BibleGuy

It may be that literal interpretations which appear to make God look like, as you said, an asshole, are very skewed and mixed up, especially via translation. The Old Testament, translation at least, seems to present God causing everything - at least in many cases. Maybe that's a spin imposed upon the text. Maybe it represents a lack of balance in man. Jesus said:

If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (John 14:7-11, KJV)

We may have a deeply ingrained impression of God based upon various representations, but what I get from Jesus' words above is "you wanna know the Father? Look at me... at what I do... at who I am. I am the Father in action." And what did he do?

• Taught us to love God and each other as ourselves
• Healed everyone he touched in various ways
• Said to care for and feed the poor, widows and orphans
• Forgave everyone, everything
• Taught that the Kingdom is within; within you; within me, and how to go there
• Taught us to steer away from tyrannical scholars who are "the blind leading the blind" teaching external knowledge, behavior, traditions...
• Taught us to "repent" which the scholarly always seem to teach as "Stop behaving that way and start behaving this way, you sinful maggot". But the word is metanoeo in Greek and it means to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (morally, feel compunction). "Repent" ultimately changes behavior, but it does not mean to change behavior. It means to "think differently". Differently than who? See previous point.

Jesus gave his life serving pagans, simple country hicks, fishermen, prostitutes, farmers, demon-possessed crazies, carpenters, lepers, shepherds, kids playing tag... to teach us what the scholars will not: The kingdom is within, and the Father is love and wants to elevate you and me beyond imagination, no religious hierarchy required.

I don't personally think there's anything wrong with the Old Testament, but with representation and translation.

God is everything, so wouldn't killing his own creations be like killing himself?

Look at it this way... If one of the cells in your body isolates itself for some crazy reason and stops listening and cooperating with the whole, it spreads... infecting adjacent cells with it's ego-centric consume everything mentality. We call that "cancer" and we have two choices: convince it to "repent" (re-join the whole in balanced harmony), or eradicate it if it won't. Otherwise it will consume us and itself in the process. Now... you are a cell, and so is Bob, and Mary, and Jeanna, and Todd... but Todd decides life is all about "me" and starts raping the landscape... stealing from his fellows... stripping the Earth... acquiring everything for himself offering nothing but toxic pollution back to the whole from which he takes. He spreads his mentality and societies become unbalanced, selfish and toxic to the whole. Waddaya do? You have to get rid of "Todd" or he will kill everyone and everything. You have to restore balance for the health, the very survival, of the whole.

Furthermore, how do these people in the Bible "go to" God? Did he have a Villa at the edge of town or something?

You just made me tingle. Yep. A nice, comfy, fragrant one.

And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. (Exodus 33:7, KJV)

That's where they burned incense. Nice tent, and you described it perfectly! A "tabernacle" pitched "without the camp" is a nice little Villa* at the edge of town, akin to a Scythian vapor bath (scroll to 73-75).

* Simple definition of "Villa": A semi-detached house.

"God" is way more groovy than we've been lead to believe. If Jesus were born today he'd probably wear tie-dye as a metaphor for being clothed in light.