Cognitive Dissonance: September 2013

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance: a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming and denying.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Liars, Idiots & Cowards aka Ray Comfort (and Pat Roberts, but we'll discuss him later).

If hell was a real place, there would be a special place in it for the people I like to call, "liars for Jesus". These people spin and sell blatant lies and nonsense to unwitting people, often for profit or other forms of personal gain. One of my least favorite members of this club is the crown prince of inanity himself, none other than Ray "The Banana Man" Comfort. Ray is an asshat of epic proportions, his ignorance knows NO bounds! Every time the man opens his mouth, you can bet bananas to donuts that he's going to say something stupid.

If you haven't seen Ray Comfort's Facebook page, and you're ok with having your good mood ruined you should check it out. 9 out of 10 posts are statements that are either blatantly false, shamelessly manipulated (like his videos/movies/interviews almost always are) or utterly insane. Ray spends the vast majority of his time railing against evolution. He has a new movie out called "Evolution vs. god" and every single time he puts a new post on Facebook, he plugs that pathetic mummer's farce he calls an "argument" against evolution. If you listen to what he says and/or read what he writes, it becomes readily apparent that Ray either doesn't have a fucking CLUE how evolution works, or what the word even means - or, he knows exactly what it means and he's regurgitating tired, old propaganda that has been refuted over and over and over again in order to deceive people. And I can't tell if he's just manipulating the ignorant masses of fundamentalist Christians for money, or if he really believes the shit he says. Either way its shameful, and Ray is a prime example of a "liar for Jesus".

One of the most despicable examples (in my opinion) of Ray's blatant lies and manipulations is the FACT that he often edits the interviews in his films. He cuts out/rearranges words and sentences to manipulate the responses to his questions. Sometimes he even changes the questions he's asking, after purposefully misleading his victims into saying something so he can twist it later. What you see/hear in his videos is NOT what the folks he's interviewed said, in many cases, its quite the opposite! On more than one occasion people have gotten ahold of the original, unedited interviews and compared them to the bullshit Ray slaps on his overpriced DVDs, there are several on YouTube for your viewing displeasure.

I'm going to stop now and defer to the intelligent and insightful Jacklyn Glenn. She does a fantastic job of tearing Ray's "Evolution vs. god" video to shreds in her own video/vlog. Take a few minutes and check it out, but be warned, you'll need a drink afterwards, or... ten. - Jacklyn Glenn on "Evolution vs. god" by the Banana Man himself!