The Biblical Actions of the Christian God are Inconsistent with Its Biblical Attributes (et al)

The proposition on offer is that the biblical actions and statements of the Judeo-Christian god are inconsistent with attributes ascribed to this entity in various parts of the same document. This includes inferences based on the proscriptions and orders of this entity. Also, it is impossible to know the character of God based on the Bible, as the document is inconsistent on some attributes of God's character. For example: Psa 103:8 - "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." Lev 25:17 - "Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the LORD your God." From these two passages we would ascribe the following attributes to God: 1. Merciful 2. Gracious 3. Slow to anger (calm, rational, reasonable) 4. Against slavery and oppression. ********************************* The following are five examples of inconsistencies between God's actions and ascribed attributes: 1. Opinion of Slavery Lev 25:1, 17 - "And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying... Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the LORD your God." Gen 25:27a - "Let peoples serve you, and nations pay you homage; Be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you" Lev 25:44 - "Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids." 2. Righteousness 2 Pet 2:7-8 - "And [God] delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) " Gen 19:8 - "Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. " 3. Perfection of God's Law Psa 19:7 - "The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple." Heb 8:7-8 - "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:" 4. Merciful Psa 103:8 - "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." Exo 34:6 - "And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth," Jer 13:14 - "And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them." Lam 3:43b - "Thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied." 1 Sam 15:2a, 3 - "Thus saith the LORD of hosts... Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and a$$." 1 Sam 6:19 - "And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter." 5. Warlike / Peaceful Heb 13:20a - "Now the God of peace..." 2 The 3:16 - "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all." Rom 15:33 - "Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen." Exo 15:3 - "The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name." Psa 18:34 - "He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms." Psa 144:1 - "Blessed be the LORD my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:" ********************************** A short commentary on theses five subjects... On Slavery. It is held by Christians that one should treat others as you would wish to be treated, and that it is wrong to oppress, enslave, or discriminate against another person. In this set of verses, we see God state that oppression is wrong, yet tell the Hebrews that they "shalt have" slaves that are from the foreign nations they conquer. Obviously inconsistent. On Righteousness. Before the "God of Peace" smites Sodom, he has an argument with Abraham concerning finding righteous people in the city (Gen 18). Somehow God fails to find 10 righteous persons (babies, perhaps?) in the entire city, yet chooses to spare Lot and his family... Lot offers his virginal daughters to a lustful mob to be raped, and then later commits incest with both of them. Yet Peter calls Lot righteous, and God saved Lot from destruction... Obviously inconsistent. On Perfection of God's Law. Christians hold God's law to be infallible - some sects (Catholicism) hold the Vicar of Christ (the Pope) to be infallible in church teachings as well. Psalms states that the law of God is perfect, yet in Hebrews, we see God finding fault with the "first covenant" and being in need of a second... if the law of God is perfect, what was wrong with his law in the first covenant? Obviously inconsistent. On Mercy. Psalms states over and over again that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and full of kindness. However, in Jeremiah, God says, "I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them." It is inconceivable to me how this can be seen as any brand of consistency. Furthermore, God occasionally instructs the Hebrews to commit genocide (1 Samuel 15), even including the women, children, and animals who cannot fight. This is not a merciful being. Obviously inconsistent. On War and Peace. Again, God is referred to repeatedly as the "God of Peace." But he is also referred to as a "Man of war." These two statements are diametrically opposed and cannot be reconcilable. Furthermore, the same God that preaches peace with one's neighbor somehow manages to teach the Hebrews how to kill their neighbors more effectively according to Psalms... Obviously inconsistent. ********************************* Readers, this stems from a statement of Galiban's concerning the statements of the Bible and the assertions of Christianity: "Would you then concede that Christians, though *they may be*… ignorant of the veracity of their Bible, they are not ignorant of the "Character" of their God as the Bible states it.... as you continue to suggest?" I submit that without knowing the veracity of the Bible, it is impossible to know the character of God. And since the Bible is inconsistent, it is not possible to know its veracity. My opponent may attempt to explain away these inconsistencies as my construction of a straw man argument, but this is simply nonsense. These books are included in the Christian Bible = ergo, the consensus must be that they represent the views of Christians. Different sects of Christianity use different Bibles - this is good evidence for the fact that the inclusion of the books represents an endorsement of what the books say. As we can see from reading the above quotes, the actions ascribed to God in the biblical books that Christian theologians have endorsed are inconsistent with the attributes Christians usually assign to God. If my opponent attempts to argue that BOTH these attributes are assigned to God, he has simply conceded the debate, because the verse pairs are obviously inconsistent. The biblical actions of the Christian God are inconsistent with the biblical attributes ascribed to this entity. Thus, it is impossible to know if God is truly warlike or truly peaceful, and thus impossible to know God's character. AFFIRMED.