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Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution
Richard Dawkins is arguably the modern poster boy for Charles Darwin. However, a key difference radically separates the two men. Darwin believed in the existence of God and calls God the Creator seven times in The Origin of Species. Dawkins, in contrast, claims, The more you understand the significance of evolution, the more you are pushed...towards atheism. It seems Professor Dawkins thinks Charles Darwin didn't understand his own theory. Just months after the 2009 discovery of the supposed missing link, author Ray Comfort turns the tables on evolutionists. In Nothing Created Everything, he examines the evidence for evolution and shows it is lacking. He demonstrates that when it comes to explaining how life began, atheists and evolutionists offer faith not facts. Ironically, atheists insist nothing created everything, a scientific impossibility. In a conversational tone, Comfort speaks to both atheists and believers and urges this discussion be based on hard evidence. And when it is, he insists, people will realize evolution is a theory that can't be tested or measured and therefore can't be scientific.
- GenresReligion
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
5 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Ray Comfort
256 books400 followersRay is the Founder and CEO of Living Waters and the best–selling author of more than 80 books, including, Hell's Best Kept Secret, Scientific Facts in the Bible, and The Evidence Bible. He co–hosts (with actor Kirk Cameron) the award–winning television program "The Way of the Master," seen in 200 countries. He is also the Executive Producer on the movies "Audacity," "180," "Evolution vs. God," and others, which have been seen by millions. He and his wife, Sue, live in Bellflower, California, where they have three grown children.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 10, 2011
Scatterbrained ramblings, science illiteracy, and reality denialism packaged between two covers.
Ray Comfort’s “arguments” are some of the most laughably flimsy and poorly constructed to be found. His books, and this one in particular, provide the best examples around of logical fallacies and dishonest rhetoric. Devoid of anything approaching scholarship or actual research, the author plays fast and loose with facts (and often not with facts at all) transparently misunderstanding and misrepresenting his target.
Right from the beginning, any reader with the intelligence above that of a drooling imbecile will see the glaring idiocy embedded in the writing of this book. In the first few pages alone, the author manages to conflate cosmology with biology and abiogenesis with evolution—not a very auspicious start. But that is what we have come to expect from Comfort and he does not disappoint.
The goal of the book is to take the pithy little slogan that Ray is proud of: “An atheist is someone who believes that nothing created everything” and flesh it out—namely by trying to discredit modern biology in the hopes that the Genesis mythology will win by default. (Besides demonstrating the erroneous conflation that I’ve mentioned, the structure of that argument screams fallacious false dichotomy. But fallacies seem to comprise a fundamental characteristic of Comfort’s reasoning.)
However, in trying to prove his points, the author just ends up showing that his slogan and title are merely empty-headed hollow rhetoric. Instead of demonstrating atheism to be an “intellectual embarrassment”--as he repeats zombie-like as if trying to convince himself--he ends up showing that he hasn’t the faintest or foggiest clue about scientific subjects.
Any casual perusal of current cosmology shows that thinking about the formation of our universe is bound to be counter-intuitive involving complex topics such as quantum mechanics. Comfort’s “common-sense” approach is a misguided and absurd attempt three miles past goofy. But, this doesn’t even factor prominently in the book as the author is so confused, misinformed, and uninformed about the topic that he can’t even distinguish cosmology from biology.
One of the most egregious errors employed by the author is that of false analogy. Comfort continually compares man-made artifacts with living creatures. Even though he has been corrected a thousand times on this issue, he must think that he can convince a few ignorant readers if he repeats it often enough. When he, or any other creationist for that matter, can show that artifacts reproduce with variation and have differentiated survival rates then they can continue to use the “watchmaker” argument. Until then, they are either just being dishonest or freakishly stupid.
Ray has admitted on his blog that he hasn’t studied the theory of evolution beyond a few books and it shows in this screed. (I have to wonder if his claim is honest as any perusal of even a middle-school biology text would correct many of his errors.) One example of this is found in his parroting the claim that the eye is hard to explain with evolution. This is such a ridiculous assertion that even many creationists have abandoned it because biologists have soundly and overwhelmingly demonstrated the evolutionary pathways that have led to the structure of eyes. Intelligent design proponents, for all their blustering and substance-free posturing, have let that argument go and moved on to such things as the bacterial flagellum. But that’s what you get with this book—it’s the scum at the bottom of the barrel of putrid intellectual wastewater that constitutes creationist work.
Ray Comfort’s “arguments” are some of the most laughably flimsy and poorly constructed to be found. His books, and this one in particular, provide the best examples around of logical fallacies and dishonest rhetoric. Devoid of anything approaching scholarship or actual research, the author plays fast and loose with facts (and often not with facts at all) transparently misunderstanding and misrepresenting his target.
Right from the beginning, any reader with the intelligence above that of a drooling imbecile will see the glaring idiocy embedded in the writing of this book. In the first few pages alone, the author manages to conflate cosmology with biology and abiogenesis with evolution—not a very auspicious start. But that is what we have come to expect from Comfort and he does not disappoint.
The goal of the book is to take the pithy little slogan that Ray is proud of: “An atheist is someone who believes that nothing created everything” and flesh it out—namely by trying to discredit modern biology in the hopes that the Genesis mythology will win by default. (Besides demonstrating the erroneous conflation that I’ve mentioned, the structure of that argument screams fallacious false dichotomy. But fallacies seem to comprise a fundamental characteristic of Comfort’s reasoning.)
However, in trying to prove his points, the author just ends up showing that his slogan and title are merely empty-headed hollow rhetoric. Instead of demonstrating atheism to be an “intellectual embarrassment”--as he repeats zombie-like as if trying to convince himself--he ends up showing that he hasn’t the faintest or foggiest clue about scientific subjects.
Any casual perusal of current cosmology shows that thinking about the formation of our universe is bound to be counter-intuitive involving complex topics such as quantum mechanics. Comfort’s “common-sense” approach is a misguided and absurd attempt three miles past goofy. But, this doesn’t even factor prominently in the book as the author is so confused, misinformed, and uninformed about the topic that he can’t even distinguish cosmology from biology.
One of the most egregious errors employed by the author is that of false analogy. Comfort continually compares man-made artifacts with living creatures. Even though he has been corrected a thousand times on this issue, he must think that he can convince a few ignorant readers if he repeats it often enough. When he, or any other creationist for that matter, can show that artifacts reproduce with variation and have differentiated survival rates then they can continue to use the “watchmaker” argument. Until then, they are either just being dishonest or freakishly stupid.
Ray has admitted on his blog that he hasn’t studied the theory of evolution beyond a few books and it shows in this screed. (I have to wonder if his claim is honest as any perusal of even a middle-school biology text would correct many of his errors.) One example of this is found in his parroting the claim that the eye is hard to explain with evolution. This is such a ridiculous assertion that even many creationists have abandoned it because biologists have soundly and overwhelmingly demonstrated the evolutionary pathways that have led to the structure of eyes. Intelligent design proponents, for all their blustering and substance-free posturing, have let that argument go and moved on to such things as the bacterial flagellum. But that’s what you get with this book—it’s the scum at the bottom of the barrel of putrid intellectual wastewater that constitutes creationist work.
June 11, 2012
It's not the author's premise that bothered me, I don't think. It was the complete lack of a sound argument and an obvious ignorance regarding evolutionary theory. There are problems with evolution. Any good evolutionary biologist will admit that. Rather than addressing any of those difficulties, he made up his own "problems" that aren't really problems at all.
Oh, and cosmology and biology? Not the same.
He also seems to ridicule science for being science. If some piece of scientific evidence refutes some previous hypothesis, the hypothesis changes. Isn't that a good thing? And he also claims loads of scientific evidence for lots of things, but he doesn't actually cite what that evidence might be. But I don't know why he'd want scientific evidence for the flood, for instance, if he doesn't think much of science to begin with.
In case it isn't clear, I didn't like this book.
January 17, 2012
What an eye opening and thought provoking book. As a Christian I didn't need this book to believe in God, I needed it to see me for who I really am. This book brought me closer to my God, my savior, and my judge. I'm better off having read this book!
July 13, 2014
Ray Comfort once again demonstrates that he has no intention of ever understanding what evolution actually entails. A man who has never been to university thinks he can disprove the most strongly support theory in the history of science. A scientific theory which has withstood 155 years of such attacks and has won every single battle and passed every test with flying colours.
Describing Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis, as an 'ugly monkey' should immediately inform people that he has no intention of honest discourse on the subject, as not even Ray Comfort is ignorant enough to confuse an ape and monkey, leaving it obvious to the reader that he is lying.
If Ray really had evidence to disprove evolution, he would put it in a scientific journal. The only reason he wrote this book was to make some money from gullible people who didn't understand the subject he is talking about any better than he does.
Describing Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis, as an 'ugly monkey' should immediately inform people that he has no intention of honest discourse on the subject, as not even Ray Comfort is ignorant enough to confuse an ape and monkey, leaving it obvious to the reader that he is lying.
If Ray really had evidence to disprove evolution, he would put it in a scientific journal. The only reason he wrote this book was to make some money from gullible people who didn't understand the subject he is talking about any better than he does.
April 14, 2024
THE POPULAR APOLOGIST OFFERS VARIOUS ARGUMENTS DEFENDING CHRISTIANIITY
Ray Comfort (born 1949) is a New Zealand Christian minister and evangelist who started Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master in Bellflower, California.
He wrote in the Preface to this 2009 book, “So here’s my suggestion. If I lose this argument about the existence of God and the promise of Christianity, I will give up going to Heaven. I will give up my life and my very consciousness. You will be right. There’s no God and no afterlife. So I will be dead, and I will know nothing. The problem is that I won’t ever realize that I was wrong and that you were right. That’s my side of the bargain. Here’s your side. If I am right and God exists and Christianity is right, then you have to give up going to Hell… You will have to enjoy ‘pleasures forevermore.’ … My goal in this book isn’t to win an argument. It’s to win YOU… Is it a wager?” (Pg. 9)
He notes, “we now know that mutations can only modify or eliminate existing structures, not create new ones. In our genetic blueprint, the DNA letters … can occasionally be rearranged or lost through mutations but will not explain the additions needed by evolution. Scientists have het to fine even a single mutation that increases genetic information. The fact it that there is no evidence showing that mutations have ever created any new features.” (Pg. 21)
He states, “[The typical atheist] is saying that material (creation) exists, but there was no force that brought it into being. He thinks that nothing brought it into being. So we (once again) have a clear definition of an atheist. An atheist is someone who thinks (but doesn’t believe) that nothing created everything… such thoughts show that the atheist doesn’t think, and prove the Bible right when it says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God (see Psalm 14:1 and Romans 1:20).” (Pg. 25)
He explains, “Those who have never heard the good news of the Gospel will go to Heaven, if they have never sinned. However, if they have ever lied, stolen, committed adultery, been covetous, had sex outside of marriage, looked with lust, hated anyone, been unthankful to God, committed homosexual acts, murdered, blasphemed, failed to love their neighbors as themselves, or failed to love the One who gave them life with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, etc., than they will end up in Hell. God will give them justice. The problem is they have sinned (all of us have), and so they DESPERATELY need God’s mercy. So, as Christians, we have a tremendous moral obligation to make sure that they are warned of their danger before they die…” (Pg. 55)
After quoting Job 40:15-19 (e.g., ‘He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him’), he comments, “It is no mystery as to why the dinosaur disappeared. The dinosaur’s Creator made his sword to approach him.” (Pg. 63)
He says, “I choose rather to call creation ‘creation,’ and to love and serve the Creator who brought creation into being. I have no trouble believing that He made man as male and female, and that He gave them the ability to procreate after their own kind. I have no trouble believing that He brought animals to Noah, flooded the earth to the highest mountain, opened the Red Sea, stopped the mouths of Daniel’s lions, guided the stone from David’s sling… died on a cruel cross for our sins, and then rose from the dead on the third day. It’s easy to believe in miracles because I see the unspeakable genius of God’s handiwork every time I watch a bird fly.” (Pg. 94)
He acknowledges, “Religion IS a security blanket. All it does provide a physiological sanctuary. Nothing else. It has caused atrocities throughout history, and still does today. Religious people murdered God’s prophets throughout the Old Testament… They erroneously believe that a man can earn his own salvation through his own religious works. Religions delivers only a security blanket when a parachute is needed… However, when someone becomes a Christian … they are set free from the bondage of religion.” (Pg. 96-97)
He asserts, “so the contemporary atheist with his semantics paints himself into an intellectual dilemma. He has the choice of thinking nothing made everything, that something made everything (perhaps God) and is no longer an atheist, or he joins the
Don’t Understand How’ club---the DUH.” (Pg. 119)
He states, “The atheist’s mistake is to think the God he doesn’t believe in has the same moral standards as humanity… The other mistake the atheist made was to think that people will end up on Hell for not believing in God. That’s just not true. Plenty of people who believe in God will end up in Hell. Among them will be the many religious hypocrites and millions of others who were warned of the reality of Hell but refused to repent and trust the Savior” (Pg. 144-145)
He concludes, “The Christian … is like a man who sees villagers living beneath a great dam. He has seen cracks in the dam… But the villagers refuse to believe his warning, and even mock his every word. His sorrow is that their deaths will be totally needless. When I say goodbye to my loved ones for the last time, I will know that I will see them again at the resurrection of the just and the unjust. If you want that incredible consolation… take a long look at the Savior on the Cross. That’s what can save you completely.” (Pg. 218)
Not Comfort’s best book of apologetics (it actually deals very little with the ‘Universe from nothing’ and Multiverse arguments), it will still interest those studying Christian apologetics.
Ray Comfort (born 1949) is a New Zealand Christian minister and evangelist who started Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master in Bellflower, California.
He wrote in the Preface to this 2009 book, “So here’s my suggestion. If I lose this argument about the existence of God and the promise of Christianity, I will give up going to Heaven. I will give up my life and my very consciousness. You will be right. There’s no God and no afterlife. So I will be dead, and I will know nothing. The problem is that I won’t ever realize that I was wrong and that you were right. That’s my side of the bargain. Here’s your side. If I am right and God exists and Christianity is right, then you have to give up going to Hell… You will have to enjoy ‘pleasures forevermore.’ … My goal in this book isn’t to win an argument. It’s to win YOU… Is it a wager?” (Pg. 9)
He notes, “we now know that mutations can only modify or eliminate existing structures, not create new ones. In our genetic blueprint, the DNA letters … can occasionally be rearranged or lost through mutations but will not explain the additions needed by evolution. Scientists have het to fine even a single mutation that increases genetic information. The fact it that there is no evidence showing that mutations have ever created any new features.” (Pg. 21)
He states, “[The typical atheist] is saying that material (creation) exists, but there was no force that brought it into being. He thinks that nothing brought it into being. So we (once again) have a clear definition of an atheist. An atheist is someone who thinks (but doesn’t believe) that nothing created everything… such thoughts show that the atheist doesn’t think, and prove the Bible right when it says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God (see Psalm 14:1 and Romans 1:20).” (Pg. 25)
He explains, “Those who have never heard the good news of the Gospel will go to Heaven, if they have never sinned. However, if they have ever lied, stolen, committed adultery, been covetous, had sex outside of marriage, looked with lust, hated anyone, been unthankful to God, committed homosexual acts, murdered, blasphemed, failed to love their neighbors as themselves, or failed to love the One who gave them life with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, etc., than they will end up in Hell. God will give them justice. The problem is they have sinned (all of us have), and so they DESPERATELY need God’s mercy. So, as Christians, we have a tremendous moral obligation to make sure that they are warned of their danger before they die…” (Pg. 55)
After quoting Job 40:15-19 (e.g., ‘He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him’), he comments, “It is no mystery as to why the dinosaur disappeared. The dinosaur’s Creator made his sword to approach him.” (Pg. 63)
He says, “I choose rather to call creation ‘creation,’ and to love and serve the Creator who brought creation into being. I have no trouble believing that He made man as male and female, and that He gave them the ability to procreate after their own kind. I have no trouble believing that He brought animals to Noah, flooded the earth to the highest mountain, opened the Red Sea, stopped the mouths of Daniel’s lions, guided the stone from David’s sling… died on a cruel cross for our sins, and then rose from the dead on the third day. It’s easy to believe in miracles because I see the unspeakable genius of God’s handiwork every time I watch a bird fly.” (Pg. 94)
He acknowledges, “Religion IS a security blanket. All it does provide a physiological sanctuary. Nothing else. It has caused atrocities throughout history, and still does today. Religious people murdered God’s prophets throughout the Old Testament… They erroneously believe that a man can earn his own salvation through his own religious works. Religions delivers only a security blanket when a parachute is needed… However, when someone becomes a Christian … they are set free from the bondage of religion.” (Pg. 96-97)
He asserts, “so the contemporary atheist with his semantics paints himself into an intellectual dilemma. He has the choice of thinking nothing made everything, that something made everything (perhaps God) and is no longer an atheist, or he joins the
Don’t Understand How’ club---the DUH.” (Pg. 119)
He states, “The atheist’s mistake is to think the God he doesn’t believe in has the same moral standards as humanity… The other mistake the atheist made was to think that people will end up on Hell for not believing in God. That’s just not true. Plenty of people who believe in God will end up in Hell. Among them will be the many religious hypocrites and millions of others who were warned of the reality of Hell but refused to repent and trust the Savior” (Pg. 144-145)
He concludes, “The Christian … is like a man who sees villagers living beneath a great dam. He has seen cracks in the dam… But the villagers refuse to believe his warning, and even mock his every word. His sorrow is that their deaths will be totally needless. When I say goodbye to my loved ones for the last time, I will know that I will see them again at the resurrection of the just and the unjust. If you want that incredible consolation… take a long look at the Savior on the Cross. That’s what can save you completely.” (Pg. 218)
Not Comfort’s best book of apologetics (it actually deals very little with the ‘Universe from nothing’ and Multiverse arguments), it will still interest those studying Christian apologetics.
January 21, 2016
great books with information.
Regards -Joel stin
Thank You Ray
Regards -Joel stin
Thank You Ray
Read
August 4, 2011The book itself is an easy read. Ray Comfort clearly lays out logic in this book and answers common questions/objections made by atheists. The title sums up what is left to believe if you don't believe in God (though I suppose an atheist would be uncomfortable with the word "created" so maybe they would prefer "everything happened from nothing" or something to that sort). It is also clear though that his objective in the book is not to win an argument, but rather to win a soul. This is shown by his constant presenting of the gospel in each chapter.
Read
November 24, 2018Tried to read it five years ago. Pure trash. There’s disagreeing and then there’s being a prick. Creationists still don’t sufficiently answer the question of, how does disagreeing on the details of the creation account directly affect my sense of morality and how that sense of morality is applied? Furthermore, how did we even get to this point of arguing about details (and ignoring the elephant in the room of what makes a religion cross cultures is its moral system)? Although I’d agree that Dawkins sometimes needs to tone it down a bit.
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