How can a Christian reject part of the Bible and still call themselves a Christian?

[Sword of Christ]

In other words, you're misrepresenting me on purpose.

I'm trying to explain what the real interpretation of Christian salvation through Christ is meant to be. But you're trying to shoehorn in the atheists stereotypical and misinformed interpretation, the kind of thing Christopher Hitchens or whoever would go on about. Any objection you raise in relation to that interpretation I would agree with. It would make life some kind of punishment/ordeal and God something you serve out of fear and submission rather than love.

So sin is "a by-product of life." Before it was a consequence of free will.

One and the same thing, as living beings we have our own freewill. If we were created as purely spiritual beings we would be under Gods will.

Either is problematic, but it'd be good if you could keep your story together.

There isn't a problem with either and it all holds together.

What a lousy writer, then.

A human wrote it but it tells of certain spiritual truths relating to humanities relationship to God.

And what we actually are, per your claim, is the creation of god. Ergo, if we are sinful by nature, this was god's plan.

Well yes it is Gods plan. It's a very plan overall seeing as we get the opportunity to exist as living beings and to develop our relationship with God with our own freedom of will and serve others and some good. Naturally you will need to have the capacity to sin and be evil if this is to have any point or purpose.

It only has a downside because god programmed it in.

Without the downside you wouldn't have the upside. The upside makes the downside worth it.

Under the scenario you describe, I certainly would rather not have existed, since it means that behind the whole facade is a very nasty and very unpredictable being with the power

What God created here is a community of being capable of living in love with God and each other but only if we choose to do so there's no force or compulsion involved you see.

--and the inclination-- to make my life a literal hell.

Everyone has a life that is worth something and is valuable even if it will involve some degree of suffering and hardship.

Only if your standards are set impossibly low.

In the Christian context the universe was created for the purpose of developing a loving community of beings. The you do this is by creating a system that allows for full freewill in the context of having something worthwhile to strive toward and struggle against. Hence what you now have is an opportunity to do some good works for others and lessen the suffering of your fellow man, and animals and whatever as well. So the temporal hardship involved promotes the eternal spiritual development.

No, it isn't, as shown by your inability to make it sound coherent in these last few exchanges.

If we can put this into a list.

1) Physical mortal Life
2) Hardship/suffering
3) Sin/death
4) Salvation through Gods grace in Christ
4) Love/community in Christ
5) Spiritual/moral growth in Christ
6) Eternal immortal life in Christ

Only because god made it that way, in order to give value to the sacrifice he could have avoided by not making us that way in the first place.

It's better that he did make it this way given the opportunity of what it allows us to experience and do.