I actually met god in a dark back corner of a busy street

First I have a question of my own. Why would you ask questions about the bible to someone who was very clearly not a Christian? Only a theologian or someone who has studied the bible intensely would be able to answer all of your questions. Secondly, resorting to name calling is very juvenile, especially for someone that is as you say 42+ years old. You say that you have studied the Bible and that you " care about peace, kindness, harmony, care for each other", but your understanding is seriously flawed because of you poor comprehension of simple vocabulary and you have not proven yourself to be a kind person. Fact: the existence of Jesus is proven. Even down to the existence of Pontius Pilate (the man who sentenced Jesus to death) who had a Roman city dedicated in his honor. If then Jesus was real, then so was the miracles that he preformed as well as his death. If God was really as horrible as you say, then why would He send His Son to suffer and die as human being so that we may live in Him. If you are unaware of the brutality of the Roman Empire, then let me educate you. Jesus was betrayed by his own people, the Jews and one of his followers. Then he was taken before Pontius Pilate and found not guilty of any wrong doing yet still was condemned to death. He was brutally whipped with the cat of nine tails that is a type of multi-tailed whip that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment, in this case it has sharp objects attached to it. He was beaten, humiliated, and ridiculed. He was forced to carry a massive wooden cross on His back (post whipping), where he nearly pasted out from blood loss, and forced to wear a thorn crown upon his head. And as if that wasn"t bad enough, He was nailed to the cross he was forced to carry to eventually die of asphyxiation. But I'm sure in all your studying, that you know all this. Now here's the part you may not know. Do you know that in order to breathe on the cross He had to push himself up on his feet that were nailed down, rubbing his back that was torn to shreds against the cross, to inhale and then pull himself back down again to exhale? All this was done to him but he took it because he wanted us to join his in heaven. In the Old testament, the Jews had to perform an animal sacrifice to cleanse them of their sins. When Jesus died on the cross, He took the place of the animal sacrifice and gave himself up to be the pure sacrifice. Now Jesus was wholly human but also completely divine. He was born without sin and died just as pure. This make His life the only one that could redeem humanity. All those that give their lives over to God are saved from before and after the death of Jesus. Now here is where I attempt to answer your questions. First all those people died because they were sinners without faith. As for the children, the parents condemned them when they chose to live that type of life. In the Old testament, their was nobody who could save them and they were doomed to the destructive life of their fathers. The Great Flood, was a way to cleanse the earth of the foul things done to it by man. It was also a way to show Noah and the generations of people to come, the great might of God. You say that God should just come down to earth and show everyone up, but God has done so much to prove His existence and yet you still don't believe. His coming down to earth and all that jazz would only cause more dissonance. I would rather believe in God and that I have a purpose in this life, than believe in a theory that defies the second law of thermodynamics (macro-evolution). (The second law of thermodynamics says that when energy changes from one form to another form, or matter moves freely, entropy (disorder) increases.) God does not hate gays, God loves all people. Quite frankly, you use the term "hate" way too liberally. Hate is defined as "intense or passionate dislike". God does not hate all these things that you say He does. The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek, but when translated to English, some of the passages lose their meaning or become hard to understand. As for His communication to us, God didn't communicate in text form. He spoke or made the men who WROTE the Bible understand Him. Man is imperfect and so are the works of his hands. I didn't answer all of your questions because I figured that you would get a headache reading all of this. Thank you for your time.