is a Christian God great.

I would like to start by stating that we are debating upon the pretense that the bible is true. Great: adjective: remarkable in degree, magnitude, or effectiveness. * There are 2.1 billion Christians in the world and there are 14 million Jews. * That number alone ascribes the greatness of God. If that is not enough to convince anyone of the greatness of God, then we will have to dig deeper. A being that can convince a father to kill his son, spawn a millenia of worship, and have vast cathedrals built in His name is truly great. This is a semantic paragraph that is here simply to illustrate that God is great. I was not intending to bring up charity, but I think now that the subject has been broached I will. To diminish or outright dismiss the charitable acts of Christianity on the grounds that it is a compulsion, not a choice, would be demoralizing to the trillions of dollars and hours spent in the service of God. There are charitable acts that exist without a church, but a church is able to pool the acts and make a much larger difference. The Bible never even insinuates that it is a commandment to be charitable, it is simply rife with the ideology. I must say at this point that if we were to look at every horror that has befallen the world in the last twenty years, we will always see a long line of churches giving to the aide. Now I will address the "sadistic" nature of God. It would be easy to see commandments as puerile and menacing, but I think perhaps it is more clear described as this: God is our creator and we are His children. You would never let a child into the world without rules and limitations, both to make their behavior more acceptable, and to keep them from harm's way. He would create us with an inherent self destruct in order to insure that we would need to die and thus return to Him. Let's address the "mess" that God has created. Between Hitler and the Crusades, the KKK and the enslavement of women, it is easy to think that God is a bad influence. I must say that the wisdom of the verse 'the sins of the father shall not be revisited on the son', it could be applied backwards. I do not think that we can blame God for the evils of men that hide behind His name. As to the intolerance that He brings into today's society, I must point out that a "true believer" would closely follow the word of his Son. That word is about loving thy neighbor and peace. The last point branches out a ways from the argument, shifting to an obvious bitterness towards the institution of religion, yet I will still address it. The last point first. He must let his children die or we would forfeit free agency. The free will that he guaranteed us all. As to all of the other atrocities that religion brings with it, I must rebut with a theological precept. Jesus was born a Jew. He was also raised a Jew. He spent a good many years trying to convince his countrymen that they had fallen astray. He was even eventually tortured beyond belief by these same kinsman, in order for them to feel a sense of righteousness. I doubt very much that God or Jesus, who knew he must die, wanted to be flogged for three miles and staked out for three days. Religious peoples are often missing the point of the teachings, believing the letter and not the spirit of the Text. All of the horrible things that religious parishioners are committing are certainly not the spirit of their teachings. I look forward to round three. Thank you *Merriam-Webster. Wikipedia religions of the world