You being such an unbeliever, I wonder why you waste time arguing with Christians any way. You have certainly demonstrated that you are not open minded and you accuse us of being non-critical thinkers? What is your motive then – just to stir up trouble?

Finally, you accuse me of being dishonest (which is dishonest in and of itself) and of hiding. Who’s hiding? I’m right here. You hide behind a fake email address and provide no link to a site in which people can find you.

If there is any other christian out there that is actually willing to debate on equal terms, give me a link.

So it is the miracles you have a problem believing? If you were to see a miracle today, would you still disbelieve the miracles documented in the Bible? I imagine the answer would be yes. Even if I told you I have seen real live miracles, you would probably not believe me either but would want some kind of proof.

Pascal’s Wager, huh? I have never heard of it until now. In my belief system, it is not really a wager nor is it the reason I have faith in God. Sure in the beginning of my encounter with God, not wanting to go to Hell may have been part of the motivation to drawing me to Him. But it is certainly not what has kept me some twenty years.

Rather it is the knowledge of Him. It is His love for me and my love for Him. That is why I follow Him. And more than the fear of going to Hell, I have a much greater fear of missing Heaven, not just Heaven as a place, but being with Him for all eternity. I could not even imagine the thought of spending an eternity separated from God.

Finally I would not want you to think I am ignoring your last question where you say, “you seem to have missed to explain why you use the bible to prove that the bible is true… to unbelievers, no less.”

Please recall where I wrote the following:

I could take the archaeological approach, digging up all the archaeological finds that have occurred throughout history to support the historical events and places of the Bible. I could also mention the Dead Sea Scrolls, which consist of roughly 1,000 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. Furthermore, I could point out all the prophetic events that have been fulfilled, especially pointing out the number of prophecies that Jesus Christ Himself fulfilled, some events that were written about thousands of years prior to them taking place.

So you can see that I did not “use the Bible to prove the Bible” alone as I alluded to other aspects (i.e., archeology, manuscript evidence, prophecy). I simply didn’t go into great detail with those items but rather chose to focus on the “revelation of God.”

I mean, 90% of all books today could be supported by archeological evidence (or just looking out the window) that doesn’t make them history books: they are still fiction.

And why, oh why, are you trying to connect “faith” with archeology? If we are in fact talking about the science (aren’t we?) then very little faith is needed (which is why it is a science).

Religious people of Jesus’ time had lots of miracles thrown in their face, apparently on a daily basis. Not so hard to believe if you are an iron age shepherder that just saw someone walk on water, is it?

You: “God has revealed Himself to me. An unbeliever can never understand this, try as they might. However, other Christians do understand this.” – But I bet a hindu could understand it, or someone believing in Thor. Do you think they would believe you? I assume you will ignore this question (again).

Ask yourself the following: if a man walked up to you and said he had seen a magical flying dwarf with a booming voice, would you A) assume that he was telling the truth, B) think he was somehow deluded, or C) think of him as a liar?

You: “On the other hand, if you are wrong and I am right, at the end of your life, you are going to stand before a holy and just God and have to answer Him when he questions you why you did not accept the gift of His Son (Jesus) as the only way to know Him and to enter His heaven. This will be followed by you going off into an eternity of suffering like those living today cannot even imagine.”

Holy cow on a pogo-stick, are you actually using Pascal’s Wager? He was alive around 300 years ago, and this is still an argument christians use? You can wikipedia “pascal’s wager” if you want a whole list of debunkings of this faulty argument, but I can sum it up for you:

a) You assume your god is the correct one. If there were other gods (which the ten commandments seem to suggest) they could have easily appeared before you too.

b) The argument assumes that one can just choose a belief (can you choose not to believe, this instant?).

c) Would your god reward someone that believed in him just because it was a safe bet?

That argument was debunked at least 200 years ago, do try to keep up.

So basically, if we disregard b) and c), you still have 1/20000th of a chance less than me to end up in some religion’s hell. Safe bet? Hardly so.

Oh, and you seem to have missed to explain why you use the bible to prove that the bible is true… to unbelievers, no less.

The religious leaders of Jesus time were constantly asking Him for a sign and yet He gave them no sign but proclaimed that faith was the key.

So even though there is plenty of scientific and archaeological evidence to support the Bible (even though you refuse to look at it or believe), my belief is based on faith. Because I have such faith, God has revealed Himself to me. An unbeliever can never understand this, try as they might. However, other Christians do understand this.

Finally I would pose this question to you, Korinthian and that is in the end if you are right and there is no God and the Bible is simply a book of fairy tales, then I have still lived a wonderful life. I am happy, fulfilled and have a purposeful life. If there be no God, at the end of it I go into the ground and cease to exist.

On the other hand, if you are wrong and I am right, at the end of your life, you are going to stand before a holy and just God and have to answer Him when he questions you why you did not accept the gift of His Son (Jesus) as the only way to know Him and to enter His heaven. This will be followed by you going off into an eternity of suffering like those living today cannot even imagine.

Seems to be a heavy price to pay while you shake your fist and demand a sign that God exists.

Archeological evidence: No jewish slaves were ever in Egypt, nor did they wander around the desert for 40 years afterwards.

Evolutionary studies contradicts the whole Adam and Eve story (and various sciences pretty much dispose of all of Genesis.)

Anecdotal evidence: pardon me for saying it, but people from every religion has “personal experiences” that proves everything from elephant gods to the latter day saints’ “fact” that Jesus went to the americas after he was ressurrected.

Using “Satan did it” as a way to convince a non-believer of anything is pointless and a very weird tactics indeed.

“You have to believe to understand the bible so you can believe” sounds circular at best. If the evidence of the bible only appears after you have already accepted their validity, evidence is pointless and a non-factor. Taking something on faith requires precisely 0 evidence.

“However, when you argue on the merits that God has revealed His Word to you, they have nothing solid to oppose that.” – We have something very solid: the fact that the burden of proof is on you, and as I said earlier, anecdotal evidence are pretty much worthless, especially when dealing with the supernatural. If you claim something, you prove it.