Why does the God described in the Bible kill so many people (around 2.7 million, plus the entire population of the world minus 8, during the Flood)? Would a good God do such a thing?

The answer to this question is fairly simple. Let's set out the steps involved in reaching the answer:

• Christians will tell atheists that 'morals come from the Bible, and if they didn't, we'd all be murderers'. What this means is that Christians say that they only behave because the Bible tells them to do so. Without God's word we would all be raping and murdering each other. Newsflash: I'm and atheist and I haven't killed anyone. Yet.

• What re-inforces these guidelines is the ultimate punishment - burning in hell forever. If you do bad things (and even if you don't) and don't accept Jesus into your life, you will be pitched into the fire and tortured for all eternity. As deterrents go, it's a good one, and many, many Christians are deeply traumatised, even paralysed, by the fear that this part of their belief system puts into their heads.

• There are no consequences for God. He is the highest power. Nobody can tell him what to do. Nobody can call him to account for his actions. He can do what he likes and without fear that he will be punished until the end of time. So like Caligula, Hitler, and the many other supreme rulers whose power is absolute, he does. The God of the Bible kills people, and orders others to kill for him. Anyone who doesn't bow down to his will is punished.

Christians do not believe that the God of their Bible is evil, yet if you put him up against the most sadistic butchers and genocidal maniacs in history, he would rule the roost. You can't get Christians to understand this concept of course, because to them God is different. We shouldn't try to justify God's actions, because he makes the rules, and apparently by comparing ourselves to him we are missing the point. At least that's what all the fundies to whom I've ever put this description of God have told me. God is God and you can't question him because that's the way it is.

No, I don't understand it either.

What this is saying is the classic 'do as I say, not as I do'. Rather than lead by example, the Christian God does not even try to set a good example. Rules are rules. Orders are orders. Do as you're told and you won't get hurt. Worship him or burn. But God can do what he likes. Always has, always will.

Parents can be like that of course, and the same fundies mentioned above are adamant that this is the correct analogy: you would tell a child to do something that you would not necessarily do yourself. Maybe tell them not to play with matches, for their own protection. Or don't say naughty words, even though as an adult you might let out the odd 'fuck' or 'shit'.

But these two examples, and others like them, are part of a child's education. They don't know what matches are, what fire can really do if it gets out of control, so the little sticks with the red blob on the end need to be put off limits until their minds can comprehend many more things. And bad language? I personally say the word 'fuck' as many times as I can fit it into my day... but not when I'm on the phone to my mother, or in a shop, or at a bank. There's a time and a place for such language, so kids need to be told that certain words are 'bad' because otherwise when grandma comes to visit and gives them a dry, wrinkly kiss, your sweet child will say, 'can I have some fucking chocolate now?'.

So can we look at God in the same way? Is this a father and child relationship, with him up there the Dad, and us down here his innocent, wide-eyed offspring? Hardly. If your children didn't do what you said would you bury them under tons of rubble, reminiscent of the damage caused by an earthquake? Would you drown your little boy because he refused to kneel before you and praise you daily? If your teenage girl got pregnant while still at school would you take her by the hair and suspend her over a well-stoked fire for a million years?

The fact that those punishments seem to be inhuman is exactly the point. They are inhuman. No sane human would do that kind of thing. Those are the types of punishments only a madman or a non-human would carry out. Non-human? Maybe something like a god, perhaps. The God of the Bible. Invented by humans, but perhaps the most inhuman and inhumane concept in the history of human imagination. And this is what Christians believe is the best role model for our world.

You can keep your evil God fantasies. I'll stick with the tooth fairy. At least she doesn't pull out your molars and stick rusty pins in your gums if you don't pray to her. At least I hope not.