The suffering of mankind [in this life or the afterlife] is not the fault of God.

It seems the topic of the debate has shifted slightly. Are we talking about the question, "Is God to blame?" or the question, "Should we blame God?" If we're talking about the second, I'd say no. I'm saying this because that question is about the mindset you should adopt when bad things happen to you. In a paragraph above, you spoke of why we can't blame God because, "We aren't 5 year olds with handguns, we are intellegant[sic], capable, and reasonable human beings." And I agree: responsible human beings do not seek to place blame when something goes wrong, they seek to see what they can do about it. I bring this up, because my opponent's arguments seem to be centred around this idea, that we shouldn't blame God, because that's not a decent/mature/responsible thing to do. However, the name of the debate indicates that the actual question is, "Is God to blame?" That is to say, if we look at the situation as impartial observers, as if we were judges in a trial, would be be forced to concede that a being in God's position is responsible for the suffering of mankind? So for the rest of the debate I ask my opponent to forget, if possible, about how we should behave and instead just focus on God as an entity. Ie, if God did not exist and another being did who fit the same definition, would you find that being responsible for the suffering of man? Okay, seeing as we're using a classical God, I give you Epicurus' Triad: * God is omnipotent. He has the power to do anything, absolutely anything. (With the possible exception of things like moving, making square circles, etc. Not going into this now as three rounds isn't long enough.) * God is omnibenevolent. He is wholly good. * There is gratuitous suffering and pain and general misery in the world. (Can you see why He doesn't add up yet?) Right off the bat, I'm going to equate gratuitous suffering and pain with evil: if my opponent wishes to argue that to knowingly cause gratuitous suffering ('gratuitous' here meaning 'more than necessary') is not an evil act, then I think our morals are too far removed to properly continue this debate. So, there are acts of gratuitous evil happening all over the world. God, being omnipotent, has the power to stop these. If I have the power to do something, that I decide not to do, I have made a choice. I am therefore responsible for that choice. If I don't stop a child bullying another child, or see someone drop their wallet and say nothing, I am responsible for the choice, even though I had nothing to do with the situation. So, we immediately have to conclude that every bad thing that happens is God's choice, and therefore God's fault. Yes, I'm blaming God for hurricane Katrina: He saw it coming, He could have prevented it, and He didn't. I can even blame God for global warming: even though it's us that have done it, He has the power to reverse it, and He has not. God is omniscient. So, compared to us, He must be infinitely more wise and mature. Looking at us next to a being like that, my analogy of man as a five-year-old child is frankly quite a generous one. And if I give the kid my handgun, and then give him a list of Commandments* saying that he shouldn't shoot anyone, no jury in the world is going to sympathise when I say, "Well, I told him not to. He's an intelligent and reasonable lad. He has to learn to deal with the consequences of his own decisions." And now we're back to life as an endurance test. I'm not really convinced by your rebuttal, as making someone go through a lifetime of unpleasantness just to make it clear to them why they were predestined for Hell definitely comes under my definition of causing gratuitous suffering. Not to mention, God is still the one who decided to do it, and so whatever His reasons, He is still to blame. But God is omnipotent: He has the power to make each soul strong enough to get into Heaven. So the fact that some do not must also be a choice of His. Which means that He is directly responsible for creating Hell and then deliberately crafting souls to throw into it. In conclusion, as an omnipotent being, God cannot escape responsibility for any single evil act committed throughout the course of history. Neither can we say that allowing such an act was necessary, as God also has the power to take us all directly into Heaven. The only way we can logically say that God was not responsible for any given thing is if God does not have the power to prevent it. This then leads to a definition of God that would be considered unworthy of worship. *This argument does not even cover those who never get to see the Commandments. If a hitherto undiscovered society's laws do not happen to coincide with them, does that mean they all end up in Hell, despite having lived what they were encouraged to believe were model lives?