Freewill and hardened hearts

Freewill?From what I read about the god of the bible, and from what posters here and elsewhere state, that it is our free will that god gave us to find him or her. If that is the case, why does the god of the bible give free will when it does the following:1: Drowning thousands, even infacts and unborns, instead of going to them and saying repent or suffer the consequences.2: Hardening hearts instead of enlightening them. The Pharoah(sp?) in Exodus, the god of the bible had his heart hardened and his mind changed (sorry heart = mind so no "god didn't affect his mind" stuff).So, if god finds it easier to kill people, harden their hearts, have his chosen slaughter other tribes (save for the virgin females who are to be used as concubines) and other not so nice things to threaten people into believing in it, what is free will for? It would seem then the god of the bible is more interested in force and fear rather than love and caring. It uses the stick and the threat of death both physical and spiritual if we fall away. Yet makes really no attempt to change our minds for the better, prefering to make people's minds even more against it or just killing them off.Why is that?PS:On another thread somebody pointed out that the god of the bible was concerned about the welfare of women and children and that's why it allowed them to take wives from the enemies who they slaughtered. The problem was that only virgin females were taken. So are we agreed that this was a sexual spoils of war that the god of the bible let his followers regvel in as a reward? I guess rape is ok if your god says do.------------------
When all else fails, check the manual

So far, it's going nowhere.I guess these are hard answers that will require even more literal attempts at reading the bible.------------------
When all else fails, check the manual

To zipzip:I am not sure why this is not a legitmate discussion.Could you enlighten me as to why it is not?------------------
When all else fails, check the manual

Shalom Kolyahu!Thanks for your post and no, it was not that long.What I have been after is if God gave us freewill to do things and He seems reluctant to come down and tell us what to do directly, yet God has no problem just killing people directly, hardening their hearts to make them even more stubborn, or having His chosen children slaughter other not so favored children.I appreciate your comments and it makes a great deal of sense to me, especially the "our ways are not God's ways and the reverse is true", part. But if that is true, then why worship God if we don't know what His ways are?------------------
When all else fails, check the manual

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Why worship him if we do understand his ways? He would hardly be worthy of praise if his ways weren't above ours.

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Huh?------------------
When all else fails, check the manual

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Originally posted by funkmasterfreaky:
Why worship him if we do understand his ways? He would hardly be worthy of praise if his ways weren't abover ours.

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So.... God makes no sense, therefore we should worship him?

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Hitting the egg-nog hard this holiday season?

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If we're to worship things that make no sense then I'm going to worship my kids. They're preteens.Then the VCR manual I have must be the new Holiest of books as it makes no sense either.------------------
When all else fails, check the manual

"His ways are above our ways!"That would make sense for God to be that way. What doesn't make sense is when God soes things that we do not accept from our own children! When God acts petty, kills all but 8 people instead of going down to them and relying on a drunkard instead yet still leaving the Mark of Cain in the group, regretting His actions - funny from an omnipotent God, and such then I think the nature of your God, as written about in your Holy Book, is very suspect.If your God showed mercy to all, compassion, and was a tireless teacher who came down to all of his children, not just a backwater semi-nomadic tribe, then not only would we not have these problems, but then the issue of freewill, of choosing right from wrong according to God, would not be subjected to so much human interpretation.------------------
When all else fails, check the manual