Christians!! Why do you believe in a vengeful, genocidal God?

Question

If you count the number of people god kills in the Bible it is at least 2.5 million confirmed, and an estimated 30 million more. Compare this to "satan" who only has 10 confirmed kills in the bible. How do you justify worshiping a god like this? Or a god that gives you free will only to send you to hell to be tortured if you do something "it" ( I refuse to say "he" in reference to your god. The Abrahamic religions have created a god in man's image) doesn't like? Why give free will if you must believe in god to get into "heaven"? Maybe this is why the world is such a violent place-violent gods. And don't give me crap about Muslims-they and Jews are every bit as crazy as Christians and I would ask them the same thing.

IAVVH-This information comes directly from the Bible

Answer 1

They justify it with the assumption that God is good. The logic runs like this:

1. God does something that seems evil. (premise)
2. But God is good. (premise)
3. Therefore, when God seems to be doing evil, he's really doing good, somehow. (conclusion)

As long as they adhere faithfully to premise 2, Christians (and other theists) can never concede that God could do something wrong, even when he does something that seems to affront every meaningful code of morals in the history of the world; his acts of genocide, his mass murderings, his intolerance and arrogance, etc. must all, ultimately, be for the "greater good". For God, the ends justify the means.

The problem, then, is with premise 2. What you should really be asking is: why do Christians think that God is good? What evidence or reasoning do they base this on? Do they base it simply on what the Bible says? If so, they are being cyclic. Do they base it on some personal spiritual experience of profound divine bliss? If so, they are making the unwarranted assumption that (1) such experiences would be impossible without a supernatural creator, and (2) such experiences could never be instilled by a supernatural creator who wasn't perfectly good. Neither seems warranted. (The latter, for example, can be dismissed due to the possibility of an omnipotent Satan existing.)

Ultimately, the two main reasons most Christians see no problem with God's horrific actions in the Bible (such as murdering countless innocent children), are that (1) they've been raised not to question authority, and in particular not to question divine authority, so they simply never even think about the possibility of trying to weigh the good or evil of God's actions. (This is the way I was for much of my life as a theist: I read the Bible many times, but never even considering the possibility that anything God was doing could be wrong, even though I'd have immediately seen that it was wrong if the events in question had been presented in any other context. That's just not the way most people read the Bible: critical, neutral analysis doesn't come naturally.)

And (2) many Christians believe that it is impossible for any real morality or ethical code to exist without an appeal to God. Although this is clearly a patently absurd claim (people have had perfectly functional morality without their conception of God for over 6,000 years, and in modern times secular ethics is exceedingly common, indeed more common and widely-accepted than any one code of religious ethics), it has a lot of appeal for Christians because it saves them from having to worry about whether they're right or wrong: if their moral code is simply the only option possible, then they needn't even consider any alternatives, or consider any faults in their belief system. Ultimately, this error, too, is based on the mistaken idea of authoritarianism--in this case, the idea that ethics must be authoritarian (i.e., they need to be based on some authority) in order to have meaning. In reality, precisely the opposite is the case: any ethics that is based purely on what some authority states is a meaningless one, and an arbitrary one.

Incidentally, no offense meant, but I'm truly disgusted by some of the comments below. Comments like dewcoons' "if you spread out God's murders over thousands of years he ONLY killed 20 people a day!" are pretty horrific. By the same logic, if you spread out the slaughter of 5-6 million Jews in the Holocaust over the course of the timespan that the planet Earth has existed, there's only about one killing a day, so it's not really that bad after all. Have you no respect for human life whatsoever?! I don't mean to be harsh, but this just seems like a direct affront on our humanity and morality. Every single one of those "20 a day" was a human being. Killing even ONE person over the course of those thousands of years would be immoral; killing millions, as God did according to the Bible, is unforgivable. Have we fallen so far in our respect for human life that we praise God for murdering FEWER people than Stalin, killing FEWER people than starvation and war do? Quite a ringing endorsement: "Hey, at least God's not as bad as Stalin! Hallelujah!"

Answer 2

God is all loving and all forgiving. Man is vengeful; man has committed genocide. Not God. Not the Creator or the higher power or the universal energy as some would call it. God gave us free-will and we use it; we are all human and we all make mistakes. We all need to be forgiven at one point and I believe God will be the one to do it. Regardless of abortion, cheating, stealing, and murder. If we are worthy of forgiveness; we will be forgiven. Creating a vengeful God gives Christian leaders power and more money for their cause. People must take refuge in the Christian way or God will strike! (seems to be the thing with these people). What a crock of crap.

Answer 3

I believe in the God of Abraham, Jacob and David, Jehovah God. God is the creator and He set things up the way He wanted. I will not judge them and I will try to follow Him. Just because you don't agree with someone, it doesn't mean they are wrong, or don't exist. If you want to avoid hell and have life ever after, you go by His rules. The bible says no man comes to the Father except through Jesus.

Answer 4

That is one part of the much larger personality of God. Just as there are times in a human life when he may be called upon to use violence to protect others, defense his home and family, prevent crime, etc., there have been times that God has just violent means to protect his people.

Even if you are correct in your estimate of 30 million over the 4000 year history of the scriptures (and if you accept the body count then you have to accept the time table), that averages to about 20 deaths per day. Stack that against all the deaths that are caused daily by police forces around the world, and it will be tiny in comparison. Yet I do not hear you bemoaning as policemen as vengeful, genocidal maniacs.

Of compare it to any war, and it would be a remarkably small number of casualties. And the world is a war between the forces of good and evil.

Now compare that number to the number of people who everyday are saved from famine, starvation, poverty, abandonment by parents, disease, and more around the world, by the love of God and his people, and the number pales even further. Showing the love of God is a much larger part of his being then his anger.

Before you decide that religion and God as the cause of all death in the world, may I remind you that the atheist countries of Russia, China, North Korea, North Vietnam and Cuba managed, in only 70 years to slaughter over 18 million people in the name of atheism. That is a 57:1 kill ratio "victory" over the worst that you claim God has ever accomplished.

Answer 5

You must be talking Old Testament. That was the first version of God.

When the New Testament came out, He was upgraded to God 2.0, and He was a much nicer God. One not as pissed off.

Kind of like the "wacky uncle" in everybody's family who buys you ice cream when you're not supposed to have it.

He had read all the bad press He was getting when He was killing everybody, and turned over a new leaf, so to speak...

Answer 6

Jesus defeated death and hell when he rose from the dead on the thrid day, after being knailed to the cross for our iniquities. He was and is, God in the flesh and was the perfect sacrifice for all sin. Those that put their trust and faith in Him alone will be saved. Its not by our "good works" do we become saved, but it is by believing. He is looking for a personal relationship with you and Him.

By trusting in our "works" to save us, then Jesus work on the cross was of no affect. Jesus was the perfect and spotless lamb, he demonstrated His love for us so that we would not have to parish...

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.



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Answer 7

Actually the way Christians say what the bible says I agree with you. He does sound terrible and I believe that is playing right into Satan's hands. But the truth is the Christians are the liars not god. He condemed violence, saying before the flood that is why he destroyed man kind because the earth was full of violence because of them.
One reason he did destroy people was because of their wickedness. Would it be fair to those who are good to be tortured by wicked people forever? Wouldn't a destruction of the wicked be a kindness.

Answer 8

Just one question to the above answerer who said, "Who are we to question God?"
If you believe that a deity created you in his image, with intelligence, and the ability to question, isn't it possible that he wants you to use that mind AND QUESTION?

To the questioner: each person has to choose in their own mind what to believe in, if anything. All you will do in the meantime is cause antagonism. Sooner or later we will all know what is right for us as individuals. I have chosen, after years of study, to not believe in a deity except for the beauty of evolutionary Nature. But, as I said, I had to study on my own, ask many questions, and decide for myself what was right for me.
If I am wrong, I will find out later. But, if I am right, I would hope that reincarnation or energy transference were true so I could try again in another life, but it would be nice to be reincarnated with all of the knowledge I have amassed during this life.

Answer 9

We believe in a Just and Righteous and Holy all knowing and Almighty God! The God of the Bible is holy and perfect and just.
If He was not just, he would not be perfect. But all He does is for His glory- and for the good of those who love Him--as Romans says.
Do you know that God made a way for us to be with Him? Because sin is horrible and we have all sinned against Him as Romans 3:23 says, and we all need HIS forgiveness- for He is sinless- and He has made a way, through Jesus Christ, salvation through Him! For one must be washed clean from sin in order to receive the kingdom (John 3:3)
Heaven is perfect, just as God is perfect, and yet He is giving us a free gift of salvation, so we can be with HIM forever, because He loves us that much. So those who believe are set free from hell and sin, and given eternal life---also given an understanding of WHO God is, and just how awesome He is!

Answer 10

A cruel man believes in a cruel God. Thomas Paine.