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Thursday, August 7, 2008

Epic Evidence of Ray's Dishonesty

You can now refer to DisComforting Ignorance's Annals of Ray's Dishonesty -- now with thirteen entries since this blog's inception.

A reader writes:
Ray, I'm sensing you were either too lazy or too scared to listen to Dr. Myers' turn on the radio.

If not why haven't you responded?
To this, Ray replies:

[REv...you mean the guy who was a no-show at the last moment. He was supposed to debate me. I wonder why he didn't show up? Do I smell chicken? Afraid of banana man :).]
This is regarding his and PZ's recent appearances on WDAY.

The Timeline
August 1: PZ announces that he and Ray will be debating intelligent design on WDAY.
August 4: PZ announces that the format of the show has been changed.
August 4: The producer comments on the change of format.
August 5: PZ posts a running commentary of Ray's appearance.
August 5: Ray appears on WDAY.
August 6: PZ appears on WDAY.
August 7: Ray claims PZ was a "chicken" and a "no-show at the last moment."

At first, I wanted to give Ray the benefit of the doubt... perhaps he wasn't informed that the producer changed the format to have PZ on the next day. Reason and evidence (those pesky things), however, reveal that's not the case.

The Reason
Let's assume Ray was not informed that the format of the show changes. He shows up or calls in to the station ahead of time to check in and waits to be brought on. Assuming the station had not notified him yet, are we to believe they didn't inform him then? Further, that he didn't make any comments to the station about the debate or about PZ's whereabouts?

Let's assume further, then, that neither of that took place. The station failed to notify him a day ahead of time -- even though they obviously notified PZ at least a day ahead of time -- and they failed to notify him when he showed up/called in and he did not make any comments about the debate or PZ which would have caused the station to reveal he was not there, and why. Okay, let's assume that's the case. Assuming that, are we then to believe that, during the course of the entire show, he didn't ask "Hey, where is PZ?" Assuming even that, are we to believe, further, that once the show was concluded, he didn't as "Hey, where was PZ?"

And, after all that, he did not even contact the station about it? Reason says: no.

The Evidence
#1: Towards the end of the show after hanging up with a paleontologist, the host says:
By the way we got another guy on tomorrow about this and he's gonna be talking about maybe the other side of it, so we'll have to see. (click here for excerpted audio portion)
So, the host announces PZ (or, at least, "the other side") on the show that Ray is on. Even if we were to assume that Ray had not even been informed yet, the host announces right then that he'd be on the next day.

But there's no reason even to assume that Ray had not been informed yet...

#2:
We don't need to rely on reason here, though, as we have evidence of it. PZ was notified ahead of time. So, did they choose to notify PZ ahead of time and not Ray? The producer of the show commented on the change of plans: (emphasis added on selection)
Hello, this is the producer for Ben and Jim in the Morning, the show that was going to have the Ray Comfort/PZ Myers debate. After looking over the responses to Dr. Myers' announcement of the change of plans, I thought I would make a short post answering some of the questions.

Posts numbers 2&8: The decision to change formats from a debate to two separate segments was made this afternoon by myself and the hosts of the show, Ben and Jim. We decided that given the short time available, neither side would be able to construct much in the way of arguments for their respective positions, and it would ultimately be fairer to both sides to give them their own segment to make their case.

As for Mr. Comfort going first, Comfort has a very tight schedule, and Dr. Myers was able to re-schedule easier than Mr. Comfort was. Mr. Comfort will be on the show at ~10:06am CT Tues., Aug. 5th, and Dr. Myers will be on ~10:06am CT Weds., Aug. 6th, each for 20-30 minutes.

We apologize that plans were changed at the last minute, but we still invite you to listen to both Mr. Comfort's and Dr. Myers' respective segments.
Here he indicates that they gave them both the opportunity to re-schedule and PZ had the ability to.

#3: I have contacted the station with Ray Comfort's comments. If and when they reply back to the following message, I will make another post about it:
I understand the original format was to have them both on together (link). PZ informed us that the format had changed (Ray made no mention of it either way beforehand). Ray is now claiming on his blog that PZ Myers ducked out at the last moment on the day he was supposed to be there as he was a chicken. Ray said the following (link):
REv...you mean the guy [Dr. Myers] who was a no-show at the last moment. He was supposed to debate me. I wonder why he didn't show up? Do I smell chicken? Afraid of banana man :).
Could you please comment on this to clear it up? You informed PZ of the change at least a day ahead of time (link). Did you fail to inform Ray Comfort that you had changed the format of the show, or if you did inform him, when? He is apparently claiming that PZ chickened out at the last moment. Was Ray not informed at all, either before or after the show, or is he misrepresenting the truth?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a little obvious now that Ray constantly misrepresents the truth to suit his own needs. It's not only him lying about PZ 'chickening out.' Daily he misrepresents arguments that atheists have against him. Without a doubt the comments section corrects him on everything he said wrong. He doesn't respond to them. He doesn't update his post to reflect his errors. So I concluded a while ago that Ray is either really ignorant, lying for Jesus, or an extremely dedicated satirist.

TJH said...

Have you seen Ray's latest post on the issue?

Ray Comfort said...

"PZ Meyer announced the debate at his blog when it was first arranged. I kept waiting for you to send out your announcement in a NewsBlast - but I never heard a word. Then PZ Meyers announced, several days ahead, the program change - and mentioned your schedule as having little flexibility and so he (PZ) offered to take the alterante day.
I was still waiting to hear you mention it - never heard about it from you.

Now, that it is over, it may seem that the unbeleivers are ganging up and trying to set you up - but something really did happen with the radio show schedule - but I am not understadning what.

Did PZ Meyers lie?
Did you?
Is this just some big mix-up?

Our family, and thousands of others, have invested a lot into your ministry - spirtually, financially, and emotionally. I really feel that we are owed a bit more than a "Sure..."

Could you please check into this and set it straight?
Blessings,
Patti"

Patti...Ten minutes before the debate, the station called and said that the debate was off, and that it would just be me being interviewed. I wasn't given any explanation at all. It was strange.
August 8, 2008 10:17 AM

Of course, Ray Comfort makes no mention of his accusations towards PZ Myers or the producer and hosts of the radio program. He is so pathetic.

TJH said...

E-mail I received from the producer of the Ben and Jim show.

Hi Terry,



I’m going to give you the short answer, as I have sent several lengthy answers to several people already, and I hope they get posted at both Comfort Food and Pharyngula, in order to sort this all out.



Long story short: Ben, Jim, and myself made the decision to change formats on Monday. We could not get in contact with Mr. Comfort’s people after several emails (which we discovered was probably due to problems with our email server). We contacted Dr. Myers, and he graciously moved his interview to Wednesday morning. We received a response from Mr. Comfort’s assistant from the last email we sent, and we assumed the rest had been received and that it was understood on Mr. Comfort’s part that the format was changed. Mr. Comfort did not ask before, after, or during the show about the whereabouts of Dr. Myers, so I assumed that he was aware of the change because of the emails. This apparently is not the case. With our emails being unpredictable all week, any email from Mr. Comfort regarding why the format was changed was not received, if one was ever sent.



Thanks for your interest,



Erik Matson

Producer, Ben and Jim in the Morning

WDAY Radio

Dr. Ally Critter said...

Ray Comfort is a fraud and a cheat and he tries to appear stupid to pan off that ministry , which is a huge money making operation. God/ DOG/ or ODG apat he would do it for anything anyhow- its just that the Big Bucks are in ID and Christianity here. I sincerely believe that this is what all this faith based crap is.