Is the Challenge by New Atheists Against God’s Actions in the Old Testament More Problematic for Theism or Atheism?

There are troubling texts in the Old Testament that depict God commanding the death of innocent people. New Atheists judge that God acts immorally when he makes such commands and expect their judgments to have force. For moral judgments to have force, however, morality must be objective, otherwise, they are merely subjective opinions. If objective morality is required, and atheism is true, then objective morality must be grounded within an atheistic framework. A growing number of atheists attempt to do this through versions of atheistic moral realism. I argue, however, that these attempts do not succeed. Theism, however, does sufficiently ground objective morality as even many atheist thinkers agree. Therefore, New Atheists are left with a dilemma: either morality is subjective, and their moral judgements lack force, or morality is objective, and God is the best explanation for it.