re: Poll: how many of you here consider yourself religious

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God is supposed to be omniscient, right? If so, then God *knew*, even before he created humanity, that humanity would break his one rule. Thus, breaking the rule was predestined; thus, there was no free will involved. No free will means no sin, no sin means the punishment was purely arbitrary. In which case, he would owe quite an apology

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There is a lot of leaps here.

Let's start by defining "sin". Sin, as Christians understand it, is breaking of God's law. It's as simple as that. If you do it knowingly or unknowingly, you are still sinning. Therefore, you can sin whether or not you have "free will", so to say you cannot sin without free will is false, IMO.

Let's also define "free will", because I don't believe humanity has free will. I believe humanity has freedom of volition, or rather, freedom to make choices. The will is basically the driving force internal to the decision maker that helps decide what choice gets made. I believe our wills are in bondage to sin, and that affects what we choose, though we still have freedom to choose according to what we want.

Prior to the fall of mankind, Adam and Eve were unencumbered by sin and could choose whatever they desired. They probably would not have disobeyed the one law that God gave had not Satan tempted them to do so. God knowing about the decision that Adam would make doesn't mean that Adam is without fault. If I set a bowl of ice cream and a bowl of broccoli in front of my 2-year-old daughter, I know exactly which one she will eat. Does that mean she has no choice? Does that mean I'm making her eat one over the other, and thus, relinquishing her responsibility? The question is, did Adam do what he wanted to do and choose to sin? The answer is "yes, he did", and thus he is responsible for his actions regardless of whether God knew what Adam would do.

Adam was to be God's priest on earth, guarding and protecting God's earthly garden-sanctuary from evil (Satan) and sin, and Adam failed at his task and was punished by exile and death (spiritual and eventual physical). It wasn't arbitrary at all.

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Also, if God created man, he's a shite parent. He didn't bother to teach his children about right and wrong - in fact, he specifically forbade them from learning about it. So again, any punishments that he metes out make no sense to those punished

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The only condition that God gave Adam was not to eat of one particular tree, though he was given access to all others. Adam didn't need to know good and evil from the fruit of the forbidden tree because God was to be all that they needed for sustenance and knowledge. The test was not about them learning about good and evil but not trusting God and obeying Him. They gave into temptation and tried to take knowledge for themselves and become like God rather than trust in His provision for them and that He knew what was best for them. Technically, God did teach them right and wrong by giving them an example: it was right to obey God and eat from any other tree, and it was wrong to eat from the one tree He forbade. The punishment should have made sense, since not only did God tell them what would happen, Satan did, too, though Satan did it to cast doubt.

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Add in God always hardening Pharoah's heart in order to force Pharoah to make decisions that would bring down ruin

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God hardening Pharaoh's heart and "forcing" him to make decisions are two different things, and God didn't force God to do anything. It's not as if Pharaoh really, really wanted to let the Jews leave but God just put on some spooky mind-control which prevented him from doing so. No, God hardening Pharaoh's heart was God giving Pharaoh over to his own sinfulness. If you know the story, you'll know that before God hardened Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh hardened his own heart, having no pity or remorse. God simply made it complete and used his sinfulness as an example of how God judges rebellion and topples the mightiest of kingdoms who stand in His way.

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It's pretty hard to read the early books of the Bible and come away with a positive view of God: the above stuff, plus the genocide of the great flood; destroying Job's life just because; his little "test" of Abraham, etc

Judged on his behavior, he's the worst sort of tyrant imaginable: arbitrary, capricious, and vindictive

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Those who read the Bible without understanding will certainly come away with a negative view of God. You don't understand that God doesn't owe humanity anything and could strike everyone dead as soon as they are born due to their sin, but every breath is a gift. You think that God owes humanity peace, happiness, and freedom to follow whatever passions they want and that they should be rewarded for their lives with eternity in Heaven, and that if God does not provide all of these things, He is some evil tyrant who only wants to destroy all goodness in the world. There's really no way you, who lack faith, can really understand the truth unless your eyes are opened, because you won't see God's love and mercy or man's wickedness. You'll only see evil attributed to God. He's not a tyrant; He's not arbitrary with His actions; He's not capricious; He's not vindictive. God is controlled in His actions and has a purpose for all that He does.