Antsy Angst

‘Evolution vs. God’ Filmmaker Responds to Atheists’ Calls for Unedited Footage and Delivers a Stinging Message to Richard Dawkins

Aug. 28, 2013 7:53am

Billy Hallowell

Reproduced from TheBlaze 

Evangelist Ray Comfort’s 38-minute “Evolution vs. God” documentary continues to spark debate and angst among the atheist activist community. It’s no surprise that non-believers dismiss the documentary’s contents and deride Comfort’s claim that scientists cannot offer definitive evidence for Darwinian evolution.

TheBlaze spoke with Comfort on Tuesday, who said that this particular project, which premiered on July 9, has been “polarizing,” as he has received many praise-worthy comments as well as a multitude of angry rebuttals. He said there’s been a “love-hate attitude” surrounding the short film.

“Normally with a video you get 20, 30, 40 comments, maybe 100,” he said. “This is at 46,000 comments on YouTube at just over three weeks.”

Logo for Ray Comfort’s “Evolution vs. God” documentary (Photo Credit: Ray Comfort)

As for those who are angry over the film, Comfort was candid. Non-believers, he claims, are simply frustrated that their worldview is being eroded by what’s exposed in “Evolution vs. God.”

“Atheists are very, very angry because this isn’t just a wet blanket on their sinful lifestyle, it’s a Niagara Falls,” the evangelist charged. “There’s a God and there’s moral responsibility and moral absolutes.”

Many of these non-theists — including those at American Atheists, a controversial church-state separatist group — have called for the unedited footage from the movie’s production to be publicly released so that they can assess what, if anything, was omitted.

Comfort told TheBlaze that his team his thinking about doing so, but that he has no moral obligation to release the raw footage. In defending a potential decision not to distribute it, he made the point that media outlets are not generally asked to do the same and that there’s really nothing in the remaining footage that would corroborate critics’ claims. . . .

The filmmaker and Christian leader also took the time to defend his editors, whom he called “men of God and men of integrity” — individuals who he said would “never make somebody say something they didn’t say.” As far as critics go, he believes that the gripes they’ve touted are unfolded.

“They are thinking that the scientists have evidence for evolution and we didn’t want that released, so we cut it out and dropped it on the editor’s floor. That’s just not true — it didn’t happen,” Comfort added.

The evangelist believes that Richard Dawkins, the famed evolutionary biologist who is widely seen as the leader of the atheist activist movement, is worried over the film and what it exposes about evolutionary theory. Dawkins, too, has apparently called for the full, unedited footage to be released.

“I believe he’s in a panic, because it shows him as being a charlatan — a deceiver who has convinced multitudes [to believe] bogus science founded on nothing but blind faith,” Comfort added.

The Christian leader said that he has love for Dawkins and other non-believers (he has even sent the scientist a number of fruit baskets) and that the animosity goes only one way. Niceties aside, Comfort has a strong message for him on the subject of Darwinian evolution.

“I would say come out of hiding. Be open with your flock. They are in disarray. Atheists are furious, they’re angry,” he said. “All they need to do to silence me is give evidence of Darwinian evolution. Step up to the plate, be a man, give evidence for Darwinian evolution publicly…but you won’t because you can’t, because there isn’t any.”

Watch the entire film, below:

Earlier this summer, Comfort told TheBlaze that he has repeatedly challenged Dawkins to a debate in the past, but to no avail. The atheist activist has allegedly refused unless Comfort donates $100,000 to his foundation for non-belief. Obviously, this donation isn’t going to happen, so the two, at least for the time being, won’t be chatting about matters of worldly origin.

“Evolution vs. God” has more than 480,000 views on YouTube. Comfort, the founder of evangelical outreach groups Way of the Master and Living Waters, hopes that everyone will watch the film, including atheists who hold evolutionary theory as gospel.

[Editor's Note:  We believe the release of unedited footage sometime would be useful.   The video has a lot of sound bites which opens up the possibility of misrepresentation.  Sunlight is always the best disinfectant.  But as it stands, the video is a damning indictment of evolutionism--and its camp followers. JT]