MOVIE REVIEW: Evolution vs. God, Ray Comfort, producer. I admire Ray Comfort’s commitment to evangelism. His program, Way of the Master has been a benefit to me personally. When I found out that Ray Comfort was putting out a film called Evolution vs. God, I was intrigued. According to an article on the Charisma News website, the film received 180,000 internet views in just six days. People are watching this film. But, we have to ask the question, is it worth it for Christians and non-Christians to watch Ray Comfort’s film? The film itself lasts about thirty-eight minutes and anyone familiar with Comfort’s Way of the Master program would immediately recognize the style of the presentation. The movie consists of multiple segments in which Comfort, as an off-camera interviewer, asks questions of both students and university professors about Darwinian evolution in the first half of the presentation. The questions are quick: “Do you believe in evolution? Could you give me some observable evidence that evolution is true, something that I don’t have to receive by faith? Do you believe in intelligent design? Can you make a rose? Can you name any famous atheists?” The questions are designed to showcase the problems with Darwinian evolution. However, the microphone becomes the instrument of the “gotcha question.” We are familiar with a reporter who asks the politician a quick question which has the effect of embarrassing him or getting a damaging answer to the politician’s cause. Comfort uses this same tactic in his interviews. He asks his quick questions about Darwinian evolution to a physics student and a geology student, neither of who can answer his questions. Why should we expect them to be able to do so? Evolutionary biology is not their field. They are out of their depth and their answers are much like anyone else who has not studied the issue, “No…not really.” It was the wrong tactic on Comfort’s part. In the second portion of film, Ray Comfort changes the questioning to spiritual matters and begins an evangelistic presentation with those he has just interviewed about evolution. The questions again are quick: “Are you comfortable talking about spiritual things? Are you a good person?” Hopefully, those non-believers would take seriously their position before God as sinners and the offer of Jesus Christ to be their Savior. However, watching the film as a whole, I wonder if those people would take offense at being embarrassed over Darwinian evolution by a Christian evangelist and then being asked to become a Christian by that same evangelist. It may not have helped. That brings us to an important question. Since this film is a Christian apologetic, we should evaluate it by using two questions of Christian apologetics: “Does the film effectively instruct believers? “Does the film effectively engage non-believers?” A Christian, after viewing Evolution vs. God on YouTube, would not really be equipped on the issue of Darwinian evolution. He would not be able to give better answers to Comfort’s “gotcha questions” than the students and professors interviewed. The producers of the film had so many opportunities to educate the believer and missed nearly all of them. The Christian viewer would not know from watching this film that there are multiple definitions of the term “evolution,” some of which the Christian would and does accept. The film never makes a distinction between evolution as “change over time” and evolution as a materialistic and unguided process of descent with modification from a common ancestor. The Christian viewer would also not understand after seeing the movie that the major obstacle to evolution is the unguided and naturalistic origin of life itself. Also, some Christians do accept evolution as the process that God used to create the diversity of life on Earth. These facts never made it to the presentation. What did make it to the film was a very short discussion of vestigial, or so-called “non- essential” organs, such as the appendix, which had been thought to be evolutionary leftovers, but do perform a function in the human body after all. The non-believer who views Evolution vs. God might be angry after seeing it. In choosing his interview tactics, Comfort did not make the film a reasonable debate on the issue of Darwinian evolution, with each side bringing their best arguments in a give-and-take fashion. The person who advocates Darwinian evolution would say that his side was not represented fairly. Perhaps the questions asked by Comfort might have been phrased in a better way: “What evidence for Darwinian evolution do you see?” “What persuaded you as a student or professor in the biological sciences that it is true?” That would have been the beginning of an open and, potentially fruitful, discussion. Can I recommend the film Evolution vs. God as an apologetic tool? The answer must be no. There is a stereotype of the Christian as a non- or anti-intellectual who is unwilling or unable to engage with science and Ray Comfort has, unfortunately, played into that stereotype with this film. The movie’s popularity could mean that the Christian cause has been set back. However, as Christians, we are confronted with the issue of Darwinian evolution and must be equipped to respond. Our goal should be to make effective of use of both Scripture and science in our apologetics approach to Darwinian evolution. Unfortunately, Evolution vs. God doesn’t reach that goal.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 16:56:25 +0000
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