Ok I admit it

[Esquilax]

And you're avoiding my other question too: what was different about the old testament time that made it okay to kill your family for your religion?

I don't know. When I brought up all the bad stuff God did in the Old Testament, that's when my mom said "Are you trying to ruin your mother?"

So the moment you brought up a realistic, difficult question that wasn't heavily biased in favor of the religion they want to believe, they shut down all methods of communication and tried to cow you into silence with, as Jacob says, emotional blackmail. Doesn't anything there seem a tad suspicious to you? If there was an honest answer, a justification that could be given, if god really was good and his actions morally correct, why would your parents need to silence you, instead of providing an answer or urging you to research it yourself? The truth has nothing to fear from investigation, after all; additional knowledge only makes the light shine brighter on what is real. Why would they shut you down like that?

Why don't you want to help me save these poor souls from eternal damnation?

Jacob is respectful enough of our intelligence to understand that the things you're saying aren't going to convince us. It's part of the reason he's so well liked around here; he knows when to play to an audience.

And just to be clear, JL: you could convince me that your god is real, if he is actually real. I don't know a single atheist here who isn't at least open to the possibility, but we'd need good evidence that such a thing exists, and what you're giving us now isn't that. We are open to anything that's true, and you need to ask yourself why this is the one and only thing you believe in that you're having this much trouble coming up with evidence for.