Rant against anti-atheist agnostics.

[Tonus]

The only ways to deal with it are to face it (accept vicarious sacrifice) or ignore it and accept it (suffering) as reality.

Then I assume you are referring to some other form of potential, that can only be unlocked via divine action. I was referring to reaching our potential in the sense of taking advantage of our particular skills and abilities to achieve success, however we happen to define it.

I was teasing one of the "post n run" people with this a week or two ago, but I also think it's a relevant question: doesn't accepting that sacrifice qualify as a supremely selfish act? If we have sinned against god and deserve only eternal punishment because we are incapable of squaring that debt ourselves, is it wrong to accept the sacrifice and skip out on the responsibility for our actions? Perhaps that is the trick? When you get to the Pearly Gates, you are expected to ask to spend eternity in hell paying for your sins, at which point Saint Peter winks at you and lets you into heaven. To seek access to heaven would imply that you want god to pick up the tab for your poor behavior, and that would be an immediate ticket to hell.

Otherwise, god could've just picked up the tab from day one and skipped all of the suffering and calamity that has befallen both men and angels in the intervening years.