You know I'm not talking about somebody doing out of free will. That's my point, if free will existed she wouldn't be put into that situation.

But how can you still believe God is good despite all the misery he puts people through?

Surely you'd have to agree that either
A He is no God at all.
B He is a God but he is evil.
C He is a God and is trying but is failing at helping everyone

So which is it?

It's also funny that I pointed out that he believes god is good and how he decided that. To decide whether god is good you could use the bible, which is the word of god (circular) or you decide for yourself, using your own morals. If you are using your own morals then you don't require god and if you use the bible you're gullible as ****.

Of course I couldn't get a straight answer and I got a whole story involving some "pastor" that nobody cares about but I'm used to that from religious people.

walkby seems pretty reasonable.

Well, like I said, that misery is the result of sin. He succeeded at helping everyone though what Jesus did on the cross, which is to say that he (God) voluntarily paid the punishment for our sins himself so that we could have forgiveness through putting our faith in Jesus. We still have to suffer in the world but God promises us that there will be a new world that sin never touches, we will be with God and it will be perfect for us.

I encourage you to learn more about this. gotquestions.org is an awesome resource.
For example, here are some questions they have answers for:
How can I be saved?
What does it mean that Jesus saves?
Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Can you explain the bolded part? Who sinned? What sin?

Also agreed Walkby seems very reasonable perhaps a little naive.

I tried my best to answer the question, if it doesn't make sense I'm happy to try again. What part of my answer wasn't straight?

Adam and Eve sinned, their sin was to be willfully disobedient of God. Through their sin they fell and their nature became sinful. We inherit that sinful nature because we literally come from them. We are also under the same punishment that they are, that punishment is death. God desires that we don't die though so he made a way for us to be saved, but God is also infinitely just so our sin cannot go unpunished. His plan for salvation was to take the punishment on himself and to give forgiveness to anyone who believed.

Do you see what is logically wrong with your story? Can you prove any of that? I mean those are some pretty big claims, I would want some proof before continuing!

How do I know Adam and Eve sinned?
How do I know I come from Adam and Eve?
Why am I inheriting Adam and Eve's sins? We don't inherit our parents sins do we, I mean I haven't heard of anybody going to jail because of their parents crimes?

I'll be honest, I don't know if I can effectively prove to you anything that I have to say about Adam and Eve, in fact I highly suspect that I cannot. All I can do is present what I believe, make sure it aligns with and is consistent with scripture, and hope that it leads you to Christ. The ball is entirely in your court after that.

How do I know Adam and Eve sinned?
How do I know I come from Adam and Eve?

Because this is what the Word of God says. Again, what you make of this is ultimately your decision.

Why am I inheriting Adam and Eve's sins?

We inherit their sinful nature because we literally come from them and it is an inheritance.

Would it be proper in your mind to call God a tyrant? Severe out-of-proportion punishments for disobedience are what tyrants do.

Also, don't you think it's a little weird that, out of the whole world of possibilities, God's morality and style of punishing just happens to be exactly like a somewhat cranky Middle Eastern warlord? Especially since the story came out of the Middle East. Every culture seems to see a God that fits with how they view the world and the natural world around them. Is it possible at all, in your mind, that the stories reflect the prejudices of the people at the time,and not absolute truth? For example, we know the flood never happened. That was a story, though probably believed by the people of the age. Do you think that might have happened with descriptions of God? They have the right general idea about Him, but the details are wrong, myths handed down.

Perhaps the atheist has a more pure relationship with God - they have none of the metaphorical baggage and can just appreciate and know God unencumbered by the filters of ancient desert tribes.

Well I think to get the full picture of God's character you should contrast what his actions were along with what his punishment for sin was. God said that Adam would surely die as a punishment for sin, but according to the Bible Adam also lived for 930 years, in which time God seems to have kept in close communion with Adam and his descendants (he spoke to Adam's sons Cain and Abel in person and this didn't seem out of place to them). In other words God didn't just abandon Adam and his family. God also made the atoning sacrifice through which everyone could be saved and as explained in the Bible has been trying to reach the hearts of man since the beginning.

This savior seems a little far fetched and very overly dramatic. I mean all it really is is humans being disobedient to God and therefore he offers his son to die for us, so we can be saved? I mean really? Why so dramatic and is it really necessary to kill his own son? I really don't get it to be honest.

What constitutes as sin? A lot of sin is actually harmless and very pleasurable, I don't see why God would be opposed to pleasure? Or even worse why would he want to hurt me for trying to have a good time?

I mean if that's the case then I should be able to judge him too, don't you think?

I apologize for not responding to this.

I believe that the Bible is true. I can't really make judgments about what individuals in the past believed about God (since I've never met them or talked to them). In the case of Israel at least, people seemed to go back and forth. God would do something incredible for Israel, like deliver them from something terrible, and people would believe, but then things would get comfortable again and then people would reject him. In Israel's case God seemed to often be rejected, even though they undoubtedly had his favor (this seems to speak to just how sinful humanity can be, how easily we can ignore the things God has done for us even when those things are apparent). As to how this pertains to your question, if we are to believe the Biblical accounts, God is truthful when he reveals himself and yet people still end up inventing their own gods. Do I think this is what happened with the God of the Bible? No, I believe the Bible. I think this is something that man commonly does though.

Also I don't really find it weird that God is described the way he is in the Bible and that he knows how to wage war or that he even does it. I understand why you would question that though.

I apologize if this was long-winded.

Do you consider the OT to be a good source on morality and on what constitutes a sinful act?

Why would God need to go to war? Isn't he all powerful?

Well, the fundamental thing is that there was a consequence to that disobedience (which Adam and Eve were fully aware of). God is just and true so he followed through on what he said (in this case punishing sin with death), but he's also extremely loving, so he became sinful man himself (even though he was never guilty of it), and suffered the consequence himself so that people who believed in him could be saved from it. This was and is his plan for salvation. If you don't believe, you're still under the wrath that was satisfied in Christ's sacrifice for believers.

You can say all these things don't matter, but God isn't like that. He's perfect, just, good, and true.

As for sin, sin is transgression of the laws of God. God had a will and plan for mankind that was good, and we deviated from that plan by breaking his laws. When you say "why would God want to hurt me for having a good time?" I would say if you are sinning you are going against God's will for you which is perfect and in fact doing something that is not good for you. He's just so he wants to punish that sin, but he's also incredibly merciful so he has made a way for you to be completely forgiven in his eyes.

If you think this is all overly dramatic I suggest you take a look at the world and see the fruits of sin. Why would God want anything he created soiled by it? You don't think he has the right to want to root it out and destroy it? I think his plan to do that is pretty miraculous.

Let me address this, first of all he punishes sin with death, a little extreme. don't you think? Which sin exactly? I'd like to know if the crime fits the punishment or if he is just bat**** crazy old man!

Secondly he became a sinful man himself (you mean in the form as Jesus?) how long did he roam the earth as a man? I mean can he really judge anybody based on his 10 days here on earth preaching? He is in no position to judge! Just because he did not sin does not mean if he were here longer that he wouldn't of sinned. He can only judge if he has walked in the person's shoes, don't you think?
If he is good then why would he let us suffer? You seem to not want to grasp that logically he is
A. Very dramatic
B. Extremely insane
C. Very childish
D. Not very logical
E. Does not come up with reasonable solutions to problems.

Which laws of God?
What are sins?
How do you know what God's will is for me and how do you know it is perfect?
You can't be just if you want to punish your children for leaving them unattended, that's just bad parenting, it is God's fault we sin, if he thinks sin is wrong, by creating sin in the first place!

What are the fruits of sin?
Did he not also create sin?
I'm confused now, isn't your God almighty the creator of everything? I mean either he is or he is no real God, agreed?

Yet you are now trying to suggest that he did not create sin and we are guilty of this sin that came out of nowhere from another creator and his plan is to destroy it? Am I right?

Yes. God had strict laws that were to be followed regarding certain things and although I'm by no means an expert on Old Testament laws I have 100% faith that God had good reasons for those laws. Ultimately those laws were given to address sin and the context for why those laws were given is extremely important, again of which I stress I am not an expert. If you have questions that are more specific I can try my best to answer them.

In Matthew 22:37-40 it reads,

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Unfortunately because of our fallen nature, through our choices one way or another we will sin. We require a redemptive transformation in Christ to overcome it and that is an ongoing process. It's my personal testimony that this is true, as it is happening in my life right now and is promised to carry on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It's not just some philosophy I've learned that I'm applying to my life to change my behaviors, it's an ongoing process that's changing how I want to live to a degree and on a level that is often past my own rationalization.

On OT morality:

Should we stone the gays and adulterers to death? God is pretty clear on that, the Muslims do it (who believe in the OT and Jesus), as do the Jews (who believe in the OT).

Do witches exist? Should we kill them? If witches don't exist, why does the bible say to kill them? If they do, should we be trying to kill them wherever we find them?

Why have people gotten scripture so wildly wrong? It's either wildly wrong to kill witches, or wildly wrong not to...and Christians have done both for centuries. What mechanism do you use to decide which commandments to listen and which not?

"Who am I talking to?"

I don't watch any TV/Netflix so I don't know who these guys are.
Any system with variation will inherently appear unfair when viewed with an unreasonable expectation that all entities should have the same chances.

The way the world is - unfair, sometimes cruel - is the only one a just God could create, if you think about it.

This answer on gotquestions.org seems to address your question as to whether we should stone gay people. Their answer covers what is written in the Bible and why it is unbiblical today for someone to kill someone else for homosexuality. It also touches on the Muslim and Jewish aspect of your question. This answer covers adultery (which is, in a sense, treated the same way). My takeaway from their answers is that sin is sin and that God is graciously willing to forgive sin. What Jesus did and placing your faith in Him accomplishes this. What was done in the past is different than what is done today, definitely, hopefully those answers are satisfactory in explaining why.

This answer addresses witchcraft (I only skimmed this answer but its reasoning seems similar to the other two answers).

From that answer:

I think some people have prejudices against other people and use scripture to try to justify their actions towards them. I think Jesus is pretty clear in that He condemns sin but loves the sinner. Also I am still a sinner and I don't think I'm justified in hating someone because they are sinning. I would want to point that person towards Jesus. This is what I try to make sure guides my actions when I approach other people and talk about stuff such as this. As for what mechanisms I use to decide which commandments to listen to and which to follow, my approach is sort of similar. I want to address the sins I'm committing and then try to go from there. I hope every day I'm getting better at this and thankfully I know that in Christ I'm forgiven (this doesn't mean that I can willfully sin though). If I feel I'm doing something that contradicts scripture I try to figure out what I'm doing wrong and how I can fix that, God's forgiveness plays a huge role in this. Paul's instructions are also very helpful.