Not_Now.Soon,

Sorry I haven't replied. I've been a bit too busy lately to give a full response to your lengthy reply. I'm finding the time now because this discussion will no longer show by default tomorrow, and I refuse to post after a thread disappears, when I have been absent from it, since some do that dishonestly in the hope that the person they're responding to doesn't see their response and discredit it.

I will respond to this bit however:

<<Not all co-incidences fit the bill of confirmation bias. Most of the examples I gave were a surprise to me when they happened.>>

It doesn't matter if your experiences came to you as a complete surprise. There can still be a confirmation bias in your recollection of prayers being answer (i.e. you are more inclined to remember the hits than you are the misses).

Regarding the Sermon on the Mount, I don't think any of your criticisms negate the criticisms in the link I gave you. I might reply in more length at a later date.

What I will note now, however, is that if there can be so much disagreement as to the precise meaning behind the author of those words, then it can hardly be evidence of Christ's divinity, as a divine being should be able to communicate their message in a way that was clear enough for everyone to understand, without room for ambiguities or disagreements.