Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
— Epicurus
It has been quipped by many an author or philosopher that to create atheists you should have more people read the Bible. There exist such things in the Bible as to create doubt in a God who possesses the qualities that the Fundamentalist God is said to possess.
As a Fundamentalist, we are taught that God is "All Good", or Omnibenevolent. He is incapable of acting in an evil manner; all that he does is good.
[8] Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. [9] Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.— Psalm 137:8-9
Another translation for 'happy' in the above passage is 'blessed'. In this case soldiers will be happy or blessed, or both, taking the infants of an enemy and dashing them against rocks. This has been justified in that it was done to the Israelites and thus they shall do it in kind against their enemies. It is difficult, to me, however, to justify the violence against infants regardless of what the Israelites suffered.
[2] This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. [3] Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’— 1 Samuel 15:2-3
Here God is directly ordering the slaughter of infants and children, along with the men and women, not to mention the livestock for good measure. Razing an entire people, including non-combatants such as the children and infants cannot be justified to me. It is evil.
[15] Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. [16] Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated. ... [18] Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants, nor will they look with compassion on children.— Isaiah 13:15-16, 18 (On the Fate of Babylon)
Revisiting the fate of Babylon, here the stakes are raised. Not only will the infants be dashed against the rocks the women will be violated (raped), prisoners of war summarily executed, and homes pillaged.
[6] The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. [7] Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”— Genesis 11:6-7
Why would God fear or worry about humankind achieving this technological feat? Why would he fear humankind working together? Why has he not stepped in again when we have achieved much greater feats of engineering and construction since?
The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron.— Judges 1:19
Like a supernatural being out of European mythology is God repelled by iron? Why would chariots with iron stop the men of Judah if God was with them?
These are hardly the only questionable passages in the bible but simply some of the first that gave me pause and to consider. Is God all-good? Is God all-powerful? Cut to today and with the amount of evil that still happens, especially to the innocent and children, is God really Omniscient (all-seeing)? How can he see the evil that is visited upon children and fail to act? I was left with three thoughts: he does see and chooses not to act (not omnibenevolent) or he sees and cannot act (not omnipotent) or he does not see (not omniscient)?
The message that God is love was frequently mentioned in my youth. All good comes from God. God loves all and wishes the best for us, it is why he sent his son to die for our sins after all. Yet I could not see this loving God in the Bible. Even setting aside the evils above I could not understand how a loving God would prepare a place of eternal torment, in Hell, for those who did not accept Jesus as their savior.