The view that we are expected to take of God is that He is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful. This is not the impression given in many places in the Bible, where God's knowledge and powers are clearly rather limited.

For some examples, consider first the story of the Passover described in Exodus chapter 12, where God passed over the houses of Egypt and killed the firstborn of every family except the Jewish families living there in captivity. And how was God to know which houses contained Jews and which ones Egyptians? Silly question - of course, the all-knowing, all-powerful God just knew. Obvious, isn't it? Well, actually, no. Apparently the only way that God knew which houses to avoid was to get the Jewish families to daub lamb's blood over the doorframes and lintels. When God saw the blood, he would know to pass over that particular house. So, we have the rather curious situation of an all-powerful, all-knowing God, who can fly over houses and strike death at will into the occupants but doesn't know which houses his own people live in.

Next, take a closer look at Matthew, chapter 2, which relates events immediately after the birth of Jesus. Most religious people will be aware of the story where the Magi visit Herod on their way to find the baby Jesus, and thereby make Herod aware of his birth. Herod makes them promise to return and tell him where the baby is, when they have found him. But the Magi are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod after seeing the baby. Herod discovers that they have broken their promise and orders all male babies under the age of two to be murdered. Before this happens, an Angel of the Lord appears to Joseph, warns him what is going to happen, and tells him to take the baby Jesus to safety in Egypt. Many years later, after the death of Herod, another Angel appears to Joseph to tell him it is safe to return. So, clearly God can cause dreams and Angels to appear at will to pass messages to humans. So why did God allow the massacre, by soldiers with swords, of hundreds of innocent babies? Why not simply send an Angel to Herod, after Joseph's departure with Jesus, to say "Too late, mate, he's gone". God could very easily, in many different ways, have convinced Herod there was no need for this appalling massacre, but he just didn't bother. Why? The simple answer is that God had nothing to do with it - the Bible writers simply decided it was a better story the way they wrote it.

And a curious passage from Judges 1:19:

"And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."

Apparently this God, who creates stars and galaxies from nothing, sends plagues on humanity, parts seas for his followers to escape, and floods the Earth to the top of Mount Everest, has trouble dealing with chariots of iron. How strange.