when God killed ALL babies in the great flood of Noah's Ark flood fame?
I write this not to anger people, if you're not interested in discussing it, then don't. Keep your religion to yourself and move on. I write this because I've had a conversation in another thread and thought it might be a good question to ask for those who want to test their religion against my lack of religion.
For a very simple reason, and it's illustrated with these:
1. You think you see your neighbor kill someone. You go to his house, strike him until he is unconscious, tie his hands together and drag him into your basement. Keep him there behind locked doors for a few years, then kill him. Do you get in trouble? If so, why don't policemen, judges, juries, prison guards and executioners get in trouble for doing the same thing?
2. You declare war on your neighbor and shoot him from your upstairs bedroom window. Do you get in trouble? If so, why don't soldiers on the battlefield get in trouble for doing the same thing? They don't even declare war.
3. You see your neighbor behaving badly towards another person. You go over to him, grab his arm and push him into a chair, telling him he did a bad thing. You force him to sit there for at least 10 minutes. Do you get in trouble? If so, why don't parents get in trouble for doing the same thing?
In each of these cases, it comes down to authority. Policemen have the authority to capture and restrain you, judges and juries have the authority to imprison you, and executioners have the authority to kill you, all without blame to themselves. Soldiers on the battlefield have the authority to kill an enemy combatant without blame to themselves. Parents have the authority to put their children in time-out and tell them they are misbehaving, and you have none of that authority on your own. By the same token, God has authority to do what He does while we do not.
I will also ask this, does the creator have authority over his creation? If you build an ant farm, do you not have the unquestioned authority to destroy that farm, saving a few ants to start over? The ants probably would be pretty ticked off at you, but do you have to justify your decision to anyone else?