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Ray Comfort Defends Bad Spelling


debrand

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I do not usually pick on anyone's spelling or grammar but I thought Comfort's defense of the mistakes in his book were funny. I also think that there is a difference between a blog writer and a published author. Comfort's editors should have caught some of the mistakes.

raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2011/12/richard-dawkins-mocks-authors-spelling.html

In the ongoing battle of words between professor Richard Dawkins and evangelist Ray Comfort, the Oxford University professor has produced a video mocking the spelling ability of the best-selling author of more than 70 books. The war of words is nothing new between the two. Dawkins once called Comfort an "idiot" on CNN, for which CNN quickly apologized.

In this video, he mocks Comfort for his spelling of the word "thought" as "thort": http://youtu.be/HWIrnZizF7Y. Comfort responded, "Whether the learned professor likes it or not, the English language is evolving and some of us old fossils need to evolve with it. Texting is changing the way we spell. I'm delighted that I was able to catch the wave of social media, a wave it seems Mr. Dawkins missed."

In reference to the texting generation Comfort said, "Horrific though it may be to a cultured English-speaking professor, words like 'thought,' with its superfluous 'ugh,' give way to the expediency of words like 'thort,' and for the millions who have to learn the complexities of the English language, it's about time."

Comfort added that this was just another example of Professor Dawkins mocking something he doesn't understand. "But in his attempt at mockery, he has not only made himself look old-fashioned, but he has promoted '180' throughout the atheist world. The 'pope' of atheism waved my movie from his balcony. You can't buy such publicity. I'm grateful that he's helping others around the world to watch the video and hear the gospel."

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LOL ITS NOT ME ITS::::::THE LANGUAG OF THE TIMES::::TRY AN CATCH UP, OL GEEZER!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!

i think that's what was going through his mind.

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How does "thort" = thought? There is no phonetic sounding R in the word thought? So confused.... I guess I'm just a geezer!

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i don't get it either, gigi...maybe he was going for "thot" and even misspelled that? if so, that is total epic fail.

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How does "thort" = thought? There is no phonetic sounding R in the word thought? So confused.... I guess I'm just a geezer!

Listening to Ray Comfort he sounds Aussie or thereabouts and he might actually pronounce it thort. haven't listened to enough of his prattle to see if he does or not don't intend to either!

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Really? I know it isn't perfect, but surely spell check would have caught "thort"? Unbelievable that these egregious errors weren't caught before printing. It just makes somebody look like an idiot.

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he really must not pay his editors enough and it pisses them off so they let things slide so he'll look like the idiot he is.

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speaking as a writer, the LAST thing you want to do is to not have your book edited before it's published. but then again, ray-ray hasn't exactly been known for his intelligence...

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Granted, I'm not one for text speech even while texting, but I'm pretty young and I've never seen or heard about anyone using "thort" for "thought" in less formal writing situations. I think I've read the entirety of failbook/lamebook and I've never seen it, unless it was an accident.

I love how Comfort always tries to play off his detractors by claiming that he's so glad they're spreading the word and making people see his inane works...even if it's just to mock him. I remember he thought it was great that so many people (over 1.3 million) had seen a video mocking his release of his special edition of The Origin of Species:

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I guess if you're Ray Comfort, any publicity is good publicity...or you at least have to pretend it is :roll:

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Why did CNN apologise for Dawkins calling him an idiot?

They didn't!

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I do not usually pick on anyone's spelling or grammar but I thought Comfort's defense of the mistakes in his book were funny. I also think that there is a difference between a blog writer and a published author. Comfort's editors should have caught some of the mistakes.

http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2011 ... lling.html

Hey Debrand, do you comment on the Swamp? What's your user name there?

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I never heard of "thort" being a text-speak thing.

Urban dictionary lists that use as second, after . . . well, look for yourself:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=thort

ETA -- perhaps the proper use would be "I thort I saw a thort" when Michelle Duggar walks by . . . :evil:

bwahahaha! that is most excellent :D

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How weird is it that he brings it up as being part of the evolution of language? I suppose he does this to mock Dawkins- but it makes him look even sillier. Hey ray, I absolutely agree- the English language has evolved and continues to evolve, starting from very simple forms of communication and becoming quite complex- branching out like some sort of family tree! and just like other forms of evolution has developed vestigal and redundant parts that sometimes fade away. Now only if there was some way to apply that to the origin of new species.... Wait, THAT would be silly :P

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Hey Debrand, do you comment on the Swamp? What's your user name there?

I haven't in awhile. My name, I think, was themaverickjester

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Hey ray, I absolutely agree- the English language has evolved and continues to evolve, starting from very simple forms of communication and becoming quite complex-

Actually, there's no evidence that there is such a thing as a "simple" language. Languages all seem to roughly equal in complexity (excepting pidgins, but they only last one generation, and then they become creoles with a full-fledged grammar).

We might disagree about which aspects of any language are "more" or "less" complex (like, is English grammar "simpler" than Finnish grammar because our language is isolating and theirs is inflected? Is our vocabulary "more complex" because we have a bajillion words from a variety of languages? Where does our odd method of forming questions come in? Are we supposed to count up irregular verbs and plurals or something? Is a language without plural marking MORE or LESS complex?), they all take about the same amount of time for children to learn.

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Yeah, I took some liberties there. I didn't mean to suggest that any one modern language is more or less complex than another- but rather to hint that language when it first came onto the scene was probably rather simple/rudimentary. The language tree as we understand it is more like a family tree than an evolutionary one, but should we be able to go back far enough (I'm talking thousands and thousands of generations) I believe it would resemble our evolutionary tree, much like our own family trees do if you go back far enough. Anyway, poorly worded analogy. I still think his reference to the evolution of language is weird.

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How does "thort" = thought? There is no phonetic sounding R in the word thought? So confused.... I guess I'm just a geezer!

If you're a British Geezer, then it totally is, innit? ;-)

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Really? I know it isn't perfect, but surely spell check would have caught "thort"? Unbelievable that these egregious errors weren't caught before printing. It just makes somebody look like an idiot.

I agree. And quit with the bullshit of, "Oh, we're an evolving language!"

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If there is one fundie "public figure" that really irritates me it's "Mr. Banana", Ray Comfort. Kirk Cameron (how did I ever have a crush on Mike Seaver when in grade 6, I'll never know!) and Comfort's clips on youtube are so sanctimonious it makes my skin crawl (and Kirk's wife Chelsea is one of the worst acresses, ever!).

I read an article on Cameron's conversion to christianity and how he became such an a-hole to his fellow actors on the set of "Growing Pains" during the last 2 or 3 yrs of the show; he got the actress who played his g-friend "Julie" (the blonde girl) fired because she posed for Playboy. She still hasn't forgiven him 20+ yrs after the fact (sorry for going a bit off topic, but I thought that was an interesting factoid.)

Giving fake $100 bills-tracts to strangers, accosting people on the street trying to pawn Creationism or anti-choice propaganda...Urgh!

College kids not knowing who Hitler was? Come on.

Is that guy an Aussie? I'd deport him, lol!

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