Richard Dawkins describes the Old Testament God as “a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser” (among other things). Paul Copan is a Christian apologist and has written a book aiming to show why God’s actions in the Old Testament are not immoral when taken in context. Norman Bacrac is an atheist humanist and part ot the South place Ethical Society.

He believes that Old Testament morality was barbaric and we don’t need a God to tell us how to behave. He holds that God’s morality is called into question if we take the Old Testament literally. So how do we interpret passages where the Israelites were commanded to wipe out whole towns including women and children?