Is God(Christian) a standard of morality to follow

Con states that all of the verses I quoted from the Bible shouldn't be taken literally. "The authors of the Bible would indeed say gratuitous things about this character Yahweh out of fear of what would happen to them if they did not." Con completely disregards all the verses I brought forth. He casts them away because they don't fit his argument. This a very unfair assumption to make towards the Bible. The Bible is estimated to have been written by 40 different authors over a period of around 2000 years. For every single author to have the same fear and assumptions of God is not very likely. 40 authors, 2000 years, yet consistency with hundreds upon hundreds of verses extremely similar to the ones I quoted in my first entry into this debate. All of them from all over the Bible point towards a loving, forgiving, and gracious God. Con has not touched the point of God offering forgiveness. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." - John 3:16. Rebuttals towards Con's arguments: 1.) The Flood. Con's point is very concise in that God "murdered" every living animal, person, and living being. I will start from the very beginning to make sure I am clear in my rebuttal to this point made by Con. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (R37;GenesisR36; R37;1R36;:R37;1R36; NIV). We can see clearly God created the earth and heavens, giving him authority over them. Secondly, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."(R37;GenesisR36; R37;1R36;:R37;27R36; NIV). We can also see after creating the heavens and earth, God created man, giving him authority over them. Next is when the servant (Satan), is tempting Eve. "The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." " (R37;GenesisR36; R37;3R36;:R37;2-3R36; NIV). Eve tells the serpent that God had commanded her nor Adam to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This explicitly clear that both Adam and Eve knew of the consequence's of disobeying God. That they will surely die. Disobeying God is sin, and sin leads to death. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (R37;RomansR36; R37;6R36;:R37;23R36; NIV). God laid down the rules, no disobedience or it will lead to sin and death. The wages of sin is death. Let's recap: God created heavens, earth, everything on the earth, and man, giving him authority over all. He then warned Adam and Eve about the penalty for sin. Now we all know what happens next. Adam and Eve sinned and brought sin into the world. God addresses Adam on the topic at hand when he comes back to the garden. "To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat from it," "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (R37;GenesisR36; R37;3R36;:R37;17-19R36; NIV). God cursed the ground (the earth and all in it) which means it was filled with imperfections and sin (death, thorns, etc). Everything was perfect until sin came into the world and then nothing was perfect any longer. God with authority, stayed true to his word (which is a good moral), and punished Adam and the earth for the sin committed. Why condemn the earth you may ask? Because Adam was commanded to tend to the earth, the plants, and the animals God punished the earth as well due to Adam's irresponsibility. Just a side not, God didn't command just Adam himself to care for the earth, but Adam and all his descendants, which would be all of mankind. So now to bring this rebuttal together. All of mankind has become incredibly sinful and wicked and corrupt. "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." (R37;GenesisR36; R37;6R36;:R37;5R36; NIV). The only followers of God where Noah's family. So God decided to destroy the earth and all in it. "I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish."(R37;GenesisR36; R37;6R36;:R37;17R36; NIV). God commanded Noah and his family to build an ark and fill it with two of every living creature, one male one female. Noah did so and after 150 days approximately the waters were gone. God then made a covenant to never bring forth another flood to destroy the earth. "The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done." (GenesisR36; R37;8R36;:R37;21R36; NIV). God was justified in what he did. He warned Adam and subsequently mankind through Adam of sin and its consequences. Mankind ignored God and disobeyed and filled the earth with wickedness. Because of this God decided to wipe it out and start a new with Noah, but the evil inclination was still within man's heart. God was justified because he had authority over man, and the consequence of disobedience and sin is death. 2.) Sodom and Gomorrah. "Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know." (R37;GenesisR36; R37;18R36;:R37;20-21R36; NIV). God tells Abraham of his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham then pleads for the Lord not to destroy it, and God says, "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it." (Genesis 18:32). Now, we know that God does destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because he was unable to find 10 righteous people. Lot and his daughters where the only ones of the whole city. The city was filled with people committing detestable acts and sinful crimes, the most noted one from the scriptures was the practice of homosexuality by the young and old. God decided destroy this city, because it was filled with nothing but sin, and remember the wages of sin is death. God was justified in this, because man was aware of the consequences, but continued on disobeying anyways, and the wages of sin is death. We are sinful at conception, so even when we are but babies, we are sinful, and I hate to say it again, but the wages of sin Is death. The babies may not have been able to make a choice of whether to follow God or not, but it was the parents responsibility to love God and obey him, and they failed to do so. 3.) Isaac and Abraham. God commands us to put Him first in our lives, to love and obey him above all. We are to trust his perfect character and will. God tests Abraham by requesting him to sacrifice his only son, to show his loyalty and trust in God. God spares Isaac because Abraham showed his willingness to set aside earthly things, and trust God. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (R37;GenesisR36; R37;22R36;:R37;12R36; NIV). Abraham respected God, and obviously God could've let Abraham kill Isaac but he didn't. This is a lesson in putting God first. In Conclusion: Con disregarded all of my verses I presented as fake, but didn't hesitate to believe the ones that helps his accusations. Also, the main theme of all of Con's points is that God murdered man. I refuted this showing God's authority and justification. One thing Con may not realize is that his one bad moral he is trying to show God commits, is actually one of the Ten Commandments. Do not murder. The moral Con is attempting to use against God actually contradicts his all three of his arguments. In the Bible God tells commands not to murder. The moral Con is claiming is wrong, was taken from God himself. Thank you. Back to you. Sources: [1] https://answersingenesis.org... The Holy Bible.