Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Ray's Award-Winning Stupidity

Yeah, I know I seem to have no other sources for my entertainment at times, but once again, I find myself commenting on Ray Comfort's bloggings again. I know there is a cure in sight for my addiction. Ray trully is too easy a target, and I really should look for bigger fish to fry. So I'll try... I promise!

Looks like Ray Comfort is using a legitimate criticism by an atheist to simply sell his video. It's really funny how Ray keeps trying to say that he's not a money-grubbing evangelist, then goes on to use legitimate questions from people as a shameless vehicle to sell, sell, sell. He doesn't even bother to address the question at all. Get this, Ray makes a big deal out of the fact that his video "The Science Of Evolution", won an NRB (National Religious Broadcasters) People's CHoice Award.

The National Religious Broadcaster's People's Choice award is hardly a prestigious award at all. They like to compare themselves to the Emmy awards, but there simply is no comparison at all. Essentially, you would likely NEVER see any of the programs awarded by the NRB get a Peabody award, an Emmy, or even a J. Fred Muggs award (bonus points if you get that!). The award he won carries the weight of the Adult Video News Best Actor Award (Yes, that's best actor in a porno video, and we all know how great the acting is in your average porno).

Religious television, in general, is just plain lame to begin with. The TV shows that CBN, TBN, Daystar and other religious networks run are notorious for being of such poor quality that they simply don't even rate when compared to even the lamest secular/commercial programs. This is because the Evangelicals who run those networks have such low standards to begin with, and have created their own little world where the normal standards of quality that the rest of the world uses simply don't apply. The average episode of the Simpsons or South Park has more depth, better writing and production values than that of the best Christian Programming. Having been a long-time watcher and monitor of religious television, I can say with confidence that the acting in most Christian Dramas are easily far below even the worst junk programming on regular TV. Occaisionally, real hollywood actors are cast in Christian programs, but overall, it seems that good acting is rarely valued in the world of religious broadcasting.

The problem with most religious TV is that is preaches dogma, and more often than not, quoting the Bible and preaching the Evangelical Fundamentalist dominionist message take precidence over quality acting, good writing, direction and production. An intelligent director, for example, would at least try to get actors to not act like they were in a grammar school play.

I mean, just watch Ray and Kirk's video and see how lame it is, and how downright retarded the writing is. It may be funny for Ray and Kirk to try to get an Orangutan on an airplane, and make fun of the ape because it doesn't speak, but they waste all that effort making an ignorant argument. The orangutan likely has a higher IQ than them. There is an excellent critical analysis of this video on Youtube, which I can't really add anything to. Ray and Kirk could easily surpass Captain Hook's Christian Pirate Puppets in terms of their mindless entertainment value.

7 comments:

Pocket Nerd said...

Funny you should mention this, because this is similar to the conclusion I reached when I flipped through Ray's blog after your last post.

His website is all about selling books and videos to his flock; the atheists who post there, no matter how informed, how intelligent, or how articulate, just give him a visible adversary to help him hawk his wares. The sheep don't care what the evil atheists have to say, even when they demolish Ray with logic and science ("Oh, sure, Mr. Atheistpants, you think you're smart now, but how smart will you feel when you're BURNING IN HELL?!"); the presence of visible antagonists just helps reinforce the siege mentality so important to millennialist Christians.

So I don't plan to post there any more— or even bother reading it, for that matter. I have no interest in helping Ray and Kirk sell their crap... well, not unless they start cutting me in for a percentage...

David W. Irish said...

Yeah, I'm not going to post there anymore, except to announce that I have a comment on a given post on my own blog.

Pocket Nerd said...

Why even bother with that? You've posted in his blog enough for regulars to know who you are. By all means, keep posting in your own blog, but why comment on Ray's site and willingly participate in his little Two Minutes Hate?

The worst thing the atheists of the world could do to Ray is to ignore him. The presence of opposition in his blog just makes him look important; leave him alone and it will be just Ray Comfort whining to his flock about how important he is and how nobody takes him seriously.

David W. Irish said...

Good point. But it's tempting to keep trying to lure more traffic here.

GamingAsshole said...

There must be more worthwhile Christians you can focus on, Dave.

David W. Irish said...

Well, my blog on Fundamentalist Deceit takes a much broader and hard-hitting approach to evangelical shenanigans. I think the reason Ray's blog is so tempting is because it's so active, and he posts new stuff almost every day. Most of the stuff on my other blog is built-up over the course of months, from news articles, books, and less-frequent stuff.

In other words, Ray makes gaffs on a daily basis, giving me more material, more frequently. Yes -- his material is low-level, extremely easy to make fun of. I think that he may even dumb us down if we stay too long. I think it's best to move up to frying bigger fish... if there are such things in this business....

Three Ninjas said...

David, have you ever read Lenny Esposito's website, comereason.org?

He's not a bigger fish, but he's a different one. And he doesn't repeat the same thing every single day.