Why "mysterious ways" don't matter.

[The Grand Nudger]

Conversely, a man driving his car on his way to volunteer at the puppy orphanage swerves to help an old lady cross the street, and hits and kills a man in the process. This is a scenario for which the actors motivations are entirely known and, indeed, benevolent, and yet he would still be charged with manslaughter for his inattention.

He'd be charged with manslaughter for committing manslaughter, not for being inattentive.

It's really the same across the board "But your honor I had good intentions when I killed that man" noted - and irrelevant (as you've already commented).

You can intend to kill some douchebag all day long - and so long as you lack or fail to provide yourself with the opportunity to carry that out.....and don't make that intention known- pretty much specifically to cops or the potential victim.......you're not going to be getting a summons anytime soon. This is pretty much the camp I'd put the christian god in. If the stories are to be relied upon in the most minor of ways - the guy clearly wants us dead....but since all of his mass killings have been imaginary, apparently, his fantasies - and since I have no reason to believe that he'll ever actually possess the means to carry out his fantasies...I'd just lock his silly ass in a glass box, rather than pursuing criminal charges.

Similarly, no matter how much you may not have intended to commit a crime - the crime was still committed and you are still guilty. This is where we are if the stories are to be relied upon as absolute fact. God, good intentions and all, has condemned (quaintly, cursed) us to death from before the moment of our births due to the alleged crimes of another. We might pick through the narrative line by line, and ask about suffering - but it hardly matters. He made the threat, carried it out, and continues to maintain that position of menace - ostensibly, in perpetuity or until such a time as he decides to pull the plug on anyone else who might be left standing. He both possesses the means - and has a clear history of violence. Bailiff, get this fucker outta here.

Mysterious ways isn't just useless and irrelevant, it sets the bar lower for a god than we set for ourselves. It's insulting to both human beings and the concept of god. In it's ignorance - and it is entirely an argument from ignorance - it assaults our notions of ethics, law, and moral responsibility.

Some god, some mystery.