If Yahweh exists, is he a fraud?

[Opoponax]

Yeah, this^. 

I'll add that I'd give a Creator of Everything a helluva lot more credit than the petty, vengeful beast(s) found in the Bible. The idea that it's obsessed with what what we do with our genitals, how we combine certain foods, and that if we fail to abide by those rules that it'll punish us forever----or that our reward for abiding by those rules is to worship it forever is profoundly silly. 

...And what if those 'rules' were a reflection of a greater purpose or a greater understanding?

What if those petty rules were a simplified version of some pretty heavy stuff, that if we can not be faithful to the small God wants us no where around on a universal scale?

Ever put your kid in charge of something petty (like a gold fish or an ant farm) just to see what they do with the 'power?' Just to see if they would be responsible with something larger like a cat or dog?

Again is it so far out of your wheel house you can't equate us in all of our foolish glory, being nothing more than simple children to God?

But assuming such a thing is eternal, if it did create humans for the specific purpose of worshipping it, it appears that it was just a phase it was going through and has moved on to other things. 

...and if 'worship' wasn't on the menu from the beginning?

Or maybe it graduated Middle School For Gods and has been sent away to a boarding school in Sweden for Gods or something like that. It's just as possible as anything else.

or maybe your the one in school and you are not studying for the final exam.

What if WHATEVER. Hardly seems a reasonable basis on which to believe in something that won't simply show up and say "Look at me, I'm really here!" 

And if we're such simpletons, how can we possible be expected to divine The Truth out of a very old book that espouses some lovely things, but also so many awful things as well? And all with no evidence to back it up. And I know you claim to not see any contradictions, so I won't bother arguing with you on that, the same as I don't find any sense in arguing with one who believes gravity on this planet is optional. 

As far as being a student goes, I've done my homework. That's what you and so many like you seem to assume: that if we just read it and listened then we'd see the light. Well, guess what; I've read most of the Bible. I was brought up in a Christian household and I'm a former believer. When I began to doubt the existence of the god I was brought up to believe, I really went to work looking for Him. And I never found Him. I spent countless hours reading both on my own and in formal study, learning the academic arguments for and against God, and thinking and discussing the subject, and at the end, the only reasonable conclusion I came to was that there are no gods. 

And the thing is, I'm still open to it. If some piece of evidence were to come along that was quite convincing, I'd believe. But there isn't. If there is a god, I really hope that it expects us to use our minds and come to our own conclusions based on hard, thoughtful work. A thing with that much power surely can't want creatures that amount to obedient farm animals. What a small god that would be. And what a cruel god it would be to punish its uncomprehending creation for all of eternity for using the only thing that makes us unique.

I'm sorry, but your god and its book just don't stand up.