| Every once in a while there is a movie or television star who does not bow down to the leftist idols, actually believes in something good, and stands up for what is right. And such a person is usually savaged and trashed by the rest of the Hollywood elitists and the media. A September 25, 2009, WorldNetDaily report said that a campaign by author Ray Comfort and actor Kirk Cameron to give away 100,000 copies of a special edition of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species on 100 university campuses in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the seminal book's publication in November already is drawing a caustic reaction from media. The special release of the book challenges the theory of evolution with a 50-page introduction that includes an overview of Darwin's life and presents a case for a universe created by God through arguments such as the structure of DNA and the absence of species-to-species transitional forms. Reacting to a video presentation of the campaign by Cameron, a television writer and contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine, David Wild, wrote in the Huffington Post that Cameron "seems like a really nice guy....Unfortunately, the Artist Formerly Known as Mike Seaver seems like a really nice guy who's evolved into a willfully ignorant idiot," Wild wrote, alluding to Cameron's role as a teen star in the 1980s TV sitcom Growing Pains. The introduction to the special Origin of Species release, which can be read on Living Waters website, also shows how great scientists of the past such as Nikolas Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and Albert Einstein, believed in God's existence. Meanwhile, a TMZ video parody features "the matchup of the century, Kirk Cameron versus Charles Darwin, who is dead....Yes, the former Growing Pains-star-turned-religious-fanatic is launching an all-out attack on Darwin's theory of evolution." The TMZ spoof says, "Kirk has decided to unbrainwash people by teaming up with fellow Bible-thumper Sonny Bono, er Ray Comfort, who literally rewrote Darwin's Origin of Species." Cameron is co-host with Comfort of The Way of the Master television show, produced by Comfort's Bellflower, Calif.-based Living Waters ministry. In his video presentation of the Darwin campaign, Cameron says, "An entire generation is being brainwashed by atheistic evolution without even hearing the alternative; and it's radically changing the culture of our nation." Cameron encourages providing students with an alternative view of life's origin and letting them decide for themselves what to believe. The Huffington Post published a brief item on the Darwin campaign, coupling Cameron's video with a snarky "response" from a Slavic-accented YouTube user. The YouTube video, with more than 444,000 views, is accompanied by a robust string of more than 8,800 comments, including, "Sorry, science teaches that people evolved. That means NO Adam and Eve. That means NO first sin, or fall from grace. That means NO need for Jesus to have died on a cross to save us." Comfort previously told WND "atheists are going crazy" on Internet forums in response to the Origin of Species plan, saying, "How can we stop this? We're going to have a book burning." To critics of the campaign, Comfort points out his edition features the entire publication, with nothing removed, and his name will be on the cover. "I think that the liberal media need to stand back for a moment, take deep breath and think about what they are saying," Comfort told WND in an e-mail. He argued there have been more than 140 reprints of Origin of Species, most have had introductions or forewords, and some were critical of the theory of evolution. Comfort contends he hasn't attacked Darwin, "but simply looked objectively at his belief and asked if it's scientific, and then left it up to the reader to make up his own mind...."What's wrong with that?" he asked. "Charles Darwin, in his own Introduction in 1859, said, 'A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.'" Comfort notes a survey showed 61 percent of U.S. professors in biology or psychology said they were atheists or agnostics. "Atheism has doubled in the last 20 years among 19 to 25 year olds. So young people are being brainwashed by this stuff," he said. "All we want to do is give an alternative." |