Your answers to : "If I'm wrong and there is a god, will I go to hell?" are misleading people into some slight belief that there is a god. It really should be: "No, there is no hell, you die, then rot, learn to accept that."

You are misleading people, stop that!

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.

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

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

I absolutely love the way those in disagreement of your site seem to incorporate your beliefs structure, or lack of, to you being gay, sinful, or stupid. Has no one done their research? Sigmung Freud was possibly the most prominent athiest in history. Does he fit this profile? Sin was an invention by the religious. We, that do not follow religion, use the word Moral. Same meaning, different context. Finally, to all those with the colorful vulgarity and criticism toward the Webmaster, remember this. If you don't like it, don't visit the site. What kind of a bored idiot visits a website called iamanatheist.com, and expects to read stories of rainbows and angels? Nice try.

i wuz beaten my wif an drinkin beer an i gots board and saw yur websit now i felt god tellin me you gonna burn in hell, thinkin you shud no i kin giv yu my preechers fone number ifn you wan it

iv got 14 kids and ill be damned if they reed yur sorry ass site and goddam yu are sick

Hey, awesome site, I'm vaguely Atheist/Agnostic and I think that all organized religion is stupid, i invented/discoved my own that I designed that I sorta believe in... Oh yeah, the "Bible", "Koran" etc. were written by schitsophrenics (no clue on spelling there) and "Jesus Christ Superstar" (That rock opera is SO COOL! I have it on video) had lesions on a pat of the brain tat make you think that you either communicate with the divine or are divine. (I think Joan of Arc did too, but she was a martyr and a role model so she gets oss on that). So, keep up the good work, etc., etc. Rock On!

I read the part on your website which promotes arguments for atheists to consider when confronted with theists.

To be honest, your arguments weren't at all good, moral or sensible, leading me to believe that atheists don't actually have any morals to build on, nor do they actually care for their fellow human being. Most of the answers were rude, ignorant and similar to 'playground talk'. It sounds as if you are the bully and theists are geeks.

So to conclude, your website isn't very helpful to any atheists, because if they were confronted with a theist in reality, they would get murked.

I'll make you a deal: You get a dictionary and look up "moral" and I'll get one and look up "murked." And while you're at it, I suggest you look up "satire."

I have a suggestion for the 'Arguements Against" section. As far as that there are no atheists in foxholes...there are no christians (love your enemy, turn the other cheek, thou shalt not kill, etc) in foxholes either.

oh hell. I just sent the really long second-law rant on thermodynamics, realized I misformatted the cut & paste from wikipedia, and thought up a really clever rejoinder:

If you don't believe in God, then you'll go to Hell. Response: Well, I think you may mean "If I don't believe in Jesus", assuming you're Christian. If so, then Buddha, Brahma, and quite a few other dieties would like to have a few words with you.
As would their believers.
And the Jews.
And the Muslims.

I think you get the picture.

Besides: what will I experience in hell? I think there's some eternal
suffering and burning, hellfire & damnation? And shooting through
this all, a knowledge that this omniscient, utterly moral being sent
me here?

Aaaah, I think I see your problem: Y'see, not only do you believe in bodily resurrection, which implies that I'm *not* bodied when I'm in hell, and thus have no pain receptors-- so we can't be burning me, but instead be forcing me to, e.g., watch evangelicals-- but moreover, I'm supposed to be in pain because I deserve to be here!

Of course, you presupposed there was a there there.

:)

Attached for proof:
Dammit (fuzzy on the subject of WHO-dammit, mind you):

Einstein believed in God, do you think you're smarter than Einstein? should *not* be answered with "If he believed in God-- yes!" but instead with "Well, only if he believed in *your* God."

After all, he was a smart hombre. I doubt he believed in any God without special bells & whistles! Be fair :)

And evolution does *not* violate the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states: "The second law states that energy becomes less dense over time and since we cannot move backwards in time, we cannot return to the prior energy density", as quoted from wikipedia.

In layman speak, that means that entropy, the ordering and concentration of energy, cannot increase over time without outside work.

The argument that entropy breaks this system is that life is, by its nature, structured and consists of striving to concentrate energy within itself, creating structure "out of nothing".

Of course, life tends to do messy things like eat (and defecate) or photosynthesize, or both, and respirate. This is because we use energy from our surroundings to overcome entropy, creating loss heat from the food we eat (body temperature) but also allowing our rather complex structures to continue functioning.

Then our adversarial friends counter: but, ahah, we're creating entropy! God is pumping energy into the system to keep the world from becoming a giant pile of dung!

Funny you should mention energy, God, and dung in the same sentence. The Egyptians believed that the Sun was at the same time Amon-Re, a god, and a ball of flaming dung, pushed by a dung beetle. Our Sun bombards the planet with quite a lot of energy, allowing us to 'violate' the second law because we aren't just decreasing the entropy in the system-- we're using the energy put out by the sun to power reactions which increase local diffusion of energy while decreasing internal diffusion, basically by raising the concentration of energy everywhere in the system.

In short, evolution does *not* deny the second law of thermodynamics, because you FORGOT ABOUT THE SUN.

<whew!>

Sorry about all the email!

Great site, btw. I really should be studying, shouldn't I?

The answer to the thermodynamics question on the arguments page has been adjusted to avoid any further enormous missives on the subject.

You make some good points, but in other arguments your responses are
lacking. Is this because you don't have an answer, or is it because your
uneducated lazy mind is too dull to come up with one.

Or perhaps because the arguments are so lame that the real rebuffs are obvious?

Sooooooooooooooooo.... do I have to hate Christianity or am I now against all religion?  BTW, Jesus existed.  That's a fact.  It's just a question of "was he a nutjob fanatic?" or "was he really the Son of God?"  If you're not going to believe in something, then not believe accurately.

It is false to compare satan's religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc. with true Christian religion. I think the problem a lot of atheists have is that they put them all together, the fantasy and the truth.

I think many theists would agree with you, although the Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and any Christians that you would say are not "true" (Mormons?) would disagree with you about where the truth lies. You are correct, however, that atheists tend to lump all faith- or magic-based beliefs together, largely because they are, in their mode of thinking, often exactly the same.

Christianity is supported by evidence, by any measure it is a proven fact.

You need to define, "by any measure." Having studied Christianity for decades, I find the evidence weaker now than I did when I first read the Bible.

If a court case had the evidence that exists for Christianity the jury would take 10 seconds to reach their verdict!

Possible -- but then we'd probably disagree about what that verdict would be. You aren't helping your case here by not defining what version of Christianity you are talking about. Catholicism? Protestantism? Jehovah's Witness? Do you believe in faith healing? Creationism? Christianity is a big topic.

There are so many things in the Bible and the world that can't be explained except through God.

An example would be nice.

False religions are clearly nonsense...

I agree that false religions are nonsense, and I would add to that that there are likely no non-false religions.

...they are full of ridiculous rubbish...

Like three deities that are really the same person, angels getting people pregnant, and talking donkeys?

...they don't change people's lives for the better or save souls.

There are likely no souls to save, but I would disagree about "false" religions changing people's lives for the better. There are lots of people who find peace and a moral center after latching onto a belief system that frees them from the burdens of mortality and active morality. It's kind of sad, really.

Anyone who really looks at different religions will see that everything except Christianity is insane.

There are billions of people who would disagree with you on this. People can be wrong without being insane. Even Christians.

People don't accept it because they are corrupted by satan to believe lies (e.g. "good" people who worship false gods)...

And you think that it's just for someone to be punished forever because a supernatural force has "corrupted" him so that he thinks lies are the trugh?

...or they hate God because they don't want to follow his perfect moral laws.

Where are these perfect moral laws? Thou shalt punch a hole in your slave's ear to show that he's yours forever? Thou shalt not kill except in time of war, when commanded to by disembodied voices, to punish a wrongdoer, or if you're hungry?

Neither of those are an excuse that God will accept, he can see into your heart.

Then God can see that I really, sincerely am trying to discover the truth of how the universe works and, at the same time, live a moral life. If he has perfect morality, then this should be sufficient.

You think people are threatening you with hell like it's an empty blackmail attempt to get you to believe. Nothing could be further from the truth, that would only be true if hell didn't really exist.

It doesn't matter if Hell exists or not. Threatening someone with punishment if they do not believe in something is morally and intellectually vacuous. If someone broke into your house and said that he would torture and kill your family one at a time if you didn't believe he was God, how long would it take you to truly believe he was God? And what if this person could see into your mind and know if you were lying? I'd guess that, no matter how much stress you were under, you could never accept the invader's divinity without first becoming insane.

Hell is real and you will go there if you don't worship your lord.

First off, I don't have a lord. And if the only (or even the main) qualification for avoiding eternal punishment is worship, then I have another reason to question this perfect morality you spoke of.

I say this out of kindness in the hope that you can be spared from the fate you currently deserve.

I appreciate the thought, but why do I deserve an eternity of punishment just because I have not been convinced that your particular magic world view is metaphysically true? And what about people who do believe but do so in the "wrong" way? Do you condemn Mother Theresa, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr. to damnation because they chose the wrong religion?

God doesn't send people to hell out of hate or to punish them, but because they have shown themselves to be unworthy of heaven. Would you want people who are weak minded, corrupt and immoral in paradise?

I understand not wanting the corrupt and the immoral (assuming they couldn't be convinced to be otherwise), but "weak minded?" Are you saying dumb people deserve damnation? Or are you using "weak minded" to label people who are unable to make themselves believe in something they aren't convinced exists?

They belong with satan in his pit of torture because that is what they have chosen for themselves. You have nobody to blame but yourselves!

So someone who was born, raised, and died a native American in the 16th century "chose" eternity in the pit of torture? You, my friend, seriously need to define your terms.

God loves you, I love you...

What do you even mean when you say such a thing? And does your love include condemning me because I am not convinced by your factless arguments?

...God is ready to accept you just allow yourself to give up your immoral ways and see the truth.

I don't believe I'm living immorally, unless you define being immoral as not agreeing with you. And how does someone allow himself to "see the truth" without a logical reason to do so? How about this -- I'll work on allowing myself to believe in God as soon as you show me how by allowing yourself to realize Vishnu's divinity. Deal?

It may make you uncomfortable to live a good life if you have been living is sinfullness, but you will be more happy.

I don't recognize sinfulness since it implies the existence of God, but I believe that I live a moral life, and I'm quite happy this way, thank you very much.

I'm praying for you any I hope you can see sense before it's too late.

Jesus is God! Nobody can deny or disprove that. Same goes with God the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

We've added FSM to our new Links page.