It is more reasonable to believe in the Christian God than not to

Thank you for accepting, Skepticalone. As I have mentioned in a previous debate similar to this one, in the 19th century the beginning of scientific inquiry resulted in the questioning of established systems, including religion. Scholars tried to apply methods of psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. with hope of discovering a clue concerning how or why religion began. This resulted in a burst of theories, some of which may seem plausible to some of you in the audience and to Skepticalone. Nevertheless, none of these ideas really stands out more than the other in credibility, and why is that? Because, these theories lack proof and were merely the result of an investigator's imagination, soon to be replaced by the next one that came along. Similarly, astronomers before the 16th century came up with many interesting ideas about the movement of the planets, but no real progress was made until scientists, and the Catholic church, accepted the fact that the Earth is not the center of the universe. Reexamining the premise led to success. These investigators not only wanted to explain religion, they wanted to explain it away. They argued that man has invented God. But what if we reexamine this premise? Among the legends many religions in ancient times had in common is the flood. The Bible says that rebel angels materialized and “went taking wives for themselves.” This unnatural interbreeding resulted in the violent Nephilim. Their unnacceptable conduct affected the world to the point that Jehovah said:“‘I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground [...] because I do regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.” The Bible continues with the specific steps Noah had to take to save himself, his family, and a variety of animal kinds, from the Flood. With this in mind, let's consider the Assyro-Babylonian mythology and its references to a flood. The well-known Akkadian myth called the Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of the exploits of Gilgamesh, described as being two-thirds god and one-third man. A version of the epic says, “In Uruk he built walls, a great rampart, and the temple of blessed Eanna for the god of the firmament Anu, and for Ishtar the goddess of love [...], our lady of love and war.” Gilgamesh was not a very pleasant creature to have around. The inhabitants of Uruk complained to the gods, “His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble.” In response to the complaints, the goddess Aruru created Enkidu to be the human rival of Gilgamesh. But instead, they became friends. Eventually, Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh is shattered, and fears death. Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim, who tells him instructions given to him concerning the flood: “Tear down (this) house, build a ship! Give up possessions, seek thou life. [...] Aboard the ship take thou the seed of all living things.” This is very similar to the Bible's reference to the Nephilim, Noah, and the flood, isn't it? And an even earlier account of the flood is the Sumerian myth that presents, "Ziusudra, the counterpart of the biblical Noah, who is described as a pious, a god-fearing king, constantly on the lookout for divine revelations in dreams or incantations.” (Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament). That same source says that this myth, "offers the closest and most striking parallel to biblical material as yet uncovered in Sumerian literature." Notice that those who believed in these legends and myths lived far away from each other geographically. Their traditions and culture were different. And yet, when it comes to religion, they believed in very similar ideas. This is evidence that, like the languages of the world, all religions have a common source, a truth revealed by God and altered by religion. This is not surprising. After all, religion is connected to thinking, and thinking is connected to man’s ability to use language. This truth has been preserved in the book that God reveals his power in through fulfilled prophecies and science discovered at a later date, the Bible. Dear people of the audience, I will now show how God reveals his power in the Bible. And the only valid way to do this is to actually show you, from the Bible, how examples of God's power. So please, let's not make comments like, "The Bible is not a reliable source". Thank you. The Bible is a book of accurate history. Let’s first consider 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verses 26 and 27. It says, “Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel, and the length of his reign over Israel was 40 years. In Hebron he reigned for 7 years, and in Jerusalem he reigned for 33 years.” At one time, claimed that King David never existed. There was little proof outside the Bible that he was real. Then, in 1993, a group of archaeologists revealed a very ancient stone with a word on it that is translated “House of David.” Another person from the Bible whose existence was questioned by some scholars was Pontius Pilate, a governor who ruled in Jesus’ day. He is mentioned at Luke chapter 3, verse 1. Then, approximately 50 years ago, a stone was found in the Middle East with his name plainly imprinted on it. The Bible also predicted important historical events centuries before they happened. Here is one example: Daniel 8:7-8: 7And I saw it coming into close touch with the ram, and it began showing bitterness toward it, and it proceeded to strike down the ram and to break its two horns, and there proved to be no power in the ram to stand before it. So it threw it to the earth and trampled it down, and the ram proved to have no deliverer out of its hand. 8 And the male of the goats, for its part, put on great airs to an extreme; but as soon as it became mighty, the great horn was broken, and there proceeded to come up conspicuously four instead of it, toward the four winds of the heavens. Daniel 8:20-22: 20The ram that you saw possessing the two horns [stands for] the kings of Me′di·a and Persia. 21 And the hairy he-goat [stands for] the king of Greece; and as for the great horn that was between its eyes, it [stands for] the first king. 22 And that one having been broken, so that there were four that finally stood up instead of it, there are four kingdoms from [his] nation that will stand up, but not with his power. These verses predicted the fall of Persia by Alexander Magnus, and that four of his generals would take his place after his death over 200 years before these things happened! With its historical accuracy and demonstration of God’s power through fulfilled prophecies, is there really valid reasons to reject the Bible? Not at all. In fact, let’s take a look at other things that make the Bible extraordinary. The Bible is internally consistent. The first book of the Bible tells us how mankind’s problems began. The last book shows that the whole earth will become a paradise, or garden. All the harmonious material in the Bible covers thousands of years of history and has to do, in some way, with the unfolding of God’s purpose. This is extraordinary, when you consider the Bible was written in three different continents, three different languages, with over 40 writers, in a period of 1,610 years. The Bible has been most attacked book in history, and now is most distributed. In 168 B.C.E., Syrian King Antiochus IV tried to seek out the inspired books of the Law to burn them. Roman Emperor Diocletian’s decree to demolish the meeting places of the Christians and to burn their Scriptures was issued in 303 C.E. The destruction continued for a decade. After the 11th century, popes led the efforts to suppress the spread of Bible knowledge, opposing the translation of the Scriptures into languages of the common people. It is extraordinary that despite these attacks from Satan, we still have the Bible today. It’s even more extraordinary that it is the most distributed book in the world available to people all around the globe in over 500 languages! The Bible is in harmony with all of our established knowledge and confirms most of it. The problem with the scientific method is that it is limited by imperfect human observations. For instance, science knows land animals came after marine animals, so it says evolution. The Bible also says land animals came after marine animals, because he created them after marine animals, no evolution required. Science also sees the universe expanding, so it says Big Bang. The Bible also mentions the expansion of the universe many times, but it says “God stretches the heavens”. Who knows, maybe he did use an explosion. What we do know is that the Bible confirms this and many other scientific facts such as the water cycle (Ecclesiastes 1:6-7; 11:3; Job 26:8; Amos 9:6.), which were not fully understood until well over 1,000 years later. When we follow the Bible, our actions are successful. Some Bible principles cope with work habits, family life, and relationships with others. The Bible’s principles apply to all individuals, and its counsel is always beneficial. The wisdom found within the Bible is summarized by God’s words through the prophet Isaiah: “I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you to benefit yourself.” (Isaiah 48:17). More evidenceJesus had the opportunity to be king, but he preferred to suffer and die for a lie? I doubt it. Then there is the hundreds of witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus, many of whom were still alive when Paul (a witness himself) announced this and others became Christians after witnessing that event. And before his death, Jesus did many miracles, and this is a fact that even non-Christian sources do not deny (although they say Jesus got the power from demons). Conclusion With all these reasonable reasons to believe in God, it would be unreasonable to live life as if God didn’t exist when such life has everything to gain and nothing to lose. This is why...It is more reasonable to believe in the Christian God than not to.Thank you. I eagerly await Skepticalone's response.