Fail Quote: Ray Comfort out-stupids himself – water cycle edition [updated]

I originally intended to include this as a link in tomorrow’s Daily Blend, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized this deserved a post all of its own. So, without further ado, I give you the single stupidest bit of absolute scientific illiteracy ever to come from everyone’s favorite God-bothering buffoon, Ray Comfort [original italics indicate reader comment]:

"Actually, atheists tend to assume that gravity and heat created the water cycle, but put that aside. If God was providing, free of charge, enough water for San Antonio, there would be no price comparison between the cost of distilling the water from the ocean and the cost of extracting it from an aquifer." Steven J.

I appreciate why you would rather we put aside your belief that gravity and heat have the ability to create. Rather than put it aside, I would like to talk about what atheists believe, and consider it closely.

Atheists believe that gravity thinks intelligently, makes plans, and then creates the concept it has in mind. In this case, gravity created the water cycle. Perhaps you object to my saying that gravity must be intelligent to come up with the concept of the water cycle and then actually create it. Perhaps you think that gravity is mindless, and created it without thinking. I don't think so. I am in awe of the water cycle and couldn't imagine the most intelligent of human beings coming up with it.

But according to atheists, gravity didn't create alone. Its partner was heat. The two of them came up with the concept of water, vapor, clouds, rain, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, snow, evaporation, air, condensation, and then created them and caused them to work throughout the earth in perfect harmony. Atheism brings new meaning to the word "absurd."

 

I … honestly don’t even know what to say about this. What should I point out first? The transparent dishonesty? The baffling ignorance? The amusingly unmerited condescension? The ironic gem that is that last line? Or the overall foolishness in attempting to lecture someone far more knowledgeable than himself about something that Comfort obviously hasn’t got the slightest clue?

I don’t even know.

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UPDATE: (08/18/11 10:28 PM ET) – I was apparently silly enough to believe I could try and clarify matters for Comfort by explaining how Steven J.’s comment was all about cause and effect in a short (and, if I may say so, admirably restrained) comment. So, naturally, Comfort chose to reply with a complete and utter non-sequitur. I remain undecided on whether to attribute his behavior to sheer ignorance, dishonesty, or plain stupidity.

Either way, the man is quite clearly beyond help.

(EDIT: And before anyone criticizes the “cookies” example I used for being of mathematics as opposed to being of physics, I concede that it was a somewhat clunky example, quickly written up, but I maintain that my point – logical cause and effect – remains the same.)

Tags: Ray Comfort • water cycle • hydrologic cycle • Steven J.