Mystery Atheist Hijacks Anti-Evolutionary Theorist’s Twitter Account and Issues an Ultimatum
Evangelist Ray Comfort is known for regularly riling secularists and now an atheist who is less than enthralled with his message has hijacked Comfort’s official Twitter account in an effort to get back at the “Evolution vs. God” filmmaker.
Comfort told TheBlaze on Friday that his official Twitter account, which has more than 31,000 followers, ”was seized upon by an atheist.”
The non-believer was able to secure Comfort’s Twitter handle (@RayComfort) after one of his staff members accidentally changed his username. Just moments after the error occurred, someone else registered the @RayComfort, making it impossible for Comfort’s team to get it back.
As a result, the Christian leader has been forced to change his Twitter handle to @RayComfortLW. But that’s not the most intriguing part of the story. The individual who ended up with Comfort’s Twitter handle is now using it to push back against the evangelist’s beliefs and contentions — and the person has even given Comfort some demands.
“The atheist who took my Twitter name, then gave me an ultimatum. He said that he would return it if I made a public statement,” Comfort told TheBlaze. “He tweeted that I must say that I would ‘no longer denigrate, blame and demonize skeptics and nonbelievers, including agnostics and atheists.’”
Real Ray wants his handle back. I've promised to do so, on condition he stops badmouthing skeptics and nonbelievers. I'm waiting for reply.
@RayComfort
Ray Comfort
Comfort said that he told the unnamed individual that he loves non-believers and has never demonized them and that he will be passing on the offer. The evangelist also said he doesn’t know who the person is, but that it could be any number of activists.
This year, alone, Comfort said he has banned over 3,000 people on Facebook for “blasphemy and cussing.”
TheBlaze also reached out to the atheist behind the account. While we asked for the person to share his or her identity, this request was declined, however answers to some of our questions were provided.
“I took over the handle to build up a parody account of Ray,” the person said in an e-mail interview. “If you’ve read my recent tweets, I’m using it to promote humanistic values and science now.”
Here are just some of the more recent tweets the mystery individual is sending from Comfort’s old username:
Demonizing people who are LBGTQ and using the Slippery Slope fallacy to equate them with pedophiles is an epitome of divisive dishonesty.
@RayComfort
Ray Comfort
READ Heb 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have... Verses like these are too often ignored by selfish Christians.
@RayComfort
Ray Comfort
Do something effective for Philippines instead of praying. Find an aid org like Médecins Sans Frontières or Red Cross working there & donate
@RayComfort
Ray Comfort
The atheist corroborated Comfort’s story and explained that he acquired the name after the evangelist’s personal assistant inadvertently changed the Twitter handle.
“Someone took it before me, and released it. When I tested if it’s available, it was and I simply opened a new account with it,” he said. “So I did not ‘get it away from Comfort.’ It was abandoned by his PA.”
As for the ultimatum, the account snatcher said that the goal was to force the evangelist to “stop publicly blaming and denigrating skeptics, agnostics and atheists.”
Comfort said his team has contacted Twitter about the situation, but it’s unclear what the company might do, if anything, to resolve it. In the meantime, the unnamed user said that offers have been received from others who are interested in taking the account over, but that returning it to Comfort has not been completely ruled out.
It’s certainly no surprise why non-believers would dislike Comfort. The Christian leader opposes Darwinian theory and has worked diligently to try and disprove it.
“It’s a love-hate relationship. I love them and they hate me, and they will do anything to frustrate the gospel,” he continued.
Comfort also noted that his anti-Darwinian film “Evolution vs. God” is at the center of much of the contention surrounding him — and that this situation may be a direct consequence of that.
“After the release of ‘Evolution vs God’ it energized the hatred that many atheists have for me. In four months there have been over 104,000 comments on YouTube and thousands of the comments are livid,” he told TheBlaze. “This is because Darwinian evolution is a hill upon which atheists and evolution believers are prepared to die. It says that we are primates, that there are no moral absolutes, and there’s no God to whom we must answer.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment