god has no moral compass

First of all, I will begin by saying that I accept the challenge but I will ignore your rules of "refute 10 verses". To refute 10 verses defeat the heart of the argument. We should take the verses as they are. There is no need to hide that the Bible holds some very brutal passages and instances. Secondly, the assumption that God has no moral compass is a faulty argument for one simple reason. We are attributing human traits on God. That is problematic to say the least. For the sake of argument, if the creator of life takes life, is it immoral? Is it even cruel? If I build a robot, can I not destroy that robot? It is my creation. Philosophers of ethics are still very much in debate on this topic, but even my analogy is troublesome because it is still very limited. We know, and since you established the Bible as the core of this argument and have already assumed that it is truth, I will assume that the Bible is truth in all its words, that God can both take life and restore life (1 Kings 17, 2 Kings 4:18, 2 Kings 13, Luke 7:11, Luke 8:49, Luke 16, John 11, Matthew 28, Matthew 27, Acts 9, Acts 20...). There is also the promise that we will all be restored to life and stand before God (1 Corinthians 15). Thus, at the very least, each verse above which dictates that God took a life, knowing that He is the creator of life and the restorer of life, is he not entitled to take a life? Furthermore with the promise to take a life and THEN restore that life, is He still not entitled to take it? And if not, are we then to claim that we known more and have greater power to discern the outcomes of time and space than God? But, let's take a specific look at some of your claims: A grand number of your chosen verses are stripped of their context. Unfortunately, this is a double edged sword as it makes your verse look like God is cruel (again human personification on a deity is inappropriate) but you lack the context of the verse which can deconstruct an claim. Gen 19:26 Lot's wife is turned into salt. You state that she is turned into salt for "looking back" but what does the Bible actually say? Well, for one, the term "looked back" is the Hebrew verb (please help my my friends) "wat ta bet" - which means to look back with regard or basically to stare. It wasn't a simple glance over her shoulder. Second, your reference assumed that she was punished because she glanced back, but your use ignored the fact that God had given the command that they don't look back. This was disobedience, plain and simple. Though, your argument may be that, "Well death is a bit harsh penalty!" And I would agree, as humans, I agree. But, some things to be aware of -- first of all, what did she see when she looked back? I think this best explains it: An eighth-century midrash from Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer states: The angels said to them, "Do not look behind you since the Divine Presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, has descended to rain brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah." God even warns his most beloved that they cannot see Him: Exodus 33:22 -- God's presence is so great that we simply cannot view Him. Thus, Lot's wife's disobedience was not necessarily cruelty, but folly. If I warn my child to not play near the new construction yard, but he does, and is crushed by a beam. I will be greatly saddened. I will be greatly hurt. But he was warned. So that leads to another question, does God weep or cry with us and for us? Yes! Jesus, God's son and a part of the trinity, wept multiple times that is recorded (John 11:35, Luke 19:41, Hebrews 5:7). But what of God? A snippet from gotquestions.org gives a good snippet to consider: "Even though the Lord needs nothing from us, He has chosen to make Himself emotionally responsive to our choices: " He has sorrow when we rebel against Him (Genesis 6:6; Psalm 78:40). " He can be provoked to anger by our defiance and rejection of Him (Isaiah 65:1"3; Jeremiah 8:19). " He feels jealousy because of our idolatry and worldliness (Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Joshua 24:19). " He rejoices with love over His children (Zephaniah 3:17; Isaiah 62:5). " He hates wickedness (Psalm 5:5; 11:5; Proverbs 6:16). " He has great compassion for His creation (Psalm 103:8; Joel 2:13). God can be saddened, but nowhere in Scripture do we see an indication that the Lord God of heaven"s armies (Zechariah 8:14; Isaiah 22:14) cries tears. Jesus shed tears, showing us God"s sorrow in a very human way. One of the reasons that Jesus came to earth was to help us understand God." For greater depth, I would recommend the book "Knowing God" by J. I. Packer. You also utilized Exodus 4:24 that God had planned to kill Moses, though you specifically stated "tried" which is wholly inaccurate. But again, this was a concern of obedience. In that particular chapter, Moses had been given a task and he failed to do it (Exodus 4:18-26). Again, what was at stake, one man's life or a whole nation? Moses had been groomed for 8 years to do the task God had asked of him, and Moses was planning to walk away from it. Yet, God knows us very well, and we see, yet again and all throughout the bible, someone interceding for the people. Moses's wife interceded for Moses's life, Moses intercedes for the life of all Hebrews. Christ intercedes for the life of all people! Bigger picture wasn't able to be seen by us in a moment, but we must look at the whole picture -- the Greater Good, to be clich". So how many of your verses fall under the condition of obedience? Speaking of obedience, we are told from the very beginning that the punishment for sin is death (Genesis 2:17, Romans 6:23). Again, the established precept that God is real and that God created everything, then God also set the system. If we follow God's decree, to sin is to die, then this punishment is just and not cruel. We have the right and ability to choose right and wrong. I can choose to murder my enemy or love him. I can choose to berate those who challenge me, or invite them into a discussion with me. Which is cruel? He is my enemy, should I not kill him? Should I withhold my love? Is that fair? Should I not love all people? Let's consider the issue of hardening hearts. For example in Exodus 4, it is mentioned that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. This is once again one of those instances where the greater picture, one that we as mere mortals cannot see without help. Why would God harden the hearts of men? In particular, in Pharaoh's case, the Hebrews had lived in Egypt for a long time. By the time that Moses came returned to Egypt to speak on God's behalf most of the Hebrews didn't have a clue who God was. Moses asked God, "Who do I say you are?" (Exodus 3). So, with Pharaoh's heart hardened, God used the miracles (or plagues depending on perspective) to discredit the gods the Hebrews had begun to follow and identify with. How do we know that the Hebrews had turned to the Egyptian gods? Simple, while they were in Sinai, they began to worship Hathor and built a golden calf (Exodus 32) when they were scared. Further more, much of what happened to the Hebrews out in the wilderness starts with disobedience. God provided water (Ex 17), food (Ex 16), and made sure their sandals didn't even wear out (Deut 29:5) which I think clearly demonstrates love as well. However, the people continued to be ungrateful and complain (Numbers 11 and 14, Ex 16) yet God still cared for them and continued to show His power to them by healing and caring for them as well (Num 21) in spite of their complaints. At this point, I believe I have more than adequately seen to your challenge. I would encourage you to select a particular section or verse you wish to investigate deeper and we can take it one step at a time. I eagerly await your reply. :)