"You don't hear it because you have no desire to hear."
When I was a Christian I thought I could feel the unique holiness of every place I visited. I reveled in the feeling, but never once heard anything or anyone actualy speak to me. I am still quite convinced the feeling is real, but the consistant lack of tangible evidence has long sense lead me to ask myself whether beliefe in God is essential for it. That question, at least, has been answered in the definative.
"Who were the first western "scientists"? Greek philosophers. Atheism is not new, Greek philosophers searched for a naturalistic explanation for the world we live in."
It had to start somewhere. The brave and cultured Greeks would seem a natural starting point.
"Those amputees who might have the type of faith that Jesus referred to also understand that God works all things (including the loss of limbs) to their good. They understand they are aliens in this world but will rule with Jesus in the next with a fully functioning and complete glorified body."
That is a very strong point. But in making it, do you not admit to the falsness of all other miracles? Everything else God is said to have affected did not necessarily need him, after all. The regrowth of limbs is one of those areas where God would surely hold all the chips, yet it never happens.