Communicating with Him

[smax]

Why would he bother re-growing a limb?

I could point out literally hundreds of reasons and benefits. Perhaps a lost limb significantly dimenished the skills of a great surgeon (now that's irony for you) or limited the outreach capabilities of a peace corps volunteer.

But theses benefits are really secondary to the benefit of having concrete and tangible proof that god is actively working with man.

But if you assert that you will serve him unconditionally if he does, I will ask him to re-grow a limb in front of you sometime.

Excuse me if I don't hold my breath.

You mean the ones put to an end by a Christian lawyer I take it.

BTW the perpetrators were doing the precise opposite of what Jesus said to do about heretics.

The accuracy of a religious fanatic's practice is not nearly as important or relevant as is the delusional behaviour it inspires.

Besides, these fanatic's may simply have been confused as to what scriptures god really meant and which ones he didn't.

Exodus 22:18 says:

"Do not suffer a witch to live"

And, although new testament scriptures call for a less extreme approach, they still convey the notion that witches exist and are bad.

With that, you have to consider why the Puritan's chose to apply the more extreme approach. The New Testament was written from a non-governing perspective. In other words, early Christians were subject to a higher goverment, therefore, instructing members to determine and carry out capital punishments on fellow citezens would very likely have been considered an act of treason and self-government.

As Christians grew in number and governing influence, they once again began to apply old testament standards and punishments to violations of religious decrees. Exodus 22:18 and Leviticus 20:27 were often cited to justify the hunting and killing of "witches".

I mean, you don't think Christians stopped carrying out executions after the New Covenant was established, do you?

That's what people don't know here and wouldn't tell you if they did. You'd have to be a freethinker to investigate whether Jesus encouraged the killing of heretics by "Christians." But "guilt by association" is enough of an argument to satisfy the "logical minds" you find on atheist sites, with a few notable exceptions.

To fully address this perspective, I'd have to know a lot more about what your association is.

I actually have a lot of Christian friends, and for the most part, they oppose many of their faith's general positions on matters of politics and social practices.

I still think they are deluded in their belief, but I find their contribution to society and the good of human kind to be positive.