Why is it okay when God kills people?

[Harry Nevis]

I was offering that opportunity to Steve, but it's just as well that you took it.

Nothing in Adam's world had ever died so he had no concept of death. That wasn't just the tree of the knowledge of evil. It was the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, Adam had no concept that some things were good and some evil. Then the first time he breaks a rule, he gets capital punishment. Would you treat your child like that? Would you treat your dog like that?

"Should have had faith?" I'm going to be generous  and pretend like you didn't say that.

As far as I can tell the bible doesn't say that nothing had died yet at that time.  Eve told told the serpent that God told her she would die if she ate of the tree.  Maybe he had no concept of good and evil, but Adam knew that God told him he would die if he ate of the fruit and he knew he should obey God.  After he committed the act he didn't say "I didn't know I shouldn't do it", but rather "Eve made me do it".  What you're saying is "I wouldn't punish my children like that, so God shouldn't either".  You're judging God according to your standards.

Actually, I'm judging the christian's concept of god by their elaborate justification for what they believe.  If they had no concept of Good, then they couldn't have decided it was good to follow god, or that god was good.

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No, i think we're ignoring the rationalizations of a believer.  He must have chosen free will over love, also.  Or, at least what normal people call love.

Since to love God would require free will, how does it make sense that he "chose free will over love"? What you seem to mean is that God chose the goal of having us freely choose him over our a world where we would have blissfully existed but incapable of love. If so, I agree--that is what he did.

The idea of free will doesn't negate love.  And to let the myriad of his creations be punished so the few can have free will is hardly love.  And, being god, he could have made his existence obvious without violating free will.  If his existence was obvious, and people knew who he was, but still refused to follow his rules, then it would be closer to fair.  And, since I can conceive of such a god, yours must not exist.