Originally posted by Suzianne
There's an old joke like this.
A very devout evangelist lived in a house in a flood plain, but was not worried because he felt that if there were a flood, God would save him.
Sure enough, the rainy season that year was prodigious, resulting in a rare 100-year flood that flooded nearly the entire valley.
Amid the rising waters, he promptly climbed t ...[text shortened]... he fact is, you screwed yourself by hardening your heart to Him.
Yes I have heard this 'old joke' albeit in a slightly different form.
However it does nothing to back up the point you are trying to make.
The character in the story is standing on the roof of a building surrounded by rising flood waters asking to
be saved. And is overly picky in who he is to be saved by.
I am not standing on a house surrounded by rising flood waters asking to be saved.
I am not asking any god for anything, I am not asking to be 'saved' (from what exactly?).
There are people who believe all kinds of stupid nonsense that is not backed up by reality.
So that there are people who believe something is NOT evidence that it is true.
In the case of religion and belief in a god or gods I know people who believe in many different
religions/deities and know of many more religions/deities besides that.
I have no reason to suppose that any of them are any more true than any other.
You are claiming that a god exists (for which you have precisely zero evidence) who wants me (everyone) to worship
'him' and failing to do so will result in that god punishing me with eternal torture and pain.
There are others who claim that a different god or gods exist (for which they have precisely zero evidence) who wants
me (everyone) to worship those gods and failing to do so will result in those gods punishing me with eternal torture and pain.
There are gods who will reward me with that religions version of heaven only if I prove my worth as a warrior on the field of
battle.
And there are other religions and deities which don't have a heaven or hell but have reincarnation or something else entirely.
Without evidence there is no reason to suppose any of these beliefs are true, and people believing these things does not
count as evidence. Otherwise i can claim that the increasing number of atheists indicates the increasing truth of gods non-existence.
It is not childish to say that if god wants people to worship him that that god should damn well provide some reason and evidence
for actually supposing that that god exists.
And to punish people for not worshiping you with an eternity of unbearable torment is cruel and immoral in the extreme.
No god that does such a thing is worthy of being worshipped.
Your beliefs include a god who created hell and the conditions for who gets sent to it and then failing to provide any evidence for
either his existence or that of heaven or hell.
Your god is thus wholly responsible for any and every person who ends up in hell.