fr0d0 Wrote:I understand God to be just. Depictions of hell are often the worst imaginable. How deep is your rebellion against good? The punishment has to match.
This is the major problem I have with your faith. Why should there be any punishment at all? If we atheists are wrong about God, what difference does it make to him? Even the most virulent antitheist could never harm God in any way. He is not threatened. His religions command most people in the world to one degree or other.
So, why the need to punish?
That betrays the artificial nature of the entire nonsense. An all-powerful God would require nothing from humanity by need, not even recognition. That your God does make such demands means that either he is the pettiest, most insecure fucker imaginable, far more so than any person ever, or the entire punishment-for-not-believing is human invention. It is an admission of defeat in a sense, for if God was so awesome and his gifts so amazing, there would be no non-believers. There would be no need for apologetics or debates. Belief in God would be as obvious as needing air to breathe (and it would not contradict so-called 'free will').
That threats of any kind are necessary at all is powerful evidence that the entire thing is a lie. Nobody has to threaten me with eternal suffering to get me to accept evolution or the Big Bang theory.