denying God's existence.

Kirk Cameron, of course, is the former teen star of the ABC sitcom Growing Pains, as well as the star of the apocalyptic Left Behind film series. Ray Comfort is a New Zealand-born street evangelist and founder of The Way of the Master, an anti-evolutionist/creationist "ministry" devoted to "proving" God's existence and the need for forgiveness and salvation through Jesus.

The premise for this Nightline event, the first such debate in its new "Face-Off" series, was to see which side could present the best argument for or against the existence of God. Kirk and Ray came out of their corner swinging hard, claiming to be 100% able to prove the existence of God through science, AND (listen up you religious-industrial complex types) without the need for faith. The Thunder from Down Under rattled off three primary proofs in support of his claim:

1. If something is made, there must have been a maker, a designer. Paintings, buildings, cars, etc., all must have had a maker. It is an insult to anyone's intellect to suggest that they just emerged out of nowhere. Comfort goes on to describe the intricacies of human physiology as absolute proof that the human race must have had an intelligent creator. Problem: There's nothing about Comfort's description of the miracle of the human body that can't be explained by evolutionary theory. And yet another hysterical fundamentalist completely misses the point that faith in God and belief in evolution are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

2. Human beings have a Conscience, the distinct knowledge of right and wrong. The human sense of morality is that which separates us from the animals. However, according to Comfort, our conscience is "seared" on the outside, and the only thing that can bring it back to life is the Ten Commandments. Problem: Huh? I don't know what he exactly means by "seared," and therefore couldn't make any sense of his prescription of the Ten Commandments as a cure for this condition. I thought this state of the art non sequitur should have ended with the following punch line: "And so God said to Moses, 'Take these two tablets and call me in the morning.'" N'yuck, n'yuck, n'yuck.

3. If you seek conversion, God will reveal himself to you, and that is the ultimate proof. In this one moment you will have experiential knowledge of God's existence. Cry out, "God, I've violated your commandments," and you'll get the shock of your life. Problem: Right, OK- and I suppose anyone who doesn't get the shock of his or her life wasn't really trying, or didn't really believe that God would be revealed, or didn't really want it, whatever, etc., and so on.

In the end, I guess I just don't see how these arguments equate scientific proof of God's existence. Ray Comfort won't lose sleep if these aren't enough to convince you of the existence of God, though. That's because there are more than enough bananas around to seal the deal and win you over.

I won't take any time repeating the atheist rebuttal. I think I punched enough holes into Comfort and Cameron's "proofs" for one thing, and anyhow you can see the video online at the link provided below. You can also see more of Ray and Kirk at the Way of the Master Web site. I'll give you fair warning, though. If you visit this Web site, be sure to bring your credit card. Jesus may have given his message free of charge, but his modern day followers Ray and Kirk clearly deviate from the Way of the Master to the Way of the Master Card when it comes to "sharing" the Good News.

Moral of the Story: Belief in God is a matter of faith, not proof. I didn't need to watch Nightline to figure that out. The "debate" didn't do anything to either weaken or strengthen my faith in God, but it did rattle my faith in human beings, if just for a few moments. Shalom.

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

ABC Nightline, May 7, 2007

Rational Response Squad

The Way of the Master

How to End the World on a Budget: Slate.com, December 1, 2005

I'm Bananas for Jesus! t-shirt (CottonFactory.com)