Fundamental Arrogance in Christianity

[Harry Nevis]

First, yes, it is reasonable to have faith.  Second, yes, you are morally obliged to put your faith in God.  However, your moral obligation is not to me and not to the Christian religion.  Your moral obligation is to God, and Him alone.  Everyone is morally obliged to obey their Creator.  In fact, if the God of the Bible actually exists, then this would seem to be a pretty uncontroversial claim, would it not?

I can't see how it's reasonable.  If there was sufficient evidence for god, you would't need faith.  If there is not sufficient evidence, it's wishful thinking.

You owe us (i.e. Christians), absolutely nothing, in terms of belief.  Any obligation you have is owed specifically to God, not to me, Christians, or the Christian religion.  It is impossible, by way of the human will, to fulfill our moral obligations to God, which is why every single human being is considered to be a sinner, in the context of a Christian understanding of human nature and the fall of mankind.  This is specifically why God has provided a way of escape through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which paid for the sins of all mankind and is efficacious to those who accept this free gift.  If you reject this free gift and decide to make restitution for your crimes against God yourself, then yes, you will do so in a place and state of suffering for all eternity.  Eternal punish is the only kind of punishment adequate for a finite creature to pay restitution to an infinite God.  Just tangentially, this is not that unusual, apart from the expanded time-scales that we often have a hard time grasping, but we do this kind of thing all the time in our own punishment systems.  We punish people for their entire lives for acts which often took them mere seconds to carry out.  And sometimes, depending on the country, we even take their lives, based on the heinous nature of their crimes.  And keep in mind, that this is punishment for a single crime often times.  In the case of your being punished by God, we're likely talking about hundreds of thousands or even multiple millions of crimes that you've committed each and every day of your life.  I know I would certainly be guilty of crimes in the millions.  The longer I live, the more aware I am of just how much I fall short of God's standard, and that's taking into account that I see myself far less clearly than God does.

Bad analogy.  We know what the laws are.  We know why they're enacted. there is a correlation between the law and the punishment. If god punishes eternally for sins we can't avoid, then how are we morally obliged to him?  It's monsterous, and if he exists and would do such a thing, he deserves only contempt.