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- The analogy intentionally and dishonestly continues to paint apostasy as bitterness and disillusionment, to make it appear foolish or childish.
Incidentally someone who knows he will soon need a parachute to jump from a plane isn’t likely to experience, “a deep rooted joy and peace in his heart”. Similarly people who believe the type of Christianity that focuses on hell aren’t peaceful, rather they continually fear they won’t be good enough for heaven or their loved ones won’t make it to heaven.
- Perhaps the main reason why people are Christians is because of their upbringing in a religious household. It does not seem coincidence that Christian parents tend to have Christian children, Muslim parents have Muslim kids, and Hindu parents have Hindu kids. Atheists and non-Christians can and have a happy fulfilling life.
Incidentally it would help if Ray and Kirk gave a clear definition of a Non-Christian. Too often Christian evangelists call a person a Non-Christian even if that person believes in Christianity, goes to church and works hard to live a Christian life. If a few details of a person’s life don’t fit the model of Christianity that a particular evangelist is promoting that person can be branded a Non-Christian.
- Christian persecution? Is mockery persecution? Did the air marshals arrest the man with the parachute simply because he had a parachute? No. Did the flight attendant refuse to serve the parachute person? No. In western countries where Christianity is strong so-called persecution is rarely worse than mockery.
- The Ten Commandments do not prove God any more than the 5 Pillars of Islam prove Allah or the 8 Paths prove Buddhism. Ray fails to see that authors of the Ten Commandments wrote them according to their moral values, they did not get them from God. Moral values existed in humans for thousands of years before Moses came down Mt. Sinai, see Biological evolution of morality.
Incidentally the men were not offended because Kirk is an expert and experienced manipulator. Anyone with experience of human nature knows people are frequently seriously offended when it is pointed out that they have done something wrong.
- Elsewhere Ray claims being a Christian brings extra tribulation.
- Romans 3:10 says "There is none righteous, no, not one." Paul claims that there never has been a righteous or good person. <a href="http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/rom/3.html#10">http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/rom/3.html#10</a> But see, Has there ever been a righteous person? As happens so often the bible contradicts itself. According to Gen.6:9, 7:1; Job 1:1, 2:3, and Lk.1:5-6, Noah, Job, Zechariah, and Elizabeth were all good and righteous people. If there has never been a single righteous human being then either Jesus was not fully righteous or Jesus was not fully human.
- Imagine if you switch this analogy around. The surfboard is not your sin, instead it is your -your faith in Christ. Thrust your superstitious fear from you and recognise that biblical mythology is no more reasonable than Greek mythology, Sumerian mythology or any other type of mythology.
- As usual WOTM promotes guilt by referring to sinners. More seriously where we spend eternity appears to depend on how other people preach to us. How can this be seen as perfect justice?
- What would be the point of living if you cannot live happily? If Jesus cannot bring happiness, why follow him? Did God create us just to please him?
- This argument is very fallacious, it implies that people that leave faith is because of humiliation. This analogy is intentionally constructed to make it appear precisely as Ray and Kirk want the audience to think why people leave faith, but there are many other factors they leave out. People rarely leave faith because of humiliation, more likely the leave due to critically analyzing their beliefs. Perhaps they are sick of the religious dishonesty and hypocrisy, as often shown by the likes of Ray and Kirk. Maybe they are sick of religion being the cause of such suffering around the world.
- Ray blames the church for Christianity's failures. Perhaps the real failure is Christianity itself. There is no more reason to believe in the Christian concept of Hell than to believe the Muslim idea of hell or in Tartarus which was the equivalent in the Greek and Roman religion. Ray and Kirk are frightening people over unproved and unlikely superstitions. In any case there may be a god who rewards Critical thinking and punishes blind faith, that's just as likely as Ray and Kird's concept.
- According to the bible God made us so none of us is capable of being totally righteous but will punish us eternally for sin that we can’t avoid. Jesus saved a few but most will perish. How can such a God be loving? Fortunately indeed there is no evidence for the Bronze Age and Iron Age God of the Bible.
- Perhaps their motive is to seek truth above all things. Most Christians have the same motive, unlike Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron who don't appear to get close to the truth about the Bible, the universe, evolution, and such. When honest Christians have a motive to find truth and come to the conclusion that Christianity is not true, people like Ray and Kirk are quick to label them insincere or never really sought Christ or they were never true Christians
- Do you know what Jesus said in Luke 18 and Mark 10 ? Luke 18:29-30 and Mark 10:29-30 say "There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting." Abandon your wife and family for Jesus and he'll give you a big reward. Luke copied this line from Mark, among many others.
- What should turn people away if not a dancing Christian with a sign, but the fact that grown adults in the 21st century believe in fantasies like talking snakes, an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do, the dead walk, hallucinations and trances are revelations from god, the earth is flat or several thousand years old, black skin is a curse, and such
- The second passenger was not saved from sure death, the plane never crashed or started to fail. Similarly there is no reason to believe the mythology in the bible. Christians find bliss in ignorance when they finds peace in believing though Ray, Kirk and other Christian fundamentalists often look anxious and fearful of hell rather than peaceful. Why would the coffee on the passengers lap make him look forward to the jump? Is Ray hinting that faith in Christ makes people look forward to death? Some Puritanical type Christians lead such unnatural repressed lives that there is relatively little joy in living.
- Religion does not make you a better person, and often the worst hypocrites are in church. Some Christians can be very hostile from missionaries kidnapping children, people shooting doctors, religious people pushing to suppress others and take away their rights.
- Only in Kirk's analogy people must jump, but there is nothing forcing them to. Both Ray and Kirk cherry-pick which Commandments to fit their are you a good person? tactic. In Acts 17, some philosophers laughed." A god who imposes infinite punishment for finite sins can be considered a tyrant rather than righteous and it’s fortunate that there is no evidence for the god of the bible.
- Kirk instructs their religious audience to focus on the dishonest routine instead of answering important questions. Hitler was a Christian, there is no doubt about it. Ray and Kirk think Hitler was a "evolutionist" and not a Christian, but they are wrong and they know they are wrong. There are different opinions among Christians regarding rock n' roll bands, overpopulation, and such.
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