The Storybook God
The god first described by ancient human groups and first encountered by children today is what might best be called the storybook god. This god is simple, direct, and easy to understand. As such, this god also tends to meet the scientific standard for testability. Therefore, this is a god that can potentially be verified or falsified.
The god in the early books of the Bible is such a storybook god. He has human characteristics and limitations. He walks in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day and calls out to Adam, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:8-9). He hears rumors about evil doings in Sodom and Gomorrah, bargains with Abraham about what to do, sends angels down to check out the situation, then finally decides to destroy both cities (Genesis 18-19). He stands on a clear slab of sapphire before Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:9-10). And he subsequently speaks alone to Moses, face to face, showing Moses his hindparts or back (Exodus 33:11-23).
Throughout the Bible there are stories where his will is thwarted, making him angry and causing him to visit vengeful punishments on whole populations as a result. And even where his plans succeed, the fact that he actually uses plans, strategies, and procedures to accomplish his aims points clearly to his being limited. God is thus mighty but not almighty.
For example, in the Book of Exodus, God uses a long series of steps to free the Jews from bondage in Egypt. This includes visiting multiple plagues on the Egyptians, leading the Jews to freedom via a cloud pillar by day and fire pillar by night, and finally parting the Red Sea for their final escape. In fact, while the Egyptian soldiers are camped in the midst of the parted sea, God even goes to the trouble of taking the wheels off their chariots so they won’t make headway the next morning (Exodus 14:25), causing them to be killed when the sea comes crashing down.
Such characteristics make for a readily definable god as a large and overwhelmingly powerful man. And that’s what primitives and children have always pictured in their minds. Yet there’s no scientific evidence to support the existence of such a Zeus or Odin-like being. Hence, the best response to the mighty (but not almighty) storybook god is atheism.
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First off, the mightiness of God does not at all determine his existence; simply- no matter what God is or does, he either exists or does not, and attempting to disprove the bible's God by showing what it inherently is (which does not disprove), doesn't disprove all definitions of God. This being said, we must realize that the utmost strategy of this argument is pathos. It tries to turn your emotions of wanting God to be all powerful into a conclusion for atheism. This argument completely skips logic. Logically we can see that if God exists, and he can in the framework of the bible despite these observations, then atheism is not the best answer. The argument presented here assumes omnipotence and the bible, therefore atheism. It fails to provide ANY logical warrant. It completely skips every other argument, and the simple fact that the arguments are not mutually exclusive. It therefore fails.
The argument about the storybook god does assume that God is omnipotent. However, it would appear from these passages that God is not all powerful. Furthermore, these passages show God to be capricious and vindictive. So we are still left with a god, but not a very attractive one. Because this picture of god is so unattractive, people have rejected it and replaced it with a picture of an all-powerful god. This suits people's tastes much better, but it would appear to be at odds with a literal reading of the Old Testament.
M. Glass