Yes, this is an apologetics forum, which means that means it's a two way street when it comes to opposing viewpoints. Christianity and faith are certainly not off the table anymore than atheistic dogma.
There is no such thing as atheistic dogma.
It is not only a forum where God's existence is disputed but also a forum whereby God is confirmed in the life of believers who have experienced Him and known His love.
You seem to be quite dismissive of subjective claims. Why, then, should I care about your subjective claims?
1.
Ah yes, recent in America if you count 1635 as recent
2.
Yes communications and knowledge has increased greatly as prophesied.
- Dan 12:4 "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."
St. Peter also alluded to this period of human history
- 2Pe 3:3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following after their own lusts saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
But although we are taught to expect great increases the statement is one of magnitude only and not something we haven't seen before; for a Solomon stated:
- Ecc 1:9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
If you read the context of Daniel 12:4, it's talking about Judgment Day. So that has nothing to do with the information age. You took it out of context in order to bolster your point. I need not bother looking up your other references until this is resolved.
And Jesus taught us that the age of Divine Mercy would not finalize until the Gospel has been brought to every ethnic tongue. 1988 years ago that was 12 disciples and a few others that had heard and received it in one tiny nation and ethnic origin. Today it is billions in every nation on earth and in over 4000 languages and ethnic origins. His Great Commission still requires that we go to thos who have not heard but we re nearing the end of that journey. By 2025 we will have put the Word of God into every single human dialect and that commandment will have been carried out. It will happen just as Jesus prophesied it would!
And we also have the failed prophecy in Matthew 16:28, which says:
28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
- Mat 24:12-14 "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold but they who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. - Jesus Christ AD 30.
- Mat 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, (ethne') baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
It is illogical to assume most atheists are objective or that even many people are objective. I think I've yet to meet a person who was 100% objective. The synonyms for objectivity are impartiality, absence of bias, absence of prejudice, fairness, fair-mindedness, neutrality, evenhandedness, justice, open-mindedness, disinterest, detachment, dispassion, neutrality. Though you seem to flatter yourself and the adherents of your worldview I highly doubt those are truly characteristics that describe you or other atheists in general.
I'm fully objective on the topic at hand. I never said I was objective in my personal life about everything.
It also takes faith to be an atheist and maybe even more faith than it does to follow Christ.
False, since atheism entails no beliefs. But I appreciate your tacit admission that faith is a bad means for finding the truth.
Well it certainly took you long enough to get around to it but congratulations I guess in digging up an opposing view Yes, I quoted a recent study from Harvard and you quoted something from a dozen years ago. I guess most of the medical community didn't get the email that claims to be a slam dunk ha ha.
I don't recall you posting any link. Copy/pasting "2015 symposium on faith and healing Neal Krause of the University of Michigan School of Public Health" into Google yielded no study that I saw. If I missed anything at all, do let me know. Otherwise I'm the one with facts and references while you're the one with hearsay.
I did skim this, but I didn't see anything specific to Christianity. So effectively you're saying that belief in some kind of supernatural reality is associated with good health, even if the beliefs are utterly false. That says absolutely nothing about whether or not Christianity is true. It would indicate to me that if prayer does indeed work, it makes no difference whether you pray to Jesus Christ or a half full milk jug.
There are still many active research grants out studying the phenomena and sponsored by major medical universities across America and the world. There appears a wealth of research that would confirm the positive aspects but like any scientific white papers and journals there is no doubt going to be conflict and differences of opinions. We're still debating many things in medicine, subatomic particles, astronomical phenomena, etc, Why then should faith and healing from a secular study be any different? I would expect some opposing views but was merely making the point you had yet to provide any. We thank you your google search finally found one sir.
So... you take the conversation off topic into something that does not interest me, then declare victory when I won't provide a source despite the fact that you provided nothing that could be researched, and you follow it all up with a snarky remark that I finally joined in on the off-topic issue in which I was disinterested.
While I am good at math, I don't do statistics and so I am not qualified to analyze the data that you are yet to provide. I also stay away from evolution because I prefer to know what I'm talking about.
Your topic of prayer and healing is thread worthy in its own. While I am not so formal that I absolutely refuse to veer off topic, and while I do enjoy to explore rabbit holes when there is mutual interest, I do insist, for the reasons provided above, that you uproot your victory flag here and instead try to formulate an intelligible definition of sin.
I'm not sure I understand how you draw the conclusion that my Christianity is vacuous. Maybe if you try to explain that a little better I might be able to respond to the fair-minded, neutral, evenhandedness, justice, disinterested detachment, and dispassionate accusation.
When you talk to God, do you ever hear anything back?