If there was a loving God, would you accept him?

[Tonus]

And well, considering that the God in question requires you to worship him, you would do wise to do so.

If it is that important to him, he can make the requirement clear. If it's such a non-factor that he doesn't make it clear enough that no religion has managed to convince a majority of humanity, then I'm thinking that he either doesn't care, or doesn't exist. That he makes no effort whatsoever to show himself leads me to the latter as the most reasonable assumption.

After all, anyone who warns us about the afterlife is in disagreement with a lot of people on many different levels and has dismissed many other claims, or held them to a far higher standard of evidence than their own. I just happen to have dismissed one more god than most theists have.

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Oh, you're so brave. I'm sure you're going to be as brave when you're facing the perils of hell, yes? I'm sure that you'd not be able to withstand even the most mild forms of human torturing methods, let alone face the fires of hell.

Most people have a pretty low pain threshold, so it's entirely possible that someone could get me to claim a lot of things under sufficient duress. As it happens, many religions have used such threats --and torture-- as a way of coercing people into supporting them, or at least withdrawing opposition. Browsing a list of the devices used during the middle ages would give anyone pause.

I think it's telling that certain gods might have to use torture to get people to follow them. And it would be very scary if they did exist, because we would know that they were quite willing to apply it, possibly even to those who were faithful, just because they felt like it. Maybe hell isn't an eternity spent in a fiery pit. Maybe hell is an eternity spent in heaven, constantly looking over your shoulder.