Mike Seaver Will Make You a Believer

The other day, I saw somewhere, out of the corner of my eye, that Kirk Cameron -- the one-time teen heart-throb who starred in Growing Pains -- was going to prove the existence of God.

This seemed exceedingly unlikely. Partly because proving the existence of God is very difficult, even with the aid of the world's finest bourbons, and partly because this is Kirk Cameron:


If he looks like a prophet to you, you've got some seriously funny religion.

Turns out this whole thing was just some lame stunt on ABC News, and Cameron was joined on his side of the debate by a fellow believer, evangelical minister Ray Comfort. The proceedings were summarized well by Troy Patterson over at Slate, including this bit:

In Cameron's introductory remarks at the debate -- which can be seen at something like its full and numbing length at abcnews.go.com -- he coolly claimed that "the existence of God can be proven 100 percent, absolutely without the use of faith." First, I grew excited at this promise, then began to wonder why no theologian, philosopher, or sitcom star in recorded history had done it before -- Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, Tina Yothers, whoever -- and realized I was in for a letdown. Comfort's cadences were not even those of a preacher but of an infomercial host, and the God Squad had but three arguments on behalf of the big guy: All things have makers; the human conscience is evidence of a higher moral power; if you read the Gospel, then Christ will be revealed to you. For reasons too stupid to type, this was not an airtight case, and the atheists made quick work of it in tones of juvenile sarcasm.