The belief in a personal, intervening deity presents another problem in my mind. Theists believe that a god created the universe and everything in it with a final, triumphant pinnacle of creation that is humans, for whom this god cares above all else. So this god's purpose is A, B, or C as follows:
A: God's purpose is to create the universe and everything in it.
B: God's purpose is to care for human beings.
C: God's purpose is to create the universe and everything in it, and to care for human beings.
God's Purpose is to Create the Universe
If this is a god's purpose, then a more appropriate stance toward a god is deism. That is to say, a supernatural agency ("The Supreme Architect") created the universe and everything in it, setting it into motion before stepping back and impassively and impartially watching it all work out. This god doesn't intervene in human affairs and had no special reason for creating us. There is no afterlife, no Heaven or Hell, and no holy text on which to base one's life. This view is compatible with science, since the god has no personal characteristics and the natural world is what it is without any supernatural phenomena like miracles or prophecy.
The problem with this, however, is that if this god's sole purpose is to create the universe then there was (a) no need for this god to exist prior to the creation of the universe, and (b) no need for this god following the creation of the universe. A deist's stance, in this case, is still a little bit silly because even if a supernatural agency did create the universe, there's absolutely no reason to wonder about it, worry about it, or inject it into any conversation because it has lived out its purpose and now – for all it matters – doesn't even logically exist.
For a theist, however, this presents a wholesale contradiction to everything they believe. For one, it means their god doesn't care about them any more than an ant or a deer. Second, it means there's no reason to believe in an afterlife because their god has already done its job and now – for all it matters, again – doesn't even logically exist. It's pretty clear that theists believe their god has another purpose other than just being a creator.
God's Purpose is to Care for Humans
If this is a god's purpose, then there's no reason for the god to exist prior to the advent of homo sapiens. This means that the universe was formed via natural processes without the intervention of a supernatural agency, the Earth came about via natural processes without the intervention of a supernatural agency, life spawned, evolved, and finally got to the point where homo sapiens emerged.
The problem is this: if there was no god prior to homo sapiens emerging, what prompted the spontaneous generation of this god? Is it the sudden influx of human souls? Did humans will this god into existence specifically because they felt too weak and insecure to care for themselves?
Another problem is this: if this is god's purpose and everything in the universe happened according to natural laws, then why do theists so adamantly reject and mock things like the Big Bang theory and the theory of evolution? Why not embrace these ideas as truths and continue on their merry way of feeling like a special creation in an otherwise un-special world?
Another problem is this: if this is god's purpose, then why are humans suffering and dying en masse, when all it would take is a little bit of intervention on the god's behalf? No, I'm not trying to argue the old "Why is there suffering in the world" line, but you have to admit that a being whose sole purpose is to care for humans has proven itself ineffective throughout history. It's pretty clear that theists don't limit their god to this single purpose, so that brings us to the final option.
God's Purpose is Twofold
If a god's purpose is to create the universe and everything in it and to care especially for human beings, then my first question is this: what was this god doing prior to creating the universe and human beings? There's no reason to believe that this god existed a nanosecond prior to "In the beginning" and no reason to further believe that this god existed a nanosecond prior to "Male and female, God created them."
If this god's purpose is to do both of these things, then both of these things should have been created in tandem so as to give god its purpose and start of its existence with any degree of logic. Since no creation myth gives an account in accordance with this logic, then it's difficult to figure out why any such god should be believed as existing.
If this god's purpose is contingent on two conditions - the universe existing and human beings existing – then why weren't humans created before (or, at the very least, at the same time as) all the other plants and animals that this god doesn't necessarily care about as much? Doesn't that seem backward? I'm sure there's a wonderful apologetics argument for this, such as "God saved the best for last, as we are the pinnacle of His creation" or "God knew what humans would need to survive and built all of the infrastructure for us beforehand." Both of these are fairly silly because this perfect, personal creator god is supposed to be all-powerful and all-knowing and could have designed humans in such a way that all of the crazy infrastructure wasn't necessary. As in my argument against souls, this god could have simply created a universe that was solely habitable for souls and foregone all of the physical universe nonsense.
In my opinion, a god with both of the purposes of creating the universe and caring especially for human beings doesn't make any more sense than a god with either purpose and only raises more questions as to the nature and/or origin of its existence in the first place. And that doesn't even take into account its motives or methods of creation and…ahem…caring.
Let's start thinking, people. Please.
