I don't tend to "side" with Peterr very much on..anything, really..and I don't even profess to understand what his beefs or arguments about God are, really...
But as someone who actually has studied the bible, quite extensively (I'd call 20 years fairly extensive), he alludes to some worthwhile points.
Taken as it is written, the god of the Old Testament was at many times a very..exacting and vengeful god (I think Peterr would call this "cruel" or "murderer"). There's no spin or interpretation on that comment, it is what it is.
So this is where I get off the boat with Bono and religion, because he sometimes seems to want to reinvent God and Jesus into this giant bundle of love and I'm sorry, but even Jesus said he came to put a sword between brothers etc.
So it does in fact come off like a bit of cherry-picking in the end. He wants to use scripture to counsel leaders on poverty, but what about the passages just a few verses before and after that talk about segregating the believers from the non-believers, not even eating with such people, etc? It just seems that Christians with a "progressive" view do cherry-pick alot.
Here's an example of what I mean..
Non-believer says something like:
So you mean that god killed all the people because he love them?
And the response (I'm assuming from a Christian perspective, BVS?):
Listen you'll find scholars and believers who interpret these things in a number of ways.
I'm sure there are and in fact I've read them, but alot of them are "going beyond the things written" as the bible itself says. If we go by what the bible itself says, God did in fact kill probably millions of "unbelievers" over man's history.
I find it hard to listen to Bono talk about God sometimes, knowing that. It's either one big giant fairy tale or it's not, imo, in which case my rational side wants nothing to do with it all.
(also, BVS, I think the word you wanted to use to describe the story of the Flood is "allegory", not "analogy".
)