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Friday, June 27, 2008

Stepping on a Comforting Quote Mine

The header has a new quote from Ray Comfort! The first quote of the image used to respond to the Einstein one Comfort has in his header to suggest that Einstein believed in the type of God Ray does. My quote used to be:

I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly.
This has been replaced by a quote of Ray Comfort regarding Einstein:

I have never said that Einstein was a Christian, that he believed in Jesus or in a personal God. He wasn't dumb.
He made this in a comment to Quote-mining From an Atheist Site. Let me play Ray Comfort towards the above quote. Ahem: "As you can clearly see, Ray concedes that Einstein was an atheist. He admits he wasn't a Christian and did not believe in a personal God, so therefore he believes in no form of a God whatsoever. And as you can see from the concluding sentence, Ray also concedes that anyone who is a Christian, believes in Jesus, or believes in a personal God is dumb. These are not my words, they are his. Read them for yourself!"

Of course, just like Ray does with Einstein, Darwin, Hawking, and countless others, I have performed a minor form of quote mining wherein I took it out of context (it isn't exactly quote mining, though, because it isn't taken from a large volume of text). I have been dishonest and compromised my intellectual integrity, just as Ray does every time he does the same. I have lied to my readers by deliberately misleading them, just as Ray consistently lies. By analyzing his quote out of context, I am dishonest. By analyzing others' quotes out of context, Ray is dishonest.

To redeem myself somewhat, I will do what Ray never does. I will give you the context I have excerpted this quote from:

"Benjamin Franklin said... seriously, Ray, I think that it is disingenuous of you to have that quote from Einstein at the header of your website.Einstein was not a Christian, and he did not believe in Jesus, nor did he beleive in a personal God.You should remove that quote and replace it with some bible verse."

I have never said that Einstein was a Christian, that he believed in Jesus or in a personal God. He wasn't dumb. He knew there was a Creator, because creation couldn't have created itself. Something that didn't exist, can't create itself...because it didn't exist. It's impossible. Whatever created, had to be eternal. That's obvious to a thinking person. (emphasis added)
While I have provided you the context for Ray's quote, it is shameful, utterly shameful, that he does not do the same for his readers when he sullies the good names of great men like Einstein and Hawking to distort their words to conform to his own warped ideas.

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