I understand where your coming from. How can an acclaimed just and benevolent god exist if evil and sin are still permitted to coexist with the good? Answer: [b]Punishment isn't justified without a cause. [/b]You must understand that God is a just god, meaning that He acts in accordance with the evil that is committed. If God forcefully made it so that humans were never permitted to do evil, there's no justification for the punishment that man commits. That's why we have a hell. Yes, the Holocaust was an extremely horrendous event, but we must also remember that God stated as well that the Jews will receive much affliction because of their denial of Christ (but that's another subject). We must also remember that it was repetitively exhibited throughout biblical and non-biblical history, God used man to punish man whenever it was intended to demolish a nation because of their iniquity (e.g., the Babylonian captivity of Israel, the destruction of the Amorites through Joshua, the biblical ordinance for government to commit capital punishment, etc). ...and do you recall what happened to the N[i]a[/i]zis at the end of WWII?[spoiler]They were [b]demolished[/b].[/spoiler]God is a just god, but we must remember that [b]He only acts once an evil has been committed[/b] because only then is His own participation justified in the sights of government and in the sights of His creation.

Many [url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law]-godwinslaw!-[/url] leaders escaped and we're offered sanctuary in the United States. Are you going to honestly attempt to justify the Holocaust because Jewish people didn't accept Christ? If modern Christians actually followed the teachings of Christ, this world would be a lot less violent. And are you not considering more than 20 separate instances where God literally told his followers to murder entire cities of innocents and keep their women as sex slaves for 7 years? The total amount of people that God has killed: http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2010/04/drunk-with-blood-gods-killings-in-bible.html?m=1

In response to your N[i]a[/i]zi related statement, the event doesn't negate the fact that the N[i]a[/i]zis were inevitably defeated. Yay for reading. In response to your God related statement: You believe that no one exceeds God's kill count, and so God is the cause of man killing man. What stupid logic did you get this from? The prevailing prejudice against Scripture is that the Old Testament portrays a violent God of a violent people and is filled with narratives recounting horrendous events with disreputable people playing major roles. So many times, all atheists forget [b]narratives describe what happened, not what was necessarily approved.[/b] [spoiler]Just because we write about Hitler in our history books doesn't mean we support Htler.[/spoiler]We assume wrongly that if a story is in Scripture, it must be "what God wanted," but biblical narrators dealt with the real world and described it as it was with all its corrupt and fallen ambiguity. [b]We shouldn't mistake realism for ethical approval[/b]. Old Testament stories often challenge us to wonder at God's amazing grace and patience in continually working out His purpose through such morally compromised people and to be discerning in evaluating their conduct according to standards the OT itself provides. The conquest of Canaan must be understood for what it was.[spoiler]An event.[/spoiler]This event, rightly, is troubling to sensitive readers. We can't ignore its horror, but some perspectives can help us evaluate it ethically. • It was a limited event. The conquest narratives describe one particular period of Israel's long history. Many of the other wars that occur in the OT narrative had no divine sanction, and some were clearly condemned as the actions of proud, greedy kings or military rivals. • We must allow for the exaggerated language of warfare. Israel, like other ancient Near East nations whose documents we possess, had a rhetoric of war that often exceeded reality. • It was an act of God's justice and punishment on a morally degraded society. The conquest shouldn't be portrayed as random genocide or ethnic cleansing (you can read more at https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/136321503/0/0). [b]The wickedness of Canaanite society was anticipated[/b] (Gn. 15:16) and described in moral and social terms (Lv. 18:24; 20:23; Dt. 9:5; 12:29-31). This interpretation is accepted in the NT (e.g., Heb. 11:31 speaks of the Canaanites as "[i]those who disobeyed[/i]," implying awareness of choosing to persist in sin-as the Bible affirms of all human beings). [b]There's a huge moral difference between violence that's arbitrary and violence inflicted with in the moral framework of punishment[/b] (this is true in human society as much as in divine perspective). It doesn't make it "nice," but it changes the ethical evaluation significantly. • [b]God threatened to do the same to Israel[/b] – and He did. In the conquest God used Israel as the agent of punishment on the Canaanites. God warned Israel if they behaved like the Canaanites, He would treat them as His enemy in the same way and inflict the same punishment on them using other nations (Lv. 26:17; Dt. 28:25-68). In the course of Israel's long history in OT times, God repeatedly did so, demonstrating His moral consistency in international justice. [b]It wasn't a matter of favoritism.[/b] If anything, Israel's status as God's chosen people, the OT argues, exposed them more to God's judgment and - historical punishment than the Canaanites who experienced the conquest. [b]Those choosing to live as God's enemies eventually face God's judgment.[/b] • The conquest anticipated the final judgment. Like the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood, the story of Canaan’s conquest stands in Scriptures as a prototypical narrative, or one that foreshadows what is to come. [b]Scripture affirms that ultimately, in the final judgment, the wicked will face the awful reality of God's wrath through exclusion, punishment, and destruction[/b]. Then God's ethical justice will finally be vindicated, but at certain points in history, such as during the conquest period, God demonstrates the power of His judgment. [b]Rahab's story, set in the midst of the conquest narrative, also demonstrates the power of repentance, faith, and God's willingness to spare His enemies when they choose to identify with God's people. [/b]Rahab thus enters the NT hall of fame-and faith;(Heb. 11:31; Jam. 2:25). [b]An eye for an eye is remarkably humane. [/b]Unfortunately, this phrase sums up for many what OT law and ethics are all about. Even then they misunderstand that this expression-almost certainly metaphorical, not literal-wasn't a license for unlimited vengeance but precisely the opposite: it established the fundamental legal principle of proportionality; that is, [b]punishment mustn't exceed the gravity of the offense. [/b]The rest of OT law, when compared with law codes from contemporary ancient societies (e.g., Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite), shows a remarkable humanitarian concern, especially for the socially weak, poor, and marginalized (the classic trio of "the widow, the orphan, and the alien"). Israel's laws operated with ethical priorities of human life above material property and of human needs over legal rights. Not surprisingly, then, Jesus (who clearly endorsed the same priorities) could affirm that He had no intention of abolishing the Law and the Prophets but rather to fulfill them.

Basically what I gather from the Bible is that God is an egotistical asshole who doesn't care about Humanity's problems and demands worship or he will put them to death.

Sometimes I think people just wanna be stupid for the sake of seeing the insides of hell for themselves, and sometimes I think people just wanna be hypocritical when they ask for evidence, and I give to them, yet they refuse to see (or in this case, read) the truth (or support) behind the logic. If you think against this, then I can only assume you are one of these people.[spoiler]God's violence is not arbitrary.[/spoiler]

I don't believe in hell, I am an atheist. As such, you need to understand that I do not see your God as a fact. Thus, you cannot simply say "god did it" and expect me to agree. It doesn't work like that.

I never expected you to, and I already suspected your allegiance. =P

Obviously. If I was already a believer I wouldn't be questioning you're logic. The entire point is that your theory of a higher God has not only no scientific evidence but also no logical evidence. The Creation "theory" is not a theory. It is a religion.

Tl;dr