(April 28, 2012 at 10:50 pm)teaearlgreyhot Wrote:(April 28, 2012 at 10:29 pm)Matt231 Wrote: Exactly. If God wanted people to believe in him so badly, then he would at least show himself and give everyone a reason to believe.
True.
If the result of people going to hell is lack of information, which is the only way I can see it being, then for God to be good in my estimation he must allow enough time to convince each individual he creates that he exists and that he is worthy to serve. That shouldn't take too long for an all-powerful being to do.
Another problem theists have is just the sheer arbitrariness of setting God to be the only thing would violate a person's free will by making himself obviously known. Theists say, it's really obvious to everyone that God exists, it's just that they don't like him so they push that thought aside in their mind and deliberately intoxicate themselves in alternative world views to make them forget his existence. What sort of definition of obvious are they using? I would say that the fact that my hair color is dark brown, that I'm a male, that I'm wearing a red shirt, that I have 10 fingers and toes, and that I exist to be obvious. These are the sort of things that are plainly obvious to everyone. It is completely unjust that God would allow ourselves to be fully convinced instantly of such seemingly pointless facts, yet allow the supposed fact of his own existence to be so debatable that 80 percent of mankind will spend eternity in hell for not coming to the "obvious" conclusion.
You have no idea how God will judge those who have never heard of Christ, that's unless God has been secretly talking to you and you're afraid to let your atheist friends know because they would ridicule you.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.