Seriously, hair-splitter GWG, your god is claimed to be the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent creator of the universe, right? You say he’s not a coward (roflmao! what would he have to fear anyway?). So why would an uncowardly, omnipotent, omnibenevolent deity direct mere humans to do so much of his dirty work for him, including slaughtering innocents? He could just selectively and humanely poof bad people out of existence or cause some “accident” to befall them (like the reclosing of the Reed [not Red] Sea on the Egyptian army) instead of ordering “his” people to dash defenseless infants to pieces and rip open pregnant women.

Yaweh may not be a “murderer” by your definition, but the Old Testament leaves absolutely no doubt that he’s a brutal child killer and forcible abortionist – how can any civilized human being possibly justify that? The Geneva Convention prohibits such barbarity – how is it that we humans are more moral and ethical that the deity that supposedly handed down our morals and ethics?

Oh, sure, you can say “He’s God – His Will Be Done” or buck-passing blah-blah to that effect, but what kind of person would make excuses for, much less worship, a deity whose behavior is no better than that of human dictators like Caligula, Vlad “The Impaler” Ţepeş, or Idi Amin? “God of Peace” – HA!

It’s disappointing when someone who professes to understand what the Bible teaches is so oblivious of its actual content (as well as the centuries of theological debate thereon), but that’s the Dunning-Kruger Effect for you.

Mr. Harvey, if you are so weak that you need to either love, fear, or worship a monotheistic wrathful God to keep you from harming others and make you a charitable person, then I WANT you to believe in God. It doesn’t make you an idiot, but it does make you weak. Heaven forbid you use your faith and start using your accrued wealth and fame to start killing and raping Atheists and alternative worshippers across the land (see the Crusades).

But we would see that coming. First you would start going on tv and telling people how they are bad and dumb and generally lesser people not worth talking to if they don’t share your beliefs… wait a minute….

I suppose Mr. Harvey should have chosen a different metaphor. Barometers the world over are beholden to the apparent physical constants. Morals lack such a beautifully simple and unifying framework.

The innumerable divergences of morals both in concept and in practice among populations with a religion (and therefore a moral barometer) indicates, perhaps, that we made the whole thing up in the first place.

That on the whole, across populations and generations, there are common moral tenets, indicates biology at least, and an evolved biology at best.

Posit: if there are no people, there are no morals. Start there, then work forward.

You say that Christians are taking their morals from a murderer. But that is simply not true.

You have to define murder before you can attach that title to God.

Murder is, according to the American Heritage Dictionary:

– The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with
premeditated malice.

– To kill brutally or inhumanly.

Now, if you wish to break it down in its simplest terms, murder is trying to get revenge, to kill someone out of anger, to seek to gain something by that person’s death, or to simply kill for fun.

When God orders someone to kill, He does so in the context of…killing.

Killing is defined as:

– To put to death.
– To deprive of life

You see, killing another human being is acceptable in certain circumstances in the Bible.

Circumstances such as:

– Self Defense
– Times of War
– Punishment for a crime
– Judgment from God

These are all in total and complete agreement with the teachings of the Bible. And these circumstances are also morally and ethically sound.

Also, these acts are examples of justice. When God orders the killing of a human being, He does so as the universal standard of evil and good. If something does not measure up to His perfection, it is called sin. So when God judges a person, He does it like a judge rendering a verdict.

However, God is not a God of war. If anything, He is a God of Peace. But He is not a coward and He will not back down when good is threatened by evil.

He gives us parameters on this area of killing in the Bible.

I hope this has made sense to you and I hope it also presents a clearer picture of the God of the Bible.

In Christ,
GWG

Atheism doesn’t have to provide a standard of morality, because it’s not a religion with a specific text to follow. It’s simply a lack of belief in a higher power. The individual atheist can take his or her morals from philosophy and secular ethic systems.

I think the problem with most atheists is not that they’re idiots or that they lack the mental capacity to see that there is a God (even though plenty are idiots). Their problem is a sniveling contempt for truth in preference for their way, their world, their lifestyle, their…