I feel sorry for you. Your hatred of God is blinding you to the best things in life. You would be much more happy if you let go of hatred and embraced the one true God of love.
You're making quite a few assumptions here. First, I don't hate God any more than I hate Odin, Zeus, or, for that matter, Peter Pan. Second, following from the first, I don't have any hatred to let go of. And third, I'm already happy -- why should I mess with it?
The proof that Jesus is the son of God is abundant, as is the proof that the universe and everything in it is God's creation.
We'll get to this a little later. Congratulations, though, on being the first person to both say that to us and actually try and present some evidence.
Satan can twist the weak minds of you atheists and all the members of other religions, but some of us can still see the truth.
I'd be very interested to know how you are so sure that we are the ones whose minds are being twisted by Satan. There are a lot more atheists and people of other religions than there are of you. And since so many of your thoughts and ideas test the bounds of reason, I'd guess that you're the one being supernaturally deceived if anyone is.
There's plenty of evidence for the divinity of Jesus, even a quick Google search will provide you with absolute proof.
Okay: I did a search for "evidence for the divinity of Jesus" with Google. The top six sites were three that had no arguments that were in any way compelling or that I hadn't heard dozens of times before, one advertising a book on Amazon, one on Jesus from an Islamic perspective, and Infidels.org. I don't see any absolute proof staring me in the face yet. And, of course, there are plenty of pro-atheist sites (and pro-religion-other-than-yours sites) to be found online.
Evidence that proves that the life of Jesus was witnessed and recorded accurately by the people who knew him.
I haven't seen that evidence. The Gospels don't even agree on what Jesus' last words were, and you'd think, apologetics aside, that would be a pretty important thing to get down accurately and in whole.
Evidence that the Bible is perfect in every way...
Scholars don't even agree on how Mark ends. Is that perfection?
...and that it has predicted many events, including the times we are living through now.
I've never heard a Biblical prediction that related to modern times that wasn't either so full of dubious interpretation or word games that it was worthless, so vague that it didn't prove anything, or downright wrong.
Evidence that the universe could not have existed through natural means, that only a creator God could have created the universe,...
Having ready copious books and essays by creationists and intelligent design proponents, I have to say that evidence is, at this point, uncompelling at best.
...and that it was created as described in Genesis.
The creation stories in Genesis don't even agree on the order in which creatures were created. That's not much basis for an argument for accuracy.
All you need to do is look and have faith, this is your one chance for salvation. Death could come at any time, the end of this world could be coming soon, how ready will you be to meet your creator?
If there is a creator, I'm completely ready to meet him. I can say that I've led an honest and, to the best of my ability, good life. If that's not good enough, then the problem is with the creator, not with me.
At the end of this post I will provide some links that should convince anyone who hasn't totally closed their mind to reason.
Perhaps I should clarify the reasons that unbelievers are sent to Hell and the reason that I consider them all immoral. You don't seem to understand Christianity at all, not surprising as anyone who understands Christianity will see that it is truth. Rather than being an unfair punishment by a cruel God, Hell is a choice that people make and it is nothing but what they deserve.
You're not the first to write to me and say this. I have yet to understand how those without the opportunity to become Christians "chose" not to be. I also don't understand how torturing someone for all eternity because he was unconvinced of the truth of a certain religion is just. Remember that there are plenty of religions that you yourself aren't convinced are true, and if any of them are, you might be in trouble down the line.
The Bible teaches that nobody is worthy of heaven, not even the best person in the world. Compared with God, an absolutely perfect being, Hitler and Gandi are both infinitely vile, neither is fit to be in the presence of God. That's why the old atheist cliche you bring up by mentioning "good" non-Christians is meaningless. Only the blood of Christ can possibly be sufficient to wash away your sins. Nothing else can possibly allow you to join God without polluting heaven with your sinful human nature. This is the heart of the Christian religion, the sacrifice of God himself for your sins. No greater gift could ever be given, it proves once and for all that God loves us beyond the human capacity to comprehend love.
No, on the contrary all it would prove is that God has set up what is possibly the most bizarre means of getting into heaven ever conceived. In order to be "worthy" to spend eternity in a perfect place, it is not relevant whether you are as decent and selfless as Mother Theresa (who, as we will see soon, you believe went straight to Hell), but one must instead make one's self believe a specific set of magic stories, even if reason dictates otherwise.
I will say that this system is great for one thing: It lets a certain group of Christians lead as immoral lives as they like and still feel like they can rightfully say that they are going straight to Heaven when they die, while all the evil, unsaved "good" people are damned for eternity. You might want to note the number of gang members who wear crosses or have religious tattoos while considering this.
And what's this about the sacrifice of God for my sins? If Jesus was God, then he can't die so it was no sacrifice. If Jesus wasn't god, then you are a polytheist (which I'm sure you would say you aren't). So there's no greater gift than God pretending to be killed? How about the gift of letting people into Heaven because they're really nice and try to help others? That seems greater to me, and it makes more sense.
Yet still some people reject God's wonderful gift, the gift of salvation and eternal life. You deserve Hell fire for mocking God's mercy and being so ungrateful when he has given us so much more than we could ever deserve.
I'm not mocking God's mercy. If there's an all-powerful, infinitely good God, I have so much respect for Him that I can't imagine he operates in as arbitrary, capricious, and, frankly, conceited manner as you describe. I think it's much more likely that you don't know what you're talking about. In fact, if you want to go back to your "deceived by Satan" point, don't you think it would be quite Satanic to promote a religion that downplays the value of being good? That'd be pretty clever of Old Scratch, and quite a joke on God, eh?
Everyone commits sins that are worthy of eternal damnation, even the best people in the world. I've certainly commited disgusting sins and I'm sure you have also.
No, I haven't -- unless you've got a really, really low threshold for "disgusting."
Can you honestly claim that you've never lusted after a woman who isn't your wife?
Can you honestly claim that you've never assumed someone else was a man? I've noticed that sexism and fundamentalist religious thinking often go hand in hand, but that's beside the point because, from a Biblical perspective, devaluing women isn't a sin.
Or that you've never told a lie or been disobedient to your parents?
And are you telling me that under God's law it's never right to tell an untruth or that one should always obey one's parents? If so, then God's rules are, frankly, immoral. If the Nazis ask you if you are hiding Jews in your attic, lie. If your parent is a pedophile, run away.
You may think that those are insignificant crimes, but under God's laws in the old testament many of those "minor sins" were punished by death!
Sure, and slavery was fine, and women had to go away during their time of month, and it was okay to kill your enemy's babies and keep their virgin daughters for yourself, but don't eat a goat that was boiled in its mother's milk.
Do you really think that God would have ordered that homosexuals, adulterers, etc. be stoned to death if their immoral actions could simply be forgiven without a miraculous sacrifice?
This whole "miraculous sacrifice" thing is still bizarre to me. Let's say that 2,100 years ago you came up to me and said, "There is so much awful sin in the world. How can God forgive these moral acts?" I can't imagine my response would be anything like, "Well, why doesn't he have a kid and arrange it so his kid gets nailed to something and dies?" Wouldn't you think I was nuts if I suggested such a thing? And are you saying that God was incapable of forgiving people without doing this bizarre son-killing thing first? If so, you test the limits of the definition of "infinite."
It's a sick and twisted world where so much sin is tollerated, but heaven will be pure and free from evil.
And free from honest, inquisitive, moral non-Christians, it seems.
Salvation is through faith, not through works, the Bible is clear about this. You need to leave your sinful life behind, embrace Christ and only then can you live a truly good life and enter heaven.
I'm sure you have read as have I of historical figures who led murderous, warlike lives, keeping in mind that they would be baptized before they died so it would all be okay. This just doesn't sound like a system set up by a moral god, it sounds like a Mafioso's excuse.
Psuedo-Christian cults and wishy-washy liberal Christians may interpret this differently, but the Bible shows that they are decieved by lies.
The Catholic Church believes that good non-Christians can get into heaven. I don't see Catholocism as a pseudo-Christian cult any more than your belief system, and I wouldn't call opponents of contraception and abortion "wishy-washy liberals."
Here is what the Bible says about unbelievers:
'The fool hath said in his heart, "There is no God." Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: There is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.' - Psalm 53:1-3
I don't say there is no god, I just don't have any reason to believe there is a god. And while we're on Bible quotes, there's also a Psalm about killing babies. We sell a t-shirt about it.
Maybe now you can see why there's nothing unfair about "nice" people being sent to Hell for their rejection of their redeemer.
Sorry -- still unconvinced. In fact, more unconvinced than ever.
Please read these links and try to open your heart to your lord:
Okay, now we're getting somewhere...
http://www.doesgodexist.org/AboutClayton/PastLife.html
This is the story of an atheist who became a Christian. He was raised an atheist, badly educated about religion, and unhappy. Frankly, his story is uncompelling to one who was not raised an atheist, has read the Bible in a variety of translations, and is more interested in trying to find out the truth than emotionally reacting to the foolish lack of knowledge of those around me.
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/1762
This is the argument for the existence of God based on the need for an original cause of the universe because science says that every effect has to have a cause. It is a flawed argument for two reasons. 1) Quantum physics allows for effects without causes. 2) You can't say that everything must have a cause and then make God an exception without giving a good reason that the universe couldn't be an exception instead.
http://www.tektonics.org/ntdocdef/gospdefhub.html
An essay on the veracity of the Gospels. It's pretty good, but doesn't prove its point. If the Gospels were eye-witness testimonies, then why did Matthew and Luke copy so much from Mark? And why do descriptions of some events become more detailed as the writing gets further from the time they happened? And there are many things in the Gospels which may have been written because the authors "knew" they were true through faith instead of because they were witnessed (hence the many fulfillments of "prophecies" from the Old Testament).
http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
Six very soft, and old, arguments for the existence of God and/or divinity of Jesus.
One passage that I particularly enjoyed: "Look throughout the major world religions and you'll find that Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius and Moses all identified themselves as teachers or prophets. None of them ever claimed to be equal to God. Surprisingly, Jesus did. That is what sets Jesus apart from all the others."
At least until quite recently, the Emperor of Japan used to say that he was a direct descendent of God. So what does that prove?
http://www.doesgodexist.org/Phamplets/Mansproof.html
Another prime-mover argument.
http://www.christadelphian.org.uk/booklets/bprop1.html
All about Biblical prophecies. The prophecies are so general that it is certainly possible for them to have "come true" without any divine interference or magical foreknowledge.
http://www.doesgodexist.org/Phamplets/TheRealJesusOfHistory/TheRealJesusOfHistory.html
This is probably the best of the bunch, but it has an unfortunate disdain for scholarship and is rather credulous. And even if it were 100% correct in its facts, it would not be compelling enough to convince me that magic is real.
Thanks for the links, though!