Christianity can be proven as fact

Pro repeatedly discusses the theory of evolution, atheism and Islam in his concluding argument. This debate though is not about whether any gods exist or not or whether the theory of evolution is true. This debate is about whether Christianity can be proved as a fact. Science has advanced to a highly sophisticated level, but to date has found nothing that requires any kind of supernatural intelligence to explain. This did not have to happen. We could have determined the age of the earth to be 10,000 years, in which case evolutionary theory would have been impossible. We could have found the universe to be so precisely designed as to beg the question of how it could have happened on its own. What this implies is that if there is an all-powerful god as proposed by Christianity, that god must be choosing not to manipulate anything beyond the natural order, or, in other words, to completely conceal his presence. However, this concept does not square with Christianity, with its idea of a personal, hands-on, and prayer-answering god. It seems almost beyond belief that by now science would not have found some footprint or subtle effect of this god somewhere on earth or in the universe. Instead, all that we have observed indicates that there is no god anywhere, no god doing anything, no god designing anything, just plain no god. At the time the Bible was created, most people viewed the earth as the center of the universe and that the sun, stars, planets, and moon revolved around its flat surface. Christianity is based on this world view, placing an emphasis on humans as the ultimate reason that the universe was created in the first place. Not only is Christianity earth-centered, but it was also limited to a few hundred square miles in its beginning and did not reach all areas of the earth until about 1500 years later. Further, it is limited in its overall time scope to something less than 10,000 years. What we have since learned about the age and size of the universe has spectacularly dwarfed the Christian world view. Instead of 10,000 years old, the universe is 13,700,000,000 years old. Instead of the earth and a few objects orbiting around it, we have the earth, 4,500,000,000 years old, orbiting the sun, which is just one of over 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which itself is only one of at least 200,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe. The idea that all of this was created so that God could create and test human beings is absurd. If that was so, then: " Why did God wait 9,200,000,000 years after creating the universe to construct the earth? " Why did God wait 4,500,000,000 years after creating the earth to create human beings? " Why did God wait 100,000 years after creating modern human beings before making any contact with them? " Why did God allow 3,500 years to pass after the initial contact with humans was made before his word had spread world-wide? These thoughts are best summed up by a quote from Richard Feynman: "It doesn"t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil " which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama." The failure of science to detect any kind of a supernatural activity is strong evidence that the god of Christianity does not exist. For those Christians who believe in evolution, there is a noteworthy problem dealing with the starting point when humans first became bound for eternity in the eyes of God. Whenever this happened, there were undoubtedly a lot of people scattered over much of the world. To be clear, there has to be a starting point when God first awarded an eternal life to human beings. Without this demarcation, we would have single-celled animals living for eternity in heaven. Whenever this occurred, it would create a problem. It would mean that many people going to heaven would do so without the company of their parents, who would die and not be raised up, similar to all of the other animals. No matter where the cut was made, this problem was unavoidable. Pro makes a statement about his personal reasons for believing Christianity is true. However one person's opinion does not prove Christianity is a fact. Objective studies have revealed that prayers are not effective beyond any statistical measure of coincidence. Most notably, they do not work for amputees or paralyzed individuals. Prayers for terminally ill people almost always fail. Prayers for rain, to allay storms, and for fixing damaged property, among others are rarely attempted because the supplicants know they won"t be effective. But what do the scriptures say? Matthew 17:20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Mark 11:24 "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." An objective person must realize that the promises described in these scriptures are not true. The fact that there is no discernible efficacy for prayers is a valid clue that there is no god listening and responding to them. One of the most definitive examples of the failure of prayer involves the story of Eva Peron (Evita), Argentina"s adored first lady from 1946 to 1952. Eva became sick with ovarian cancer and asked the Argentinian people to pray for her health to be restored. The ensuing 10+ million people praying for her had no effect on the progression and ultimately fatal consequences of her disease. The very structure of society speaks to the ineffectiveness of prayer. Otherwise why would we have hospitals, drug companies, health insurance, car insurance, or any kind of insurance if Jesus"s promise of prayer was genuine? Christians should enjoy an advantage in most of life"s situations, having a supernatural deity at their beck and call. That is, they should react in a measurably different way than atheists. However, this difference does not happen: When a Christian gets sick, he goes to a doctor, the same as an atheist. When a Christian has a car accident, he takes the car to a body shop for repair, the same as an atheist. To protect his family, a Christian buys life insurance, the same as an atheist. When a Christian is cheated, he uses a lawyer, the same as an atheist. This might seem obvious to some, but it should be noted that other than saying prayers and attending church, a third party bystander could not discern any difference in the way a Christian lives his life versus an atheist. They both use worldly remedies for every one of life"s problems and challenges. Although they profess a belief in an all-powerful god who hears and answers prayers, Christians actually live their lives as if there is no god. The lack of an earthly advantage for Christians is evidence that they are not affiliated with a supernatural being. If you were born long ago, before Christianity, you probably would believe in a God by the name of Thor, or Zeus, or Olympus, or some such deity. If you were born in recent times in India, you would believe in a multiplicity of gods. If you were born in Pakistan, you would believe in Allah. If you were born in Utah, you would most likely be a Mormon, and so on. It is obvious that belief in gods and religions is highly influenced by the timing and placement of one"s birth. If any god existed and demanded worship it would make itself obvious to all people. It would not give some people an advantage by placing them in predominantly Christian areas while placing others in areas where Christianity has no significant presence.