Steve Wells does some interesting work, reading the Bible (and other religious texts) closely. His latest project is compiling a list of G-d being a hard-ass, or otherwise vindictive.
I'm bothered by the Bible's cruelty most of all.
So far I've marked 880 passages in the Bible that I consider cruel. Acts that were performed, commanded, or inspired by a supposedly kind and loving God.
Now it's true that some on the list are minor, and some might not seem cruel to everyone. Some passages are on the list for excessive violence, even when God may not have been directly involved. So let's focus on those that will seem cruel to nearly everyone.
To help with that, I've created a short list of 237 cruel passages from the Bible. In most cases the cruelty will be clear just from reading the passage. When not, I've tried to add a note to clarify it's meaning. But I think most people who read these passages will be bothered by them.
Here's one to get started with. (To be fair, I'll try to include some later from the Quran and Book of Mormon, too.) Here it is.
And he [Elisha] went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. 2 Kings 2:23-24 [From Dwindling In Unbelief: Go up thou bald head]
Cursing little kids because they teased his baldness. Yikes. Reminds me of Carl Jung's book (which I really should read again one of these days), Answer to Job.
There are a few key issues we must understand in regards to this account. The text reads, “Then he (Elisha) went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!" So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.” It seems unbelievable that God would cause two bears to maul a group of children for making fun of a bald man.
First, the King James Version has done us a disservice by translated the term as “children.” The Hebrew word can refer to “children,” but rather more specifically means "young men." Second, the fact that the bears mauled 42 of the youths indicates that there were more than 42 youths involved. This was not a small group of children making fun of a bald man. Rather, it was a large demonstration of young men who assembled for the purpose of mocking a prophet of God. Third, the mocking of “go up you baldhead,” is more than “making fun of baldness.” The word “baldhead” was likely a reference to leprosy (Leviticus 13:40-44). The phrase “go up” likely was a reference to Elijah, Elisha’s mentor, being taken up to Heaven earlier in 2 Kings chapter 2 (verses 11-12).
In summary, 2 Kings 2:23-24 is not an account of God mauling young children for making fun of a bald man. Rather, 2 Kings 2:23-24 is a record of an insulting demonstration against God’s prophet by a large group of young men.
http://www.gotquestions.org/Elisha-baldhead.html
If he was a prophet he certainly wasn't worthy of it if he could get so offended at being called bald, and god's violent response to have them torn to pieces by bears was too much of a violent, evil human response to ever make me want to worship him.