Christians

[Ryft]

You cut my sentence off half-way ...

Yeah, for a reason. First, this is a discussion forum where your statement has either been witnessed already, usually a matter of hours ago, or can be easily verified. Second, the citation I include contains a link to your post in its entirety, making it especially easy to verify. Given these two points, I find it superfluous and unnecessary to quote a person's entire point, or the entire threaded discussion like some people here do. I simply indicate the part my response is addressing while providing a link to the original comment in its entirety so people can easily verify its context. That is not quote mining activity. Third, the feature you considered important was included and addressed in my response: "If you believe the scientists and their findings, given the stated evidence thereof, then ..."

It is possible that I misunderstood you, of course. But if that's the case, simply say so. For instance, it may be the case that although you believe the scientific claim is based on sufficient evidence ("the necessary data to back up a statement of such magnitude") you do not believe the scientific claim itself. In other words, "As for the claim that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, I believe scientists base it on the evidence necessary for such a claim. As for myself, however, I do not believe the claim." If that is the case, you could simply confirm it. Or...

... on the other hand, as my previous response supposed, it could be the case that you do believe both—that the scientific claim is based on sufficient evidence, as well as the scientific claim itself. Again, and this is the core of my response, "Darwinian asked me if I believe the universe is 13.7 billion years old (the claim of scientists). I did not feel any difficulty with providing a simple 'yes' in answer, which leaves me wondering where your difficulty is stemming from." Can you provide clarity to that?