Intelligent Design vs. Evolution - Letters to an Atheist

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Intelligent Design vs. Evolution - Letters to an Atheist (ISBN 0882701665) is a book authored by Ray Comfort, published in 2006. The book contains an email conversation with Comfort and "prominent" American atheist James D. Franz; however there is some dispute as to whether this James D. Franz even exists. Any record of this man seems nonexistent, and some have challenged Comfort to produce any evidence for this man.[1]

Ratings[edit]

On his website Living Waters, Comfort posts a review from Amazon about the book:

Breath Of Fresh Air. In today's confusing world of mixing fantasy with Bible scripture it's refreshing to hear Biblical truth again. Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron almost have the market cornered telling the most effective way for Christians to share their faith, and how to know a true conversion. Intelligent Design is filled with examples and anecdotes on Ray's years of experience sharing the Gospel. I can't wait for his next book.

However, that was the ONLY 5 star vote! Only one 2 star vote, and seven 1 star votes. The first one star comment said this:

This book was a waste of time and money. I've read and enjoyed other books by Ray Comfort, but this should never have even made it to print. It's a compilation of emails going back and forth, but with no fluidity nor knowledge to pass on.

Contents[edit]

In this book, Comfort shares his conversation with an atheist regarding religion and science. He lines up each conversation in order, although there seems to be some of the emails cut off, because Comfort claims they were "getting off topic" that may be addressed elsewhere. On the side, Comfort includes references and comments about certain sections of Franz's email. They mainly include clarifications, Bible verses, and long-debunked creationist propaganda. Some do not even address Franz's statements; they are cited to sources created by Comfort or a particular creationist source.

Comfort claims there is no evidence for evolution, just "monkey skulls," and it is easier to prove the Earth is flat. Comfort only addresses skulls, but he ignores many scientific fields other than paleontology that not only support evolution but also confirm evolution, in great detail. Mountains of evidence support evolution, such as genetics, and the fact that we have documented and observed, and continue to observe, speciation. Ray also says evolution cannot happen due to entropy, basing it on the second law of thermodynamics. However, the Second Law only applies to closed systems, and the earth is not a closed system, so the Second Law doesn't even apply. For evolution to occur, only the following are required: reproduction, heritable variation, and selection. All of these are seen to happen all the time, so, obviously, no physical laws are preventing them.

External links[edit]

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Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 | Source: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Intelligent_Design_vs._Evolution_-_Letters_to_an_Atheist
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