My dictums

There is no biochemical difference between the instant when a living cell is alive, and the instant right after it dies. The substance of "qualia" cannot be merely reduced to chemistry. The same goes for the brain and consciousness. They are two different realms of reality, which cooperatively make who we are.

In spiritual things, it is the same. We can provide to atheists the finest, most logical, rational, and plausible arguments. In regards to rationality, all is flawlessly there. We can present a solid epistemological framework and use natural theology, through sound, logical inferences based on sound premises, on evidence and observation in the natural world, and correct inferences which lead logically to creation, and intelligent design, as the best, most case-adequate explanation of origins which top any kind of attempts to explain the issues in question by natural means.

Once, presented those arguments to atheists, in 99,9% of the cases, ( at least in my experience), once the dialogue has come to an end, the arguments exhausted, the response from the nonbelievers part is either silence or cheap excuses.

So reason alone is not the determinant factor that leads an unbeliever in God to become a believer. What is it then?

In the same sense, as everything has to be there, all life-essential chemical elements and biomolecules need to be there to kick-start life, life-giving "qualia" has to be injected, for life to start. So we read in Genesis 2.7,

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

So it is with the unbeliever. Unless the lord breaths into him the holy spirit, he cannot become spiritually newborn and become a new creature in Christ. Being born again depends ESSENTIALLY from God. But there has to be a surrender, a predisposition from the unbeliever, an honest and true repentance to stop living autonomously to God. A will to re-start. To seek the Lord. Only THEN, a new believer can be born spiritually.

All the materialistic trash and evolutionary education have to be removed, which is a mere obstacle to find to Christ. And so all the invalid objections against the Bible. This is where we, apologists are in play. We can conduct an unbeliever from the dirty mud and pond of dirty intellectual waters and pseudo-philosophy, pseudoscience, and pseudo objections, to the clean spring and life-giving fountain. That fountain must contain the clean waters coming from God ( the word of God, God's holy spirit ). When the unbeliever drinks it, God does a miracle, and he can become spiritually alive. The blinkers fall off. He suddenly starts to see.

John 7:37-39 who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.

We are not demanded only to defend our faith with sound, rational, compelling apologetics. We need to be gracious, excel, and shine through our character, righteousness, honesty, and patience, but foremost, and in special, we need to pray and ask the lord as well to equip our words with the power of the holy spirit which reaches the hearts of unbelievers. It's those words that are like a hammer that breaks the rocklike, hardened heart in pieces, and transforms it into a heart of flesh.

Father, thank you for your Word, which endures forever. Lord, use us as your witnesses for those that dwell in darkness, don't know you, and do not believe. I want for your word to reach their heart like a spiritual fire, that wakes up their rock dead heart, and makes them become alive. Make their heart a fireplace for your Word and Spirit to burn with a passion to love you and a purpose to do start doing your will. Give us courage to share the truth with grace and boldness and with even more humility. I pray in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

Atheism is like playing Russian roulette with your salvation, but with a fully loaded gun. My atheist friend.  What if you are wrong and there is a God,  and you will spend eternity in constant regret for rejecting the truth?

Daniel 12.2: And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Luke 16:19-31, Lazarus and the Rich Man
In Luke 16:19-31 is the story of Lazarus and the rich man.  Basically, Lazarus is a poor man who suffers during life.  The rich man is, of course, rich. They both die.  The rich man goes to Hades.  Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom, another term for paradise.  In Hades, the rich man lifts up his eyes and sees Lazarus far off.  He cries out to Abraham and asks for mercy because he is in agony in flame.  Abraham says no.  Then the rich man asks if someone from the dead were to rise and go tell his brothers not to come to this terrible place.  Abraham teaches him that that will not be done either.

Revelation 21.7
Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

How you can get Saved!
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2501-how-you-can-get-saved

BOUGHT, PURCHASED, RANSOMED & REDEEMED
For you were BOUGHT at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
1 Corinthians 6:20
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He PURCHASED with His own blood.
Acts 20:28
"...just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a RANSOM for many."
Matthew 20:28
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a RANSOM for all, to be testified in due time,
1 Timothy 2:5-6
knowing that you were not REDEEMED with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
1 Peter 1:18-19
These are all terms used to describe a financial transaction.
When you complete a transaction at the store the cashier gives you a piece of paper that describes the details of the price paid
It's called a 'receipt'.

God and creation is concluded based on rational faith, with Intelligent Design as scientific hypothesis that gives support.

Every action leads to a reaction. The worst is when there is no action. Then, all is dead. Atheists ramble, object, deny, try to refute, scream, try to destroy, express their incredulity, use pins to confess that they are atheists, use in their email address " sansdeity" ( Matt ), and all this defies us to provide adequate answers. That is how i grew into investigating molecular biology, and educate myself in order to be up to the job to give answers to atheists. One lady called in to the Atheist Experience, and said to Matt Dillahunty: You have been a great servant for the lord. In a first thought, you would say: What the heck ?!! But, given a second thought, she was right. The same goes to Richard Dawkins. God is in the spotlight. God is being debated. God is in the mouth of many. Objecters or not. Bad or good. God is a relevant topic today in modern culture. We think, debate, accept, reject, deliberate, agree, and disagree and so forth.

God gave us free will to position ourselves in regards of HIM. He knew beforehand that the majority would deny him, or go after false religions. Many are true atheists in as much that they replace God which should be in the center of our lives with money, wealth and power, and God is just a random subject to be thought of when going to church at christmas, or when there is a wedding, or baptism. its just a formal thing. Those are the TRUE atheists. Those that are militant, are in reality misotheists. God haters. Many will first confess to be not convinced of Gods existence, but once digging deeper, and asking, what if, they will say: Oh, even IF he happens to be proven to exist, i will not worship that MONSTER. Its rare to see unbiased, honest seekers. But we do not know where they are, and who they are. Some, after losing a debate with a theist, just silent. Giving our objecters food of thought is what we are supposed to do. It can be tomorrow, or in their dead bed. They might remember our words, and God can use them to touch their hearts.

Don't silent. Don't discourage. If you do apologetics, do it for the Lord. Do it, because you love HIM. Do it, because you want to please, serve, and obey HIM.

Daniel 12:3
Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Hey, Mr. RNA, how are you today?
Do you know, you, and your big brother DNA,
you both are still baffling science
scientists, and known guys, Mr. Darwin and Francis Crick?

You both, RNA and DNA, where did you both originate?
Science tries to find out, but you both are still an enigma.
Science is studying you both, but the origin of you gentlemen
remains elusive, and you sneak out from every hypothesis and explanation.

So what is it, did you guys come from a muddy pond?
Maybe from the oceans, and some deep vents low down in the seas?
Or did winds blow fast, whirling tornadoes do a miracle?
How did nature bring your parts together?
Phosphate, carbon, nitrogen, and so forth? the base, and your backbone?
Yeah, it takes a lot of chances. Maybe that's no the way to think?

Or was it maybe rather a miracle?
Was it may be that in the distant past,
God the father, and his son - maybe both
together in a triunity with the holy ghost?
they blew fast and whispered words of wisdom,
power, and strength, and you guys, RNA, and DNA
suddenly happened to obey, form, and came together on the early earth?

So why did it happen, that you guys came to be?
Oh yeah, of course, today we know!! Its no mystery anymore.
The veil has been lifted, and you show,
yeah, Information is the secret that we know,
has been stored in DNA. Complex, specified, and through a code.
It drives life, and all complex beings as we know; and biochemistry, and biology had its go.

The utility now is well known, DNA stores a plan
a blueprint, yes. A manual. Instructions, and directions,
and the way to go. And RNA takes its message and goes on the run
from one compartment to the next
and knocks on the doors of Mr.Ribosome

Drum drum, conundrum, and the Ribosome, yes, it does its run,
and what happens? It does translate its message, powerful and fast,
error checking and repair, and what comes out? Yes, a machine,
precisely folded and prepared,
tagged and sent to its voyage, and it's end destination
where it will start doing its job with high accuracy and precision.

And so the run goes many times, until, finally in the end
Life starts, life ends, the cycle goes and goes without an end
The dance of life perpetuates, giving glory to its inventor, Jahwe God,
Christ, his son, and the Holy Spirit. Yes, their glory shines, and we,
mere mortals are in the privileged position, to live in an age and times
where science has unraveled all these marvels and things.

And we can appreciate, and give the Glory. To HIM, who our praise deserves.

Materialistic atheist scientists waste their efforts and time to find ways to confirm their confirmation bias and pressuposition where God has not the right to put his foot into the door. And fail. Theistic scientists use their time and efforts to unravel the amazing evidence of creation in nature, to give HIM glory. And are rather then being frustrated, rewarded with awe and give HIM praise.

It is remarkable, that atheists are denying the historicity of Jesus Christ, claiming that he is a made-up figure, in other words, literally an invention of first century writers, who cherry picked Old Testament passages to fit a narrative where their invented Christ fulfilled those passages, and also claim that the apostles did not die as martyrs, besides two, which, so they claim, probably did not even have a choice to deny Christ.

On the other hand, those same individuals, love to wear T-Shirts, where it says: Psiu, evolution is a fact !! A claim which of course they want to apply to big evolutionary changes, like the evolution of whales, for example. And that, based on supposed transitional fossils.

Remarkable is, that they apply silly skepticism towards Christ, but are blind and gullible towards evolutionary claims.

This demonstrates one thing: Bias !! - for whatever reasons.
Maybe, it must be reeeeallllly fun to proclaim :

Hey, whatts up, heathens !!!

Answer: We, Christians, are likely to go up, indeed.
Atheists & heathens: Probably rather down.....

Usually, when we start our trajectory as Christians, it is a basic knowledge of the Bible, which leads us to drink from the living water, the word of God, which gives us new life, salvation, a reborn heart and spirit. At this point, we are like babies. Babies are at risk to die as long as the immune system is not mature until two or three months of age. We can compare it to our spiritual life. Some do not grow and develop that a strong armor, as admonished by the apostle Paul:

Ephesians 6:The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

When the devil seeds doubts in our hearts, if we are not prepared, we eventually will start to doubt here, there, and after a certain time, we lose our faith completely, and stand in a vacuum, where we don't believe Gods words anymore, but do not have either any reasonable alternative.

That is seen in many cases, when atheists declare themselves as agnostic atheists. They reject God, the word of God, but have nothing else to say than " We don't know". They are trapped in ignorance. In order to find relief, they try to justify their misery by attempting to drag others down to their misery. Satan uses them as his tools.

A Christian however, that constantly seeks to solidify his faith, will find what he is looking for. The 21th century, the age in which we live in, offers us such a wealth of information coming from various disciplines of science, philosophy, and theology, that the seekers will eventually soon get to a point of no return. His intellect has so much information which points to God, that he will not want to give up his wordview, because reason does not permit anymore. He cannot force his understanding of reality to conclude that somehow, we could be a product of random natural forces. It simply does not fit the evidence on so many levels.

The apostle Paul was right 2000 years ago, when he wrote Romans 1. 19 -23. And it is even more true today. More than ever

There is no peace in the heart of those that reject the Lord. Unrest is the condition of the rebellious heart. Rather than giving HIM praise, they attempt to self-aggrandize themselves and boast how much better they are than the Lord. They accuse God to be unjust, to condone slavery, but don't do anything actively against slavery today. They say that prostitution is ok, neglecting that sex trafficking is one of the big motors of modern slavery. Rage and blasphemy are in their mouth, and they ridicule our Lord Jesus Christ. They ridicule the Lord's servants and want us to shut up. They want to beat us with reason, but only expose their own irrationality. The wicked say, there is no evidence of God's existence, once he shows up, we believe, but they are unable to provide evidence that the natural world is all there is. When we expose their bankrupt worldview, name-calling is the answer. Recently I wrote to one privately: If you cannot answer the question of how we can exist without a creator, then your entire atheist/materialistic position is unwarranted, and you have nothing. I am surprised that you run a show and have not thought about that question, and worse, have no answer to it. I would like to have a chat with you about that. The answer: Wow, you're kind of an asshole. Why on Earth do you think I would want to talk to you after sending me a message like that? Do you genuinely think that your message was effective in any way?

Atheists ask constantly for evidence of Gods existence. But in reality, most of them aim to confirm what they already believe, namely that there is no evidence of Gods existence. So every time, a believer gives reasons for his belief, atheists will give an interpretation which conforms with their already held presupposition.

Atheists must accept that no cause at all is a better creator than an intelligent creator, in order to believe that strong atheism is true. How does that make sense?

The idea that matter, somehow, by evolutionary processes, can become conscious, is absurd.

Gravity is inferred by observing an apple falling to the floor, so the existence of a non-physical non-created creator is inferred by observing the existence of a finite universe.

Incredulity is reposing in confidence to our finite minds, that it is warranted to reject the infinite, than to admit that the infinite is beyond the comprehension of our limited minds.
The in-comprehensiveness of ultimate reality does not justify to reject it based on our wisdom, and finite perception.

The passion upon which materialists defend their worldview does not add weight to its truthfulness. Unbelievers can claim that it is justified to remain agnostic, or to reject that there must be a supernatural reality beyond the physical world. They rest their confidence in their finite minds, and sensory perceptions.
Since we are limited, the truth of ultimate reality must be revealed to us. God has done this. He has given us the book of nature, scriptures, and consciousness of moral values. Therefore, incredulity is not justified. Wisdom is to trust the Lord and his revelation which makes theistic belief rational.

When you say to an atheist, how AMAZING Christ is, you humiliate his unbelief.

100% of atheists believe in God. They just don't admit it to themselves. It's called cognitive dissonance.

If 2+2 is 4 would as well mean, that most probably God exists, atheists would deny both.

When emotion and reason meet, many do decide to stay on the side of emotion, and do reason let go.

Blueprints and assembly instructions dictate the making of complicated machines and factories and require machine engineers and builders.

Analogously, genotype and epigenetics dictate phenotype, and are equally in a causal relationship. Since biological systems are far more sophisticated and complex than anything ever devised and invented by man, evidently and logically, they also had to be instantiated by an intelligent engineer and builder.

Herschel 1830 1987, p. 148:
“If the analogy of two phenomena be very close and striking, while, at the same time, the cause of one is very obvious, it becomes scarcely possible to refuse to admit the action of an analogous cause in the other, though not so obvious in itself.”

A metaphor (“A biological cell is like a production system”) demonstrates that similar behaviors are driven by similar causal mechanisms.

Michael Denton’s 1985 Evolution: A Theory in Crisis:
The inference to design is a purely a posteriori induction based on a ruthlessly consistent application of the logic of analogy.

The successful end of an atheist-theist debate is when an atheist mutes and silences. That usually happens, when he cannot further sustain his materialistic worldview. He will not openly admit defeat. Nobody likes humiliation. From there, he has two possibilities. He can either ignore the scientific facts, and live as if atheism makes sense, which is the source of cognitive dissonance, or he can mature his thoughts to a positive action. Recognize that there must be a creator, and searching to find out who that creator might be. If he does so diligently, his journey will end with Jesus of Nazareth, and he will surrender to HIS Lordship. All others will do it later. When it is too late.

The greater the free gift that someone is willing to give us, the greater is the offense when we do not accept it for no good reasons. The greatest gift that we could ever receive, is the forgiveness of our sins, and eternal life by our creator. How big is the sin, when we refuse to accept it? As big as the sin, as big are the consequences....

Atheist claim: you can't be omniscient for all possibilities ( like materialism & strong atheism) to be ruled out per se. Response: That's correct. But we can hold to the most reasonable position based on the current knowledge and understanding of science, philosophy, and theology, until new, eventually more accurate information becomes available and then adapt our position. As it comes out, materialism is not something that we have not figured out yet. The range of creative power of alternative mechanisms to intelligence is known. It does not exist. It is nil and can be entirely neglected. Chance is impotent. Were there not stubborn, insistent and obstinate materialists, full of wishful and hopeful thinking, attempting to give material causes credence and equip them with divine attributes like allpowerfulness, atheism as a philosophical worldview would not exist. Atheism is just silly, and rational suicide. Atheim is only still alive, because people have an emotional commitment to it for several motivations. None of them have ANYTHING to do with reason, rational thought following the evidence, or even science. Strong atheism is a metaphysical belief system with no evidence that backs it up. NONE. Nada. Zilch. It constantly shifts the burden of proof to theists, but tries to be absent of providing anything. In the last ten years or so, it evolved from the claim that "Most probably there is no God" - and when it was realized that the attempts to back up the claim every time failed miserably, they moved to the more "modern" version: "We are just skeptic of your God claim" attempting to exempt themselves to back up their story. There is basically NOTHING that it explains adequately. But atheists have erected their cardhouse to the sublime olymp of reason and rationality (sic.)

Bricks do not form from clay by themselves, and then line up to make walls. Someone made them. Phospholipids do not form from glycerol, a phosphate group, and two fatty acid chains by themselves, and line up to make cell membranes. Someone made them. That is God.

Darwin persuades us that the seemingly purposeful construction of living things can very often, and perhaps always, be attributed to the operation of natural selection.
If you have things that are reproducing their kind;
if there are sometimes random variations, nevertheless, in the offspring;
if such variations can be inherited;
if some such variations can sometimes confer an advantage on their owners;
if there is competition between the reproducing entities -
if there is an overproduction so that not all will be able to survive to produce offspring themselves -
then these entities will get better at reproducing their kind.
None of this was available prebiotically to explain the origin of the first life form. Life is not a product of evolution, but an in build mechanism, a product of divine design, for life even to be able to start. And by evolution, I mean adaptation in a limited range.