Ten Reasons I'm Not a Christian

[genkaus]

I see this topic of the God of the Old Testament coming up a lot here. Why does He seem so cruel? Well first we need to examine our definition of cruelty. Cruelty is “willfully or knowingly causing pain to others” or “enjoying the distress of others.” Both of these are accompanied by malice toward the victims.

Wrong.

Cruelty means "deliberate infliction of pain on others". Malice or enjoyment in the pain may act as indicators, but a infliction of pain on others would be cruel even when there is no malice or enjoyment present. Therefore, the god of old testament would still be a cruel being even if he did not enjoy the infliction of pain.

Malice is not part of God’s nature.

All evidence to the contrary.

He has no reason to be angry at His creation, because He created it knowing how it would turn out—a perfect world ruined by our free will.

You don't think that ruining of a perfect creation is reason to get angry?
Although, I don't think that free will ruins the world in any sense. The fact that you consider free will to be a defect in perfection is very telling, however.

Prior to sending the Flood, Genesis 6:6 says, “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” This was in response to our evil hearts. He was disappointed, though not surprised, that we chose sin over Him. Later, Jesus is seen weeping after the death of Lazarus (John 11:35)—not because he was sad Lazarus had left earth for heaven, but because he felt Mary’s and Martha’s hurt.

So what? Like I said, whether or not he was happy at causing pain is irrelevant. What matters is that he deliberately chose to inflict pain. That makes him cruel.

Also, you are disappointed when things don't turn out the way you hope or expect. If god knew everything, then he had no reason to hope or expect anything different - therefore, no disappointment is possible.

Given this evidence, God is good at least in some contexts. If He’s God why would He have mood changes and be ‘bad’ other times? Living apart from time and space, His mind is constant.

If his mind was constant, then no emotion would be possible to him. He wouldn't be able to grieve, be disappointed or love. Emotions are characteristic to a changing mental state.

And because of that mind He sees things more clearly. Why did He order parts of Canaan to be destroyed by the Israelites? We ask this question because we demand justice. Well, those who died deserved death. We all deserve death.

And how do you go from "some people deserved to die" to "everyone deserves to die" ? Please explain to me why do you deserve to die and I'd be happy to give you what you deserve.

God is perfectly good,

Actually, the only thing you have been able to justify is that he is good in some contexts. That is far from "perfectly good".

but He is also perfectly just, meaning someone (Jesus) had to die for our sins if God were to keep His nature.

What a spectacular example of justice!

Someone has to hang for the crime. Whether the one who hangs is the one who actually committed the crime or not is irrelevant, just as long as someone hangs.

According to your viewpoint, it is alright if one death-row prisoner is let out in exchange for you going to the electric chair.

If Jews fabricated the Bible, why would they include the portions you take offense to?

Because they wrote it for themselves, not us.

Why would they risk deterring you when they could create a fairy tale God who answers our every need?

They did.

Rather, God seems to contradict Himself because our human minds are not large enough to understand His greater purpose. The Creator is always more complex than the created.

Yes, the old "mysterious ways" bullshit. Its amazing what logical convolutions human mind is capable of when trying to preserve a cherished lie.

If something seems to contradict reality in your everyday life, you don't hesitate in calling it a lie. But as soon as "god" is involved, its "mysterious ways" and do not question.

For instance, God views death differently than we do.

Well, then, he needs to die. Only then would he be able to understand our perspective.

To Him there is no time. We die when our purpose is finished, be it in infancy or after a hundred years.

When God oversaw deaths in Old Testament times, He did not maliciously murder individuals.

He did murder them, maliciously or otherwise.

He was only giving them their due, as a judge condemns a criminal.

Except, he punished those who committed no crimes.

We look at murder like it is the worst thing in the world. But it is not when your Creator is terminating the life He Himself gave you.

Bullshit. Once the life is given, it is no longer his to take away.

God is not bound by our laws or predispositions.

Clearly. If he had, he'd have been executed long ago.

In the case of the OT, He was showing us in literal terms what happens to unbelievers after life. God was paving the way for the success of His people.

So was Hitler. All he wanted was to pave the way for success of aryans.

The purpose that mattered most was the coming of Jesus out of Israel. And that included His sacrifice for the life of our souls for eternity. Which is more important?

Mattered to whom? Important to whom? If you ask the Canaanites, I'm sure they'd have a different perspective.

Carm.org found a pattern in God's OT judgments:
1. God declares an annihilation form of judgment to stamp out a cancer

Whether those annihilated did anything to deserve it or not.

2. The judgments are for public recognition of extreme sin

Whether there was any actual sin or not.

3. Judgment is preceded by warning and/or long periods of exposure to the truth and time to repent

Whether they had the capacity for it or not.

4. Any and all ‘innocent’ adults are given a way of escape with their families; sometimes all given a way to avoid judgment via repentance or leaving a particular region. It should also be noted that expulsion from a land was the most common judgment, not extermination.

All? Really? And what about "innocent" children?

5. Someone is almost always saved (redeemed) from the evil culture

A few.

6. The judgment of God falls

You are right. Atleast he's consistent in his arbitrariness.

Most everything God did in the Old Testament was to lead us to Jesus, from Passover sacrifices (symbolized in the lamb) to the rule of David (called the Son of David).

Excepting ofcourse, those he killed.

The Old Testament is a record of our failures, and a visual demonstration of the usually spiritual judgment carried out against us.

Yes, the inability of god to find any peaceful way to impart his message really demonstrates failures on our part.

It shows us how little we can do on our own. We need a gift—someone to pay the price of our crimes. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And this is the corrupt vision of man that your religion promotes. Instead of a noble and masterful being, you chose to present him as a crawling, impotent creature. Instead of a being that is capable of standing on his own, you present him as something that is incapable of it, something that needs charity and mercy.

It is not surprising. The first thing one must do to get someone to accept a religion is tell him that he is incapable of self-reliance.

God, being just, sends His son Jesus to die in our place. All we have to do is say we’re sorry, make a commitment to loving God instead of ourselves, and accept His gift.

Even if your fairy tail was true, there is no way any moral person would accept this heinous crime as a "gift". To have a man killed for crimes he did not commit - and not just any man, one that might be looked upon as
a perfect human - that action itself is so corrupt that even the suggestion of looking at it as a good thing must repulse anyone with a shred of morality.