Here’s a fascinating exchange on Ray Comfort’s Facebook page, in which Ray threatens to ban Atheist Ireland activist Leonie Hilliard for calling him a bibliophile, and later apologizes to Leonie, after Leonie apologizes to him for casting the aspersion that he loves books.
Ray Comfort is upset at being called a bibliophile by Leonie Hilliard
Brings a whole new meaning to the word “Bible Pounder”
I love how he clearly doesn’t see the insult in Leonie’s second comment.
At first I couldn’t understand why Ray posted such basic ignorance. Then I realised that he’s the kind of person that doesn’t look things up or check just to make sure.
Even if ‘biblio’ meant ‘Bible’ instead of ‘book’, it’d still mean “Bible-lover”. Hardly an insult to a Christian. But then you’d need to know something about language.
I must say, and I’m no fan of Comfort’s by any means, but he did rather well in responding to the correction from the commenter.
Did anybody else notice how he (Ray Comfort) stated that “Jesus is God in human-form”? I do not believe it says that anywhere in the Bible. However, his status as the SON of God is reinforced many times throughout. Also he directly contradicted himself in his first reply.
I have no problem with religious people or people who have faith. I have no problem with people who are strong in their faith and are in love with their God. What I have a problem with is people “correcting” others on their beliefs when they are in fact, wrong, assuming that just because someone is atheist or of another faith, they know nothing about theirs.
Comfort says “Jesus is god is human form”… Terrible grammar, Ray Comfort knows nothing about language.
Gianfranco, it’s just a typo, get over it. Of all the things you could criticize about Ray Comfort, you picked on a typo and used that to claim that he knows nothing about language? Get real.
This guy is bananas.
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
If we are being entirely honest with the whole grammar thing, we would acknowledge that Leonie called *herself* a bibliophile, even though she probably did not mean to. (“As a bibiliophile, I”.)
It was a clear and honest apology he made. I give him that.
It was indeed a clear and honest apology by Ray Comfort, and I feel bad about myself for laughing at this all, but as a very firm bibliophile myself, I cannot help but laugh.
Side-note: people who blog almost exclusively about academic research into the Bible are often called bibliobloggers. If Ray Comfort knows that term (though I have no reason to think so), it might explain his initial confusion.
Even if ‘bibliophile’ meant what Comfort THOUGHT it meant, an ‘inappropriate relationship with a book/bible, well… he’s right… 😀
I think many internet commenters could learn a lot from this exchange. A simple misunderstanding cleared up by genuine apologies and a willingness to back down over something effectively trivial. And not understanding the meaning of a word is trivial in fairness. I would certainly Google a word I did not understand, but I’m not likely to Google a word I think I understand. Fair play to Ray and Leonie, up with this sort of thing!
Hahaha… Its funny though. It’s best tocheck if youre trying to accuse someone of inappropriate insults, esp before banning.
Oh great, it’s you again. First, you stink up the Slymepit. Then I see you had the audacity to invade again after being banned. Do you not realize you are the worst thing that happened to the Slymepit? You’re like a cancer or a disease, and now this site has a disease too. I hope Lsuoma never unbans you. He’s smart and probably realizes what a huge mistake that would be. He sniffed you out quickly and banned you on the spot. You hardly lasted a day. You’re just a pathetic nuisance Just keep away from all of this. No one fucking likes you. I’m so tired of seeing you. If you don’t like what I’m saying, maybe you should grow the fuck up and change the way you behave. Clean up your act. You’re a spoiled teenage brat.
And you threatened to say the forum had illegal conduct with a minor? Lsuoma was 110% right to ban you, you repulsive shitfaced slug. You’re this close to being as loathsome as a falsecryer of abuse. You’re a starved histrionic.
Why don’t you use your slymepit name so I know who you are, Grates? If you’re referring to that hag’s post, I never threatened the forum with anything. She knows this as I’ve corrected her more than once. She is taking advantage of the fact that I’ve left. The most you could say is that I was threatening decius with something that cant even get him imprisoned. It would cause more trouble for me than him. I was pissed off, tired of being riled up, and tired of shit from him. I didn’t mean anything serious by it. Let it go. It’s the past and I’m banned from there, probably for a long time at least. I don’t expect to be unbanned as soon as I turn 18, so don’t worry.
Of all the philes in all the world, Ray walks into this one.
At least she didn’t call him a necrophile or many of the other revolting philoform possibilities.
Imagine how he’d react if she called him an islamophile.
Bock, being one, the proper name for such freakery might be necrophiliac… Yup. Necrophile has let hits… And it sounds more insulting. I don’t want to be called a necrophile. Sounds like calling me a molester of the dead.
You need to edit your list of atheists. Mark Twain wasn’t an atheist, and many on the list are dead. Those who have passed are are no longer atheists. Best wishes.
Jesus Ray that’s a very extreme atheist line. Even I wouldn’t deny someone’s existence just because he died
What, did they turn to religion AFTER they died, Ray?
@Susan – as has already been pointed out, “bibliophile” means ‘lover of books’. It doesn’t do any damage to Leonie’s replies or argument, nor was it a mistake. ‘Biblio’ doesn’t translate into Bible, it comes from the Greek meaning ‘book’ (as in the German ‘Bibliothek’ translating to ‘library’). The only time ‘Biblio’ means Bible is when it is used in conjunction with the word ‘idolatry’ to form ‘Bibliolatry’.
@M.S.–I was referring to her grammar mistake.
@Susan – there is no grammatical error. “As a bibliophile, I’m sure the gospels of John 1:18 and John 6:46 are familiar to you.” If we were to rearrange that, it would read “I’m sure the gospels etc are familiar to you, seeing as you’re a lover of books”. Complete grammatical sense.
Funny how we get labels for being rational and empirical but then if we turn it around, we get complaints!
In Comfort’s defense, I went to his Facebook page to refute something and he, or his “people”, were very polite and patient. They did not block me like religious folks normally do. Of course, I was patient and respectful with my refutation- something atheists are terrible at, so it seems. Comfort has some incredibly irrational arguments about science but at least you can refute him and present evidence politely and patiently to get a positive conversation going.
It’s not fair that atheists use big words that Ray doesn’t know just to make him look like an idiot.
What fascinates me most is that most people here had never heard the word bibliophile before Ray Comfort made it famous.