Even more comfort

Ray Comfort wants to debate Richard Dawkins and has offered him $10,000 to accept. Richard replied that he'd do it for $100,000 donated to the Richard Dawkins Foundation, with the condition that Ray brings up the banana argument and he gets to film it.

Much is hilarious about this and I'm dribbling with anticipation.

People have raised a few concerns about the whole business, but I think they're taking it too seriously. I prefer to see the thing as Richard seems to be: it's money snatched from idiots hands and put somewhere it can do some good.

There's always the concern about giving people like Ray Comfort the oxygen of publicity, but when you can offset that with a decent contribution to charity and what's bound to be hilarious footage for all, I say let the fun commence.

Richard will wipe the floor with Ray and Ray probably won't realise it. Ray will already have worked out his strategy. He'll say something blithering about evolution, Richard will correct it and Ray will cry persecution. Richard will explain that Ray is ignorant of something and Ray will try to turn it into an ad hominem rather than a specific point about a specific argument.

Richard knows this. He also knows that anyone that matters - anyone who might be swayed away from idiocy by rational argument - will see clean through Ray and at the least realise that there's something very badly wrong with his arguments.

I say go for it. I won't be contributing to the fund though because I'm certain that creationists will come up with the money themselves: it's worth more to people like Ray than it is to people like Richard.

Whatever happens, it will be entertaining.