My honest review of Christianity

[DeistPaladin]

All I did was to agree that his actions have been terrifying, which they are. I can't read the old testament accounts without realizing that.

And what do we call attempting to coerce a certain behavior through terrifying actions?

I'll give you two hints: it uses the same root word you used, "terrifying" and ends with "ism".

I didn't call him "bloodthirsty" and I didn't say that he is unjust or unloving.

Of course you didn't. You want to believe your god is good and the religion you serve is good. Perfectly understandable. In fact, commendable, since I assume you wouldn't knowingly serve an evil god even if offered a reward.

And yet my description is exactly what happened. Your god hardened the heart of the Egyptian king and explicitly said he was doing so in order to demonstrate his power. That demonstration, among other things, included widespread slaughter of children.

Now there's a thing called "cognitive dissonance" where two conflicting ideas need to be reconciled. "Yahweh is good". "Killing little children to demonstrate power is bad." What must ensue is a number of possible rationalizations, along the lines of "mysterious ways" or "must have been a good reason" or "some greater good" but I can promise you they'll all sound lame to the non-believer. My use of the word "bloodthirsty" stands.

How about him becoming man and and suffering death on the cross so that everyone who ever lived on the earth could have eternal happiness? Doesn't that portray a loving God?

Where the OT god was a bloodthirsty sociopath, the NT god is barking insane.

He had to become his own son to sacrifice himself on a cross because doing so was the only way he could convince himself to forgive us.

Do you see how that seems crazy to a non-believer?

I can forgive others without killing myself. I assume you can as well. Why can't your god?