Common Biblical Objects to Biblical Morality

I have a debate coming up at 7pm on Sunday August 9th at The Live Oak in Fort Worth, TX.

Now I have debated the problem of evil before, but this time I’m going up against David Smalley of Dogma Debate. I have been reading his book Baptized Atheist and suspect he’ll try to argue against God, in large part, on the dual basis of (1) emotional and relative distaste for theistic morality and (2) problem passages and morally questionable verses in the Bible.

Now, if I’m not careful I could end up biting off more than I can chew by inviting philosophical, theological, textual, and existential objections. I’d prefer to keep the debate from veering into vast open terrains of textual criticism, doctrinal disputes, etc. That’s why I drew up a chart (Common Biblical Objects to Biblical Morality) organizing answers to some of the most common biblical objections to God’s goodness and biblical morality. If you are going to the debate and feel an itching need to say that, “A good God wouldn’t have commanding the sacrifice of Isaac“–then this chart is for you. Feel free to share input, addition resources, references or anything that might help me improve this chart. I welcome your feedback.