re: Still zero Christian terror attacks

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Why is a religious opinion less valuable than a secular one? That seems to show some bias on your part.

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Because you have people all over the world of different religions, backgrounds, etc that can study geology, archaeology, paleontology, biology, astronomy, etc and come to similar conclusions about different aspects of the history of earth, humanity, etc (obviously not the exact same conclusions).

Some data on these fields:
International Astronomical Union has 12,700 astronomers in 100 different countries

Approximately 10,000 people employed as paleontologists globally

International Union of Geological Sciences has 1 million members globally

Estimated 20k archaeologists in Europe and US

Obviously many of them are religious but how many of these professionals, many of which who do field research, would assert a creationist viewpoint? I don’t think there are many people, if any at all (much less professionals), arguing the creationist viewpoint outside of trying to prove religious or mythical viewpoints they already hold.

Carbon dating, radiometric dating, stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, paleomagnetic dating…there’s overwhelming scientific consensus regarding these dating methods.

When it comes to public education, I am 100% biased towards what the experts, researchers, data etc supports vs religious texts or beliefs.

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Christians should join themselves in membership to a local body of believers and submit to the spiritual rulers that God has ordained to care for their souls.

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God cares for my soul far better than any man can, or will.

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That is just your view on Christianity.

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That is the majority view on Christianity and has been historically. It isn’t just my singular opinion. While I don’t believe consensus alone determines truth, I’d urge you to examine the Scriptures to see why that is the case.

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Not all Christians believe that mandatory church attendance or submission to leaders is biblically mandatory.

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You’re correct about that. Not all Christians believe there is any need for them to read their Bibles, pray regularly, stay with their spouses, abstain from sex before/outside of marriage, not get drunk, etc., even though these are also things that the Scriptures teach us to do. Sin causes people—including Christians—to act in ways that are not consistent with biblical commands.

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The New Testament emphasizes personal accountability to God, the priesthood of all believers, and the potential for spiritual abuse under structures — which I personally have experienced

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You’re right about all of that, and I’m sorry you have experienced abuse in the church before. Church leaders are sinners, too, and are capable of harming the flock with their words and actions. They will be accountable to the Lord for how they have used their authority.

However, nothing of what you said here justifies disobedience to God’s word in regards to church membership and regular attendance of the means of grace.

Each Christian will have to stand before God and take personal accountability for every word, deed, and thought he had in this life. He will be saved only by receiving Christ’s merits alone through faith alone, not by church attendance or having perfect obedience to God’s law. And yet God’s word also says that the leaders of Christ’s church will be accountable for how they rule in His stead, indicating that there are obligations of both the officers as well as the members, whom the officers are to interact with.

I agree that the Bible teaches the priesthood of the believer, where we offer sacrifices in our own bodies of good works through faith in Christ and that we have a perfect high priest and mediator in Jesus to where we do not need priests to offer sacrifices for us any longer, and yet we are still Christ’s sheep and are expected to respect and submit ourselves to one another in the body of Christ (the church), as well as submit ourselves to the under shepherds that Jesus puts over us for care of our souls and for our teaching and correction.

I agree that the Bible warns of potential abuse, from other Christians and from the leaders of the church especially. However that presumes that there are leaders of the church that people are submitting to in the Lord that could abuse the flock.

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There are many excellent Christians I know that do not and will not attend church.

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I’m sure you do, however disobedience to what Christ has commanded in the Scriptures is not “excellent”, and it is certainly not justified by a belief that there is sin in the world (there is) and abusers in it (there are).

Beyond disobedience, though, not going to church regularly is to deprive one’s self of the spiritual nourishment and help that we need as fallen creatures. To neglect the gathering together is to neglect the spiritual care of those called to care for you; to neglect the means of grace given as a help to you; and to separate from a community that is called to support you and build you up while you are deprived of building up others with your gifts. These are rich blessings that are not being fully taken advantage of when one separates from the church community, and rarely does that result in better and more faithful Christians.

In my experience, it is just the opposite: it typically results is less spiritual feeding, less understanding of God’s word, less conviction of sin and desire to change, and less opportunity for support from other Christians and support for other Christians. In other words, separation from the community of Christ is rarely a net positive for the person separated, and it certainly isn’t what God desires for His people, given that most of the New Testament was written to the church as a community.