"God created life, therefore He has the right to take it away"

In the Bible, (1 Sam 15:3 to be exact) God orders the killing of infants. In defense of God's command, Norman L. Geisler, Ph. D., argues that since God is the originator of life, he has the right to take it away if he wishes. We, as humans, do not have this same right because we did not create life. The quote is as follows:

"An atheist once brought up this issue in a debate, and I responded by saying, 'God created life and he has the right to take it. If you can create life, then you can have the right to take it. But if you can't create it, you don't have that right.' And the audience applauded.
People assume that what's wrong for us is wrong for God. However, it's wrong for me to take your life, because I didn't make it and I don't own it. For example, it's wrong for me to go into your yard and pull up your bushes, cut them down, kill them, transplant them, move them around. I can do that in my yard, because I own the bushes in my yard.
"Well, God is sovereign over all of life and he has the right to take it if he wishes. In fact, we tend to forget that God takes the life of every human being. It's called death. The only question is when and how, which we leave up to him." (p. 119)

There are numerous problems with this. One main problem is that the premise "If a being creates life, then he has the right to destroy it" is false. Imagine there existed an evil being who created life. He tortures people for the fun of it and kills them for the same reason. Certainly, this being killing people for the fun of it is wrong. However, if it's the case that whoever creates life has the right to destroy it, then killing people for fun would be okay, given that you created them in the first place.

What matters is not whether the being created life. What matters is the reason(s) that one has for killing. This can be seen by noticing that humans have the right to take life in certain circumstances. There are cases where killing would be permissible and even obligatory (in times of war, to protect a loved one, etc.).

Another problem with this is how he talks about ownership. He makes an analogy between God owning human lives and us owning the bushes in our yard. The major, rather obvious problem with this is that humans cannot legitimately be owned. Person A cannot own person B legitimately. Sure, one may have a case where a slave is owned by his slaveowner, but that would be wrong. To say that slavery is wrong means that no person can own another person legitimately. Hence, the analogy fails to establish its point.

If God owns our lives in any sense, then he is evil. The same way that a slaveowner is evil. The same way that a person who created beings for the sole purpose of owning them would be evil. Only person A can legitimately "own" Person A's life. Certainly humans are not property.

So, those are the problems with the defense that since God created life, he has the right to take it away. Affirming this implies affirming the general principle that if a being creates life, then he has the right to take it away. This general principle has 2 main problems:

1. It fails to call evil a being who creates life for the sole purpose to enjoy destroying it.
2. It relies on the idea that a being can own a human. Only an evil being would attempt to own a human.

Therefore, the general principle fails to justify a God who would command the killing of infants. Norman L. Geisler, Ph.D., is wrong.

For a more thorough discussion of the killing of infants and various attempts by Christians to justify it, go here.