Gods actions can be unappealing, but man's actions are far more dangerous to life on planet Earth!

My opponent doesn't understand my view of God, doesn't understand God's limitations, doesn't understand why he would create a planet with organism's that could die on it. Welcome to the larger, diverse world of theology. I'm a pantheist; specifically I believe in a God that is analogous to the universe. To me the universe is conscious, super-intelligent, and can arrange itself (within the limits of natural principles) to create the exotic stuff in the cosmos. God, like man, is limited in what he can construct, in what he can accomplish however. To better express the idea, man is a physical example of mind over matter, of space-time and cosmic forces wielding influence over particulates of matter that in concert interacts with the larger universe. My brand of pantheism argues that the larger universe is also composed of mind - besides matter. The science of quantum mechanics demonstrates that the behavior of all matter has a capacity for uncertainty. I chalk up this uncertainty and unpredictability to the influences of mind and choice.The greater universe - God - has some freedom to do what he wants, but he is also restrained by natural laws, and so he can't do anything he wants. Man is in the same boat. My opponent mentioned that God would have to be incredibly cruel to have wiped out 75% of all life millions of years ago - including the dinosaurs. Well, it all depends on how you look at it. Yes, it's my belief that God did intentionally wipe out 75% of all life then, and he's been doing it ever since life first emerged on this planet. God has a hand in natural selection, and it would make sense that he would favor organisms capable of surviving in harsh conditions on Earth. If God's aim is survival of capable organisms, natural selection, which happens all the time, would certainly play a part in it. Dinosaurus died out, as did other creatures - but mammals thrived as a result. Organisms capable of adapting and surviving have always been the champions in these events. Even then, life on Earth has always thrived since its inception. Life has continued.Now, my opponent argues as if the death of animals is wrong - and so we should hold this up as an example of God's injustice. In the previous ROUND I demonstrated why things will inevitably die - all things! No living thing will achieve eternal life, due to the natural accumulation of errors and entropy. Billions of years from now, even the universe will experience a heat death, and beyond that point it will be incapable of constructing complex macromolecules anywhere in the universe [1]. Life in the universe will come to an end [2]. God has limits.But let's review the death of animals, and the moral implications my opponent wants to place on that. Since his inception, my opponent has consumed life forms to preserve his own life. Currently he's a teenager, and at this point he has consumed tens of thousands of other lifeforms to preserve his own life. Tens of thousands - at least! He's taken life from thousands of others to sustain his own. He's also killed life forms for other reasons too. Since his birth, his body- his internal system - has killed millions of micro-organisms to keep him alive. He's also bathed countless times in his life and has killed billions of micro-organisms to keep himself hygenically clean. Other examples come up. But will my opponent sacrifice his own life to preserve the life of numerous organisms he will undoubtedly kill in the future. Almost certainly not. If my opponent wants to throw this moral implication at God, he must apply to himself as well. But I assure you he will ignore it - overlook it - to carry on with his life. Like the God he shames, my opponent has murdered hundreds of billions of other organisms at this point in his life. He has been the asteroid that ended their's, all while most struggled to preserve their lives! And my opponent will continue killing - and he will justify it on selfish, philosophical grounds. He is more complex, he is more intelligen than them he will say. He will use this "status" to justify his continued massacring of other organisms. On this basis he is practically no different from the God he shames.But unlike God who has worked to preserve biological life on Earth (in spite of the impending heat death eons from now), humankind poses a threat to the quality of intelligent life on Earth. It also has the capacity to eradicate all life on the planet. Global warming poses a significant problem to mankind - if allowed to continue unimpeded (with the addition of CO2 emmissions from human activity) the planet will continue to be altered. The extent of this problem includes a diminishing of life on Earth, as global warming will alter landscapes and transform eco-systems; biological life requires a range of suitable temperatures to survive, due to important metabolic and life-sustaining chemical processes. If the Earth becomes too hot, life will be eliminated, and the Earth will become like the planet Venus, covered in thick green houses gases, unable to support life.It's no wonder that God has imposed laws and morality on mankind, being that humans are stewards of the Earth. Morality and laws are intended to keep the quality of life high for intelligent beings like ourselves. No, I don't believe that the Bible is infallible or that its writers were even free of dangerous prejudices and heinous beliefs, but as a pantheist I do believe God has communicated to man throughout history, and instructed the species to live within a system of self-imposed laws to prevent unneeded tragedy and extinction. Do not murder. Do not steal. Be fair. Seek justice. Take care of his creation.When man fails to accomplish these things, he becomes a menace, and God must attack societies as a surgeon attacks cancer in a patient. He must kill the threat (certainly put it on notice) and guide communities so that they change their ways. God will use a lot of things at his disposal to achieve this. An outbreak of STD alerts people that they need to be more chaste with sex; a nation repeatedly hit by hurricanes and tornados is advised that it needs to be more mindful of its contribution to global warming; vicious unemployment is used to tell a continent that it must be more austere with its economic behavior. Humans have the capacity to destroy life's quality, to promote misery, and encourage death.Human inequality and a failure to respect fairness in the world has always added to its misery. Whenever nations rise to promote these philosohies, God must respond with severe penalties to remind mankind that certain action will be met with largescale death and loss.Yes, even the innocent can be victims. But it's intentional.The blameless Jesus Christ died for man's sins. He died in place of a murderer, who was guilty.In an imperfect universe, the actions of the guilty kill the innocent. We're meant to think on that! [1] [2] http://en.wikipedia.org...