topics like this one lead me to wonder at the purpose... do non-believers point to things they call "atrocities" in the bible in order to say something like "i don't believe in God because....." or what?
that kind of logic reduces to, i don't believe in God because i disagree with things he's said or done... my short answer is, so what?
God isn't in the dock, as lewis said... he is God, his actions are just and holy and require no apology from me or any other christian
God is perfectly just in his dealings with humanity... the fact that some argue about the form his justice took at one time, or takes now, has no bearing on that...
but the thing that *really* gets to me in discussions like this is, where in the world do people who deny the existence of good and evil get the notion that an act of God is good *or* bad? how convenient to appeal to some moral standard they deny exists when the subject is God
God is the creator, we are the creatures... God is perfectly holy and just, we are not... none of us are innocent, not one... and any judgement God proscribes is, by definition, just