Ray and his contemporaries have a problem and it's not that they don't like atheists, it's that they simply cannot accept what Atheism is. Atheism is, quite simply, the rejection of the claim that a God or Gods exist, nothing more than that. Ray, however, thinks that Atheism is also a "belief" in evolution, that it has its own belief system, its own dogma, its own values and morality (or lack of, in his opinion) and therefore, as he intentionally presents Atheism as something it's not and never has been, the idea that he can "disprove" it with one question is both absurd and deliberately misleading. How exactly does one disprove the rejection of a claim? One cannot. If, however, one presents the view Ray's trying to disprove, dishonestly, endowing it with characteristics and values it does not have, one can set about trying to discredit and may apparently (subjectively) succeed but the conclusion as a result of this process is only going to be dishonest, and that's exactly what this film is.
The "question" that supposedly disproves Atheism is an oft-used and tired one, that being "if a book had a designer then so must the Earth, right?" and it's deeply flawed because we can all witness the design process that goes into making a book if we wish to but the same cannot be said for our planet. Unfortunately, for Ray, we have observed how other planets are formed and there is no evidence to suggest that they were designed by a supernatural being.
Eventually the film falls back into the fairly standard "How can we believe evolutionists who say there was a bang and the universe came into being, out of nothing?" argument (which is also inaccurate) when that's exactly what he expects us to accept the Christian God did. There's nothing new here, there's no evidence, no testable or peer-reviewed evidence, just a rehash of old arguments from ignorance, flawed from the outset by Ray's intentional misrepresentation of Atheism. Whether you're religious or not, this is an offensively stupid film that never actually comes close to achieving its intended purpose.
There's not really much point offering a critique on the style or editing of the film as it's your standard Ray Comfort fare and that's the problem with the whole idea - there's nothing new here, nothing that hasn't already been said and nothing that would convince a non-believer to think twice which, in a nutshell, defeats the object. If Ray really believes that insulting the intellect of people will make them stand up and shout "I believe!" he's very much mistaken.
It's not a complete waste of time, however; if you've been having doubts about Atheism this film serves as a reminder that there are no good scientific arguments to support the idea of a supernatural creator and if the best argument for it is "books are designed, so the Universe must be too" then you can feel confident that your apparent "delusion" is in fact entirely justifiable scepticism, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.
"The Atheist Delusion" is an exercise in preaching to the converted and so, ultimately, is at best a failure and at worst, intellectually dishonest and factually inaccurate drivel. Sorry Ray, try harder.
The "question" that supposedly disproves Atheism is an oft-used and tired one, that being "if a book had a designer then so must the Earth, right?" and it's deeply flawed because we can all witness the design process that goes into making a book if we wish to but the same cannot be said for our planet. Unfortunately, for Ray, we have observed how other planets are formed and there is no evidence to suggest that they were designed by a supernatural being.
Eventually the film falls back into the fairly standard "How can we believe evolutionists who say there was a bang and the universe came into being, out of nothing?" argument (which is also inaccurate) when that's exactly what he expects us to accept the Christian God did. There's nothing new here, there's no evidence, no testable or peer-reviewed evidence, just a rehash of old arguments from ignorance, flawed from the outset by Ray's intentional misrepresentation of Atheism. Whether you're religious or not, this is an offensively stupid film that never actually comes close to achieving its intended purpose.
There's not really much point offering a critique on the style or editing of the film as it's your standard Ray Comfort fare and that's the problem with the whole idea - there's nothing new here, nothing that hasn't already been said and nothing that would convince a non-believer to think twice which, in a nutshell, defeats the object. If Ray really believes that insulting the intellect of people will make them stand up and shout "I believe!" he's very much mistaken.
It's not a complete waste of time, however; if you've been having doubts about Atheism this film serves as a reminder that there are no good scientific arguments to support the idea of a supernatural creator and if the best argument for it is "books are designed, so the Universe must be too" then you can feel confident that your apparent "delusion" is in fact entirely justifiable scepticism, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.
"The Atheist Delusion" is an exercise in preaching to the converted and so, ultimately, is at best a failure and at worst, intellectually dishonest and factually inaccurate drivel. Sorry Ray, try harder.
