The Historical Jesus is real and He rose from the grave

[DeistPaladin]

I'm sure glad you don't make the rules.

How do you know my scenario isn't true? Maybe God really is testing you to see what you will believe in this life, as you suggest, but with a surprise twist. Maybe it's the one who refuses to believe even under threat who gets to Heaven.

Again, I have just as much proof as you do and my story makes much more sense. I mean, the motivations of your characters are badly thought out.

Your god is a narcissist who demands (and needs) constant praise and adoration and yet shyly hides and covers his tracks to make it look like he doesn't really exist. What's his motivation? And then he sends himself down to earth to become his own son so he can sacrifice himself on a cross because dying in this way is the only way he can convince himself to forgive us? What stronger, higher force compels your god to have to sacrifice himself? Does your god make the rules or not?

And then you have a devil who's motives are even murkier. Why does he want to torture the very people who've rejected his enemy? Why not recruit them into an army to take down his enemy? What's his motivation, beyond a two-dimensional evil-for-its-own-sake (always the mark of a badly written villain).

If a priest made all this up to secure a following, there's nothing to explain. It makes sense for the priest's motives to create a faith-based scheme of salvation in a jealous, narcissistic god who hides (because that god doesn't really exist) and a devil who will torture unbelievers rather than recruit them. The whys of it are clear enough if it's a contrived fiction. It's only the ones who would suggest it's all really true who have anything to explain.