God of the Bible is evil

I appreciate that you were a gentlemen this round and weren't quick to rebuke me in a very rude manner. To that I thank you. Con stated: "I would like to address all of the bible quotes you have thrown at me. The bible is obviously not perfect. it says that Moses lived to be over 900 years old. Obviously, this didn't happen. It was written to exaggerate numbers. The Israelis didn't march around Jericho for 40 years. The bible was not written for 2013. It was written in the mindset of people from 2000 years ago. It was written for them to understand. They exaggerated and used metaphors because people were not well learned in the language arts. They were barely literate! So to us, it seems like bad writing." The bible is indeed not perfect, it was written by men with little or no understanding of the natural world around them. They indeed exaggerate or borrowed stories from other cultures. The writings were written in ancient time and it was to appease the audience of that era. So where is the book from God for 2013? My opponent is correct in stating that the bible wasn't written in modern English but allow me to elaborate on this issue. God as my opponent believes it to be is perfect, or at the least his Pope states that God is perfect taken from the Catholic News site. [1] According to Isaiah 40:26 God is very powerful, limitless with everything, including knowledge, but this isn't reflected by the bible because as my opponent admittedly just pointed out, the bible is full of flaws, contradictions, and just plain silly information that some try to use as proof of scientific evidence. Now God is described in several instances in the bible as being the most powerful deity in all of the known universe, is able to create galaxies, stars, planets, and life, but making sure letters on a piece of paper remain perfect is a little too hard of a task to accomplish for him apparently. This is utter failure on a deity that claims to be powerful and perfect. I'm sure my opponent believes that God of the bible can do anything and I'm sure he's aware of the scripture 1 Corinthians 14:33 that plainly states that "God is not a God of disorder", other translations render the word as confusion, the author of confusion, chaotic. Since God is described as not being a God of mystery, how does that add up to the rest of the bible? Are we to believe that God isn't capable of handling something as important as his message to the world? Obviously the bible is the work of primitive men, not of a perfect, powerful God, as my opponent would like to hold out to believe. My opponent states that "slavery" wasn't as bad as it was in recent memory but he failed to account for the scriptures that I've highlighted. Bible scholars use NRSV translation and consider it the most accurate rendition to the original language used. With that said I will like to highlight the following in the translation recommended by Bible scholars [2]: " When a slave owner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner's property." -Exodus 21:20-21 NRSV , tell me where was the translation lost or misunderstood here? Also you feel that the Hebrews that were slaves were given good homes with food etc. Well this is true they were but the situation, as just mentioned, was far from good. Hebrews were only allowed to keep a Hebrew slave for only 7 years and then set them free, but there was a loop whole that God supposedly missed. "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. But if the servant declares, "I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free," then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life." - Exodus 21:2-6 If a Israeli slave became a great worker to the slave owner, and if the slave owner notices the value of keeping him, what do you think he would have done to keep the Hebrew, to which he's only supposed to keep for 7 years? Yes, the bible is indeed written by primitive, greedy, jealous, desert men who gave the God excuse as a way to rationalize their actions. This policy didn't apply to gentile nations or alien resident living among them, so where's the good for them? Con stated: "The father had to hook his daughter up with a man who he saw fit for her. it was customary then, and still is in the middle east and parts of Asia." This is true, people in the middle east countries do in fact marry off their daughters to men that either pay for them outright or are arranged to get married so that the family can get out of poverty or inherit riches. Now do you know the ages that are allowed? There is no limit! Girls as young as 10 are married off to men that are much older then them, and in some sad occasions deflower her before they even hit the age of puberty. Are we to take your word in believing that this wasn't done in ancient times? When much of the culture in that part of the world have been virtually the same since those passages have been written! Understand that this type of behavior is inexcusable, wrong, and plain evil. For God to allow this, condone it, is utterly evil of him to not stop it. There is no written law in the bible stating that there is a certain age to where men are able to marry girls. With this type of culture being accepted, you have consequences like that which happened recently in Yemen [3]. There's no underlying message here, no metaphor to accept, this type of behavior is dangerous and evil. The scriptures that I've highlighted is only a small portion to a greater issue with what the bible teaches. The scriptures that you highlighted, I will like to address: John 3:16 - God forbids human sacrifices (Deuteronomy 18:10), but makes one exception. Jeremiah 29:11 - God states that he is able to see the future, know their events, but forgot that this age we were going to test his word and find it full of error, could have done a better job at keeping an eye on his book, which I would think a powerful deity should be able to do. Rom 8:28 - Israelis loved him in ancient times so much so that they lovingly beat their slaves (servants, workers etc.), killed mercilessly villages and nations, but kept those "virgins" for themselves as "wives" etc. Prov. 3:5 - What's the difference between that and someone who believes in Krishna from the Hindu religion? Prov. 3:6 - Ditto Rom 12:2 - Isn't that what we atheists are doing? Yet, we're finding more evil than good. Phil 4:6 - This didn't do much with stopping Hurricane Katrina or the December 2004 Tsunami disaster, etc. Useless advice in my opinion. Matt 28:19 - I did this for 21 years and I felt terrible after I've left realizing I just added false hope to those that sincerely want to make a difference in their lives. Not a good one in my opinion. Eph 2:8 - By the grace and strength of Hercules, the people of Greece were saved, and he was a gift from Zeus. Gal. 5:22 - Wrong. The fruit of the spirit (God) isn't any of those things when you amount to everything else in the Bible that he condoned, ordered, and carried out himself. Rom. 12:1 - The advice here isn't really clear, considering the Bible isn't consistent, as you admitted in the beginning of your rebuttal, because according to your understanding, why not take advice from other holy books that provide some measure of good morality, and ignore the bad? John 10:10 - I understand the thief, but the life part isn't clear so it's not good advice, but it's not "evil" I'll give you that Acts 18:10 - This is a big fat utter lie. Almost everyone has the same odds of being in danger or out of danger period. Acts 18:11 - Talking and answering yourself is border line insanity Gal 2:20 - No advice just complete confusion and contradiction (Hosea 6:6) 1 John 1:9 - Nothing what a psychiatrist can't do to rehabilitate someone Rom 3:23 - So already I'm a worthless human being, nice one! John 14:6 - Not relevant to anything Matt 28:20 - This is interesting. You mentioned that those "Old Testament" laws, principles, are to be ignored because it was just for that time only? (Matthew 5:18-19 RSV) [heaven and earth are still here] Rom 5:8 - He demonstrated his "love" numerous times and they weren't pretty. Sacrificing a human is love? The rest of the scriptures that you highlight are either irrelevant to our modern day society, completely obscure, and repeated. Not sure if those scripture cover up the atrocities, horrors, grotesque behaviors, unnecessary deaths, silly concepts, and just plain wrong passages that are recorded throughout. My opponent failed to provide a good reason why we should believe in the God of the bible and to understand that he's not evil. What my opponent has done is reaffirm that the Bible is a book created by desert men who were jealous, sexist, greedy, evil, and had little to no understanding of the natural world around them. Just because the bible provides some good morals, it doesn't excuse the errors and evils throughout. Tell me, if someone gave you a glass of water, with only 60% of it being poison, will you still consider it a clean glass of water? Look forward to your next response... [1] http://www.catholicnews.com... [2] http://courses.missouristate.edu... [3] http://www.nydailynews.com...