Celebrity Creationist desperate for some ass-whuppin'

At least that's what it seems the notoriously tool-ish Ray Comfort is, as he has been itching to debate the man who's arguably the greatest mind in the field of Evolution, Professor Richard Dawkins, and even offered him $10,000 to try and entice Prof. Dawkins in the deal. This is, of course, only a follow-up on his latest published work of atrocious scientific idiocy and lunatical Creationist drivel, 'You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think' (seriously, why do Creationist books always require such laboriously long titles?), which you should only read if you're either exceedingly bored, depressed (it'll make a dead corpse laugh) or in need of something to wipe your ass with. (Could catch a glance, I suppose.)

Well, Prof. Dawkins has upped the ante, requesting no less than $100,000 for the waste of time that would be debating a thick-headed Creationist like Comfort, along with a few smaller requests, such as that Comfort bring up his hilarious 'banana argument ^[1]', and that the whole event would be recorded by the RDF team, the group to whom said colossal funds would be headed to should Dawkins 'win' this 'debate'. (RDF = Richard Dawkins Foundation, a philanthropist organisation set up by Dawkins himself.) Comfort has even increased his proposal to $20,000, just a fifth of Dawkins' staggering demand. Seriously, if you're gonna try to debate and win over *the* expert in the field of Evolution, bring the cash he asks or wimp out. Dawkins has sold millions and millions of books, so I don't think even 20-grand would be much to entice him.

Below are quoted replies from Professor Dawkins following the offer.

Ray Comfort's original offer:

I'm trying to reach Prof. Dawkins for a response to a challenge from author Ray Comfort to Prof. Dawkins to a debate, with a $10,000 reward to Mr. Dawkins, win, lose or draw. Would I be able to reach you?
This is an excerpt from the report:

Comfort added, "I will donate $10,000 to him, or give it to any children's charity he names. All I ask is that he goes into a studio and gives me 20 minutes on why there is no God and why evolution is scientific. Then I will give 20 minutes on how we can know God exists and why evolution is nothing more than an unsubstantiated and unscientific fairy tale for grownups. Then we both will have 10 minutes to respond.

"Sadly, I have found that even evolution's most staunch believers are afraid to debate, because they know that their case for atheism and evolution is less than extremely weak," Comfort said. "I would be delighted (and honored) if Mr. Dawkins has the courage to debate me, but I'm not holding my breath."

Professor Dawkins' first reply:

I'm not aware of having had any communication from Mr Comfort, whom I know only as the Banana Man (you won't believe what you see if you take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4 -- no it's not a Monty Python sketch, he really means it).

$10,000 is less than the typical fee that I am ordinarily offered for lecturing to a serious audience (I often don't accept it, especially in the case of a student audience, because I am a dedicated teacher). It is not, therefore, a worthwhile inducement for me to travel all the way across the Atlantic to debate with an ignorant fool. You can tell him that if he donates $100,000 to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (it's a charitable donation, tax deductible) I'll do it. A further condition is that it will be filmed by Josh Timonen for my website, RichardDawkins.net, and distributed by Josh as a DVD, if he thinks it is funny enough. To this end, it would be nice if Mr Comfort would reprise the ever popular Banana Sketch.

Richard Dawkins

His reply may seem a little sanctimonious or condescending, or plain irate, to some, but keep in mind he's one of the key targets of Comfort's anti-atheism book, in addition to all the annoyances Comfort and his idiotic creed has caused him for so long, so I think he's actually being quite courteous according to the circumstances.

The reporter's reply:

Sir, Thank you for your response. And please understand I'm only a reporter in the middle, but Mr. Comfort has suggested the possibility of raising the offer to $20,000. Your reaction?

Dawkins's second reply:

Thank you, yes, I appreciate that you are only a reporter in the middle.

$20,000 is closer to the fees that I am customarily offered. However, I am not in this for the money. My interest is in getting the Banana Man to PART with $100,000 of his money so that that money will NOT be available for buying animatronic dinosaurs with saddles, or other similar nonsense. The fact that he would be making a substantial donation to a charity dedicated to Reason and Science adds to the humour of the situation. Talking of humour, by the way, did you look at the great Banana video? It beats the Peanut Butter video for laughs, but only by a short head: http://www.unscrewingtheinscrutable.com/node/1258

Richard Dawkins

Not much more left for me to say ...

Ray Comfort = deluded idiot.
Prof. Dawkins = wasting his time with this.
Me = got schoolwork to do. Dammit.

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[1] In his latest travesty of a book (as well as for a while previously), Comfort used the peculiar argument that the size and shape of the banana somehow 'proved' the existence of an intelligent designer, as – get this – it fits perfectly into a human's hand. I really, really wish that was just an odd joke. But it's not. That's the actual type of argument this fool uses to try and prove Intelligent Design with ... sigh.}