Since I’ve been discussing moral issues with those fine atheists at Debunking Atheism, some may have noticed that I’ve “let” the atheists get away with mis-defining God.  This is true since even their mis-definition doesn’t support their argumentation and the logical implications of what they are stating is what I was intending to address.  However, I also do not want to leave the impression that the God they pretend is the Calvinist God actually is.

So I’m going to clarify bit by bit and show their mis-definitions for what they are.  Let’s start with the idea that God is a murderer.  In order to properly address this charge, we must first start with a definition of murder.

Murder is the unjustified taking of innocent human life.

Now perhaps the “innocent” in there is really a redundancy since we’ve already stipulated that it’s “unjustified” but I want to add it just to be certain and clear.

So we ask the question: Can God murder?

This is often asked in the realm of the discussion that people on Earth die, God is in control of how things happen, thus God killed those people.  If we killed people that would be wrong.  Why, then, is God able to do so?

Firstly, we address the question of if these people are innocent.  To answer that question, we have to look at the deeper issue of what the moral code is.  If morality is adherence to the Laws that God gave us, then the standard He set for us is what we must obey.  God’s standard is perfection, so anyone who isn’t perfect has failed God’s moral system.  Since none are perfect, all fail at some point in God’s morality.

Secondly, we ask is it justified that God has these people die?  To determine that, we ask what the punishment for disobeying God’s moral commands are.  The answer is: death.  The wages of sin is death, so it is certainly justifiable for God to require the life of the one who is not innocent.

When God “kills” a person, therefore, we see that it is neither the taking of innocent life nor is it unjustified according to the standards that God Himself has set.

Why, then, is it wrong for other people to murder?  Firstly because God said so.  That alone settles the matter since God is the one who gives the Law.  But God also gives us a reason to show it’s not just an arbitrary commandment. 

If God does not kill someone for their sins, it is because God has shown mercy.  That is certainly His right to do.  It is not our right to usurp God’s mercy as if we were in the place of God.  If we kill someone without proper justification then we are claiming to be God.  That is something that is morally wrong, for there is only one God.