Ray Comfort on His Interview With Penn Jillette, Top Atheist Speakers at Reason Rally
Evangelist Ray Comfort interviewed atheist author Lawrence Krauss and Las Vegas entertainer Penn Jillette at the atheist Reason Rally last Saturday in Washington, D.C. and described them as "likable" and "polite."
"A number of people have asked for details about my video interview with professor Lawrence Krauss, and my time afterwards talking with Penn Jillette," Comfort wrote in a Facebook message.
"At the moment all I would like to say is that both men where very likable and polite. Listening to them and sharing with them was the highlight of the weekend for me."
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The rally drewa few thousand participants in the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, and featured speeches by some of the most famous atheist names in the world.
Comfort had previously made plans to show up with as many as 1,000 Christian volunteers and hand out close to $25,000 worth of Subway gift cards to the attendees, but Washington police shut down such outreach.
The creationist shared in a statement that police told him the outreach "constituted a protest and therefore we needed a permit to gather. We would have to stay at the other end of the National Mall, and they said that if we persisted to approach atheists to speak with them we would be arrested."
He added that the gift cards would be given to homeless people, and reflected: "To authorities, Christians and atheists are enemies. So they want to keep us apart for the sake of peace, especially with more serious threats facing America. That's understandable. But at the same time I'm a little frustrated because I have a very good relationship with atheists."
Reports have stated that the Reason Rally drew a far smaller crowd than the 30,000 hoped for, with Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist blog providing a list of possible reasons for the low attendance.
"It's hard to get people worked up about an atheist rally (that's what I'm calling it, anyway) when there's no immediate, obvious, major religious threat trying to get into the White House. Obviously, there are still issues impacted by religion, like abortion access and bathroom bills, but nothing stirs the base like a presidential race where everyone thinks their rights will be in jeopardy if the wrong person gets elected," he offered as one possibility.
Other prominent evangelicals, including Franklin Graham, warned that the atheists who gathered for the rally face an "eternity in hell" if they don't repent of their ways.
"One day each of these people is going to stand before the God that they disown, and they will face an eternity in Hell if they have not trusted Christ as their Savior," Graham wrote. "That's where this kind of 'reason' will get them. The Bible says, 'There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death,' (Proverbs 14:12)."
