The God of the Fundamentalists

From Karen Armstrong’s A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam:

Once the Bible begins to be interpreted literally instead of symbolically, the idea of its God becomes impossible.  To imagine a deity who is literally responsible for everything that happens on earth involves impossible contradictions.  The “God” of the Bible ceases to be a symbol of a transcendent reality and becomes a cruel and despotic tyrant.