Video Review — "The Fool" by Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort has been maligned as the "Banana Man", based on atheists editing and misrepresenting him. Find out the truth and more. And be encouraged.

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

Obtaining and reviewing The Fool by Ray Comfort/Living Waters has been a goat rodeo for me. I knew it was going to be released, and one of the web sites indicated February 2019, so I passed. Later, I checked again and saw that the release date been moved out. I purchased the video downloads to help the ministry and see them (the second being "The Angry Atheist") in advance. However, I wanted my review to coincide with the release of The Fool, so I contacted Living Waters. The fellow I spoke with did not know, but his supervisor believed it would be released two weeks after Easter. Nope. Looks like it was released to YouTube at midnight their time on Sunday, April 21. So I moved this review to almost the top of my priority list.

Early Days

New Zealand native Ray Comfort has been an evangelist for years. He is a "walk the talk" guy, living what he says. Mr Comfort is involved in street preaching , and sometimes people get mighty hostile. His autobiography, Out of the Comfort Zone, includes descriptions of how he was not only preaching the gospel but giving food and care to people in the extremely dangerous MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles, California.

In the early days, Ray was promoting "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion" (which are still very important resources). You may want to watch this short documentary from around 2011 for some interesting information. Things began to move from a trot to a canter when he teamed up with Kirk Cameron and working on "The Way of the Master", which includes biblical evangelism courses. However, his ministry began to gallop because of misrepresentations by atheists.

Evangelism

Mr. Comfort tries to be friendly to atheists, but they get on the prod when confronted by the truth of the gospel. They get even angrier when evolution (a foundation for their religion) is challenged — which is something I've experienced with Question Evolution Day and other activities. Ray speaks to atheists and has had formal debates with them. This is rare, because atheists and evolutionists are seldom willing to engage in debates or intelligent discussions with biblical Christians and creationists. Ridicule and trying to silence us, yes. Civil discussion, not so much.

Ridicule

Ray has the moniker of "Banana Man" and has been called a fool because of a parody that he made using bananas and a soda can as props. Let me interrupt myself for a moment. Comfort said that atheists don't think their beliefs are ridiculous and worthy of ridicule, but I disagree on that small point. From my observations, atheists and evolutionists in general are exceptionally proud and cannot take a joke, but are more than willing to ridicule others, even when they know their attacks are blatant misrepresentations. This is ironic because their claims to owning "reason" because of atheism and that people of faith are irrational are highly fallacious. I've discussed that elsewhere, so no need to saddle up that one just now.

Scene changes are often shown with bananas. Unlike many atheists, Mr. Comfort appropriated an object of ridicule that is used against him. Meanwhile, atheists deliberately misrepresented Ray and the parody mentioned earlier for ridicule purposes. (I keep bringing up ridicule because people like that are in rebellion to their Creator; atheism and origins are not intellectual, they are spiritual problems. They are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, as seen in Romans 1:18-22. If it were a question of intellect, everyone would be Christians. Indeed, they would be biblical creationists.) A tremendous irony of the Banana Man mockery is that atheists were allowing the gospel message to be shared. As indicated in other posts here, atheists don't trust each other, and will even become angry when their comrades show civility to Christians.

For fun, count the times Ray had a gaffe and said, "Then I forgot about it". Several things were used to attack him, but atheists and other anti-creationists don't seem to understand that ad hominem attacks, mockery, straw man arguments, and the many other fallacies they use not only show that they do not have a firm grasp of reason, but such things do not make atheism and evolution less false. God exists, and we will all have to stand before him. Logic, reason, and evidence are on our side.

Publicity from haters. All because of Banana Man.

Personal Applications

I found some encouragement in this movie, and there were a couple of quotes that stood out for me: "In the Bible, God often uses what seem like disasters and failures and uses them for his purposes". In that case, the Banana Man label opened doors for Mr. Comfort and his ministries to gain a larger audience. Also, "God delights in taking that which is a seeming failure and making it a success". This reminds me of what Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis 50:20.

My own online ministry efforts stirred up criminal cyberstalkers and even a libelous hit piece at (ir)RationalWiki, as well as an attack by an atheist who is an internet celebrity. All of these are pretty much unknown in most of the real world, so mayhaps I don't have the right haters. (I was even scorned for my musical preferences, as if that was helpful for atheism.) Like Ray's experiences, the things I've endured have occasionally left me bruised, but I know that God has his purposes. I keep on going to give God the glory, spread the truth, and provide information to equip the saints to stand up for the authority of God's Word.

Wisdom of God

Materialists and professing Christians who compromise on the Word of God think they are wise. Not hardly! The wisdom of the world is foolishness (1 Cor. 1:21, Psalm 14:1), and our spiritual weapons pull down fortresses raised against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:3-4). True wisdom comes from God (Prov. 1:7, 2 Peter 3:18, Prov. 3:13-14, Psalm 104:24). We must spend time in the Bible and get solid biblical teaching so we can be properly handle the truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

I hope you will see The Fool. It takes just over an hour and has far more material than I presented here, and I reckon that unbelievers and Christians can benefit from seeing it. You can get there from here. The trailer is below if you want it.

No, I don't have the book yet.