When we are young, and know virtually nothing, we all think we know basically everything. We think we understand how the world works, and our parents, while we acknowledge their wisdom when it is beneficial to us in our own eyes, are also seen as the most oppressive killjoys on the planet. "When I grow up, I'm going to treat my kids differently", we say. Well, time passes, we grow up, maybe we have kids, and we realise wait... that thing I always said my parents were cruel for teaching me? Turns out...
This has been the way of the world since Cain was able to form coherent sentences. Inexperience is the mother, and desire the father, of all folly. Yet, experience shows up, bringing wisdom, and soon the folly is extinguished. We mature, and we realise just how foolish we once were.
But one thing we never seem to grow out of is this strange belief that if someone with more experience shares wisdom that conflicts with our current folly, the error must be theirs. And, if stated correctly, we can convince others, too.
Consider, for example, the following statement: "Believers, think of all the things you would do if you were God, then remember, you worship a God who has not done it." Wow, that hits hard. If I was God, maybe I'd solve world hunger. Maybe I'd cure cancer. Maybe I'd strike dead all the rapists and the murderers. Yet, God leaves this fallen world in its fallen state. People suffer, people die, people sin, and God doesn't always step in.
Of course, my own sin needs to be factored in here. If, as I currently am, I was given God's power, there would be a lot of things I would be tempted to do that really would not make the world a better place. And as virtuous as atheists making this argument want to make you think they are, we all know they would do some very sinful things if they had God's power. Heck, I've known atheists who say they would do great things if they had God's power, yet they do not use the power they already have to do the same.
If you've ever seen Bruce Almighty, you have a fairly clear picture of what I'm talking about. In the movie, Bruce Nolan, a news anchor from Buffalo, New York, challenges God, as any atheist might. "He could fix everything in 5 minutes if He wanted to", he declares. The movie progresses, and eventually, Bruce finds himself standing before the very God he has blasphemed. God has both a gift, and a challenge. Everything God can do in the universe, Bruce can do in Buffalo.
So of course, Bruce can fix everything in 5 minutes, right? Well, maybe for Bruce. He spruces up his car, swaps shirts with a mannequin in a store window, and even uses a gust of wind to move a girl's skirt so he can peek. Then he happens to find some guys who beat him up earlier, make a monkey come out of one of their behinds, and sends locusts after the rest of them. Right before sending the monkey "home"...
Bruce Almighty is, I believe, an accurate picture of how most of us would be if God gave us His powers for a day. If we take God's power without His wisdom, we might do some good things. But we'd also do a fair bit of bad. But the premise of the argument isn't what you would do if you were like God. It's what would you do if you were God?
The temptation, at this point, is to say I don't actually know. After all, God is acting on information I don't have, and with hindsight from scenarios I have genuinely been in, I know for a fact that what I do when I don't have information is going to be different than what I would do in that same scenario with that information.
However, I actually do know what I would do if I was God, because I know what God, being God, has done. I lack the information God has, but God has the information I lack. Therefore, what He chooses to do, I know I would also do. Thus, as emotionally impactful as this argument is, it is actually just a glorified version of "when I grow up...".
When we grow up, we see things differently. We see clearly what we once did not see at all. We know what our parents knew, and so while we never thought we would do what they did, we do what they did. I will never be God. I will, thank God, never even have the power God has. I will, upon meeting Him, know what I do not know now, but even then, I do not believe God will give us omniscience, though we will know, even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12). But because I know that wisdom changes action, I can conclusively say that God, who acts in His infinite wisdom, is acting wisely.
In his excessively limited wisdom, an atheist might disagree. Not understanding why God doesn't do what they would do with His power, they believe their way is right. That somehow, their limited knowledge is greater than His unlimited knowledge. But even a human can often understand some things God does. And if you still don't like it? You still can't change it.
See, at the end of the day, "I don't understand God's actions" is not the same as "I have refuted God's existence". Claiming God cannot be real because He doesn't conform to what an atheist thinks He should be is just plain illogical. This puts the atheist in a rather awkward position. Aside from making an argument which, when examined critically, turns out to be really rather silly, it doesn't even work as an argument against God's existence. But if God exists, then it doesn't even work as an argument against His goodness or wisdom. So the atheist has, at best, made a sub-standard argument against God's existence, but if God exists, has even placed their folly against God's wisdom. Like an ant boasting against a sauropod, all the atheist has done is expose how small they really are, all while blaspheming that same God.
But God has another attribute no atheist can ever lay claim to: Humility. Lacking God's humility, even His wisdom would be useless. But God is indeed humble, and so in spite of everything He has to boast about, He instead chose the route of self-sacrifice. He laid His glory aside to become a man. And not even a particularly spectacular one. Jesus was not a man of war, nor wealth, nor even great beauty. Nothing this world values were His in large quantities. And He lived a sinless life, doing many great things. That includes many of the things I'd quite gladly do if I had God's power. He healed the sick. Miraculously, at that, so atheists must deny the historical record in order to sustain their claims.
But He died brutally. Jesus received great pain on our behalf. He was beaten, mocked, and hung on a cross to die slowly and painfully. This, He did because of all the sin previously mentioned. The bad things we do against God. The things that cause us to deserve His wrath. But that wrath was executed against Jesus on our behalf. Therefore, instead of mocking Him for not doing what we think we would do if we were Him, we should be thanking Him for the thing He did for us. This will unlock its benefits for us! When we repent and believe, we receive eternal life in a Kingdom where there is no sin, and therefore, we are fully satisfied in Him. There will be no more "you worship a God who didn't do this", but "I am glad I worship the God who did this". Thus, we can speculate all day about what we would do if we had God's power and wisdom, but the real question is, do you, as yourself, have the wisdom to repent and be saved?