Abiogenesis is impossible

[Darkstar]

If you have a god that is testable and understandable to science that is the God of the Bible who is beyond all that. Of course science didn't exist when the Jews began to believe in this kind of God as opposed to the other pagan nature controlling gods who would be scientifically observable if they existed. This wasn't cunningly devised in response to modern science but an authentically ancient understanding.

So you're saying that they were smart enough to make their god untestable even back then? Also, it would be inaccurate to claim that science didn't exist back then. It obviously wasn't up to the level of modern science, but it did exist.

There is literally no failure state for someone who ascribes to this worldview.

The theology is pretty much immune and impervious to anyone would want to prove or demonstrate it as wrong (and many people would like to or think they have) but it wasn't developed intentionally as reaction to atheism.

But you admit it is unfalsifiable, then? The problem with unfalsifiable hypotheses is that if they are indeed false, you will never know for sure.

Nothing that happens ever can be taken as evidence against god.

That's right there is nothing we can know or find out that could ever be used as evidence against God, that's the beauty of it.

Uh...that's a bad thing. If we posit an alternate universe where no gods exist, how would it differ from this one? Could you tell? How do you know we aren't actually living in it right now?

Pray and your prayer is "answered"? God did it.

He answers all prayers though of course you can't analysis and measure the answer in a laboratory. I suppose you can try to see if the healing/recovery rate is improved by prayer or not and that kind of thing but still not an easy thing to measure, even if there is some effect it will tend to be dismissed as psychological or a placebo effect.

Well, the studies have actually not showed any benefit, so there's no need to blame the placebo effect here.

Though I think that is still somewhat interesting in itself, the mind/consciousness seems to have great deal of power and physical effect when applied a certain way, a power than can through prayer perhaps be drawn upon.

I find it interesting that you would use this connection as evidence for your religion, rather than the opposite.

Prayer has been around for many thousands had it done nothing at all I'm sure everyone would have noticed by now and stopped.

Some did; they're called atheists (or agnostics, or even just apathetic theists). Do you think people should also have noticed that Allah is a false deity by now?

Pray and it is "answered" ten years later? Gog did it. Pray and it is never "answered"? God didn't feel like answering it. Small child barely survives devastating cancer? Praise the lord, our child is saved! Small child doesn't survive devastating cancer? It must have been his time; he's in a better place now.

While I'm sure it can help/aid survival there will be some kind of physical limit.

I believe the phrase you were looking for was "with God, anything is possible".

Matthew 17:20
New International Version (NIV)
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
New International Version (NIV)
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

The latter quote is interesting in how close it comes to implying the placebo effect. I doubt that was the intention, but who knows?

It would only be Deism if God doesn't interact with humanity and doesn't reveal himself through revelation. But if he answers prayer in some way and the Bible is a revelation from God to humanity then that won't be Deism as he will be actively involved with us.

I don't see any reason to believe either of those things. You yourself admitted (or at least seemed to) that the placebo effect is quite powerful and can be drawn upon via prayer. As for revelation, I will have to direct you to every other religion with a conflicting 'revelation' and have you sort out which one is right.

Deism has not been scientifically debunked (though can it be?), so at least you would be vaguely honest here.

Theism hasn't been debunked either, there are arguments against it but that isn't debunking that's a difference of opinion.

By definition, something unfalsifiable cannot be debunked 100%. At that point I would say 99% is close enough.

The historical event it was perhaps based on won't have been anything at all like that but you can read it as parable of the kind Jesus told. Flood myths in general have a universal and far retching history so there is something there that seems to resonate with the human psyche. Noah happens to be the Bibles flood myth but you'll find one in the Hindu Vedas and many other religions and cultures.

I don't necessarily disagree with that, but it doesn't really help your case to admit that parts of the Bible are myth (despite some still taking them literally).

Deism only applies to a God who doesn't interact or reveal himself to us but I would say there is a strong case to be made that God has if you take a look at human history. Belief and worship of something no matter how ill defined has always been present in all cultures all the way back through civilization and beyond.

And they have always believed in and worshipped different gods, many of whom are now openly called 'myths'. Funny thing, huh? How is it that no two civilizations received the same revelation separately? If there is a god, he must have (or be) a very poor messenger.