When life gives you straw, build yourself a straw man!
Raoul Rheits, over on Ray Comfort’s blog, opened my eyes to the term “Rayvolution” as a way to describe the fallacious straw man version of the Theory of Evolution that Ray, and those like him, like to knock down for effect. I thought it’d go perfectly with my recurring segment of popular “Rayologies“, so I’ve decided to create that as a category as well. Whenever Ray makes a particularly stupid or hilariously ignorant example of Rayvolution, I’ll deal with it right here.
To begin with, let’s take today’s post: “Evolution is exactly like the story of Pinocchio!”
Yes, because we all know the Theory of Evolution proposes that you must believe in wooden replicas of species magically coming to life, giving birth to mutated wooden replicas that in turn magically come to life as well. See? Not evolution, but Rayvolution.
I don’t blame him, really. I totally get it. It’s much easier to just boast and claim that you’ve knocked down that really big, tough bouncer at the bar, instead of actually showing everyone how you did it. Likewise, it’s much easier to disprove Rayvolution than it is to disprove evolution.
Due, I’m honoured!
Here’s the definitive Ray-volution, er, definition from Ray:
“[Evolution (sic, sic)!, a "fairy-tale for grownups" is] basically idolatry creating God in their own image — a god that doesn’t require moral accountability and that’s why it’s so embraced by this generation.”
And here is the accepted definition of ‘evolution’, by way of contrast:
“Evolution can be precisely defined as any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one generation to the next.”
Don’t forget Ray’s particular brand of ‘Raytheism’. Raytheists like to quote and paste his catchphrase-rich mantras.
Witness the Ten Raytheist Commandments (Yes he has claimed all of the following):
1. There is no such thing as an atheist
2. Atheists use their intellect and look for evidence, rather than using trust.
3. But then again, atheists rely on faith.
4. You can’t make an atheist think.
5. Atheists rely on intellect rather than faith (they *think* too much)
6. The intelligent atheist is not an atheist.
7. Atheists rely on faith rather than evidence.
8. Atheists don’t understand the difference between ‘trust’ and ‘faith’.
9. “I abhor religion. It is the opiate of the masses. It has left a bloody trail of destruction and human misery throughout history.”
10. “Science without religon is lame”
All the best,
Raoul