No, really, if you consider God to be all merciful, loving, benevolent person, turn back now. This is a literary deconstruction of the character, not a personal opinion. You will not like what I'm about to say, and it may just hurt your feelings a lot, and that's not what I'm out to do. I'm not out to disprove your deity, or make you question your faith.
If, however, you choose to read further anyway, I appreciate it. And if you can tolerate it, I will further appreciate your integrity of character.
So, why would I consider the God of the Bible to be the greatest literature villain of all time?
It's simple, really. He created the entirety of the universe, in all its pain, and flaws. He created all creatures to serve man, to be devoured by man, used by man, slain by man in sacrifices to him--he cares not for animals whatsoever, and made them beings with inferior intelligence purely so humanity could have perfect slaves to use and abuse as they pleased. The same humanity who he created purely to worship him, to sing his praises, to love him unconditionally. It gets worse when you realize that God is a character so petty and so desperate to have his self worth realized by others that he gave humanity free will
purely so he could force them to love him of their own free will. Then, he created an impossible test in which humanity had no knowledge to know of deception, created a tree of knowledge with appealing fruit, and then delivered a snake to tempt them. Then, being omniscient, he pretended not to be aware of their being deceived.
Then he punished them for their naivety because their free will didn't work the way he wanted.
At one point, when humanity turns away from him, he grows so hate filled and spiteful that he drowns the entire world, innocent and guilty alike, man woman and child, animals, plants--everything
dies. He only saves a small part of it purely so he can start the whole cycle over again and try to have them worship him with their free will, which he gave them purely so they could choose to worship him and thus feed his ego further.
He orders the destruction of entire cities, the slaughter of ethnic groups, the mass rapes of women and mass slaughters of men, he endorses slavery and even describes how to treat your slave, and he has random spasms of deranged insanity. Such as granting the power to slaughter a thousand Palestinians to a man who murders people for losing a bet, on the condition that he never cuts
his hair. He sends an angel down to talk to a guy for abusing his Donkey, and then the Donkey
starts talking too. This is stuff I wish I could make up, I really do, but the creativity of this character can only be described as that of sheer, undivided madman on a power trip who snorted
way too much cocaine.
Hell, even to his most loyal follower, he happily engages in a bet with Lucifer (as the madman forgets he's omniscient for a moment here,
completely in character) about the loyalty of one of his followers. He takes away his follower's family, property, and wealth, and leaves him lonely in destitution. However, Lucifer decides that's not enough and ups the ante. God then decides to degrade the health of
one of his most loyal followers with horrifyingly vicious diseases. Then, once he wins the bet, he just leaves that follower to
rot in his own shit and die.
Then, as if his ego wasn't large enough, he makes himself into a man, makes it a Jesus Sue (literally born of Mary Sue), who proceeds to love people. Very briefly. Before allowing himself to be nailed to a stick by Romans and dying three days later. Then he goes to Heaven after forgiving everyone's sins. The sins he fostered on them in the first place. Only, wait, no, that doesn't count, if you don't believe in the main protagonist of the story, you still go to hell anyway. Then he promises that at some undisclosed date, he's going to throw a shitfit and murder
everyone.
Again. Presumable he tells the world this so he can satisfy his inner sadist some more.
God is perhaps the most arrogant, insecure, malevolent, disturbed, psychotic, sadistic madman, who fetishizes violence to such an insane degree that he shows utterly
zero compassion, mercy, or even regret for the things he's done. Even towards the most loyal of his own followers.
And -that-, is a literary dissection of God, and why I think he's probably the greatest example of evil epitomized in a character in the Western World.
Oh, and if you're wondering where Shakespeare got the idea to have Lady MacBeth promise to smash her baby's head against a rock...
Here you go.