(Pro) The Christian God is malevolent vs benevolent (Con).

Round four Defense"Namely that it never happened. There is absolutely no evidence for this at all. If you read exodus 32 and 33 the only punishement given to the children of Israel is that they have to drink the gold that the calf was made of( a punishement given by Moses alone)." Jac925I can prove you wrong on this above part. See the below quote."32:27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. [13][14]32:28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.""New International VersionThen he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'"""New International VersionThe Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died." [15]My opponent has cherry picked the evidence. Not taking into account the verses further in the Bible that do prove my original claim. Nevertheless, due to the sheer volume of information I think it is best to give my opponent the benefit of the doubt, that he/she simply missed the evidence unintentionally. "2) Again my opponent needs to understand the gravity of the situation. Arons so did something extremely disrespectful in the presence of the infinite almighty perfect God. They had been warned about what disrespecting God would bring. What they did is arguably a sin of infinite proportions." Jac925No, I do not understand. I was about five years old when I first saw this story on a cartoon version on television. I didn't understand then, I fail to comprehend the logic of this event now, and I never understood the rational for these homicides ever. Let's take a common superhero like superman or wonder woman. If a group of teenagers were to curse out these super heroes and give them the middle finger, pull down their pants, moon these two, and spray paint obscene images of these two. How would superman and wonder woman react? After all compared to us mere morals, superman and wonder woman are God-like. A. Would these use their powers to mass murder the teenagers?B. Would they mind control the teenagers and force them to kill each other?C. Or perhaps they would give them a good long lecture about being respectful to others and call the police for illegal spray painting? I think option C is the most viable. Now why would the God of the Old Testament pick an option other than C? This is the only moral choice. Superman and wonder woman are of superior moral character to the God of the Old Testament. How is this a sin of infinite proportions? If this is a sin of infinite proportions so must spray painting obscene imagines on a wall. Yet, last time I checked spray painters do no receive the death penalty in most countries. "3) Once again my opponent fails to see the gravity of the sins committed. While they were by no means mortal sins they became mortal sins because they were committed in the presence of the almighty where a virtues such as humbleness and humility must be respected." Jac925This makes no rational sense to me. Mortal sin versus non-mortal sin. My interpretation of the scriptures is God watches over all, meaning all sin is committed within his presence and are therefore mortal sins. This seems like blame the victim. Blame the murdered victim as opposed to the murder. "First of all God didn't bury them alive for simply disagreeing with Moses. He buried them for attempting to start a revolution. The leader(Koran) had been planning to take over the whole tribe. " Jac925My opponent has once again played the blame the victim card. In fact my opponent has done this for all five points."2)IncestMy opponent sites the example of how Noah's children must have practised incest. Well of course they did,they had to. " Jac925My opponent agrees with me on this point."But also these people who died in the flood where pagans who practised child sacrifices so it was good that that was stopped." Jac925You offer no proof that the pagans committed these awful deeds. Furthermore, what would any super hero/heroine do? He/she would stop the act and tell them it was wrong, killing only in self-defense. By killing unnecessarily you are making a statement that non-essential murders are tolerable. This is an awful precedence."3)SlaverySomething must be said here in relation to slavery. When we read about slavery in the Old Testament we tend to think about it in modern terms like how blacks were enslaved during the age of exploration. However slavery in ancient Israel is to be understood as indentured servitude. It is a contracted higher for a period of about seven years. If someone was in dept or needed a loan they would go into servitude of the person whom they are in dept to and work off their loan. They tended to work for about seven years as I said." Jac925This is a straight out cop out. Slavery should never have been tolerated in the first place. Slavery has been proven to inefficient. "Slave labor was inefficient to begin with, slave productivity did not increase to keep pace with industrialization" [16]I ask why would a benevolent being allow a brutal and inefficient system? The answer is because a benevolent beig wouldn't, this is the actions of a malevolent being. ""When the bible talks about people being bought or sold into servitude we tend to the no of this as degrading,as if the bible is just treating these people as property,however this is a wrong understanding of the text. It is referring to buying and selling in the same way we say that football players are bought and sold to different teams. The text does not support the proposition that poorer people are somehow worth less". The type of slavery condoned in the Bible is the Sam as maid servants work. Surlely God is justified in allowing maid servants?" Jac925 You are playing at pseudo-lingusitics. Changing the very language of the Bible to suit your desires. The terms employee and employer offer much more clarity. Yet, these are not the terms that are used in the Bible."4) Eternal damnation.Once again my opponent fails to see the gravity of the situation. Just imagine for a minute that God exists. It is evidently a sin of eternal and infinite proportions to reject him. Also he'll is like the inside of a volcano. According to the gospels and epistles it is actually a place of eternal shame not eternal pain and torture." Jac925I fail to see your point of view. What Bible verse or Gospel are you getting that a sin can be of eternal and infinite proportions? The Bible is too vast for me to guess and would be too difficult to prove a negative. You have not met your burden of proof showing that sins of eternal and infinite proportions exist within the scriptures. Therefore, the default stance must be taken of these eternal and infinite sins do not exist. Just as we do not believe unicorns exist until proven otherwise.Eternal shame is still infinite. You also introduce another contradiction. This contradiction is between the gospel and the Bible. Why would an all power benevolent God place so many contradictions within the scriptures? The answer is that a benevolent God would not be so cruel, but a malevolent God would. Thanks for debating, I had to work to defeat your arguments from my point of view. Sources.13. http://skepticsannotatedbible.com...14. http://biblehub.com...15. http://biblehub.com...16. http://www.salon.com...