Reply To: Reeling from Christian friend's bigotry

[SteveInCO]

However Davis’s larger point remains.

The fact that god is portrayed as mean and nasty, and/or the observation that there’s a lot of suffering in the world that a (hypothetical) god doesn’t put an end to, is not an argument for the nonexistence of god. Such would be a fallacious argument. In fact, that’s the argument many theists accuse us of making; refusing to believe in god because we are mad at him. And indeed IF that were our motivation, we’d have no leg to stand on.

All that is shown by these arguments is that god cannot possibly be benevolent. He could exist and be the world’s most titanic asshole.