Stile writes:
If people say that God exists, and that God's followers' prayers will be answered... they are making a prediction.
If we test that prediction by monitoring the answering of prayers for God's followers and the answering of prayers for God's non-followers and the regular life of non-praying people, we can see if there is any correlation.
Uncircumventable problems abound:
- there is no reason to suppose that because someone self-identifies as a believer they actually are a believer (as defined by God). Not for nothing "Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name!"
It's a no-true-Christian dilemma of course. But your dilemma all the same.
- if the mechanism of a person coming to know that God exists is individualistically personal and God intends for it to remain that way, there is every reason to suppose he'll remain 'hidden' for the duration and from the instruments of your observation. If it is the case that "..and without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh unto God must believe that he is" then evidence which would circumvent the need for faith is precluded.
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I was given a dvd recently on which lots of people claim that God had given them golden teeth to replace ones they had lost. They even open their mouths up to the camera to prove it. Personally, I'd love to see an xray of divine dentistry to see what sets it apart from it's commoner garden relative