Why be good?

[Randy Carson]

As an adult I can read the bible for myself and find all sorts of things that make me want to vomit. When I was running the first time from shelter to shelter with my kids, when we were hiding, I took to my bible. I clutched it tightly because it was all I had. I read it day and night every chance I got. That is how I became an atheist.

A little more would be helpful...how does reading the Bible cause you to become an Atheist. What specifically were you reading that caused this?

However, I think it is fair to say that the Baptists, Methodists (that was me) and the non-denominational churches ALSO have a lot of things going on that you would not see in your typical American Catholic Church.

Yes, of course, but these churches do not claim to be catholic. 

Well, no. That is pretty clear. But remember, Jesus only started ONE Church (cf. Mt. 16:18-19), so what these other "churches" claim or do is not terribly significant to me.

Also, I disagree that hell is something to be taken seriously. If we are going to scoff at something let's scoff at the idea that a bunch of dead people are going to burn for an eternity without being completely burnt up and somehow maintain their sense of pain even though they're dead, because that actually is pretty ridiculous. 

The body is dead but the spirit lives on. And the greatest pain that we may know in that state is separation from God. We do NOT get that experience now because we are not fully cognizant of what we do not have.

Think of it this way, if someone grows up in a place where there is no sugar, then Cheesecake is not something that they long for. But having tasted it, they may desire it (even though it is no longer brought to them from the outside). They now have the want for something that they did not want previously.

When we die, we see the spiritual world clearly. We KNOW God exists and how awesome He is. Those who CHOOSE to flee His presence (because they rightly judge themselves unworthy to be there) still long for that sight of glory which they tasted once.

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Hell is something to be taken very seriously, but not something with which parents should frighten small children.

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You either tell children about hell or you don't.  If you do, it is frightening to them.  So are you saying that children should not be told about hell?

Sex frightens children, too. Especially the girls. THINK about what happens to them. Until they are ready for it, well, they aren't ready for it, okay? That's why parents normally EASE into the full truth over the course of several years as the kids are old enough to handle it.

Hell can be explained when it is appropriate to do so.