One more thing before I get into answering the above questions. The entire premise of the video is false. The premise is that one cannot accept evolution and believe in God. This is Ray's premise, as well as everyone he interviews. This is a false dichotomy that many Neo-Darwinist and Young Earth Creationists are trying to paint. The fact of the matter is that science should not be used to make theistic claims. Furthermore, there are Christian scientists that have a very high view of the Bible and accept evolution. Some of them are Francis Collins, Dennis Venema, and most of those who write for Biologos. There are also conservative, Christian theologians who hold to the validity of evolutionary theory such as Tim Keller, J.I Packer, and Alister McGrath. This alone should cause us to question the validity of what Ray is trying to do.
...now, on to the questions...
1. Has Ray, once and for all, debunked evolution? Hardly. In fact, the film is down right pitiable. For one who makes such audacious claims, he fails miserably, Here is his claim at the beginning of the movie trailer:
Imagine visiting some of the world's most prestigious universities, interviewing top evolutionary scientist, atheists, and holding their feet to the fire until it's clear that there is no evidence for Darwinian evolution, that it's not scientific.
2. Does Ray understand evolution and what he is arguing against? No, not at all. In the film, Ray ask some of the professors whether or not they can give observable evidence of "one kind of animal turning into another kind of animal." The professors do. They give examples of one kind of fish evolving into another. Some of the students do as well- they mention Darwin's finches. Ray then rebuts saying something to the effect of "No, it's not. A fish is still a fish. A bird is still a bird." But this wasn't Ray's question.
The question was one "kind" turning into another "kind." When most scientifically-minded people here this, they think "one species turning into another." This is because in the scientific community, "kind" is a synonym for "species." Thus, the bewildered look on the face of the professors is not because they can't prove evolution, but because they think Ray is stupid, because he doesn't even know what he is asking.
Ray has, multiple times, stated that,
Many times over the years I've been accused by atheists of not understanding evolution. I've read every page of the world's most boring book, "The Origin of Species."
3. Does he present an accurate portrayal of the scientific community? Nope, he misses it here too. The interviews present an incomplete perspective of the views of the scientists. The movie gives a very distorted view of both evolution and those who hold to it. This is due to the fact that the bumbling answers of college students are mixed in with the more articulate answers of the professors. The film would lead us to conclude that those who believe in evolution: 1) cannot articulate intelligently their view, 2) have zero evidence for their view, 3) accept evolution so that they can excuse their sin and be immoral, 4) are intentionally trying to deceive people to believe evolution so they can get rid of God, 5) don't do real science, but simply make things up.
In fact, P.Z. Meyers, one of the professors interviewed, came out with this statement to clarify his portrayal in the film,
Ray Comfort is pushing his new creationist movie with a lie. He's setting it up that Richard Dawkins talks about the evidence for evolution, but that he went to real scientists and asked them, and Ray is going to spring a surprise on him - Comfort implies that the scientists disagreed.
I was one of those scientists. NO, I did not disagree with Dawkins about evolution or the evidence of evolution; NO, nothing I said provided any support to creationist claims; NO, there is not a lack of evidence for evolution.
This entire film is far from an accurate portrayal of those who accept the theory of evolution. What about number 3? What does that say about the Bible believing theologians and scientists that I have mentioned already? Grant it, many intelligent Christians disagree over evolution, but at least most of those on the forefront of the debate are arguing over a scientific theory, and not the morality of their brothers and sisters in Christ for holding a view of biology that is different than theirs.
4. Does he make straw man arguments? Finally, a question I can answer in the positive! Yes, he does! Ray does not dive headlong into challenging the fossil record. He just dismisses it. He does not deal with genetics at all. Rather, as mentioned above, wrongly interprets the scientific method and asked for his own skewed version of "observable" evidence. Furthermore, he makes the argument that if one believes in evolution, it makes you immoral. This is a straw man argument and not true. We've addressed this already, so I will move on.
5. Does this film make Christians look stupid and isolate us even more from reaching the scientific community? Yes. This movie sets out to try and make scientist look stupid. Underhanded methods, lack of intelligence, and trying to force people to choose either evolution or God. This film ultimately hurts our witness with the scientific community, creates further separation between the two, and furthers the mentality that science and faith cannot be reconciled. The antics of Ray in this video remind me of some of the earlier stunts he has pulled that have caused him to be discredited by thinking people. Just see below.
Finally, one of the biggest problems with this film lies in its definition of faith. Ray wants to show us that just as Christians have faith in God, so scientists have faith in evolution - no observable evidence to support their claim. Wow. This is a far cry from biblical faith. Faith, for the Christian, is reasonable evidence; reasonable trust in a reliable authority that has demonstrated Himself to be worthy of full trust. We can come to know that God is reliable through His two revelations- the Bible and creation.
I find this video very objectionable because of its misrepresentation and treatment of facts and people. Please, do not promote this video. There are other Christian/Scientific organizations you can support such as Reasons to Believe and Biologos. While I appreciate Ray's contribution to evangelism, his work in science needs vast improvement. I fully understand that Christians are going to disagree over this issue. However, in our discussions, we should try to be honest about all the evidence, and treat others as we ourselves would want to be treated.
Here are some other reviews on the movie that I have read and drawn from:
Reasons to Believe:
http://www.reasons.org/articles/a-review-of-evolution-vs-god
Biologos: http://biologos.org/blog/a-review-of-evolution-vs.-god-from-reasons-to-believe
Micheal Zimmerman: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-zimmerman/evolution-vs-god-not-a-ch_b_3530509.html
Other blog reviews:
http://www.godofevolution.com/evolution-vs-god-denigrates-science-using-technology-that-science-makes-possible/
http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/evolution_vs_god.html
http://goingtodamasc.us/evolution-vs-god-a-review/