Debating

So today is Tuesday. Yayyyy tuesday. I'm running away from my homework for a second so I can breathe later.

So...today, during science, I had a 'religion' debate with my friend (Jia). It was...interesting. She had a lot of questions about Christianity and how I know it's true (she's an Atheist). I tried my best to defend my relationship with Christ but respect what she believed in (which, might i add, was rather hard.) She asked a lot of questions like: (feel free to answer and give me your opinion)
-Is Jesus also God?
-Where did God come from?
-When people die, what will happen to them if they don't believe in an afterlife?
-How do you know that the future is set in stone?
-What really IS a soul?

Now, if you REALLY know me, I'm never really ready for these kind of things. I can think of a GREAT relation to the question 5 minutes later, but not on the spot. BUT. I was so proud of myself...she asked 'So why would God send his son down here to a (quoting) hell like this?' And I replied 'The same reason that Jesus died for you.' And she DIDN'T HAVE AN ANSWER TO THAT!! SO THAT MIGHT STICK IN MY HEAD!!! Oh that made me so happy. Anyway, that made another whole set of questions like 'Did Jesus ACTUALLY die?' 'Why DID Jesus die for the sinners?' 'Why WOULD he?' Anyway, after questions like this, she came with the toughie that EVERYONE struggles with.

Why does God let bad things happen? (She used the Holocaust as an example)

I kinda knew that the Jews were 'damned' from the beginning from the whole Egyptians and Jews thing, and Jesus DID (for lack of word) foreshadow that something would happen to them. So...I don't know. I didn't really answer with that. I wasn't sure if she would understand. By the way, we completely didn't do our work in science, but our science teacher (who rocks) saw that we were in a huge debate and she let us off the hook. :D I love her. Anyway, after science, we started towards German II with Julie (my short asian friend) and they both started hurling questions at me like 'How do you know that the Bible is true and it isn't just a piece of crap?' (Julie is a Buddhist) 'How do you know that some people made it up to make you feel better?' And me, being awful at answering questions on the spot, didn't answer. I guess I'm not very good at this testifying thing...oh bother. I feel awful that I couldn't answer the questions, but I didn't want to just make an answer up. But, if you do or don't know them, just please pray for God to soften their hearts. And for me to remember all of the memorized verses I have stored in my dense (with knowledge!!!) head that always seem to disappear when I need them the most...

~Jenny