User talk:SouthWriter/sandbox/An atheist's objections/@comment-257949-20100706175857

"It is our defective understanding of the nature of God's kindness and love that makes this a stumbling block to us."

So with this in mind you can justify God acting a little more... brutally in the Old Testament/Tanakh. Couldn't he have converted the people of Sodom and Gomorrah rather than destroy them? Did he have to seed confusion amongst the builders of the Tower of Babel? Did he have to let Job suffer so much simply to prove a point to the Devil (even if he did restore the status quo after the incident)?

Because, after all, God is loving and compassionate... but that seems to extend to killing those who, with a more peaceful shove, could be turned to see His light. Why is there such contradiction between His behaviour between the Old and New Testaments?