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Kirk Cameron, Ray Comfort to debate atheists on ABC

Allie Martin OneNewsNow.comMay 7, 2007

A debate between two atheists and actor Kirk Cameron and evangelist Ray Comfort will be shown this week on ABC television and on the Internet. The team of Cameron and Comfort, who already co-host the weekly TV and radio program The Way of the Master, say they can prove God's existence, scientifically, without mentioning faith or the Bible.

On Saturday, Cameron and Comfort took part in the 90-minute debate before a small live audience in New York City. The debate came after the network ran a story earlier this year about hundreds of atheists videotaping themselves blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Subsequently, Comfort -- who, along with Cameron, operate the evangelical educational ministry Living Waters -- contacted ABC and offered to debate an atheist about the existence of God as part of a television special.

"I [told] them, I can prove God's existence without even mentioning faith," Comfort shares. "I've seen atheists backslide when I've done it; they took me up on it and have given me 13 minutes to prove God's existence. So I'm very excited -- I am ecstatic." Comfort calls ABC's decision a "courageous step" that, as far as he knows, has never been done before.

Comfort sees the debate as an opportunity to reach many people with the Gospel. "Everybody knows that God exists -- even the atheists," the evangelist claims. "What we want to do is convince people of God's love for them, demonstrated through the cross.

"So we'll be presenting a very clear gospel message in the hope that people will find a place of repentance and come into a knowledge of salvation -- that's the hope."

According to a press release from Living Waters, the entire debate will be broadcast on ABC.com on Wednesday (May 9) at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern time); portions of the event are scheduled be shown that evening on the ABC news program Nightline. Comfort is excited about the fact that ABC has agreed to broadcast the debate over its website.

"ABC has 19 million people visit their website very month -- 19 million!" he exclaims. "So this is wonderful -- and we want Christians to please pray for us and to visit ABC's website and watch Nightline because if their ratings are up, then they'll be more interested in programs from Kirk and me, and we'd like to pitch Christian programs to them for secular television."

Comfort says with 177 million professing Christians in America, there is definitely an audience for such programs. And he is hopeful the debate draws a large enough viewing audience to convince ABC of that fact.

"Having strong biblical programming," Comfort added, "would enable us to share the truth about God and reach millions more with the gospel."

First Add: includes additional comment from Ray Comfort. (5/7/2007)

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