Misconceptions - 4. God is Evil

When I am debating Atheists I find that, when you dispelled all of their 'scientific' reasons why God doesn't exist (one such  reason being Evolution) they turn to the character of God & why suffering happens. Whilst I covered suffering a few weeks ago twice. I haven't covered the strange Atheist argument that God is Evil.

This opinion is most famously expressed by Richard Dawkins in his widely seeling book 'The God Delusion':-


'the God of the Old Testament is...petty, unjust, vindictive, bloodthirsty, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal...'


My first thought on reading it this is that Dawkins has clearly not read the Bible! I think this quote pleases Atheists and riles Christians not because it is true, but because it is a blatant lie being propagated as truth.

Rabbi Moshe Averick (a Jewish rabbi would know the Old Testament very well) in his new book 'Nonsense of High Order' responds to this as such:-

'Can an intellectually honest and open minded person ignore the fact that this same deity commands the Israelites not to take revenge or bear a grudge, to view the use of inaccurate weights in business as an abomination, to view all human beings as created in the image of God, to open our hands wide to those in poverty, not to oppress the stranger who lives among us, to leave a portion of every field unharvested for the poor, never go to war against an enemy without first offering peace, that "justice, justice shall your pursue", to "love your neighbor as yourself"?


Atheists will bring up passages where God has commanded that certain acts will be condemned by death with some of them being seen as particularly harsh in today's world. But the problem for them is this:-

1. Context - what may be harsh today may have been perfectly reasonable when commanded. Also, Old Testament commandments were fulfilled in Jesus so that Grace comes by following Him not these laws. God knows the context of today too!
2. Morality - How can argue with God about His morality? HE invented morality!?! He invented Justice! You could say that instead you are arguing with Christians about God's morality, but the problem there is how you do account for the existence of morality without the existence of a higher power? No answer I have ever seen has been anywhere near satisfactory and often have Atheists declaring that rape etc. is okay if someone decides it is.
3. Attitude - the Israelites never just decided to kill off a group. The groups that were killed off were groups practicing child sacrifice and other detestable things which God hated and wanted gone.

Ephesians 2:4-5

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God is not evil, He all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving and all-amazing!