Reply #71: Do you realize how much you're talking out of both sides of your mouth?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

You make God sound more like a disfunctional parent than like the all-powerful, loving ruler and creator of the universe.

"Love me or I'll punish you!"

If we heard earthly parents say that, we'd say that they were emotionally abusive. We'd say that their children, for all their outward conformance to their parents' wishes, were feigning love instead of feeling love, because they were scared to do otherwise.

And people who never heard of the Christian God or Jesus through no fault of their own, or who have rejected Christianity because of the actions of horrible people who warped and misused Christ's message, are going to hell? Some love that is!

Even though I was raised rather traditonally, I have been unable to believe that God damns unbelievers since living and traveling in Asia, where billions of people have never heard of Christianity, and many of those who have have been turned off to it by inept and insensitive missionaries.

What do you say about Romans 2:12-16, the passage that evangelicals somehow never get around to quoting? I would suggest reading the ENTIRE New Testament, not just the hellfire and brimstone passages that your preachers are apparently fond of quoting. I'd also suggest reading a few commentaries on the historical background of the Bible and then traveling a bit in non-Christian countries.

God is not some cosmic Joan Crawford.