[Serious] What God's justification for eternal torment?

[The Grand Nudger]

I think fear plays a large part in a lot of things that go wrong.

Fear has a use - it stops you doing really stupid things.  But it ought not rule over all our decisions or we are likely to come into trouble?

A faith based on fear of hell seems misguided to me.  

Agreed.  The other side to that coin is that a faith based on hope is equally misguided.  Pay me tomorrow for a burger today?  Nope.

For one thing - when someone gives themselves to you out of fear, they don't really "love" you, it's coercion.  A God that only cares about the truth wouldn't want a coerced "love".  That's not love at all.

Ostensibly, it would know the difference - but if coercion is an issue it's an issue no matter what lever is being pulled to coerce.  Promises of pain or reward are equivalent in this regard even if we prefer one over the other and regardless of which is more effective.  A cursory glance at theology might suggest that despite any of us having reservations about fear based coercion and love™, it's the more effective strategy for the promulgation of superstition.

Perhaps the people who came up with this theology struggled with fear a lot themselves and created a whole theology based on fear?  It is a great motivator - but lacks true staying power haha

That's where we depart from agreement.  I see that fear based theologies have had immense staying power.  Maybe we think they shouldn't...but they do. We're creatures with an existential reality and a deep well of anxiety related to it - and because of this, betting on fear is never a particularly bad bet.

(I fucking -love- your handle, btw)