Things we learn as kids

I remember growing up and hearing that everything the "good guys" did in the bible was good and justified... but was it? When you think about people today using god as an excuse for war and atrocities. We all shake our heads and call them fools, even other Christians think they are nuts... But what if you really examine a lot of the wars seen in the old testament? They claim the exact same thing, god instructs them to go in and kill and maim people. God instructs them to bash children on rocks. Those of us that were raised on the bible were taught to believe that those were heroic acts against non-believers but really it's a book documenting war crimes.

An a semi separate note, in my history class we're learning about King Solomon. As a kid I was taught that god gave Solomon the gift of wisdom and that he was such a great king. He built the great temple and brought glory to god. But in my class we learned that in order to pay for the temple and his palace Solomon taxed his people to ruin. After he died the Hebrews were split into two factions, ones that didn't mind the taxes and ones that had enough of them. This lead to the fall and conquering of Israel... Solomon was the worst thing to happen to the Hebrews.