Also where do stand on the development of modern medicine being answered prayers from ancient times?
That doesn't even make sense. People made medicine, so people get credit. It's a bit rude to have a double bypass not thank the doctors and the people who made the effort over the span of centuries to learn what those doctors needed to do the job. Meanwhile where was any deity during those centuries? Even if you insist that it must be given credit now, why does it even deserve props for doing nothing for so long? Was it unable to do anything till the moment before some human figured it out?
Isn't amputation a procedure to help one heal?
That's not what the videos or the web site discusses.
Here's a summary;
1. The Christian Bible has promises in it.
2. The promises are said to be kept in ambiguous situations.
3. The promises are not kept in unambiguous situations, such as but not limited to amputees.
What promises? The web site's author mentions some of them;
You can see that the amputee experiment reframes our conversation. No longer are we talking about "religion" or "faith" or "God's existence". What we are talking about here is the basic human ability to process factual information. Jesus makes a number of promises about prayer in the Bible:
* If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. [Matthew 21:21]
* If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. [John 14:14]
* Ask, and it will be given you. [Matthew 7:7]
* Nothing will be impossible to you. [Matthew 17:20]
* Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. [Mark 11:24]
Are Jesus' promises true or false? By looking at amputees we can see that they are false. Jesus/God never answer prayers to spontaneously restore lost limbs, despite the promises in the Bible.
If you are a believer, and if this is the first time you have thought about the situation faced by amputees seriously, you may have a set of rationalizations and excuses swirling through your head right now.
So, what can we say is possible based on comparing the promises made in the Christian Bible to the what we see in reality? A few potential conclusions come to mind;
1. The book is wrong, but the Christian deity exists.
2. The book was right, but the Christian deity no longer honors the book though it could.
3. The book was right, but the Christian deity no longer honors the book because it can't.
4. The book is not relevant to the questions it raises because the Christian deity doesn't exist.
5. The book is not relevant to the questions it raises because some other deity or deities exist, not the Christian one, and that deity or deities don't honor what they did not sign up for.
6. The book is not relevant to the questions it raises because some other deity or deities exist, not the Christian one, and that deity or deities do honor similar promises to those who pray to them or offer some other communication or gift as a bribe for the miracle. (Example: Hindu miracles.)
I'm going with #4.
