The
first photo was getting started. First I had to get their attention. I told them
I was going to examine the atheist life. "What a pathetic group", I
said, "spending their lives fighting against something that does not exist."
I started out pretty good, but was not able to hold to that topic. In the
fifth picture, the fellow I was addressing and I got into a good old shouting
match. Ahhhh, just what I like...a good loud debate. Nat, who used to be the leader
of the pack for the atheists dropped out of school for reasons unknown. The fellow
in picture #5 has taken his place as head God-hater. He made a bookie's mistake
right off the bat. Another atheist had asked me if I believed in evolution,
to which I said of course not. I explained to him a couple of quick facts off
the top of my head that point to a young earth. One which I have used a lot recently
has been the discovery of Carbon-14 inside of coal, oil, gas, and diamonds. Given
the half-life of 5730 years, if the carboniferous period really were 240,000,000
years ago, there could be no Carbon-14 left in the carbon deposits. Even
if one took a solid block of Carbon-14, after 533,333 years, all of the Carbon-14
would have decayed to Carbon-12. Given the extremely low actual concentrations
of Carbon-14, the actual carbon dates of the carboniferous deposits should be
around 10,000 years m/l. Well, that didn't sit well with Mr. New-Head-Atheist.
He countered with an assertion that there is no scientific evidence for the existence
of God. To this I replied, "I have some". My evidence is a statistical
proof. In a statistical sample, there is a test that can be applied to the data
points to determine if the data points are truly random, or if there is some function
that ties them together. It is called the Chi Square test. I have followed
the Lord for thirty some years, and the overwhelming majority of my prayers are
answered. Most atheist discount that as being just coincidence. But when you get
to very high percentages of answered prayer, some of which are answered in ways
that defy logic and physics, the Chi Square test can show whether it actually
is random outcomes or whether there is some other influence on the sample set. He
did not like my "proof" and tried to do as all non-thinkers do. He began
to hypothesize or assume the existence of some proof somewhere involving someone
else that IF it did exist might undermine my argument from answered prayer. Every
time he would try to ramble off to dismiss my argument by alluding to the supposed
existence of other evidence, I stopped him. "Don't answer by inventing
an answer somewhere else involving someone else's experience, address my evidence."
I insisted. It is a common tactic, called the "straw man" argument.
You erect a straw man (a fallacious argument), destroy it, and claim victory.
I wouldn't let him go down that road. "Answer my evidence." I roared
back. At one point the one girl started screaming for me to shut up because I
would not let Mr. Atheist to continue to employ a flawed tactic to discredit my
answer to his challenge. He asked me for evidence, I gave it to him. Now
his choices are few. He can scientifically discredit the argument, which if one
knows anything about statistics, it is fairly hard mathematics. He can accuse
me of lying and reject the evidence. Or he can dismiss the evidence for one reason
or another. This last is the last rathole for the evolutionists to scurry into.
Usually the argument is that because I experienced it, and they did not,
that the evidence can not be empirical. Most college students don't know the definition
of empirical: Main Entry: em·pir·i·cal
Pronunciation: \-i-k?l\ Variant(s):
also em·pir·ic
Function: adjective Date: 1569
1 : originating in or based
on observation or experience
2 : relying on experience or
observation alone often without due regard for system and theory
3 : capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment Because
I experience something supernatural (answered prayer) does not make my observations
not empirical. What the naysayers tend to think is because THEY did not experience
the phenomenon, it is not empirical. Science only requires that someone observed
it, and that it can be verified. The life of a Christian, with answered prayers,
can prove the existence of God, and can verify the proof by continuing answer
to prayer. If you are seeing a large percentage of prayers being answered,
I would strongly recommend keeping a diary containing what you pray for and when
the answer came. I did this as a young Christian, and the results were simply
amazing. With hard copy, it is good scientific proof that prayers are answered
in specific ways. Here is an example. In 1982, while on the road, I was
scheduled to see my daughter on a Friday in Denver. I was preaching at CSU in
Fort Collins, Colorado. A huge storm started boiling up over top of the Rockies,
threatening a once in a century mess. That just wouldn't do. I would be denied
my visit with my daughter. I prayed about it. "Father, this storm is
too big to send it north of Fort Collins, and it is too big to send it south of
Denver." I paused a second. "Okay, Lord, split the storm in half. Send
one half north of Fort Collins, and send on half south of Denver. I finished preaching
out the week at CSU. The storm was supposed to hit on Friday, but all we got was
a few flurries. I drove down to Denver Friday night, to stay with some friends.
When I arrived, I turned on the news. The weatherman was talking, and I will remember
it till the end of time. "We don't know what is going on, people. We
can't explain it. We have never seen anything like this. Half the storm is up
in Utah, the other half is down in Texas." The Lord split that storm
for me, against all the learning of the meteorologists. I would love to
hear from some of you concerning dramatic answers to prayer. I will publish them. | 
