God is Cruel

Hello. I am new on this site and this will be my first debate here. :)Thank you for providing this topic for debate. The 6 simple statements you outline should make for interesting discussion. I will consider your 6 statements by reference to the Bible, which I personally believe to be a reliable eyewitness record of true history.Has God caused suffering?May I start by acknowledging that the biblical description of God points to God as having brought terrible suffering and death (which we may say is a form of suffering) upon many, throughout history. The following list, which indicates times when God killed people, was once presented to me by an atheist:"It always amazes me how many times this God orders the killing of innocent people even after the Ten Commandments said “Thou shall not kill”. For example, God kills 70,000 innocent people because David ordered a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21). God also orders the destruction of 60 cities so that the Israelites can live there. He orders the killing of all the men, women, and children of each city, and the looting of all of value (Deuteronomy 3). He orders another attack and the killing of “all the living creatures of the city: men and women, young, and old, as well as oxen sheep, and asses” (Joshua 6). In Judges 21, He orders the murder of all the people of Jabesh-gilead, except for the virgin girls who were taken to be forcibly raped and married. When they wanted more virgins, God told them to hide alongside the road and when they saw a girl they liked, kidnap her and forcibly rape her and make her your wife! Just about every other page in the Old Testament has God killing somebody! In 2 Kings 10:18-27, God orders the murder of all the worshipers of a different god in their very own church! In total God kills 371,186 people directly and orders another 1,862,265 people murdered." (I note that this quote is actually from the website evilbible.com)Seems pretty heavy-handed, right? How could this be a God of love?!?Furthermore, let us not forget the account where God destroyed the entire planet with a global flood, while Noah and the animals aboard the Ark were allowed to survive. Some estimates of the number of people killed in this flood, are in the billions.Was/is suffering unnecessary?To answer this question we should firstly look at why any suffering or death exists in the first place.From the Biblical account, consider the following: God is love (1 John 4:8) Love does not demand its own way/is not self-seeking. (1 Corinthians 13:5) Therefore, love requires someone other than oneself, toward whom it can be expressed [Note: this may be a "need" God has. The finger of God himself wrote in the 2nd Commandment that he is jealous of our affection toward any other gods or thing (Exodus 21:4). So it may be incorrect to say "God has no needs".] God made mankind; Adam and Eve(Genesis 1:26 and 2:7) Originally, everything was very good when God made it (Genesis 1:31) God loves mankind (John 3:16) God gave Adam and Eve freedom to choose their own way: "But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat... except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”” Adam and Eve exercised the freedom to eat the forbidden fruit, thereby rejecting God and his love. Thus, suffering and death began, and continue today, as per the curse in Genesis 3:17-19 So, we can see that the word of God himself warned about death, and He declared it when our ancestors rebelled. God cannot lie. Here is the curse of suffering and death in Genesis 3: "Then he said to the woman,“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,and in pain you will give birth.And you will desire to control your husband,but he will rule over you.[c]”17And to the man he said,“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the treewhose fruit I commanded you not to eat,the ground is cursed because of you.All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.18It will grow thorns and thistles for you,though you will eat of its grains.19By the sweat of your browwill you have food to eatuntil you return to the groundfrom which you were made.For you were made from dust,and to dust you will return.” And this is confirmed in the New Testament. Romans 5:12-21 tells us:Adam and Christ Contrasted 12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. 13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. 14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. 15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. 20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Accordingly, if we apply this to your 6 statements: #2 is questionable. #4 may be true if mankind never sinned or ate the forbidden fruit or did anything imperfect. But mankind did reject God, so #4 is false. (If I was Adam and the hottest naked woman, who I was deeply attracted to,invited me to join her to eat, I would do it! :D) #5 is false. Therefore, #6 is false and God is not cruel. In a following round I can address the question: Is God causing suffering and death today?