You have faith that the Bible is the literal word of a Supreme Being. Just what is faith? Faith is believing in something without sufficient evidence. In contrast, trust is believing in something with sufficient evidence.

We trust that the sun will rise in the morning and each step we take will be governed by the law of gravity; that the car we drive will function properly and take us to our destination; and that the pilots that control our aircraft are well-trained and sober. We trust our physicians and surgeons when our life is in their hands; our lawyers when they give us advice or represent us in court; and that our elected representatives are honest and refrain from advocating their own personal agenda. This trust is based on sufficient evidence.

Children trust their parents for guidance, love, and protection. They have this trust because they also have sufficient evidence. Can the God of the Bible be trusted for guidance, love and protection?

The God of the Bible creates and abets wars on a monumental scale. Nations opposed to God’s chosen people are defeated with God’s help, and all the men, women, children, babies and animals are slaughtered. A significant proportion of the women would have been pregnant, and their fetuses destroyed. Some pregnant women are eviscerated. After creating the world, this God is dissatisfied with the sinful way of the inhabitants and sends a worldwide flood killing everything that breathed except one family and selected animals. If God so loved the world, why would God resort to genocide? Surely a super intelligent deity could come up with a better solution rather than the horror of drowning men, women, children and babies. And what “sins” did the animals commit to warrant their destruction?

Interestingly, in the Bible, we have Colossians 1:16-17: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, …”

Therefore, all the deadly diseases, caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites, were created by the Biblical God. And this God created the most dangerous animal, the mosquito, that is the vector of deadly diseases that have caused the suffering and deaths of hundreds of millions of people. Why would this God do such an evil thing?

Notwithstanding wishful thinking, the God depicted in the Bible cannot be trusted for guidance, love and protection.

David Keranen

Bakersfield, California, and former resident of the Copper Country