Biblical accounts prove God is not loving.

For this debate, I will assume that God exists and that the bible is accurate and literal in its depictions of events, but not in its claims about the nature of God. Christians like my opponent continually make statements about the nature of God as loving with the assumption that it is a common truth. I argue that the bible makes a very strong case against this assumption. Yes there are statements in the bible proposing that God is love, but there are far more examples of the behavior of God being horrific for humans, many times innocent children. For my first salvo I would like to introduce the story of the great flood in Genesis 6-7. God being, all knowing, was shocked to find out that man kind had grown violent since he punished Cain for murdering his brother. So he decided to hit the reset button on the great PlayStation in the sky and start over by flooding the earth. In doing so, he murdered countless babies and children, who's only sin was being born in the world God failed to protect. A loving God would have effectively interacted with mankind to lead them into a more moral lifestyle, not destroyed them all and left Noah and his family to start the cycle of violence over again. An all knowing, loving God clearly would have saved the innocents, and at least ensured that future generations spawned by Noah and his kin were well aware of his will. Instead, he remains conspicuously absent, until Abraham comes along, and the world is once again sinful. Salvo 2. Pharaoh's hardened heart. In the story of the Exodus of the Israelites in Exodus 7-11 God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh and ask him politely to give up his property (the bible is clear about slaves being property), effectively ridding his country of most of the labor that drives the economy and keeps Egypt in prosperity and dominance from surrounding entities. With slave labor Egyptian men were available as fighting agents and soldiers, effectively doubling the martial force of Egypt at the time. Not surprisingly Pharaoh was not really keen on the idea of diluting his country's economy, so turned sour on the idea. Of course that's not exactly how the story goes. In Exodus 7 God makes it clear to Moses and Aaron, prior to sending then to Pharaoh that he will actively harden Pharaoh's heart, in order to create signs and wonders that will convince the Egyptian people that he is a Powerful God. So, being true to his word, God sends various plagues to annoy the Egyptians, and every time Pharaoh is convinced that God is the one behind the fiery hail, or 3 day darkness and repents, God comes along and actively hardens his heart. There are times in the text when another Hebrew word is used, which explains when Pharaoh simply doesn't believe that the plague was a result of God, in those times it states, Pharaoh's heart was hard, or he hardened his own heart. God only steps in when Pharaoh is convinced and about to repent. Yikes. The story of course culminates in God slaughtering all the first born son's of Egypt, once again innocent children pay for God's need for recognition and the Egyptian people to believe that he is the shizzle. A loving God may have been a little less interactive in both hardening Pharaoh's heart, and in slaughtering children to make a point. Pharaoh of course is heart broken and finally, God stops hardening his heart and he lets the Israelites go. Thank goodness God's appetite for destruction was satiated and he didn't have a go at the Egyptian women. A loving God would never harm women.... Which Brings us to my 3rd salvo. Numbers 31. A horrific story of genocide and slavery. This accounts starts with God telling Moses "Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people." Apparently the Israelite men had been seduced by the Midianite woman and were bumping ugly in tents, to the point where Aaron's great Grandson had to take a spear and run a couple through. God had sent a plague to ravage the Israelites because we all know he doesn't like unmarried heathens and his chosen people touching each others goodies. So God had had enough of the intermingling and false God worship and told Moses to kill the lot of them. The Israelites kill all the men and bring the captive women and children back to Moses. Who is quite up set, because God was clear that he wanted all of them killed. So he orders that the captive mothers and boys be murdered and the virgin girls be divides as spoils of war. Yikes. Clearly not the actions of a loving God, especially when considering Moses' wife was a Midianite, and her father had joined the Israelite camp with promises of protection. God doesn't abide with other cultural influences, to the point of murdering mothers and sons, and enslaving little girls. At this point, a very distinctive picture of the nature of this loving God is starting to appear.....don't worry it is confirmed time and time again throughout scripture, and yes even into the New testament and finally culminates with God torturing all those who practice free will for eternity, but I am jumping ahead. Time for my opponent to give his 2 cents......