On a Saturday afternoon, 1/29/11, I went to the Promenade to support a friend performing for the audience. During a break I decided to go book shopping for a while, but I stopped to interact with, what I thought was some form of test for a prize, but later discovered it was an evangelical billboard. I quickly recognized the style of questioning and knew exactly where these guys were going with this, so I decided to have a little fun.
I had a great chat with one of them, Jason Gallagher, who also posts blogs on this site as well. I responded to the questions on the billboard, Jason told me which ones I got right (I cannot remember how many I got correct). He next moved on too ask me a serious of questions, but I already knew before hand exactly what he was going to ask. It was a old common tactic popularized and frequently used by Ray Comfort and Way of the Master. I explained to Jason as best as I could why this line of thinking does not work. Here is a website I found that explains it and provides some counter examples
The topic moved into discussing the Ten Commandments (which ones?), the Bible, and religion overall. I shared with Jason my religious upbringing and my current skeptical mind towards all religions. I knew this guy got most of his material from Ray Comfort, I could have gone into detail of when and where he is completely wrong. I did briefly mention Ray Comfort's disappointing debate with the Rational Response Squad. I made an article about this debate a while back, which can be found here.
We had a meaningful exchange off words. Jason was not one of those Bible bashers who threaten hellfire against certain people (sports fans, Muslims, Jews, pot smokers, etc.), although he said the reason why he was there was because he was worried about other people's souls. He invited me to read some books by Lee Strobel and look at certain websites. I did not get the chance to recommend a book, but I did suggest he should check out Xenu.net. which I recommend everyone look at. I would ask Jason to please take action by handing out a few leaflets from Xenu.net and contribute to a great cause. I am not sure which book I would recommend, perhaps "Did Man Create God?" by David E. Comings M.D.
We did momentarily discuss science, once when he brought up Lee Strobel. I told him I am familiar with Strobel, and how he is a tool for the DI. A few of my friends and I made four YouTube videos refuting his attacks on science. It is sad when a few college students can disprove someone in a few minutes. This talk did lead to evolution (it always has to go there), the fossil record and transitional forms - bearing in mind, evolution does not rule out God. I tried to explain what a transitional form is, but one of Jasons friends came along and claimed there are zero transitional fossils. When I named one fossil, he never heard of it. Not surprising. I was going to name four others, but I knew it would be pointless. I had to explain what a transitional fossil is, all three types of them, because the only way anyone can say there is zero is to change the definition of it. Jason's friend said there should the millions of transitional fossils, I assured him there was but he denied it. Most people do not know how rich the fossil record is. I explained the process of fossilization, and we are lucky to have the ones we currently have, because many of the fossils are destroyed by erosion. Plus, (I did not get a chance to share this part) this request for evidence of thousands of intermediates will never satisfy creationists who simply do not want to believe. It is like discovering a letter between A and Z, and the creationist will immediately say "well, you have not found anything between C and P, therefore your argument is still invalid." They ignore the thousands of examples we can provide and dodge it by saying we still have gaps in between, and once we fill those gaps they immediately say "well, there is a gap between that fossil and the next one." This shows how honest the mindset of a creationist is.
It is common for a person to flat out say there is no evidence for evolution to be either not well educated in the field or deliberately mislead. Example, that Saturday night, I was supposed to be on Blogtv to witness a friend in England debate a creationist. The creationist knew almost absolutely nothing about biology, he actually thought a "family tree" was an actual tree.
I am not sure, but I had feeling that Jason and his mates were supporters of intelligent design. I am not sure if Jason thinks the earth is young, I hope not. I did ask Jason why does he think all the top academies around the world continue to teach evolution if there is no evidence? He wanted to be gentle, but he concluded they were being deceptive in a way. Intentionally? IDK.
However, the bulk of our discussion was aimed at the Bible and its history. Jason was sure the Bible was supported by history. I told him I am a history major, and explained how historians work and what evidence do we look for. When I brought forth the problem with historical evidence for Jesus, which I go into detail in one of my blogs, he came short off providing any evidence for him. He did bring up prophecies and Josephus. Again, not surprising. I explained why this piece is considered a forgery by the scholarly consensus. You can read my blog here.
Our conversation ended there, and we proposed to further keep in touch. I am sure he will also be commenting on my previous blog, so be sure to tune in.
