A major test of faith for Christians has been Christ's failure to return "in this generation" as he promised. The way I see it, this has led to a mentality that virtually cannot be disappointed. I've wished Christians could be disappointed that there is no afterlife. But their capacity to not be disappointed is so astounding among the living that one might as well quite wishing for the dead to have this ability. Two thousand years have passed since Jesus said he would return and they are not disappointed YET.

Sure, they were disappointed in Paul's time but he quickly and deftly reinterpreted things--and set the pattern for his followers to reinterpret indefinitely--so that never again need Christians be too seriously disappointed if their prophecies don't bear out. People whose concept of truth is so versatile, malleable, flexible, and adaptable can probably not be expected to understand what it's like to actually be convinced by something more than the word of authority. For them, you choose whom you're going to believe and then you stick to your guns. That is called strong faith. When people act like this in other areas of life they are usually labeled as stubborn. When it regards religion they call it a strong faith.

It's either stubbornness or foolishness. Probably some of both.

But they call it strong faith and faith is not logical. In this way they seal off and safe-guard themselves from all attack from any realm or range of reason that might help us gain some common ground of agreement. And they consider it with in their perfect right and God's will to excommunicate and kill us if we insist on disagreeing with them.

Christians are not really interested in logic, nor do they want a common ground of agreement. They want your conversion to their system of belief. You need to keep this in mind whenever you attempt dialogue with a Christian.