Obedience to such a God [i.e., the vengeful, despotic God depicted in the pages of the Hebrew Bible] would not be morally virtuous; it would be, at best, prudent. One does not owe allegiance to another being simply because that being is stronger. And it does not matter if the being in question is responsible for your very existence. No one thinks that an abused child is morally obliged to obey an abusive parent, simply because the parent gave the child life. Parents do not own their children, and their right to expect obedience is contingent upon their being benevolent and comptent trustees of the child’s own welfare.

Louise Antony, “Atheism as Perfect Piety,” in Robert K. Garcia and Nathan L. King, eds., Is Goodness without God Good Enough? A Debate on Faith, Secularism, and Ethics (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), 80.