Ray Comfort's "Origin" released early

[Ted C]

Apparently Ray Comfort decided to dodge the problem of people who do real science following his distributors around with genuine facts by arranging to distribute the books a day ahead of schedule (11/18/2009), so if you want to get a free copy of The Origin of Species with a comedy forward by Ray Comfort, head to you local university to see if they've got any.

[xerex]

from what I heard his 'full version' of Origin is missing the 4 most important Chapters .

[Tanasinn]

They were distributing them on the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus today. Apparently people weren't biting, not looking at the book and assuming it was a Bible or similar bound roll of toilet paper.

[DPDarkPrimus]

If anyone can snag me a copy I'll gladly pay post to get it into my hands.

[Tanasinn]

If anyone can snag me a copy I'll gladly pay post to get it into my hands.

These sorts usually troll campus for a few days. I'll see if I can grab a copy and avoid a sermon from a cretinist, provided no one else has one.

[wautd]

How is releasing this slanderous trash even considered legal?

[Sarevok]

How is releasing this slanderous trash even considered legal?

Why would not it be legal ? Darwin has been dead for over a hundred years. Even the most die hard Intellectual Property wankers have not yet considered passing a law that covers his works.

[TheKwas]

I got one today at my university and currently have it next to my computer. It's very snazzy looking and it seems that quite a few were handed out as just about every 5th or 6th person I saw was carrying one. However, everyone I've talked to said they picked one up because it's a free "Origin of Species" book with Darwin's face on the front. No one who picked it up has even heard of 'Ray Comfort'. Not sure if that's a good sign or a bad sign, considering how glullible people often are and how easy the intro is to read relative to the bulk of 'Origins'. Either way, free book for me.


For those wondering, Ray's introduction is roughly 50 pages long and covers just about every batshit insane talking point there is to be made. Also, the font for the introduction is roughly 4-5 times bigger than the font that the 'Origin of Species' is written in, making the introduction much more readable than the actual book (the font is really small for the main book, don't pick this up if you have eye problems). I'm not sure if that serves a propaganda purpose, an economic purpose, or both.

from what I heard his 'full version' of Origin is missing the 4 most important Chapters .

Is this true? I actually wanted to read the Origins part and will be quite disappointed if the book has been sliced apart.

DP: I only picked up one which I was intending to keep, but if they're still on campus tomorrow I can pick you up one or more. Or

[Ted C]

from what I heard his 'full version' of Origin is missing the 4 most important Chapters .

Is this true? I actually wanted to read the Origins part and will be quite disappointed if the book has been sliced apart.

DP: I only picked up one which I was intending to keep, but if they're still on campus tomorrow I can pick you up one or more.

An earlier copy that he posted to his website as a PDF was missing four chapters, but he claims that the printed version is complete. You tell us.

[TheKwas]

An earlier copy that he posted to his website as a PDF was missing four chapters, but he claims that the printed version is complete. You tell us.

haha, I suppose I am the one with the answer here. Just scanning through it, it looks complete. The table of contents has 14 chapters and the first 9 are all included in proper order (got bored scanning afterwards). I'm assuming that he didn't tamper with the chapter numbers.

[Serafina]

Funny thing is: Ray Comfort intended these books not for biology students, but for lawyers, journalists and politicans.
But why would someone who does not study need "The Origin of Species"?

Looks like the books are mostly grabbed by "evolutionists" - either biology students, or people wo know about the "intelligent design-debate".
Both groups are of course smart enough to laught at that bullshit he wrote as an "introduction".

[Anguirus]

Yeah, these things are very popular among my grad school cohort. I didn't get one, for two reasons: one, I was doing real work when the hubbub went on, and they had cleared out by the time I got there. Two, I read part of the intro and it made my eyes bleed, it's like one of the screeds Wong doesn't even bother tearing apart himself anymore, only dressed up in prettier language.

Bonus points for giving my advisor an eye twitch when he learned that the intro claims there are only 1000 species of amphibians.

[TheKwas]

How are they affording this anyways? It looks like a decently made book and the mere fact that a creationist campaign like this has extended up into Canada means that it must be pretty widespread. If they're giving away as many books as they are at my university across North America, I can imagine that the cost of this is running into the millions. The mere task of getting the logistics down (I'm assuming many involved are volunteers?) is pretty impressive.

[Exonerate]

I actually picked up a copy of this today. Some guy was handing them out on campus and I was going to pass it up until I heard it was The Origin of Species (I apologized with "Sorry, I thought you were handing out Bibles"). I am happy to report that the guy handing them out was closely followed by somebody passing out a flier with a refutation of the introduction. In any case, I now have a free new book.

[jcow79]

Any chance of a movement to hand out Bibles with a new forward debunking the aburdities in THAT book?

[Duckie]

How are they affording this anyways? It looks like a decently made book and the mere fact that a creationist campaign like this has extended up into Canada means that it must be pretty widespread. If they're giving away as many books as they are at my university across North America, I can imagine that the cost of this is running into the millions. The mere task of getting the logistics down (I'm assuming many involved are volunteers?) is pretty impressive.

He makes quite a lot selling videos about how darwin is evil and evolution is incorrect and millions of biblical tracts a year.

[Serafina]

And remember, he is "spreading the gospel", so he propably got a lot of money from fundies, too.

Too bad for them that he is spreading the wrong gospel - at least if i am right and mostly biology students get these books.

[Instant Sunrise]

So to those who have a copy of the book, what does the intro say about Darwin's UNDENIABLE CONNECTION TO HITLER?

[TheKwas]

Basically exactly what you would suspect. He quotes some hitler like "The strong must dominate and not mate with the weaker" and thus blames evolution for the views of Hitler.