As I’ve argued, the problem of God being evil is not relevant for atheists. There is no such thing as evil or good in an atheistic worldview. It can only be a problem for those who do believe in a god. So, if one claims God is evil, by implication it means that person is a theist.
Similar to the issue of inerrancy, the problem is not necessarily God is evil, but the problem is how we perceive things.
otseng wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:09 am The Bible was written (primarily) by Jews and to those familiar with Judaism. We do not really understand their mindset and perspective. We approach the Bible from a western (Greek) mindset and with our modern assumptions. And when we try to approach the Bible from those glasses, things look skewed. So, fundamentally, the issue is not really the Bible, but our own paradigm that we approach in reading the Bible that makes it look “incorrect”.
I tend to think there is a relationship between an inerrantist view of the Bible and thinking God is evil. Inerrantists hold to a rigid view of the Bible and believe each word comes directly from God. As I’ve stated throughout this thread, I do not hold to this. I’m approaching the Bible as any other book written by humans.
We also cannot judge the past based on our present standards. To judge a past culture based on one’s present culture would at best be subjective morality and at worst chronological snobbery. A more appropriate way to judge would be how did it compare to other cultures at that time. We also have to be careful with our vocabulary. Words used now can carry different meanings in different times and cultures.
If one cherry-picks the attributes of anything, it would give a false characterization of that person or object. Simply pointing out things God does or commands that we don’t like without understanding the full nature of God would not be a correct understanding of God.
https://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1137259#p1137259